There are many types of innovation occurring around me in my line of work. I see some of the most beautiful arrangements in some of the most unusual containers and one never tires from what they see. I love this industry. People have been arranging flowers from the dawn of time and somehow we never get sick of seeing these beautiful objects; ever! They are always beautiful no matter what. One of the latest trends in the floral industry is containers; finding odd containers for arrangements and then its the placement of these arrangements that tops the charts. The mood flowers set are always relaxing and warm; making a room comfortable and inviting when there's flowers present.
I really enjoy the "Whack" textbook as it has shown me how to think. Not what to think but how to think and that everyone is capable of innovation and creativity. It is not my responsibility alone that gets the job done but my team also. I must love the ideas they give me and let them get their feet wet and their hands dirty! I am looking forward to sharing some of my staff's work here in the future and not just mine.
Above is a bride's bouquet I made in 2011 where the bride showed me at least 5 pictures and shared with me her favorite elements in each. She was shocked at how well it turned out and I was able to tell her, "It was your idea!" She and her family and friends just loved it.
Can't wait to dive into spring/summer with you and get some floral moving and shaking done! As always, we, your team, will be inspired as you whirl in circles around us and we will do our best to follow your instructions to the letter so you don't have to correct behind us! :) Standing by, ready to be inspired!
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DeleteHi Hon! We just picked up two more weddings for the summer; one in August and one in September so get your shoes on cause here we go!
DeleteSo the vases we've been talking about, these need to be multipurpose, but is that within the wedding setting or should they be versatile enough to be a table centerpiece at a wedding and then fit into a corporate business meeting somehow? What extent are you thinking?
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ReplyDeleteI didn't mean to delete this one; I only meant to edit a misspelled word. Oops!
DeleteI came up with an idea of putting together square flower vases full of flowers and what about getting 4 pictures of the bride and groom; one for each side of the vase. think about an idea of putting them on there some how.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we could somehow incorporate the vase as a gift too, less cleanup and helps give it more than one purpose. Any suggestions? Hmm. I know we're going in the right direction, just need some more sound-boarding!
ReplyDeleteYes, Why don't we come up with an idea where we let each table know who the winner is of the centerpiece, once three of the four photos are taken off it. I have an idea of placing a note on a stick into the arrangement telling the guests to take the photos home for their fridge so maybe a sticker under 1 plate could say who takes home the centerpiece arrangement, you know how we did it at the A&A Banquet. What do you girls think of that?
ReplyDeleteMy concern with the photos on the vases is will the flowers be too full to see the photos AND will laminating the photos help keep them dry? I think we need to think about those things. What ideas do we have for that? I have laminating paper so let me experiment this afternoon with it and see how the photos look when they're laminated.
ReplyDeleteI think if we keep the pictures centered on the vase and make the arrangements high enough they shouldn't cover the pictures too much. right? I put together a vase this afternoon and taped a note to the front of the vase and could see the picture just fine. Try it cause I think it will work. Make sure your pictures are of good quality so they stand off the vase nicely.
ReplyDeleteGood job Clare with your idea of good photos and higher flowers because I tried it this afternoon and pretty much confirmed what you suggested. the flowers were in the vase and I could hardly see the pics but when I lifted the arrangement I could see the photos better. I think we are ready to put together the finished product. Janna and Maria, I haven't heard from you but wonder if you have been following this blog or not and would love to know what you think about our ideas so far. Can I get some feedback from you?
ReplyDeleteI relly like your ideas and think we have a neet plan for a project. I've never seen magnets on a vase before so I think we are on to something cool. I think magnets will work well don't you? If we glue the magnet to the picture and to the vase then theyll stick together right? What if the magnets repel? where do we get magnets that attract? Do you know what Im saying?
ReplyDeleteClare, I realize you and I discussed your idea before we blogged it but I really needed it "in writing" so thanks for putting your ideas down again here in the blog. Maria, I love it and will get right on it and get back with you guys with the results. I am thinking Fleet Farm or any hardware store. I am seeing this idea in my minds eye and think we really have a great verge project. What are you all doing Friday afternoon? Would you guys like to get together and try some of this out to finish this project? We may end up with a brilliant innovation yet! let me know if you are available to get together on Friday ok?
ReplyDeleteI can make it around 3. Does that work for everyone else?
ReplyDeleteSounds great! I think the ideas are right on! Can't wait to put it together! I can make it this afternoon as well. Great work you guys, magnets are growing in popularity I think, between 'Save The Dates' for weddings and advertizing in general! See you all later today then!
ReplyDeleteI believe we have made an innovation girls with our magnetic personalities and our crystal clear vision of creativity. Ok, enough of the silly stuff.
ReplyDeleteGirls, I am so proud of you all for working on this project with me and hope we have lots of success at the wedding for our innovation. We all really gave lots of ideas and followed through just beautifully. Thank you, thank you! I think we are ready for a cool mother/daughters lunch! Any suggestions?
I could not put the presentation here in the blog because of a 4,096 character limit and the photos would not come through either so please see the attachment in the discussion board. thank you, Lori
ReplyDeleteOur project began with an idea to use floral vases for centerpieces that could be used for something else, like a pencil holder, after the flowers died. We had an event where we could use this idea but it wasn’t a true verge so we continued to brainstorm and ended up with an idea of putting magnets on square glass flower vases where guests at an event could take the magnets home and stick them on their fridge. The pictures, of course, would be themed around the event (in this case the bride and groom) and the floral centerpieces would be on all the guest’s tables. A perfect match for a verge! Who would ever think to put magnets and flowers together? (Visualize the ideals)
ReplyDeleteThe reason we tried to find an innovation in the floral industry is because this is where we work. Wedding season is here so the opportunity is just right for an innovation in the floral industry. Initially our brainstorming kept us dry but as we worked more naturally ideas came to us.
(Measure and close the gaps) The first gap we faced was how to prepare the pictures so they wouldn’t get wet, after all they would be attached to vases full of water. We closed that gap by Brittney laminating the pictures so they were protected and this also gave them the perfect stiffness they needed to sit politely on guest’s refrigerators for a long period of time without acquiring curled edges.
The second gap was how to adhere the pictures to the glass. Maria came up with the idea of using magnets so we glued a magnet to the back of the pictures and all sides of the vase.
And still a third gap; flowers hung too low and covered the top half of the pictures. That gap was closed by cutting the stems of the flowers at particular lengths to give just the right “hangover” for the flowers so they wouldn’t cover the pictures. (Strategize the approaches)
We each took a task and mastered it and then came back together to see the results. After minimal fine-tuning we had our product and really liked it and felt it would be a hit at their wedding.(Projectizing the approaches)
This verge project was sort of a spin-off of an idea I had last year for a 65th wedding anniversary I did for our friend’s parents. I had to make 46 floral arrangements which were nice but I thought they would look better with a picture of the couple sticking out of the arrangement so we took lots of their old photos and glued them onto Popsicle sticks and stuck them in the vase. Guests were going from table to table to see all the pictures and this allowed much more mingling with the guests. Everyone at the party loved them but then you had pictures stuck on sticks afterward. With this innovation project we had pictures on magnets so they could be used again.
I am sure there is a market for an innovation like this because I saw the success it had with the anniversary party and in this case with my daughter’s wedding. Everyone loves to receive personal gifts and this type can be easily used and manufactured at a very low cost. These little photo magnets were less than $.35 each and will last for months. (Orchestrating the results)
My innovation team consisted of my five daughters and myself. All my girls help me with my wedding business and have done so for years. We work well together and communicate all the time. We chose a blog as our technology choice for our communication; although we spend hours around the brunch table every Sunday morning after Holy Mass so much of our discussion was used there as well.
Blogs are a great source of communication technology but don’t give you privacy so be prepared for thousands to see what you post. We did have some challenges in communication when Maria’s computer died and Janna had to work overtime all the sudden. Our team did do some emailing for quick messages which was helpful for the girls with smart phone who were signaled immediately after I sent a message. Thanks guys for looking and I am really looking forward to seeing what you have all done for your projects.