Above & Beyond: The Quest For Perfect Personalized Funeral Flowers

As florists, if we are lucky, we sometimes get those unique and unusual design requests that give us the freedom to be creative. As peers have told me, it is always best to leave the designing to the designer.

Harley Davidson Funeral Flowers Request

I got a call from my best friend, she said she had a special request. She told me about the loss of a dear friend of hers. The friend loved Harley Davidson motorcycles, so I was thinking, Okay, logo.

She continued on to say that she wanted not only the logo, but also wanted to use black and orange flowers, some accents of cream, and definitely some silver to represent the colors of Harley Davidson. My mind came to a complete stop, while my mouth said, “Sure I can do that.” I hung up the phone and thought, Okay, what am I going to do now? How do you make black and orange look sophisticated and not look like Halloween.

Can Black & Orange Look Sophisticated And NOT Like Halloween?

For starters, I work out of my home, and live in a small rural town. Supplies are limited, to say the least. Like most of us, I started brainstorming and headed to the internet in hopes of finding anything to get me started. Nothing! Not many want to share their designs.

I always aspire for my floral designs to stand out and make a statement. I wanted people to remember my flowers and this order was no different. Who wouldn’t want their flowers to stand out and be the best, or at least make us feel that we have done our best.

Go Above & Beyond — Think Outside The Box

So here we go with the design. I started at an auto parts store to try and find some kind of logo, whether it was a decal, license plate, or just something that was the right size without paying a fortune for a designer logo. First store, there it was! It was a black and silver, shiny Harley Davidson logo about 8 x 6 inches. Big enough to be seen, but not take over the arrangement. Plus, the price was right.

My next stop was at the only wholesaler close to me. We talked about my situation. He had not gotten his fall order of floral supplies in, so orange was going to be difficult. He had a few daisies and a few roses. The black — well, you can spray paint anything black. He also had orange Design Master spray, so that was a help. I did not want to make a fall arrangement with acorns and fall leaves, because that would not look right with the silver. Now what about ribbon? Every spray needs a bow or streamers for that final, extra touch. (I am from the South, so everything gets a bow of some sort.) So, I asked the wholesaler about silver ribbon, and again no luck. He does not carry it until homecoming season or Christmas.

Making It Work

I tried to think, was there anything that I might have had in my personal Christmas box that did not look like Christmas. No luck, so off to Wal-mart I went. I got lucky and found two rolls of silver ribbon. Of course, they were only three yards each, so I was going to have to come up with a plan to stretch that out. (I know it sounds tacky, but please keep reading.) I was able to make a smaller bow out of the silver, and back it with regular black satin. This allowed me to have streamers coming from the bow, letting me to carry the silver to the bottom of the spray.

I started this easel funeral spray as I would any other: easel, foam, and greenery. I chose more elegant lilies to paint black, along with some line flowers. TIP: If you are going to paint flowers black, start with a dark color flower. As I was getting my flowers together to start sorting, I found I had some black roses left over from something else. I assembled those, along with the black lilies, orange daisies and a few springs of cream filler. I could start to see some elegance coming from the stereotype black and orange are only for Halloween. When designing, I start with a basic idea in mind.  It may turn out to be something very different, even with silk. I believe the flowers sort of tell you where to go next.

Next, let me start by talking about the logo for a minute. I left the decal on its backing, so it would not curl. Plus, I knew the decal sticker will not stick to the foam. I trimmed the decal from its page, and proceeded to hot glue it to a piece of foam. Then I cut the foam to fit the logo, and repeated that with another layer of foam so the logo would not get lost in the flowers. Basically, making it 3D!

I outlined the logo with ficus leaves in order to hide my foam. As I was letting that cool, I started my spray with the usual line flowers to make an outline. I started with a top-to-bottom, straight line. I started filling in with greenery and flowers, trying to make the spray as big and full as possible. I ended up with the center axle. It started to fan on the top to the right, so I went with it. Then went back to the center-line, and fanned the bottom to the left. You might say I made a backwards ‘S’ off the center-line. I attached the logo to the spray using bamboo skewers (I find these very useful and very economical.) I then attached the bow to the right of the logo. The silver ribbons really made that logo pop. The painted lilies turned out fantastic.

I must mention that when your customer gives you full control and says, “I know it will be great whatever you do” it helps. This easel made a statement!

If you have an interesting flower story you’d like to share, email us: social@flowershopnetwork.com

Written for Flower Shop Network by guest writer and florist, Stacey Hollenshead of Silks by Stacey.
This post was brought to you by local Louisiana florists.