Wedding floral business ~ Money making Monday

One of my more recent ways to make money was to start my own business doing wedding flowers. It has been a very fun experience. I have long loved flowers but when I was in Bible college in Iowa I was able to get a job at a florist where I was trained to be a floral designer. After Mara was born I quit working but did flowers for quite a few friends weddings. Though I like working with flowers in general I really enjoyed doing weddings. I continued to do flowers for friend's weddings and then a couple of people heard about me and hired me to do their flowers as well. At that time I began dreaming of doing it as a business as I didn't have as many friends getting married to give me as much time with flowers as I would like.

Last December Ken and I started talking about it seriously and then got to work to get this business started. I was very thankful for Ken who went through a huge book for me to figure out all the laws about starting home businesses in MN. Ken also set up my website for me. I worked out figuring out the best and cheapest place to get fresh flowers, working on what would be in my brochure, making a reservation to be in a bridal show, making a portfolio of pictures, designing my logo, making a banner and figuring out how it would all work.

I did the Bridal show in January which was quite a bit of work but a neat experience. Throughout this past Spring and Summer I did several weddings. I have had a lot of fun visiting with brides and getting to work with flowers. I still have a lot of growing to do to get where I would like it to be but it has been a good start.
I thought I would share some of the advertising that I have done as possibly it would work also for you in any home business that you might be trying.

• Having a booth at the Bridal show. This is the most expensive thing we have done but we did get results. It cost $150 (I believe) for a booth (the different bridal shows in our town varied- I chose one of the cheapest). I also had to buy flowers to show at my booth.



• Sending out brochures. This has been a good method but I am not able to know all of the brides in my area, so it is far from a complete method. I send them out to the people that are in the engagement section of our newspaper and then any others that I hear of.



• Newspaper ad in the wedding section. We found a fairly cheap ad in what they call the wedding showcase. As far as I know we haven't gotten any results from this.


• Putting my brochure at other wedding venues. From what I understand it is very good to get to know others that are in the wedding business so that they will refer you, so I have worked to do that.


• Word of mouth. Ken and I both are quick to tell others (even if they themselves are not getting married) about my new business.


• Another thing I tried (and I don't know the results) which is kind of different but it is this: I was checking out a lot of books from the library about weddings(in order to be better educated) so I decided to place a brochure or business card in them when I returned them since I would figure most people that look at those books are getting married.


• I placed brochures other places. Ken has them at his office, I put them at the Library and a friend who works at the University put some there.


• Online. I have been able to be found fairly well by this. I have a website which people can go to and see pictures of my work and find out about how I do my business and what I can do for them. Many people appreciate being able to find out about the business online before actually contacting the person. Having a website has been very important! I have also used other online service directories to help to get my name out there farther. (They often have a higher ranking in the search engines so my ad in their site comes up before my website does.) I have used only free directories. My favorite one has been Merchant Circle. They let you have information about your business, a link to your website (if you have one), other contact information, a photo slide show, coupons that show up on other local merchant's sites and a business blog. The way I found directories was to Google words that went along with my business and when a directory came up than I would check to see if a listing on it was free.

I have really enjoyed working on my floral business. It is something I have been able to do at home. The kids are learning a lot about it and are looking forward to being old enough to help a lot. Another thing that has made it nice is that Weddings are generally on weekends so when I need to go deliver flowers then Ken is around to watch the kids. (They have come with me on some deliveries though.) Doing this business has also given me the excuse to research and read a lot about weddings. (which I love, even if mine is all done.)

I hope these ideas help if this is something you are looking into. Even if you have no intention of doing flowers maybe the advertising ideas will work for other businesses.

For more money making ideas go to Money Saving Mom and come back here next week to learn about some of the other things that I have done to make money.

Boundary lines

"Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;

You have made my lot secure.

The boundary lines have fallen for me

in pleasant places;

Surely I have a delightful inheritance."

Psalm 16:5 & 6

This has long been a portion of scripture that I have liked, largely I am sure because it is one of my Dad's favorite verses. Tonight at church Dad had a sermon/class on these verses. We like these verses because that is how we feel. God has blessed us over abundantly. He gives us a delightful inheritance. He loves us so much and takes care of everything we possibly need. How can we help but have our hearts overflowing with gratitude to Him. God is so Good!

One thing Dad brought up tonight and then I got to thinking on it even more afterwards, is how God gives us boundary lines. Sometimes we don't like boundary lines, they make us want to rebel and do other than what we ought to. Anytime God gives us boundary lines it is for our good. He wants only what is best for us and gives us boundary lines to make our lives better.

One of the areas that I was thinking about tonight where I am so thankful God gave us boundary lines is in marriage. God has a perfect plan for marriage. When we try to have a marriage our own way filled with all our selfishness it doesn't work very well, but when people follow God's plan for marriage, it is a beautiful thing!

A boundary line in Marriage that is often rebelled against is the Husband being the head of the home, the leader( 1Cor. 11:3, Eph. 5:22). I certainly haven't always been perfect at following my leader but I am working at it. This is a boundary line that I am truly thankful for however. I appreciate very much being able to have Ken to make important decisions and to lead in areas that I am not sure about. As in most healthy marriages, Ken and I discuss major decisions that are to be made and I pray about them but then Ken is left in most cases to make the final decision. For myself (as a normal emotional woman) that is very comforting.

Another boundary line in marriage that is often being thrown out in our day is that of being committed to only your spouse physically. Adultery sadly is very common. This however is not something God approves of (Heb. 13:4). I am so thankful for this boundary line. I can't imagine the stress there would be in marriage if this was something that was going on.

There are many other boundary lines that God has given us that are for our own good. What are some of your favorites and why?

We are so blessed!

When I was thinking about all of the good deals that we have gotten this week to post for Super Saving Saturday @Moneysavingmom, I got to feeling so overwhelmingly blessed. God is so very good to us and takes care of us so over abundantly.
Some of God's blessing this week have been:

~On Wednesday when I was watching some friends kids for the morning they also brought us 4 chickens that they had butchered. Fresh, wholesome meat, Yea!

~On Thursday morning our friend Eric called and said he had gotten another deer (his 4th this year and today he got another!) and he wondered if we would like it. I said sure! Ken and I have no idea how to deal with a deer but Eric gutted it, and then he and my dad hung it up. This morning we went out there and Eric (with a little help from Ken) skinned it and then Dad helped us cut it up and I packaged it. It is now in our freezer, except for what I have in the fridge for tomorrows dinner.

~On Thursday morning the kids and I went shopping and found some good deals on groceries and clothes for presents. (I had taken pictures of them but I can't find the pictures on my computer now.) One of my favorite deals was 3 men's dress shirts that I found at JC Penneys to use for gifts. I found all of them on clearance (They originally were around $30 each) and they came up to $21 with tax. I had a $10 off coupon so the total for the 3 shirts was $11. I guess I was especially pleased with this deal because I like to buy (or make) gifts ahead of time which I usually do fairly well except with men's gifts and now I have 3 men's gifts sitting and waiting.

~On Friday afternoon I was downtown at Ken's office helping out and I happened to look out the window across the street and there was a bunch of furniture with a free sign on it. The office building was getting new tenants and I guess stuff had been left behind that they were getting rid of. I ended up getting a nice office chair for my desk, a shelf that I plan to put in my office/craft room, and a tall file cabinet in good condition. I also called and told my dad about it and he came and got a desk, a cabinet and a file cabinet. The owners were glad to get rid of the stuff and we were happy to get it. So far I only have the office chair at home as we stuck it in Ken's office and then had no way to haul it. Dad was planning on hauling it for me but got so much stuff of his own that he didn't have room! Tomorrow he plans on bringing it home for me after church.

I have found our God to be so good. He gives far beyond what we ever need!

Staying healthy!

This past month we having been working on something new. It seemed to me that we had been getting sick more than we should be (even though we really work on eating healthfully) so I decided we would try to get more fresh air and heart pumping exercise as well as trying to drink a lot more water.

So far we haven't gotten sick but that isn't to surprising since we have been doing not quite a month yet but that is not the only blessing. We have been having a lot of fun. We are an active family anyway but when cold weather comes I tend to not go out a lot (even when the kids will go out) and even though I am active I don't generally do a lot of exercise that gets my heart really beating.

Some of the things that we have really enjoyed doing so far is to play soccer, football (my version with my rather vague memories of the rules), jogged, jumped rope and run around the yard while leaping. Since we are in the middle of our Alphabet adventures we have been having fun figuring out activities that start with the right letter.

After exercising out in the cool air it can really make you feel more energetic. I would really recommend it. I am looking for suggestions for very active outdoor exercise that is fun for kids and me, so if you have any ideas, please comment.

The drinking of water has gone fairly well. But I am still not drinking as much as I would like. I have been trying to have a water bottle or glass handy most of the time which does help. Do you have any ways that make you drink the amount of water that you think you should?

Candle making for frugal gifts

This week we had fun making candles. The way we did it was extremely frugal and can be used to make lovely gifts.

I took old candles that were not very nice looking, short crayons and some old sealing wax and we melted them down. I used old cans inside kettles of water for a double boiler method. I believe this is safer than just putting a pan of wax on the stove.

Heat it until it is all melted. You can use an old spoon (warning: it will get all waxy, so don't expect to use it for food again.) or a paint stick to stir it and to take the old wicks from the old candles out with.

After it is all melted you can remove it from the heat to work with. There are 3 different kinds of candles that I can think of that you can make with this. You can dip them, mold them or just pour them into a container that you will use them in. We did some of each.

For each you will need a wick. We used some thick cotton string. For dipping we tied the strings to a stick (or flopped it over a ruler) and then just dipped it into the wax, letting it harden in between dippings. Just keep dipping until you reach the desired size. Also pay attention to the end of the candle during this time and flatten it out with your finger every so often. Some of the kids tried making striped candles by taking turns dipping it into different colors (we had a pot of blue, red and brown). The candles they did that way actually turned out rather neat.

For molds we used some little dixie cups. I placed a twist tie over the top and tied the wick to that and then poured the wax in. When the wax was all hard I tore the cup off. This mold worked quite well for a little votive candle. Another Mother was telling me that their family made floating candles by using little fluted tart pans, greasing them and making the candle in there.

We also made candles in some little baby food jars. I intend to decorate this lid later either by covering with cloth and a ribbon or something or painting them. I am also thinking about painting a little decoration on the outside of the jar. In the past we have used various kinds of container: Tuna cans, glass cups and tea cups to name a few.

Our candle making went very well except for one minor problem which I thought I would see if any of you knew the answer too. Many of the ones that we poured in something ended up with sunken spots. Some were a lot worse than others. Does anybody know how this happens or how to correct it? We were wondering if maybe air got trapped in there and then got out as it dried. I thought maybe I should pour them in layers instead of all at once. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

The candle burning is one that Jonathan made. Mara and Keren are displaying some of their creations. Keren molded one of hers while it was still soft to be curvy.

If anybody has any questions on the process I would be glad to try to answer.