Taking Care of Your Just Delivered Fresh Flowers

Posted on September 13, 2011 by admin

So, you just had flowers delivered to you, now what?

 - Keep fresh flowers away from drafts and extreme temperatures, which can quickly dry out the flowers and cause wilting.
 - If your flowers came in plastic, remove this as soon as possible.
 - Do not place your arrangement near fruit or in the path of cigarette smoke. The ethylene gas is detrimental to many flower types.
 - Avoid placing flower arrangements in windowsills and other areas with full sun where flowers can wilt due to overheating.
 - Most flowers will last longer under cool conditions.

How To Keep Your Flowers Looking Fresh
 - Keep your vase filled with water! All flower and foliage stems should be submerged. Flowers stay fresher, longer when they can get a drink!
 - If your flowers came in a basket or other container with foam, add fresh water every day.
 - Immediately remove dead or wilting leaves and stems from fresh flower arrangements.
 - Watch your water. When it gets cloudy it’s time to change it out.

Changing The Water In Your Flower Arrangement
 - First remove any dead or dying flowers from the arrangement.
 - After carefully removing the good flowers, clean the vase thoroughly with soapy water to remove any bacteria  that could cause the fresh flowers to deteriorate even quicker. Be sure to rinse thoroughly.
 - Replace the water and mix in the flower preservative provided by your florist, according to the instructions on the packet.
 - For best results, cut stems with a sharp knife at an angle about one to two inches from the bottom. This allows them to better absorb water. Do not use scissors to cut your flowers because they can crush the stems and prevent water absorption.
 - Place loose stems or wrapped bouquets of fresh flowers in your water mixture as soon as possible.

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Immortalizing Your Event With Photographs or Videos!

Posted on July 9, 2011 by admin

Whether you are having a Bar Mitzvah, Bat Mitzvah, wedding,  confirmation party, anniverary party or any other organized celebration, you want to make sure that you have tangible memories of the event. And that is usually in the form of photographs or videos.

One thing that you don’t want to do the day of your event is to have to play guide to the photographer. You want to enjoy your celebration. So what can you do.

Make sure that during your planning stages, you make up a list of the important attendees that you want to make sure are captured on film. This could be your immediate family and relatives, close friends and/or special guests. Start making this list in the beginning stages of your planning so you can edit it along the way. When you are making up your invitation
list you might see someone that you missed.

It is important that you give this list to your photographer and make sure that he or she knows who these important people are. You can always assign someone else in your family as a liaison to the photographer incase he or she has a question. This will be one less aspect of the event that you will have to worry about and you can enjoy the celebration with your guests.

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Your Wedding Invitations – When Should You Order Them?

Posted on May 11, 2011 by admin

Most experts will tell you that you should order your invitations as soon as you set your weddingdate, place and time for your wedding. Many suggest the ideal time is four to six months before the ceremony. Just make sure that you give yourself enough time so that it does not become a last minute rush job. There are several areas that will influence when you order them and what type you order.

The first is your wedding theme. You may want to coordinate the style invitations you order with the general theme of your wedding and/or the colors you intend to use.

Another area involved may be whether you plan to use a calligrapher to address your invitation and reply envelopes. You should plan to include some extra time for that process to be completed.
And one of the major items in the planning process is the date that you need to furnish your caterer or venue with the seat or plate count for your reception. Remember you need to mail the invitations out to your guests, give them time to return their responses and then you may have to follow up with individual quests when they don’t return them timely. And finally you have to total them up so you can get the information to your caterer or venue.

Generally you should try to get the invitations out about a month prior to the RSVP date you set. The RSVP date should be about two weeks prior to the date you need to furnish the seat or plate count. This will give you time to follow up with the ones that don’t respond timely. Plus you don’t want to send them out too early since people may misplace or forget about them.

We offer two excellent resources for wedding invitations. They are Tatex Occasions and Your Invitation Place

Please feel free to spend some time reviewing the many styles available. If you have any questions, give me a call at 732-972-1212 and I would be glad to assist you.

Thanks,
Faith Brenner, By Special Arrangement

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Do You Really Want To Run Around on “Your Big Day”?

Posted on February 9, 2011 by admin

OK! You booked your reception, band and photographer, your dress is ready, you ordered your flowers and written down a schedule of when everything is supposed to take place! Your big day is coming fast and you’re getting nervous! How are you going to coordinate all the activities that are going to take place on your day? Do you really want to worry about all these activities and make sure that everything takes place at the right time and at the right place?

Of course you don’t! All you, your family and guests should be doing is having fun and enjoying this special day!

Large events have so many facets that it can be almost impossible for you to enjoy yourself at your own event if you personally try to monitor and coordinate everything yourself.

That is where our Day-Of Coordination service can assist you in having an enjoyable and stress free day. We coordinate activities between all members of the bridal party, the many vendors that are part of your wedding team. We monitor the timing of the many different aspects of the setup and ceremony, synchronizing everything right through the reception. We act as your personal assistant on your special day and attend to all of the details.

We would love to sit down with you and discuss how we can help make your wedding day the best day of your life. Give us a call today at 732-972-1212 and leave the stress to us!

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Welcome

Posted on December 20, 2010 by admin

Hi,

Welcome to our new blog. I wanted to ensure everyone that yes, By Special Arrangement is still around, so don’t believe the rumors. While we served Marlboro and the surrounding communities for many years from our shop in Marlboro Plaza, we haven’t gone too far away and we are still serving the same areas from our new location in Old Bridge.

We continue to have the area’s largest selection of custom invitations and announcements, floral and balloon decor, personalized stationery, calligraphy, event and party planning, sign-in boards, albums, favors and children gifts. We continue to deliver florals, balloons, gift and gourmet baskets locally and worldwide.

So come say hello. We are now located inside the Flower Cart Florist, 3159 Rt. 9 North and Ticetown Road, Old Bridge, NJ (Ticetown Square). You can contact us at the store at 732-972-1212 or on our cell phone at 908-596-0808.

You can also visit us at www.byspecialarrangement.com.

I look forward to seeing you.
Faith Brenner

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