Vinayak Nagaraj

March may be one of the most exciting months in our little floral studio. The phone is ringing off the hook as the wedding season rapidly approaches. We spend our days booking appointments, making arrangements, and our evenings are filled with searching the web to feed our creative minds with what’s trending for summer 2016.

From our experience, Pinterest may be the most referred to social medium out there to get inspired. Who doesn’t love Pinterest? We love Pinterest! With all its themes and colors, bouquets and table settings; it’s just plain yummy. The possibilities are wonderfully endless, yet there are a few things to consider when envisioning your wedding and creating your flower budget.

Establishing a realistic wedding budget is the second most important decision you need to make regarding your wedding. (Saying yes was your first!). The golden rule is that 20% of your wedding budget should be spent on flowers. Are flowers worth 20% of your budget, you may ask? Well, take a look at all the Pinterest pictures you absolutely love and imagine them without flowers. Does the picture still move you? Does the picture still have the “feeling” you are trying to capture on your wedding day? Do the flowers help define the theme of your day?  To answer the question, yes, flowers are extremely important and we can promise your money’s worth for your budget.

Now, let’s talk actual cost of the Pinterest pictures…

Most of the wedding pictures you see on Pinterest have a very large flower budget. Very large! You may find your jaw dropping when you show your florist your dream bouquet to find out that the actual cost is $500+ to produce… and that’s just for one bridal bouquet! When a beautiful bride walks in with only a $1500 flower budget and the bouquet she has fallen in love with is 1/3 of her budget… well our stomachs drop too.

Here’s good news…

All things are possible! If you truly set aside 20% of your budget for flowers, it is our job to create your vision. Some adjustments may have to be made but the overall effect will be the same. When you fall in love with a theme for your wedding you’re falling in love with the “feeling” it gives you. That “feeling” is what we will help you create within a budget you can afford.

For us to turn your dream day into a reality, we need you to do a little homework for us before our initial consultation. The following guidelines will help us help you:

1) Pictures – Along with establishing your budget, we need to see pictures. Pictures of everything and everywhere you want flowers. While compiling these pictures, look at each one and ask yourself, what do I love about each one? Is it the color combinations or size and shape? Do I like large bloomy flowers or delicate ones or a bit of both? In addition, tell us what you do not like about the arrangements. Please remember that there is no such thing as duplicating floral arrangements. Blooms vary in sizes and colors. From your pictures, we can get a true feel of your theme and personal style.

2) Prioritize your “must haves”. If you are on a tight budget, know what is most important to you. We ask that you also be open to suggestions to alternatives. As professionals, it is our job to know market value of all flowers and availability at all times. If the flower you love is out of season (and driving up cost), we can suggest alternatives that will be just as beautiful and more cost effective. Our goal is to get it 100% right for you on your special day.

3) Consider a DIY Consultation. For a minimal fee, we will offer you a DIY consultation and can sell you florist quality bulk flowers. Being professional florists, we are supposed to sell, sell, sell, right? No, that is not how we work. Not many florists will offer consultations, but we will. We’ve all seen the “DIY Gone Wrong” posts and you do not have to be one of those. Your best friend may be great at many things but unless she is a florist herself or a designer, she will need some guidance. Believe us, it is a fee worth paying!

4) Be ready to commit. Go with your gut, always. If you like the suggestions we offer and you have a good feeling that we will take good care of you, honor us with your trust and business. We really do have the greatest jobs in the entire world, working with flowers all day to create dreams for a living. Our number one goal is to exceed your expectations…. and oh we surely will!

Valentine’s Day is here again and Living Arts Floral Designs will be open to provide you with our beautiful signature floral designs.

Guaranteed to be custom made just for you!!

Let us help you express your LOVE to your Valentine this year!

We will have lovely blooming ROSES in all spring varieties and colors including the traditional RED, PINKS, and WHITES.

Living Arts Floral is the Lyons, Colorado very own FULL SERVICE Florist.  We are waiting your call to serve you!

*Please mention this blog for an additional 10% off your Valentine order

To place an order or to contact us:

324 Main Street Studio B

Lyons, CO 80540

303 823-6733 

www.livingartsfloral.com

Jeralyn@livingartsfloral.com

Summer is here!   Here at Living Arts Floral we are right in the height of our season and excited to be the florist of choice for so many weddings and special events.

As the community of Lyons spends the summer revamping and recovering from the flood, tons of new and wonderful projects and events are beginning to “rise from the ashes” (or puddles.) As town residents return,  we can feel the energy of our town bubbling forth to bloom and shine once again.

One new and exciting event this summer is the Lyons Corner Market sponsored by The Corner Studios.  Here you’ll find our exquisite flowers in both beautiful signature hand tied bouquets and bulk stems for “build your own” bouquets.   A wide variety of Local Food, Art and “Curiosities”  will pique your interest and thrill you with one of a kind finds!   Lyons Corner Market will take place the second Saturday of every month in downtown Lyons, right across from Oskar Blues.  We strive to grow and support our local businesses during our strong tourist season with the goal of making this a weekly event.

Please join us for a great mixture of Flowers, Food and the Arts!

Located at 324 Main Street

Lyons, Colorado

Second Saturday each month ~ 9:00am – 1:00 pm

We’ve been tying every bow and sealing every knot as we prepare for this years’ Valentines Day-a day of passionate romance and well-being that abounds, and will not be forgotten. As we approach this season, we are noticing a very important and prominent topic throughout the Floral world: Local Brick-and-Mortar Florists VS. Online Order-Taking Companies. Yes, you’ve seen them before in adds and TV Commercials- companies like Teleflora, FTD, 1-800-FLOWERS, Just Flowers, Pro Flowers, etc. And if you’ve been reading our blog for any amount of time, you’ve probably heard this issue discussed by us before. That was back before an awakening of sorts on this matter started to happen. And just as we have described our reasons for the idea of out-lawing these types of Corporate, Faceless businesses, so have many recently begun to collect themselves into a bigger realization. It was even discussed on one of the Live Daytime Shows (such as Good Morning America or the Today Show, can’t remember which) recently and is becoming a growing topic around the nation. In an experiment to test the integrity and success of each of these Corporate Companies, they placed an order to different locations with each one of these Big Brand places, and then followed up with the recipients to find out how they did. And the results? Anything but satisfying.

Something we, as direct members of this career and the floral world have observed in our time in this business is the amount of unjustified faith customers put into these companies. How often do you, as the customer, make sure that the product you have sent through these companies met the promised expectations after it was delivered that you paid for? And has anybody stopped to consider what it is like from the Local Florist’s perspective to be given these types of orders, or to be dealing with these companies? We can give you a great idea…

Sure you probably see cut flowers pretty often in your travels through this life. If you’ve been to a grocery store at all I’m sure you’ve seen all kinds of options. And many might even argue that they have some pretty options as well. If any of you have ever purchased flowers from a large Grocery Store chain, you would probably agree with us when we say that after you take it home, open the package up, and try to manipulate it to go on your table in a vase of your own, you have half as much as you thought was there, and mostly all of it is foliage, as well as bruised and of a lower quality bracket than you thought you were paying for. Or maybe you’ve gotten it home, and on your table, and the next day half or more of it is dead! This is fine and dandy if that is what you want, or are expecting. But if you want something that is of a higher quality, and life expectancy, and also a much better and more beautiful offer for your money, there really is only one other option: A Florist. And most often, a Locally-owned Florist, at that.

Your Local Florist spends a quality amount of personalized time building the various routines inside of their business that promises the success and satisfaction that they deliver, to meet their customers expectations and needs. They devote high amounts of energy to the trial and error process of discovering the best products, followed up by educated decision making in the purchasing process these products, to ensure that they come in with a perfect timing that allows the peak of it’s performance and quality to be achieved at the moment it is put on your Dining Room or Foyer Table. In addition to this, they spend sometimes, if they’re like us, a lifetime learning the techniques they use to create such beautiful works of art, using a very tricky medium-living nature-to convey the messages that all of you are wanting to send across the world to your loved ones.  Thats not to mention the time spent training their staff on the correct way of cleaning, processing, designing, and transporting these beautiful works of art so that they may make their ways into the lives of all who receive them looking their best-often times MUCH better than the picture you chose on that Online Order-taking company’s website. And all of this is achieved with the purpose of serving their individual communities, and upholding the higher reputation that they strive for. Going the extra mile, paying the extra dime, not cutting corners like using flower food and coolers to keep it looking good in the store, that is, until you take it home and put it in the warmth of your house, like the grocery stores do. These companies that are taking these orders for you are faceless, behind some computer, having no accountability, or interest in it even when it comes to you, their costumer. That lack of care transfers, as well when they call the local florist. Often times these orders will lose the local florist money, because they care more about the people and their own product and reputation than they do the money, and so therefore, they design them extremely over value for the money they collected from these companies, because they choose which matters more. And they’re only receiving a percentage of what you paid. Which means the value of the flowers you’re buying is significantly less than the number of the purchase on your bank statement.  Once you really start to consider this, it can become frustrating, for you and for us!

Here in Lyons, Colorado at Living Arts Floral Designs, we have decided to dedicate ourselves to the movement to delete these companies from our, as well as everyone who we deal with’s experience. And not just for us, but for every other Local Florist out there, as well as every customer wanting our product. We do not believe that these companies have any place in this industry. And we refuse to answer their calls or take their orders. We pride ourselves in transparency, integrity, and quality. And they do not. Therefore, we are not a match, and we will not do business with them.

But doing so without educating the masses is just as much of an injustice as what these companies are doing. So it is our mission- along side our desire to provide you with the Art Form that Floral Design truly is-to help all to understand and support one another. We are all in this together. And if we’re going to be here, in this business, we are going to do it right.

So do yourself, your significant other, your pocketbook, AND your small businesses a favor this upcoming Holiday, and every Holiday to come, and Shop Local. If you’re sending something out of state, get on Google, and type in the recipient’s town’s location, and “Local Florist” and call us directly, even if its with an idea in mind that you found on a picture from one of these websites! And if you want quality product, don’t go to the big chain grocery store, either. You won’t regret this decision.

We have already placed our order, and are extremely excited about the gorgeous, high quality flowers that we’re getting in. We’ll be having all kinds of varieties available, from Roses to Tulips.

Give us a call, and we can give you the personal, satisfying experience of shopping small and shopping local this Valentines Day.

You can also find our bouquets and single Roses at the local, Lyons Colorado (Small Business!!) Grocery Store, St. Vrain Market, Deli & Bakery for a quick, easy and maybe even last minute Valentines Day Gift.

Happy Valentines Day!

We are a full-service florist who specializes in
custom design and detailed customer care.

We would love to have a chance to meet with you and discuss any of your Valentine’s Day, Wedding or Special Occasion Floral needs.

Please give us a call at 303-823-6733, Email us , or visit us on Facebook.

Our physical address is 324 Main Street, Lyons Colorado, 80540.

Welcome 2014! Living Arts Exquisite Floral Designs is up and ready for all that this new year has to offer!

We are excited to move forward and share with all our local Venues and Vendors! “We’re keeping it as local as possible to help support our wonderful little community and all the destination weddings that want to be a part of this special enchanted place” says owner Jeralyn and daughter Becca.

We are booking some great weddings for this year, along with serving our local community with all of their other everyday floral needs!

Planet Bluegrass will be ready, Peaceful Valley Ranch, Stone Mountain Lodge, Wild Basin Lodge, Rock n River, The Greenbriar Inn and many others.

Heres to a beautiful, creative and prosperous 2014! call us we will make your special day a glorious event!

We are a full-service florist who specializes in
custom design and detailed customer care.

We would love to have a chance to meet with you and discuss any of your Wedding or Special Occasion Floral needs.

Please give us a call at 303-823-6733, Email us , or visit us on Facebook.

Our physical address is 324 Main Street, Lyons Colorado, 80540.

The day began calm here in little Lyons, Colorado. Everything was drizzly and in our minds we were thinking this is the kind of weather to start a fire, crawl up on the couch, and read books to. We had no idea what was coming-how it would effect our homes, families, those around us in our little community, and the town (and surrounding counties) altogether.

But as days continued to pass the rain didn’t stop and everyone was impacted with the reality of the natural disaster that was before us, threatening us. Many lost much; their homes, valuables, a few even lost their lives. We had to say goodbye to a great deal about the little community of Lyons Colorado. But through the ashes rises the Phoenix. And as the community continues on its journey to rebuild, those patiently awaiting to return home are doing their best to bring normalcy into their lives and day-to-day routines. Both residential and businesses face this challenge. It’s sink or swim, and the question is, which one are we?

Living Arts Floral Designs was absolutely blessed with our location in this traumatic event. Our hearts go out to all of those effected by the flood and send our biggest wishes to those whose homes and businesses were damaged or ruined by the rushing waters. And we feel for each one of you, because though our location received only minimal water seepage damage, our business, once our booked weddings finished, came to a halt, a stand still. Our home town where we serve 90% of our business has been completely evacuated, less the few who chose to rough it out and stay. We would love to move back, with power restored to Main Street, but without water, flowers cannot survive! We miss our lovely community and serving all of those who we have had (and will soon have again) the wonderful opportunity of working with and delivering our colorful flowers to! But we continue to reach forward in preparation for the moment we can come home, building new plans and ideas for the return of our flowers into our amazing community.

Not even the 500+ Year Colorado Flood of 2013 can drown out these flowers! We might not be able to reside currently at home in our studio, but we’re not going to let that stop us! We have made do and found a way to go mobile, and so far, it’s going great.

With our last 3 weddings out of a family member’s garage and one heck of a bang going out of our busy wedding season we’re just now starting to catch our breath.

One absolutely breathtakingly beautiful Lyons Colorado native bride, Gretchen Engelhorn (Now Gretchen Garner) was lucky enough to have planned her day-of at the Tapestry House in Fort Collins, Colorado. But this did not change the devastation they were faced with and forced to get past, her father being one of four owners of Spirit Hound Distillers. They all did a wonderful job at putting it temporarily behind them to focus on this long-time-coming celebration, and her flowers turned out absolutely gorgeous, a perfect fit to the bride, herself!

Two of these three amazing brides were faced, just as we were, with relocating the day of their event! Switching from two Lyons locations, The Lyons Farmette, and Planet Bluegrass, to two boulder locations, The Hotel Boulderado, and the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, the week leading up to was a stressful push for all of those involved. The transformations had to be quick and we all had to keep going, but we chose to turn our boats down stream, and float our way to success.

Working out of a family members garage, and with cooperative help from many family members of the two bridal parties who stepped forward, we were all able to shift and make both these beautiful days a roaring success! And even with the challenge of the Boulder Farmers Market on the street to the entrance of the Boulder Museum just finishing only hours before the start of the ceremony, we were able to get in, unloaded, set up, and out of there just in time for the beautiful bride to pull up in her Limo, ready to walk down the delicately decorated Isle, stand beneath this beautiful Birch Arch, and say “I do.” And she did. The rest of the reception located inside of the museum was tastefully catered by Dawn from A Spice of Life Catering, and decorated by yours truly, Living Arts Floral Designs and Pink Monkey Solutions, and it was a hit!

We have relocated our Lyons Colorado Floral Design Business to Longmont temporarily and are for now, primarily serving the Longmont Colorado area. Look out, Longmont, there’s a new florist in town! As the Town of Lyons continues to repair and rebuild our community we continue to ready ourselves. But until then we are still booming and ready to take on your orders.

Excited to reconnect with those in our own home community we are offering a 15% off deal to any of those ordering flowers who were directly effected by the flood. Just mention this blog at the time of your purchase and we can share stories and encouragement, as well as the discount!

We look forward to continuing to connect with and serve our community, as well as the warm new community of Longmont, who has so graciously and comfortingly welcomed us in. Due to circumstances we are only available for custom phone orders. So give us a call today to place your order, and we will continue to offer the Living Arts Floral Designs Quality Guarantee, and take amazing care of your flowers!

We are a full-service florist who specializes in
custom design and detailed customer care.

We would love to have a chance to meet with you and discuss any of your Wedding or Special Occasion Floral needs.

Please give us a call at 303-823-6733, Email us , or visit us on Facebook.

Our physical address is 324 Main Street, Lyons Colorado, 80540.

A colorful and happy “Hello” to all! We hope to find you enjoying the end of your active summer as we approach the cooler, calmer setting of our fall season.

In this business, we have the chance to celebrate so many beautiful times in life. From birth to death, and all of the captured moments in between we find that beauty is a regular part of this experience, and it is exactly what we do! We love the celebration of life, and really enjoy having the opportunity to bring color and expression to this type of  local event, in a way that captures the essence of the person we are celebrating. This past weekend, we had the honorable opportunity to do just that!

And so, to celebrate the long and delightful life of Grace French, a long time member of the Lyons, Colorado Community, as well as a wonderful Wife, Mother, Grandmother, Great Grandmother, and friend, we put all of our skills and expressive love to the test!

This beautiful, local, mountain funeral located at The River Church here on the outskirts of Lyons, Colorado turned out to be a lovely sympathy service, and yet another great example of the wonderful work we get to participate in.

We would like to offer our dearest love, best wishes and greatest comfort to the family members and friends that had the pleasure of knowing Grace throughout her life.

May her memory and beautiful energy live on in the hearts and stories of us all.

We are available to service all funerals and celebrations of life in the Lyons, Boulder, and Longmont Colorado areas. This includes all local Churches and Chapels such as Lyons Community Church, Foothills Baptist Church, LifeBridge Christian Church and many others, as well as all local Funeral Homes, including Ahlberg Funeral Chapel and Crematory , Howe Mortuary, Carroll-Lewellen Funeral Home, Crist Mortuary, and Greenwood & Myers Funeral Services.

We are a full-service florist who specializes in
custom design and detailed customer care.

We would love to have a chance to meet with you and discuss any of your Wedding or Special Occasion Floral needs.

Please give us a call at 303-823-6733, Email us , or visit us on Facebook.

Our physical address is 324 Main Street, Lyons Colorado, 80540.

Spring has sprung, and faded away, and Summer is here! Which means our 2013 Wedding Season is here, too! And it’s beginning to pan out quite nicely. The beautiful weather, the prolonged spring (compared to last year) and the tolerable-many times even enjoyable-temperatures are all starting to play a lovely role in this great expansion of our season. This spring we had many wonderful events, including Valentines Day, Mother’s Day, Homecoming and Prom, Lyons High School Graduation, a couple of CU Graduations, and many others. It was such a cool and successful spring that we were chomping at the bit to start our wedding season, overjoyed with all of the good vibes and fun, funky, and fresh looks that our brides were beginning to request!

To jumpstart our wedding season we have been rolling steadily through an entirely different handful of fun events!

The first, an awesome tasting at Peaceful Valley Ranch at which we decorated each table with 20 individually unique, small mountain style arrangements (some simple and others complex, 2 per table,) the bar, mantle, buffet and front desk. We LOVE working with this group of individuals. They are always attentive, friendly, GREAT at teamwork, and in general, a joy to be around. Next were 2 wonderful Celebrations of Life, and 5 beautiful Weddings…and we’re just getting started! We’ve got so many more amazing events coming up.

While our season is filling up, it’s not full yet! We are still taking many couples who are looking for a great florist for their wedding in the North Western Colorado area. If you are interested, please contact us via email, and we will send you a questionnaire that will help us determine some of the key details. Once we’ve received the completed questionnaire from you, we will set up a consultation with you to really sit and narrow down the specifics. Don’t worry. If you’re coming in from out of town, and won’t be in town until the wedding, we can do this consultation via phone instead.

It is important though, to us, to have this consultation in person if possible. This is the time when we sit down together, go through example pictures, and brainstorm with you what you’d like based on your ideas, decorations, flower choices, colors, and textural details. We pride ourselves in our constant effort to go the extra mile and really communicate your ideas and dreams through our work. Enable for us to do this, we must get to know you just a little on a personal level, and build a sense of trust. Trust is key in proceeding to do your flowers comfortably, and with good communication. We also take pride in our clear, transparent method of doing business. After we determine the final details with you in the consultation, we will produce an itemized order, with detailed pricing, and you decide if you would like to have Living Arts Floral Designs as your florist! It’s a simple process that we can do quickly, and efficiently, no matter what stage of the game you are coming to us in.

We like to operate with the idea that positivity and clarity together create success. We also believe that if we can get a clear visual of the outcome, we can obtain it. It is a beautiful time to be on this earth, with so much amazing diversity and inspiration everywhere you look. Exploring that diversity, and being able to express it through our design is what makes us so addicted to life. We love working with the flowers, and having the opportunity to study the diverse minds of all of our creative customers, to produce something breathtaking and unique every time.

We are a full-service florist who specializes in

custom design and detailed customer care.

We would love to have a chance to meet with you and discuss any of your Wedding or Special Occasion Floral needs.

Please give us a call at 303-823-6733, Email us , or visit us on Facebook.

Our physical address is 324 Main Street, Lyons Colorado, 80540.

It’s that Rosie-Red time of the year again when men and women rush around in a hustle and bustle the last 24 hours before it’s time to wow their significant other. But whether you’re a sappy Red and Pink kinda person, or a stay-at-home and hide with your significant other type of guy or gal, it certainly doesn’t hurt to come home with a Beautiful bouquet of flowers that brightens up the room, and can say quite loudly, or with sincere subtlety “I love you” this Valentine’s Day.

In any case, we’re celebrating this Holiday at Living Arts with a fragrant and quite diversely colorful shop full of gorgeous flowers, and we’re officially taking orders!!

This year we have a couple new features added to our Holiday regime. As in past years, we will be having our famous roses, red white and pink selections available, as well as a wide variety of other flower options all in warm beautiful color schemes for those who love flowers but may not love the mascot flower of this season. In addition we will offer our signature Living Arts Bouquets, available as Hand Tied’s, or Vased. The final and most exciting new feature this year is our Mobile RedWagon, which will be traveling around Lyons on Thursday, Valentine’s Day, selling quick, convenient Cash and Carry Roses to-go. You can buy as many as you like, of course, but we will be offering special price breaks for Single, 1/2 Dozen, and Dozen Roses.

We are a full-service florist who specializes in
custom design and detailed customer care.

We would love to have a chance to meet with you and discuss any of your Wedding or Special Occasion Floral needs.

Please give us a call at 303-823-6733, Email us , or visit us on Facebook.

Our physical address is 324 Main Street, Lyons Colorado, 80540.

Welcome to Living Arts Floral Designs, we are a specialized mountain wedding and event floral design storefront and school located in Lyons Colorado. We deliver to Longmont, Lyons, Boulder, and surrounding areas!

Looking for something special? CALL US! we are not a “Cookie Cutter” Florist, but instead a custom design, high quality florist, and we offer beautiful and unique options to fit your every need!

We deliver to Howe Mortuary, Alhberg Funeral Home, and all others, as well as participating with all local wedding vendors. We offer gorgeous flowers that last and last! tell someone you really care by Calling Living Arts Floral Designs. We like to pride ourselves in our beautiful seasonal Bouquets with our signature Living Arts quality look, for any and all occasions!

We are a full-service florist who specializes in
custom design and detailed customer care.

We would love to have a chance to meet with you and discuss any of your Wedding or Special Occasion Floral needs.

Please give us a call at 303-823-6733, Email us , or visit us on Facebook.

Our physical address is 324 Main Street, Lyons Colorado, 80540.