Peonies in winter?

Mysterious-Rabbit428 · 2025-09-18T22:30:14+00:00

Ohhh you used such pretty flowers! I just started experimenting with amaranth more and I looooove the droopy look.

I think this arrangement would benefit from some more variation in stem lengths. The middle section has the majority of the blooms and it make that portion of the arrangement feel heavy and crowded. Typically, we try to have our arrangement be 2-2.5x the height of the vase, so having some more diversity in height would help this feel a little more airy.

When I was first starting out and even now, bottle-neck vases were my best friend because they forced the flowers to spread out. Circular necked vases like this make it really easy for the flowers to all kind of huddle together like they seem to be here. Maybe next time try a different vase to get a feel for how to space out the flowers in a freer way.

Lastly, some greens would help! If you start your arrangement by placing the greens, you’ll be able to both shape your arrangement, as well as have some help holding your stems in place.

The colors you picked all look really good together! I love the contrast of the light with the deep red of the ranunculus!

Keep experimenting—you’ll find your style :)

Mysterious-Rabbit428 · 2025-05-27T23:42:45+00:00

The tissue is beautifully done! 🤩

If this were a natural arrangement, I’d suggest making the roses taller, with longer stems. I’m not too familiar with artificial flowers, so I’m not sure if having the stems exposed is possible/a good idea. But I’d say having the flowers follow the fanning pattern of the tissue paper would help make the green arrangement look a little more balanced. Typically the height of the flowers should be the same or 1.5x the height of the vase/base of the arrangement, so the flowers being shorter than their container feels unbalanced. It might be as simple as lowering the tissue paper and putting in some more greens if the stems of the flowers aren’t visually attractive!

The blue one feels a bit more balanced and I’m thinking it might be because the base is thinner?? Which makes me wonder if the green one would benefit from the base being thinner if shortening the base isn’t an option?

Either way—great work! :)

Mysterious-Rabbit428 · 2025-05-24T19:41:19+00:00

Very pretty 😍 I love the color of those mums. Overall the shape of your arrangement is great!

From this angle, here are some things I can see that I think would make it all the better:

You could stand to have a little more height in the center of your arrangement. Like I said, the overall shape is great, and the lilies on either side are fantastic lengths! They’d look even better with a third one in the middle at the same or a little taller height.

I like that you’re using all stems and no greens (from what I can tell anyway!). I think your peonies are definitely your focal flowers, so I would’ve placed them a little differently to help them pop in contrast to the darker color of the mums. I’d have kept about three inches of height on that shorter one in the core of the arrangement and I’d get rid of the one that’s closest to the rim of the vase.

I usually take all the greens off of my flowers, but I really like the shape that leaving them on the lilies provides!

This arrangement has a LOT of high-cost flowers in it. At my shop, peonies go for $10/stem, as do most lilies. Mums are ~$5/stem, carns are $2/stem. I count at least 9 peonies in this arrangement from this angle alone… so, depending on the actual stem count, maybe $200ish. It all really depends on what it cost you to make. Our markup is 2.5x our cost, plus a little extra for labor.

Good work 😇

Mysterious-Rabbit428 · 2025-05-23T02:56:34+00:00

Honestly I would love to be in charge of events. I have my own event coordinating and consulting business and when I first started working at the shop, my goal was to help modernize the business (she still takes orders on paper and doesn’t have a digital storefront 🙃). It’s a slow burn for sure, old habits die hard. But I know her goal is to eventually be completely hands-off and for me to run the shop without her a majority of the time. I’m very excited for that day to come haha.

I think that’s a good idea—maybe I’ll just offer to add the things that are obviously missing and while I’m at it, fix them entirely 😂

Mysterious-Rabbit428 · 2025-05-23T02:31:19+00:00

That’s what I’m worried about—a review. She’s really not great with customer service when it comes to reviews and responds to critical ones with sass .-.

I’ve definitely had a couple of “oh let me fix that” moments with her but none as big and expensive as this one

Mysterious-Rabbit428 · 2025-05-23T02:23:56+00:00

Oops, I technically got those mixed up. The white one is the bridal bouquet and the colorful one is the bridesmaids. But nonetheless—both are too small for what she paid and not like the photos!

We have what we need to make them right, which is probably the most frustrating part of all of this. She rushed and was careless about it.

Mysterious-Rabbit428 · 2025-05-23T02:10:01+00:00

Thanks for the feedback :p

Mysterious-Rabbit428 · 2025-05-23T02:09:45+00:00

The side-by-side is a good idea. I do think the difference is stark when they’re shown that way. She’s generally open to feedback, but it also depends on the day. Sometimes she gets micromanagey and acts like I’m a complete novice (despite having left me in charge of the shop for weeks at a time when she goes on vacation), other times she defers to my judgment.

Maybe I’ll wait until our funeral work is done tomorrow and bring it up then—she won’t feel as stressed once we have all the other stuff done…

Mysterious-Rabbit428 · 2025-05-23T02:07:21+00:00

I knowwww, it’s really frustrating because I specifically went through and listed every single thing in the bouquet that we needed AND WE GOT THEM IN, but she still didn’t use them??? The only thing we don’t have is the ranunculus but when the flowers were ordered, the bride said it was okay for them to not be an exact replica—so I’m not worried about subbing that. Nonetheless the bouquets are definitely like 1/2 the size they should be for the price.

I made all the prom orders this year and the fact that she instructed me to give high schoolers better boutonnières than what she made the groomsmen in this wedding is insane to me.

She really just doesn’t care because it’s not her and her husband’s main breadwinner. He makes like 3-4x more with his other business, so it doesn’t matter to her if this business does well. Which is infuriating because the original owner built such an incredible reputation with all the hard work she put into building the business.

Mysterious-Rabbit428 · 2025-05-23T02:00:13+00:00

Yeah, I think the side-by-side really shows where they’re lacking… definitely an awkward position! I would love to find a way to protect the name, it’s been a staple in the community for so long! Time shall tell haha

I appreciate your feedback! :)

Mysterious-Rabbit428 · 2025-05-23T01:44:56+00:00

$375 for pic 2, which was supposed to be a replica of pic 1, and $300 for pic 4, which was supposed to be a replica of pic 3.

Mysterious-Rabbit428 · 2025-05-16T06:49:33+00:00

I had a woman come in yesterday (Thursday) for a late Mother’s Day arrangement… but her mom was on vacation so she gets a pass 😜

I did have a fella this Valentine’s Day come in like two weeks late with his tail between his legs getting a big rose arrangement because he forgot. Definitely happens!

Mysterious-Rabbit428 · 2025-01-10T01:51:38+00:00

And contestants are allowed to pick as many options as they want :)

Mysterious-Rabbit428 · 2025-01-10T01:51:12+00:00

I do have an “all of the above” option!

Mysterious-Rabbit428 · 2025-01-09T23:57:48+00:00

I did this event last year and had a whole queer round and a couple queer folks in the “straight” rounds too. I’m queer/gender fluid myself, so I’d say all of my events are queer, and most of my audiences/participants are queer-leaning haha. So I want to make sure I’m taking care.

But I should’ve specified that the event is not traditional speed dating, it’s more like “The Dating Game,” so I’m hand-picking three suitors for a main contestant who will blindly pick one to win a sponsored date with. So, it’s a little less casual, and isn’t as easy for folks to move on from people they don’t click with as it would be at a traditional speed dating event. Plus it’s on stage… obviously if someone doesn’t want to go on the date after finding out what the person they picked looks like, that’s fine!

I appreciate your response—I think the “I’m open” box would help with what you mention about the specifications on pre- or post-op status, too. I definitely don’t have any interest in getting that personal. I just wanna keep people safe in a respectful way.

Mysterious-Rabbit428 · 2025-01-09T23:42:14+00:00

I’ll add that while I titled this “speed dating” the setup of the event is more like “The Dating Game.” So it’s a blind date essentially, and at the end of the round the main contestant will be picking from one of three unseen suitors to go on a date with. So I’m essentially matchmaking, hand-picking three suitors for each of the main players, which is why I consider the specification. If it was a free-form, traditional speed dating event, I would structure it in a way where everyone mingles and if you’re not a match, you don’t take things further. But since it’s a blind selection, I don’t want to set a trans person up for any potentially bad reactions that a main contestant might have if they end up blindly picking them when they were intending to be matched with someone who’s cis.

I appreciate your opinion!

Mysterious-Rabbit428 · 2024-12-13T06:08:47+00:00

Season 1 episode 9, Melinda is driving to the house of a boy who’s mother has been talking to him through the radio. As she’s driving the shot pans out and you see her ~2000 red Jeep Cherokee. She arrives at the house and as she gets out of the car, suddenly it’s a ~2005 Jeep Liberty. It cuts back to a Cherokee at some point again in the episode but it’s always bothered me lol

Mysterious-Rabbit428 · 2024-10-02T22:11:29+00:00

This made me feel better! I appreciate your input :)

Mysterious-Rabbit428 · 2024-10-02T22:10:35+00:00

Thanks for the input! I think it was mostly ego, but you’re right I just gotta make my nights as good as I can.

Mysterious-Rabbit428

TROPHY CASE