Create Customized Designs to Inspire Anniversary Flower Sales

[rev_slider alias="bs1"]

A gift of flowers adds joy to any wedding anniversary celebration. Floral concierge Michaela Gosar finds her own pleasure in creating these personalized designs for her clientele. Michaela submitted a photo of one of her favorite designs to the OASIS Floral Products Inspire Floral Design Showcase 2015. Her design was chosen as the Most Inspirational Anniversary Floral Design.

Her original design is below. For the photo shoot, Smithers-Oasis Design Director Frank Feysa AIFD, PFCI recreated Michaela’s INSPIRE design and made some creative suggestions of his own, all shown above.

Michaela’s design philosophy

“An anniversary marks a new chapter in the life of a couple. With every passing year the innocence of love’s youthful stages is lost and replaced by a more mature love that has grown in intensity,” shares Michaela. “I wanted to define this maturing process in flowers by blending the visual innocence of light pinks and intensity of burgundy and deep purples to portray the evolving relationship.” Her flowers were designed in deluxe OASIS Floral Foam MaxLife in a compote vase, covered with a swirl of bear grass. You might notice a bit of a European flair in Michaela’s signature style. She is originally from Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, and lived in Belgium before moving to the U.S. in 2002. Michaela’s studio workshop Fleurelity is in Alexandria, Virginia, where she has an active list of discerning clientele. They routinely request her customized designs to help celebrate their life events.

Ten-Year Anniversary Design

Michaela especially enjoyed designing this arrangement, as she was free to create anything for the husband’s gift to his wife on their 10th anniversary. Michaela finds that recreating the wedding colors or themes when designing anniversary flowers gives her an emotional edge. The flowers make a poignant connection with the couple as they trigger sentimental memories of the wedding. She often suggests recreating the color harmony or theme of their wedding flowers as an anniversary gift. She uses this emotional perk in one of two ways. If she designed their wedding flowers, she assures them that she remembers the pleasure she had in creating their designs. If someone else designed their wedding flowers, she suggests that she create her own rendition of their wedding style. Both methods highlight the fact the design is customized, a big selling point in today’s market.

An emphasis on flowers

Michaela prefers to use more flowers and less foliage in her designs. When she does use foliage, she adds it as a collaring in the last step or makes it a main feature of the design as she did in winding it around the foam to cover mechanics. In addition to bear grass she also likes to use ivy and fern. She considers the care and handling of her fresh flowers vitally important to her success. She uses Floralife Flower Foods for her flowers and soaks her floral foam in water with the flower food beforehand. Michaela uses Floralife® Leafshine to clean and enhance her foliage and Floralife® Clear Crowning Glory to seal in the flower freshness. She takes the time to hydrate her hydrangeas in advance to achieve a better vase life.

Design inspiration

“The flowers themselves are my inspiration,” Michaela explains. She buys flowers specifically for each order and has her own signature style, color and texture preferences but the flowers she sees naturally inspire her. “I am very lucky that most of my clients allow me the freedom to create the design for them. I love a natural look and if it’s not perfect, it’s OK. That’s part of nature, too.” What inspires you?