We are excited to announce our September Bloom of Hope non-profit…Keep Austin Beautiful!

Their custom design is being created as we speak.  Stay tuned, we’ll be revealing the arrangement on August 31st!

For 25 years Keep Austin Beautiful (KAB) has been educating and empowering the citizens of Austin to improve and protect our local environment. They engage in a variety of environmental initiatives, including regular cleanups and Clean Sweep, KAB’s annual city-wide cleanup that organizes over 4,000 volunteers to remove litter from our neighborhoods, streets, schools, parks, and public spaces. In 2009, 17,500 volunteers removed 219,637 pounds of trash from Austin’s public spaces. KAB supports projects that beautify and restore Austin’s public spaces as well. Last year, KAB loaned tools and awarded $10,000 in beautification grants that supported 119 projects. Keep Austin Beautiful also promotes environmental stewardship through presentations, hands-on activities, service-landscaping projects, and awareness campaigns. Last year KAB partnered with 28 K-12 schools, leading 316 presentations and reaching over 5,500 students. With litter prevention, beautification and community improvement, and waste reduction and resource conservation as their main areas of focus, KAB’s programs work toward cleaning, beautifying and protecting the Austin environment through physical improvements and hands-on education.

Starting September 1st, anytime their custom design is ordered, we will be donating 10% of the retail price back to Keep Austin Beautiful.  The funds raised from this drive will help propel more of their service project that really do Keep Austin Beautiful!

To learn more about our non-profit program One Bloom At a Time and see the current Bloom of Hope design Follow these links:

One Bloom At a Time

Bloom of Hope

Give Blooms, Give Hope, Give Blood!

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For the entire month of August, through the One Bloom at a Time program, King Florist is donating 10% from the retail price of this custom design to The Blood and Tissue Center of Central Texas.

To Order, Click on the picture below, or just give us a call at 512.453.6633

The Blood Center of Central Texas (The Center) was founded in 1951 as the Austin Blood Bank on Congress Avenue providing whole blood to four Austin hospitals and a couple of rural clinics. Over the next 21 years, as additional hospitals opened, the name of The Center and location occasionally changed to meet the growing patient need. In 1972, The Center established its current location on Lamar Boulevard in Austin collecting and processing about 10,000 blood donations a year with a staff of twenty.

Today, The Blood Center is the exclusive provider and guardian of the community’s blood supply for 37 medical facilities in 10 Central Texas counties. This year, over 56,000 whole blood and 7,400 apheresis platelet donations will be collected at The Center’s Austin, Cedar Park, Georgetown, Round Rock and South Austin donation centers and on over 1,000 mobile blood drives. These donations are tested extensively and processed into life-saving therapeutic components, which go to help up to 115,000 patients in Central Texas. Patient need for blood is continually growing and will always require people to make a commitment to donate to ensure that life-sustaining blood is readily available.

The mission of The Blood Center is to safeguard the community’s gifts of blood with uncompromising quality and excellence in service.

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Did you know that King Florist has a courtesy Occasion Reminder service for you to use? This is a special service that we offer to our clients to help them remember ANY special day.  Many of us have online calenders and facebook reminders for some of those special days.  I don’t know about you, but I have found that most of those reminders go to the “spam” area in my brain.  Yes, I may see the name and date on the screen, but it seems to be easily forgotten.

So, how is our service different?  We call you!  Getting a phone call from a real live person here in the shop to remind you about an upcoming birthday or anniversary really makes that reminder stick!  Our clients have been so appreciative over the years for that quick reminder phone call that has saved a lot of couches from being slept on and dog houses from being built!

If you have an existing account, call or e-mail us if there are any dates that you would like us to remind you of.  If you don’t have an account yet, we will set one up for you the first time you order and we can save  your special occasion dates for you!

www.KingFlorist.com

512.453.6633

King Florist is known for our custom, one of a kind designs that you know came from us.  We love keeping things unique and innovative, which is why we loved seeing these “Flora Couture” ensembles and accessories at the recent AIFD conference.

When you receive flowers, whether they are wrapped up in paper or designed in a vase, they’re always much heavier than you would expect. Which is why some truly amazing detail and design work are needed to create a floral design that is light enough to be worn!  This lovely lady was adorned in a floor length dress made from a light reed backing with vanda orchids, gloriosa lilies, kermit poms, and tiny accents of wax flower tucked all through it. It looked light as a feather on her! The dress was definitely a show stopper but I loved the detail they added with the super chic flora hat.  It’s all about the details!

On another model they featured a lengthy “purse” created out of a special silver floral wire, curly willow, equisetum and dendrobium, phaleonopsis and vanda orchid blooms. Practical? No. Beautiful? YES!

It is always great to see a floral showcase that pushes the envelope.  Bravo to the great AIFD designers for creating a floral spectacle!  There was not a single person in the hotel that didn’t crane their necks to see the amazing works of art that you created.

The first week of July, our designer Benoit was able to attend the American Institute of Floral Designers conference in Boston, MA.  The American Institute of Floral Designers (AIFD) is a design certificate that floral designers can earn to add immense credibility to their work.  It’s the “Dr.” or “Phd” in the floral design world. To meet the requirements for the AIFD title, you are required to pass a test in all areas of design, and also keep educating yourself on new design techniques and trends.

The AIFD conference brings the best designers in the floral industry together for a HUGE creative collaboration. Naturally, when you get all of those creative people together in one city, it is the perfect palate for  great new design ideas, tips, tricks, and general business insight.  This year, there were some amazing floral installations placed around the hotel.  The emphasis on natural elements and texture was abundant in all of the installations, something that we are very familiar with and love to apply to our designs.  Here are a few of our favorite installations…

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LOVE the natural containers and the use of some bright elements along with the textural overlays.

This takes an interesting approach to the use of curly willow.  Inverting the system and using the hearty stems at the top of the design.

We love creating textural spheres for weddings and events. These have a very natural undertone to them.

Grouping flowers together is a much better way to achieve a high impact design.

What more could you want than a solid wall of flowers?  This is a texture DREAM!

With our creative batteries charged, we are excited for the remainder of the year.  Stay tuned for some new custom designs from the design table at King Florist!

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“A Bloom of Hope” for Dell Children’s Medical Center!

King Florist is proud to donate 10% of the retail price of this design to Dell Children’s Medical Center for the entire month of July.

Created with beautiful high spring and summer flowers, this design includes some of the seasons best! A variety of colors, fragrances and textures makes it the best of ALL worlds!  Our designers will create this lush, low arrangement with the freshest product available is the store.  If you have any questions about what we have available, don’t hesitate to call. 512.453.6633

To learn more about “One Bloom At a Time” our local non-profit program, click the link here.

Hello everyone!  We have some exciting updates to our program “One Bloom At a Time” that we wanted to share.  If you’re not familiar with “One Bloom At a Time”, it is King Florist’s non-profit give back program that was developed last year.  It gives all of our clients the opportunity to designate a non-profit of their choice to receive a 5% donation from King Florist of the retail price of their floral order.  It also provides a year round opportunity for our local Austin non-profits to be receiving donations! To learn more about our program, click here.

Well, never being the types to settle, we decided to keep pushing forward with this program to give more and more back to our community.  This is where “A Bloom of Hope” was invented…

Every month, we will feature one non-profit with a custom, one of a kind design called “A Bloom of Hope” from the designers of King Florist.  That design will be the #1 spot in our shopping cart under the “Everyday Collection” tab.  Everyday Collection is where all of our fresh floral designs are located on KingFlorist.com.  Anytime anyone orders “A Bloom of Hope” we will give 10% (double!) back to that non-profit! We are hopeful that highlighting one non-profit each month will expand awareness and increase donations!  If you have any questions about this program, or are interested in signing up, let us know!  You can call us here at the shop, 512.453.6633 or email us at Design@KingFlorist.com. Keep checking back for updates, we’ll keep you filled in on all the details!

We had the privilege of working with Ryan and Katie, one of our May couples!  Working with them was amazing!  They had a united vision for the event and both had unique ideas to bring to the table.  The overall feel of the wedding was tailored yet organic. The color palate we worked with was shades of green, touches of deep fuchsia, and ivory.  The shades of green were  very important to create and organic and textural feel to all of the bouquets. Since it was a rather small wedding, all the small details were very important!

The ceremony was at the St. Edwards Chapel off South Congress here in Austin.  It’s a beautiful quaint chapel with a lot of character.  We didn’t want to do too many flowers in the chapel because of how unique it is by itself.  Two simple altar pieces were placed at the front to create a focal point for the ceremony.  Small nosegays of fuchsia spray roses were tied up to the pews with Kelly Green satin ribbon that matched the bridesmaids dresses.

*All Photos Courtesy of Cory Ryan Photography!

After the ceremony all the guests went to Hotel St. Cecilia for a sit down dinner in the front yard of Suite 4. (yes, I said front yard! It was too fun!)  The antique tables were set on a the grass under a shade tent complete with antique folding chairs.  We created the centerpieces in beautiful champagne buckets with mint julep cups at each side.  These were surrounded by a natural moss runner that we created on site. The table numbers were custom created in the same brilliant green moss.  Each place setting had a fun little succulent plant in a silver cup for the guest to take home and enjoy.

All in all the event was wonderful!  Congratulations Ryan and Katie!

We received some AMAZING news yesterday!  King Florist was voted one of Austin’s TOP florists in Austin, by people in Austin.  Each year Rare Magazine lets their readers vote for the best of the best in Austin for their annual “Rarest of Them All” issue.  This ranges from Food, Nightlife, Arts, and really pretty much everything in Austin.  Well, we were very excited to see that we placed #2 on votes for best Austin florist.  Second only to gigantic Whole Foods.  We are so excited and grateful to everyone that voted!

If you’re interested, the Issue Launch Party is tomorrow 6/17/2010 at HEM. 908-B West 12th. Passed appetizers and drinks!  Look for a custom design from King Florist to greet you at the front!

Dad…The hardest person to buy a gift for.  We always think of giving Dad something that is on the usual “Fathers Day Gift List” Golf Balls, Power Tools, Grill Accessories, blah blah blah.  Believe it or not, Dads enjoy the finer things in life too!  This year, why not give dad something that he would never treat himself to.  A day at the spa, a gourmet cooking class or a diffuser lampe from Lampe Berger.  We have some great lampes and scents that are “Dad” friendly!  These are a great gift for his office or for him to have at home. (especially if Dad enjoys a cigar every once in a while!)

Pair the sleek Capri Lampe with a Borneo Teak Wood fragrance fuel and it creates a great gift!  Some other great Dad friendly fragrance fuels are Wild Grass Field, Sea Mist, Pure Leather, Fresh Eucalyptus, or Heavenly Spruce.

Capri

Borneo Teak Wood

Check out our entire Lampe Berger collection at KingFlorist.com or stop by the shop and take a look and a sniff!

6009 Burnet Rd.

512.453.6633

Hi everyone!  Tomorrow only, all of our fresh flower wraps will be HALF OFF!  Cash and carry only, but that means that you get to come in and pick exactly the flowers that you want!  We have beautiful Peonies, Hyacinth, and Orchids.  Stems are limited, so stop by early tomorrow.  Give us a call if you have any questions. 512.453.6633.   6009 Burnet Rd. 78757

King Florist will be closed Sat. the 29th and Memorial Day.  We will re-open on Tuesday, June 1st at 8:00 am.

Have a safe and fun Memorial Day weekend!

Sincerely,

Your King Florist Team

We want to say congratulations to all of the 2010 UT graduates!  Many of you have been recipients and clients of ours over the past couple of years and we have loved working with you.  We wish you all the best for your future, where ever that may lead you.  If you’re moving out of town and ever need a recommendation of what florist to go to, give us a call!  We’ll be happy to help! If you’re staying in Austin, we can’t wait to see you again!

To everyone who has a special someone graduating this weekend, stop by and pick up a wrapped bunch of flowers to present to the proud guy/gal!  They have worked very hard and deserve a little recognition!

Call ahead if you’re pressed for time and we’ll have it ready to go.  512.453.6633.  Or just stop by on your way: 6009 Burnet Rd.

Last week we were a featured vendor at the Fortune Chinese Restaurant Bridal Showcase on North Lamar.  It turned out to be a great night with some of the top wedding vendors in Austin as well as some great brides! The vision for the King Florist table was one part creative and one part informative.  We really wanted to share some of our ideas with the brides and grooms that strolled by so we created some fun and unique ideas for bridal bouquets, boutonnieres, center pieces, and cabaret tables.  Creating an overall vision of what the event could look like.  The  happy couples were eager and very open to new and fun information whether they were more than a year or just a few weeks away from their wedding date.   Check our some pics of our table taken by Stanfield Photo.

Photo courtesy of Stanfield Photo

Photo courtsey of Stanfield Photo

Photo courtesy of Stanfield Photo

Photo courtesy of Stanfield Photo

We had a great time mixing and mingling and can’t wait to do it again!

Don’t forget that Mother’s Day is coming up this Sunday, May 9th!

Mother’s Day is one of our favorite holidays here at the shop, sending beautiful arrangements, fun blooming plants, and even a little something gourmet to WELL DESERVING Mom’s all over the country (yes we can send flowers pretty much anywhere)!  Let your Mom know that she is the BEST with some beautiful fresh flowers.  Your mom will be proud that she taught you so well!

"Hydrangea"

"Oregon Delight"

Give us a call here at the shop!  We’re here 8:00 – 6:00 and we’ll make sure that you are sending the perfect bouquet to your mom.

www.KingFlorist.com

512.453.6633

Dedicated. Positive. Organized. Professional.

What has your Administrative Assistant
done for you today?
(we bet you can’t count it all on one hand!)

Celebrate all their hard work with a beautiful, creative floral arrangement from King Florist for
Administrative Professionals Week, April 19th – 23rd.

King Florist

6009 Burnet Rd.

Austin, TX 78757

You can always reach one of our Designers Directly at: 512.453.6633

Or. Shop online at www.kingflorist.com

Our friends over at Baguette et Chocolat are ALMOST ready to open their doors and we can’t wait to sample some of their delicious French Pastries!  This is the real thing!  French pastry chef, French Equipment, and most of all French Passion!

They have done a wonderful job designing their new space on Bee Caves, and to top it all off, we have created some fun little table arrangements with preserved flowers!  These little blooms are treated with a special solution that keeps them beautiful and doesn’t make them look tired or dried.  Watch for the Grand Opening of this new Austin gem in May 2010!

Check out their web-site:    http://www.baguetteetchocolat.com/

Baguette et Chocolat

12101 Bee Cave Road (FM 2244) in Bee Cave, 78738

We teamed up with Red Velvet Events of Austin this year to create a table centerpiece for the CulinART event.  CulinART is a charity event hosted by the International Special Event Society, benefiting The Wright House.  Each table has a unique center piece/work of art created by different floral designers all over Austin.  The over all theme was water and labyrinth.

Our creation was designed on a bed of sand with sea shells and polished river rocks.  We used a variety of orchids (our favorite!) and manzanita branch.  We also incorporated some light on to the table with floating candles in some hand blown green and blue glass.  The event was hugely successful and we were happy to provide a beautiful piece to contribute to The Wright House!

See KXAN’s coverage of the event here:  KXAN News Austin

Beautiful blooms are abundant at King Florist this time of year.  Spring is one of our favorite seasons, it brings the return of some of our favorite flowers!  Eremurus, Agapanthus, and Boronia, to name a few.   In celebration of our favorite season we would like to offer 50% off for any cash and carry flowers.  Just stop by, have a look in our cooler, choose what flowers you would like to take home and we’ll wrap them up for half the price! Happy Spring!

We have added our Lampe Berger diffuser lamps to our online store!  We are excited to have these available to our clients for delivery here in Austin or to ship anywhere in the US.  These make great gifts, and are perfect for your office or home.  We have a ton of great scents for you to choose from, with many more on the way.  Check out our Lampe Berger line at KingFlorist.com

Hi Everyone!  You may have noticed a few changes on our web-site these past couple of weeks.  We have updated things and have a whole new shopping cart for you to try out!  It is much more user friendly and we are hoping that you all love it!  You can go online and create an account where you will have your own cart to add things to.  If you had an account on our old web-site, you will need to put your information in again so that everything is updated.

So…Give it a test-drive and give us any feedback that you have!