Thursday, May 19, 2011

It's Business: Fancy Fabric Flowers

I have officially worked my last full day as a part-time employee for the Law Firm that I worked at for the past 6 1/2 years. It was a wonderful company to work for, and I will keep my ties with them as a consultant, b/c I was that good and they will still need me here and there for my expertise! Anyway...so what will I do now? Be a stay at home mom, and try and build this new company that I have created.

Fancy Fabric Flowers. I came up with this idea October 2010. It started just as H.S. Flowers - Corsages and Boutonnieres. They are made out of fabrics so they can be a keepsake forever for these girls, they won't die and crumble and eventually get tossed out when they move out of their parents house. However, what my special niche is, that all my flower arrangements come with a detachable accessory. All or part of the flower detaches so the girls can wear it in their hair after the dance, or formal event. Holla! I made up a couple and presented the idea to a couple of YW groups. They all LOVED the idea, so I got busy. I came up with the 4 main styles of flowersI wanted to have and started making a couple different ones.

I officially started the company Fancy Fabric Flowers in January 2011. On a whim Spencer & I decided to have a booth in the Utah Bridal Fair in Provo in a 6x10 size booth. It was so small! We signed up 1 week before, and I had NO Bridal Bouquets. My mom came in to save the day, of course. We made Bridal Bouquets for a week straight. The show turned out 2 Brides work, which they both loved. I learned I needed a ouple more flower arrangements to focus on for the weddings. We did another show at the South Towne Expo in April, in a 10x10 booth, where the below pictures are from. That extra couple feet made a world of difference, and we were able to showcase our product much better.

Business has been very slow, expectedly, as most new businesses go. I am so grateful for the couple orders for Bridal Bouquets and H.S. Corsages and Boutonnieres that have given me a chance to show what I can create. This is a very unique product that not everyone will want, I know, but I think there are enough people out there who are looking to have something different and stylish like this to have at their formal event.

Spencer has been an amazing support throughout this 6 month endeavor, never really complaining about the large amounts of time I have spent here and there, or the money that was being used for this business instead of new carpet for the basement! I could not have taken this idea and turned into a business without Spencer's support, your spouse or loved ones are really the people you have to have in making your ideas a reality! My mom has also played a huge role as well, teaching me a few sewing techniques and the basics of putting flower arrangements together. It is crazy how fast this business has become a reality, but I am really excited to see where it can go. We have gotten nothing but awesome feedback from everyone who sees our product. I am hoping to be busy throughout this summer with all the weddings going on, especialy now that I have a lot more time to be at home. Feel free to check out all the different work I have created on the website http://www.fancyfabricflowers.com/ and see us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fancyfabricflowers. So far, the favorite style has been the Button Beauty line. It's different, don't we all want to be different?! Wish me luck!


Wedding Cake Flowers. All the roses detach from the cake, so you can give them out at your reception as gifts to your family & friends who are there!

We had a Photo Shoot done in March by Whitney Lewis Photography. All of our pictures turned out amazing, and really helped us to showcase how our flowers look on people!




3 comments:

sojay said...

Awesome, Melina! (I recognize some of those cute girls...)

Dan and Jen said...

Melina- your booth is awesome! I love this idea! Dan's little sister plays in an orchestra and Hillcrest and had their final concert last night. They had some pretty fancy programs that featured adds from some of their sponsors. We saw an add for a company called Hair Flowers and we both thought immediately of you. I don't know how much it would cost to be a sponsor or if you have looked into that already. I brought the program home to give to you.

Amber Ada Reimann Burns said...

What a professional look! You got the whole package, and my determined friend Melina is bound to succeed. I love the picture of the ward girls too! Just phenomenal.