Posted by: Pascale - Petal Peddler on August 9th, 2010

Yay! It’s our Birthday!  Arena Flowers is 4 years old and as is becoming tradition, we have asked the florists  to create a Birthday flower arrangement to celebrate the occasion (see our 2nd Birthday arrangement and 3rd Birthday arrangement)

Judith has made this incredible Birthday flower arrangement. The boxing ring is covered with grasses and the stand bursting with roses, gerbera, nutans and hypericum berries.

So to celebrate our 4th Birthday, we thought we’d look back over some of the fun – and the hard work – that has been keeping us busy over the last 12 months.
 
New launch
 
In Autumn 2009, we launched the newest member of the Arena Flowers family – en France –  Arena Fleurs.  Arena Fleurs was particularly busy over Mothers’ Day this year. We were featured on French style website My Best Addressbook; Terrafemina, an online style magazine and we partnered with cosmetic company, Cosmaterra.
 
The feedback about Arena Fleurs in its first year has so far been really good; one particularly romantic customer sent a very lucky recipient 1,000 long-stemmed red roses.
 
New Staff
 
We have welcomed some great new people to the Arena Flowers team over the year.  New florists, including Agatha and Timothy; new customer service staff, Zak; new marketing people Freddie, Maina, Raj and myself.

Remco has also joined this year.  He had a busy first few weeks, joining just prior to Mother’s Day.  Remco works closely with the Dutch flower auctions in Holland, developing our product range, bringing new flower types and bouquets, and ensuring that our buying is as efficient as possible so we get the freshest flowers to you at great value.

 

 Come on, Remco – give us a smile!
 
 

Awards

We were thrilled to win a Smarta 100 award earlier in the year.  This awarded our innovative approach to marketing, development and our personal touch, with social  media apps and other gadgets, such as our event calendar and photo upload service.
 
 

 

Fun things

We’ve been busy keeping you busy with some fun competitions and gadgets on the website.  In February, Flowers & Fun launched – a service to send virtual flowers and messages to your family and friends via Twitter, Facebook and email.

We had a Mother’s Day competition, won by the very deserving Brenda.  We also held a Pol Roger competition to win £200 pounds worth of Vintage Pol Roger champagne, for which Evelyn was the lucky winner.

The Marketing execs also celebrated Holland reaching the World Cup final in a stop motion video.

Development

Development on the site hasn’t all been creating fun tools and gadgets, we have spent a lot of time making the payment system more secure for you.

Our ordering systems have also seen a lot of development to ensure that orders are received by the florists and sent out for delivery as quickly as possible and allowing us to track orders as they go.

Charity Flowers

This time last year saw our very own Carole run in the race for life for Cancer Research UK.  We have had a partnership with Cancer Research UK since January 2009 and were proud of Carole to have run the race for life to raise money for them.  We are looking forward to Breast Cancer Awareness month and have some exciting product development underway for that.

We also started a partnership with charity, Global Giving, who support many grass-root charity projects around the world.  Find out more about our Global Giving partnership.

Weddings  

Wedding season is upon us and the florists have been busy creating beautiful wedding bouquets and arrangements and being on-hand on the day to help ensure the flowers are at their best.  Have a look at some photos from Arena Flowers Weddings in our photo gallery.

Not only do we arrange flowers for weddings – but we seem quite good at encouraging weddings within the Arena Flowers team too.  Arena florists, Paulina and driver Darek, got married this summer. Steve, one of the company’s founders and Elsa, who worked on the Dutch website also tied the knot in Holland in May.

We wish both couples long, happy and flower-filled lives together!

Last but most importantly, our customers

Throughout the year, we have had a newsletter competition winner each month. Contacting the winner and letting them know they’ve won is one of our favourite things to do each month.  If you would like to be in with a chance each month to win a £50 bouquet, all you need to do is sign up to our newsletter.  To have a peak at some of the past newsletter winners see here, and here.

We would never have reached the grand old age of 4 without our customers, so our Birthdays are really a celebration of you.

 

 

Filed under: Customers, General on August 9th, 2010 | 1 Comment »

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Posted by: Raj on August 5th, 2010

A few weeks back, around the time of the World Cup, we (Flower HQ’s three marketing execs) thought we would have a shot at creating a fun short video, in the hope that it might get a few views on YouTube and drive some brand awareness.  That was the idea anyway. We also knew there was a good chance it would only get a few views, given how much other World Cup related content was going around at the same time.

If you have not yet seen it, have a watch here: Flowers’ World Cup.

Whilst it was fun to make and it came out (we think) pretty well, there are definitely things we’d do differently if we were to do another.  We thought we’d share some of these with you, to help if you ever make a stop motion video.

Tips:

• Creativity: Think of great new ideas, people like watching new things.  This is not only the most important – and perhaps obvious tip – but definitely the hardest.  If you can’t think of something creative and new, then do what’s been done before but add new elements and do it really, really well. Our idea (showing our flowers competing against garage flowers in a game wasn’t super original but hadn’t been done before).
  

• Plan: Make a feasible plan & write all of your thoughts and ideas down.  This should include the original point of doing it – you should keep referring back to this to make sure you’re staying on track.

• Location: Select an appropriate location to shot the video.  The environment around you will affect the quality of the video. This includes lighting, setting – for example, whether you are likely to be interrupted by passing traffic or noise.
  

• Time: Take reasonable time to make a video as couple hours will not suffice.  It’s really easy to underestimate the amount of time it will take.

• Target: Do your research and select the audience you want to target.
  

• Be entertaining: Keep it short and interesting.  If you want the world to watch your video, you will need to make it as entertaining as possible and not bore people.

• Sound: Chose a suitable audio track that you wish to add on your video.  Make sure it’s a high quality audio track.  Most audio tracks require a license to use them – some sites to get royalty-free audio are: istockphoto, royaltyfreemusic.  We had quite a debate about the raucous music on our video.

• Commit to finishing it: Don’t give up and stay focused.   Many obstacles will hinder you (I’ll give some examples of what went wrong for us), your motivation might drop, but remember there’s always a great sense of achievement making something, so keep going…

• Distribution: This can be one of the hardest aspects to making a successful video.  There are plenty of different video hosting channels out there; YouTube, Dailymotion, Vzaar and Squidoo to name a few.  Its important to get as much visibility as possible, so you might also want to consider relevant forums and social networking sites.  The more outlets you showcase your video the higher the chance that the video will gain traction and views.

• Go for it: Once you’ve taken the time to make your video – it may not be what you had initially expected, but put it out there anyway.

How & what we did wrong:

Just so that you know we are talking from some experience, we thought it’d be fun to give you some examples of things not going entirely to plan.

Planning:

Finding creativity wasn’t really our problem.  In fact we were so excited to get started, we drew up a plan on the white board in the meeting room.

Once the plan was finished and we ready to get it approved and start making it, we realised, that the drawing was not organized well!  On top of that we couldn’t save it and so we resorted to taking photos of it.

Location:

Selecting the right location is important and we found this out the hard way.  Although our studio is perfect for shooting product images, it didn’t work so well for shooting our video.  The main reason was the heat.  With temperatures rising above 30 degrees in peak summer time, it made it quite hard to work efficiently.  So hot, in fact, that while we were shooting we managed to overheat one of the lamps and blow the mother boards inside.  All we heard was a snap, crackle and pop followed by a puff of smoke and that was the end of shooting for the day (and week).

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Props:

Some of the more keen eyed of you might have noticed we used six beautiful Sunset Cubes to act as a crowd for our game of football.  However after the light melting episode we had to postpone the filming until after the lights had been fixed.

Unfortunately, due to flowers being perishable and our desire to have them looking their best, we had to change the flowers for the second part of the filming.

Distribution:

We did not spend enough time getting our video out there.  We spent almost all our time and energy on getting the video finished before the ever shortening deadline of the World Cup Final as we wanted it to be relevant to current affairs.  What this meant was that once it was done we all sort of sat back relieved that it had been finished, this was a mistake.  We didn’t push the distribution any where nearly hard enough, and of course the video’s views suffered.  We should have spent more time thinking about how we would get our video out there and onto people’s screens.  We assumed that once the video was made we would post it and watch the views fly in, this doesn’t happen in reality.  In hindsight we should have taken time to build a more structured method of where and who we were going to distribute to.  In future productions this will be a very high priority.

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We had great fun making the video and it was a massive learning experience for us three.  The next time that we attempt something like this we will go into it expecting every thing that could go wrong to go wrong, and be prepared this time :)

Here is the vid again – enjoy!

 

Filed under: Big Mistakes, Flowers, General, Marketing on August 5th, 2010 | 3 Comments »

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Posted by: Freddie - Flower Funster on July 7th, 2010

 

Filed under: General, Marketing, Matters Webby on July 7th, 2010 | 1 Comment »

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Posted by: Freddie - Flower Funster on July 2nd, 2010

With the World Cup heating up we thought that we would make a little video.  A Final between our flowers and petrol station flowers and how we think the game would play out.

Enjoy!

 

Filed under: General on July 2nd, 2010 | 2 Comments »

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Posted by: Freddie - Flower Funster on May 26th, 2010

**UPDATE:  We are pleased to announce that the winner of the Arena and Pol Roger Caption Contest is Evelyn! Congratulations! **

Thank you to all those who entered and voted.

We have had many hilarious entries (145 in total!) for the Arena CaptionComp and we would like to thank every one who entered.  After much uhming and ahing, we have narrowed it down to a slender 10, which we think are the funniest captions.

Now please vote for whichever you think most aptly fits the image.  So here are the 10 best captions:

5. “The Coalition excites me, Pol Roger Champagne delights me, just hope the Lib/Con’s invite me”

6. “Never, has so much, been drunk, by so few, on behalf of so many”

7. “No 10 were playing it conservatively with a liberal supply of champagne”

8. “I think Mr. Brown might perhaps have preferred a Derringer to a Bollinger”

9. “Pol AND Roger?  Must be a coalition!”

10. “They hoped this would be the last Hung, Drawn and Slaughtered Parliament”

So there you have the final 10 captions. Just a little reminder the winner will win 2 bottles of Pol Roger Cuvee Sir Winston Churchill Vintage Champagne worth a whopping £200 in total!  Let the voting commence.

If you were lucky enough to make the final 10 then congratulations – but there can only be one winner.  Make sure you friends, relatives and even neighbours are voting for you.   Good Luck!

The voting will close at NOON on the 3rd of June, so you have a week to vote, but, well, …there’s no time like the present! :)

(Note:  Some people are reporting problems voting with Google Chrome. If this applies to you, then I’m afraid that you will have to use a different web browser to place your vote.)

 

Filed under: General on May 26th, 2010 | 2 Comments »

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Posted by: Freddie - Flower Funster on May 11th, 2010

**UPDATE:  The Competition is now officially closed!  The Queen has just begun her speech for the opening of parliament. Hurray!  Thank you all so much for your entries, they have been great.  We will be posting a short list of some of the funnier captions, then the voting for the Arena Caption Contest Winner can begin.  Check back soon to see if yours made the short list**

Fancy winning not one but two bottles of £100 Pol Roger champagne?  Think you’re funny?  Feel like mocking our lumbering general election?  Read on.

Due to a hung parliament result in our recent general election, us Brits are now waiting for MPs to thrash out an agreement to decide who will govern for the next few months and years.  While the politicos strike deals in smoke filled rooms, we’re teaming up with Pol Roger, makers of Winston Churchill’s favourite bottle of bubbly (find out more here: Pol Roger tasting at Arena Flowers), to bring you some light relief from election campaigns and party coalitions.

We’re running a caption competition, from now up until the start of the Queen’s speech on the 25th May (hopefully we’ll have a new government by then).  The photo shows cases of Pol Roger being heaved into No. 10 Downing Street for the then Prime Minister, Winston Churchill; we thought it rather apt given No 10′s current predicament.

We’ve put a starter caption of our own on there, but we are sure you can do much better.  Please enter using the comments field below.  The winning caption will win not one but 2 bottles of Pol Roger Cuvee Sir Winston Churchill Vintage.  The prize is worth a whopping £200.00 in value so please get your humour hats on and enter.

Once the competition closes, we’ll invite you to vote for your favourite (very democratic I hear you say).  The caption with the most votes wins, so make sure to get your friends and loved ones to come here and vote.

We are looking forward to all your entries – who says there’s no humour in general elections?! Good luck!

UPDATE: The game is up.  A government has, it seems, now been formed.  Arena Flowers doesn’t take sides and this is not a political blog.  The competition will remain open until the Queen’s Speech and entries so far have been very funny!  Please play nice and in the light hearted spirit in which this competition was intended.  Thanks! :)

UPDATE vol. 2: Wow!  What a great response. Thanks so much for all your entries. There are some REALLY funny ones in there. Already our office is debating who will and wont make the short list, it’ll be tight. But there is still time so please keep them coming!

Our Terms and Conditions:

1. This competition is open to all nationals (over the age of 18), however delivery restricted to the UK, Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands only.
2. Period of promotion: Nominations must be entered between Tuesday 11th May 2010 and until the beginning of the Queen’s speech on the 26th May 2010, inclusive, UK time.  Arena Online Ltd reserves the right to revise this date and extend the period.
3. The winner will be awarded two bottles of Pol Roger Cuvee Sir Winston Churchill Vintage.
4. The lucky nominees will have the caption submitted used on this site for purposes related to the competition, so please be happy with this before entering the competition.
5. If you have any questions or queries relating to this promotion, please contact our team via customer@arenaflowers.com.
6. If we believe anyone is abusing the promotion or seeking to defraud Arena Online Ltd we reserve the right, at our absolute discretion, to rescind this or any other offer without notice.  We believe in fairness.
7. The competition is as stated and there will be no alternative offer or cash substitute.
8. By entering the competition, customers will be deemed to be bound by and have accepted these terms and conditions.  Entrants must read and accept the website terms and conditions and privacy statement to be eligible.
9. By entering the competition you will automatically be signed up to the Arena newsletter, aimed at offering exclusive deals and promotions, we will not spam you.
10. English law applies and the English courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any proceedings in connection with this competition.
11. Arena Online Ltd reserves the right to vary these terms and conditions in the event of circumstances arising beyond its reasonable control.

 

Filed under: General on May 11th, 2010 | 145 Comments »

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Posted by: Guest editor - Cassidy Dart on April 19th, 2010

We were lucky to have Cassidy Dart from Pol Roger spend some time at Flowers HQ for a tasting session of some of their Champagnes  (yep, it was a good afternoon!).  Champagne is available on Arena Flowers, so it was great to have Cassidy share some of his insight into production of Champagne and some of the anecdotes related to Pol Roger (traditionally, Wintson Churchill’s favourite Champagne).

Cassidy was kind enough to send over his tasting notes.

Both champagne and flowers have long been touted as the ultimate in celebration, thus it was about time that the Arena Flowers team have a little tutored Pol Roger Champagne tasting, as Arena Flowers has been a Pol Roger fan since they started back in 2006.

The plan was to taste three champagnes from Pol Roger; the Brut NV, Vintage 2000 and Cuvee Sir Winston Churchill 1998.

After a little explanation of a few facts about the Champagne region (a total area of 35,000 hectares, which an annual total production of about 330 million bottles for the world) and a brief history of Pol Roger (one of the very few family owned Grand Marques left in Champagne) it was onto the most important part – tasting the Champagnes. Here are our tasting notes from the day:

Pol Roger Brut NV Champagne

Fresh, clean biscuity and apple nose – refined and elegant. It is dry, but not overly acidic, with a lovely interplay of clean fruit flavour, biscuity depth of flavour and a refreshing and long finsh. Extremely drinkable and enjoyable with balance and elegance being the defining features. So very easy to drink. Aged for at least 3 years before being disgorged.

Pol Roger Brut Reserve Champagne

Pol Roger Brut Vintage 2000

Immediate step up on the aromas; more brioche, red fruits and greater intensity. On the palate it is more biscuity, bready and much greater depth and flavour. Very long finish with the impression that it will keep over time. In fact it turns out that Pol Roger Vintage is in fact very long lived (1914 is a real favourite!).

Pol Roger Brut Vintage Champagne

Pol Roger Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill 1998
This is the prestige cuvée from Pol Roger, their top champagne named after their most famous devotee (who reportedly drunk over 10,000 bottles of Pol Roger in his lifetime- though he would have drunk Vintage; with his preferred vintages being the 1921, 1928 and 1945). This is truly a wine of Churchillean proportion; lots of body, texture and real power to it. Complex, magnificent and very long – made in the style that Churchill himself preferred; robust, mature and one to age, or if enjoyed now with the finest cuisine (Lobster anyone?).

Pol Roger Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill Vintage Champagne

Thank you Cassidy for coming over.  It was a very fine way to spend an afternoon at work – sipping Champagne. My favourite part was learning about the remuers who walk the Pol Roger cellars daily, turning each bottle a small fraction at a time.

 

Filed under: General, Guest Posts on April 19th, 2010 | 2 Comments »

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Posted by: Pascale - Petal Peddler on March 24th, 2010

Brenda was our very deserving Arena Flowers Mum of the Year.  Brenda was nominated by her daughter Lisa and received her bouquet as a surprise on Mother’s Day.  Lisa wanted to thank Brenda for all her support and high spirits during a difficult time for the whole family.

Lisa sent in this picture of Brenda enjoying her flowers and wine.

Thanks for nominating her, Lisa. We are glad she enjoyed her flowers!

 

Filed under: Customers, Mother's Day on March 24th, 2010 | No Comments yet. Be the First! »

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Posted by: Pascale - Petal Peddler on March 8th, 2010

**UPDATE: We are pleased to announce that Brenda is the winner of the Arena Flowers Mum of the Year competition**

Thank you for all the entries and for all who voted.

Happy Mother’s Day.

We have had many wonderful entries for the 2010 Arena Flowers Mum of the Year competition.  We’d like to thank everyone who nominated their Mum or Mums they know – there were some very inspiring stories.  Mother’s Day is a lovely time of the year and it’s wonderful to celebrate Mums and guardians everywhere.

We have narrowed down the nominations to 15 finalists (no easy task considering the fantastic entries):

Adele
Adele has been nominated by Jane, who wants to thank Adele for being a source of strength through trying times, and for treating Jane and her partner so well.

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Ann
Matthew nominated Ann as a show of appreciation to her for being a great mum to him and his brother through their naughtier times when they were young.

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Brenda
Brenda has been nominated by Lisa for her strength through family troubles.  Lisa describes Brenda as a “natural angel” and “one in a million”.

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Christine
Sue has nominated Christine because she is “Supermum!”.  She recently gave birth to a little girl and also looks after Sue’s nephew.  Sue thinks Christine deserves some pampering.

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Jane
Jane is nominated by Sarah.  Jane is not only a wonderful mother to her 3 children but also as a teaching assistant, looks after an additional 30 children.

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Margaret
Pat has nominated Margaret as she is a grandmother to 12 grandchildren.  Pat is amazed how much love and support Margaret has to offer equally to everyone.

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Margaret M
Margaret M was nominated by Kelly.  Kelly is proud of her mum who has recently found inner confidence, strength and beauty despite some difficult times.

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Marion
Jacqueline has nominated Marion for being a great ‘replacement’ mum (Jacqueline’s own mum lives in Cyprus). Marion cares full time for her own mum but always has time for others.

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Rachel
Emily has nominated Rachel to win. Since Emily has moved to France, she misses her mum and realises how much her mum does for her.

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Sara
Sara was nominated by Miri. Miri thinks Sara is an inspiration having gone through troubling times with no loss of positive attitude.

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Sarah
Molly nominated Sarah for always laughing and smiling and being supportive. Sarah is always upbeat (and a little “bonkers”). Molly says that Sarah is the kindest person in the world and Molly’s best friend.

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Sue
Wendy nominates Sue because Sue is always ready for a laugh and is a bit of a tech genius! Wendy describes Sue as her Mum of the Year every year.

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Susan
Amy has nominated Susan.  Susan has been there for Amy through some of the hardest times of her life – and the best.

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Sylvie
Florence has nominated her sister Sylvie.  She’s a great mum and valued member of her local community. Sylvie is not only there for her kids, but for all who need her.

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Tina
Jon nominated Tina for being very strong during some stressful times. Tina is always smiling and happy – as long as her children are.

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These are fifteen of many very inspiring entries – they were a pleasure for us to read through however, there can only be one winner of the Arena Flowers Mum of the Year award (although all the nominees are deserving), so please get voting below. The polls close on Friday 12th at 17:00.

If you didn’t manage to nominate your mum but still want to send her some flowers, please see our Mother’s Day flowers range.

(P.S. People are reporting difficulties voting from Safari for Mac browsers – if this applies to you,  I’m afraid you’ll have to use a different browser to place your vote.)

 

Filed under: Customers, Matters Webby, Mega Days, Mother's Day on March 8th, 2010 | 8 Comments »

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Posted by: Stan - The Dandy FlowerWoman... on March 2nd, 2010

Do you know a mum who would love to receive a free luxury Arena hand-tied bouquet plus a selection box of scrummy luxury handmade chocolate, all worth £100?

We’re searching the length and breadth of Great Britain to find Arena Mum of the Year 2010.

Nominate your mum (or someone else’s!) by simply submitting a (nice!) picture and supporting statement in the form below and you could make a mum’s day this Mothering Sunday with our gorgeous Mother’s Day flowers! But hurry: nominations end mid-day Monday 8th March! Public voting begins soon after with the winner announced Friday 12th March.

Having problems with this form? Email your nominations to customer@arenaflowers.com
See our full range of Mother’s Day Flowers & Gifts.

1. This competition is open to all nationals (over the age of 16), however delivery restricted to the UK, Belgium, France, Germany and Holland only.
2. Period of promotion: Nominations must be entered between Tuesday 2 March 2010 and Monday 8th 2010 12:00:00, inclusive, UK time.  Arena Online Ltd reserves the right to revise this date and extend the period.  Voting closes on Friday 12 March 2010 17:00:00.  The winner will be announced on Friday 12 March 2010.
3. The winner will be awarded a £100 to spend on ArenaFlowers.com.  The prize can be redeemed across the flower and chocolate range, in one order only and can only be for UK delivery.
4. The lucky nominees will have the pictures submitted used and published on this site for purposes related to the competition, so please be happy with this before entering the competition.
5. If you have any questions or queries relating to this promotion, please contact our team via customer@arenaflowers.com.
6. If we believe anyone is abusing the promotion or seeking to defraud Arena Online Ltd we reserve the right, at our absolute discretion, to rescind this or any other offer without notice. We believe in fairness.
7. The competition is as stated and there will be no alternative offer or cash substitute.
8. By entering the competition, customers will be deemed to be bound by and have accepted these terms and conditions. Entrants must read and accept the website terms and conditions and privacy statement to be eligible.
9. English law applies and the English courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any proceedings in connection with this competition.
10. Arena Flowers reserves the right to vary these terms and conditions in the event of circumstances arising beyond its reasonable control.

 

Filed under: Customers, General, Mega Days, Mother's Day on March 2nd, 2010 | No Comments yet. Be the First! »

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Posted by: Pascale - Petal Peddler on February 22nd, 2010

It’s a week since Valentine’s Day – a busy time for florists around the globe – and things have remained as exciting as ever at Arena Flowers.

Particularly exciting as we launched our new tool: Flowers & Fun (http://www.flowersfun.co.uk).  This is a completely free (and fun!) messaging service allowing you to send messages with a virtual bouquet.  Flowers & Fun is perfect for sending a quick note and provides something a bit different to a quick, one line email or tweet.

It’s simple to use; 1) Choose your message, write the recipient’s name 2) Edit the message and choose the bouquet. Then send!

Your messages can be easily sent by email, or posted to Facebook.  We’ve integrated it with Twitter too to enable you to quickly post notes celebrating Birthdays, achievements…and well, just about anything.

Flowers & Fun is particularly innovative because there’s some pretty clever technology running in the background that identifies people wishing one another a happy Birthday or sending congratulations through Twitter; our Flowers & Fun account (http://twitter.com/flowersandfun) sends a short message with a virtual card attached.

We wanted to create something innovative, surprising and something to make people smile. So far the community response to the Twitter messaging has been very positive.

Flowers & Fun for Twitter is the latest in technological gadgetry we are so passionate about developing at Arena Flowers. Our Flowers & Fun for Facebook application launched in 2007 and so far there’ve been 65,000 virtual bouquets sent via Facebook (try Flowers & Fun Facebook for free here).

Arena Flowers is developing a tradition of exploring the web’s capabilities and using new technology – not just to make fun tools – but also to enhance the customer experience.  We have a photo uploading service on Arena Flowers, allowing customers to add photos when they order our flowers for delivery.  Using our calendar service, you can create electronic reminders for key events to make sure you never miss someone’s Birthday and order your Mother’s Day flowers in good time.  Those who’ve used our flower delivery service will know of our SMS delivery messages to let you know when your orders have been delivered.

Coincidentally (and very timely), we were proud to have been announced as one of Smarta100, an award which celebrates dedication to innovation in small business. See our Smarta100 award here.  We are pleased to have been awarded and see this as an acknowledgement of our passion for using technology to create a great user experience and to engage new customers.

We love feedback, if you have any for us about Flowers & Fun (or anything at all), email feedback @ arenaflowers.com or follow us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/arenaflowers).

Many thanks to Marc G. Smith for helping us build Flowers & Fun and for being a good friend of Arena Flowers.

 

Filed under: General, Marketing, Matters Webby on February 22nd, 2010 | No Comments yet. Be the First! »

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Posted by: Pascale - Petal Peddler on January 26th, 2010

It was my pleasure to be at Small Business 2.0 this year; an even greater pleasure to take part in the SEO panel and SEO forum session.

There were some interesting speakers there from BT Tradespace. Ivan Croxford had sage advice and hilarious anecdotes about managing reputation via the BT Tradespace platform and social sites more generally. Arena Flowers has long been an advocate of BT Tradespace, so please feel free to join our network there, or to watch our very own technical whizz, Sam Barton here talking about BT Tradespace and social networking for businesses, a very hot topic at Small Business 2.0.

Other presenters included Microsoft, with a focus on their search marketing offering with search engine/ decision engine, Bing. One of my favourites was friend of Arena Flowers, Dan Wilson, giving a very candid forum session on social media and some of its uses and pitfalls.

I’ve put up the SEO presentation I gave here, in case anyone is interested. I really enjoyed all the questions on the day and feedback about the panel and forum session. Thank you to everyone who attended.

For other resources, you can see Will’s post Arena Flowers at Small Business 2.0 from 2008 or have a look at our other posts about marketing and setting up an online business.

Thanks for asking us along, Dan. We already look forward to the next one!

P.S. Valentine’s Day is just over two weeks from now! Have a look at our Valentine’s Day Flowers for inspiration.

 

Filed under: General, Marketing, Matters Webby on January 26th, 2010 | No Comments yet. Be the First! »

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Posted by: Stan - The Dandy FlowerWoman... on December 29th, 2009

As you’ll know from our announcement earlier this year, we’ve been working very closely with the British Heart Foundation (BHF) to get their branded charity flowers website off the ground. But our association with the nation’s heart health charity goes back to the early days of Arena Flowers, as we’ve always been happy to help promote their annual National Heart Month events each February.

2010 is no different as the BHF recently launched their fund-raising pack for Red for Heart campaign, which includes  National Wear It Red Day on 26 February,  and – if you’ve received a delivery from us over the past week or so – you may well have noticed their flyer distributed with our flowers & gifts.

In the New Year we’ll be revealing our special BHF Valentine’s Day bouquets, exclusively available from the BHF Flowers website. But Arena Flowers aren’t the only ones going Red for Heart for National Heart Month this February, so don’t be surprised if you see people sky diving in top-to-toe red.  Or wearing their red pyjamas to school. It’s all in aid of the British Heart Foundation. And we’d love you to join in as National Heart Month is the time to think about your heart and help us fight the UK’s biggest killer.

Be part of Red for Heart by doing anything you like to raise money. Challenge your office to wear to a wear red day – the boldest outfit wins! Bake red cakes. Paint your face red. The only rule is, you’ve got to have fun. So apply for your free fund-raising kit, full of great ideas, by clicking the banner below or call 0845 241 0976 and be part of Red for Heart.

 

Filed under: Ethics & Environment, Flowers, General, Good Causes & Charities, Mega Days, Valentine's Day on December 29th, 2009 | No Comments yet. Be the First! »

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Posted by: Pascale - Petal Peddler on December 17th, 2009

This is my third post on Flowers…uncut, but my first as an Arena Flowers employee.  I’ve been a friend of the company since the early days and have written some guest posts on brand reputation and making the most of off-line advertising.

The temperature in London has dropped; it’s started snowing, however things are definitely hotting-up at Flowers HQ.

It’s just over a week until Christmas; we’re busy and bustling, getting out flower deliveries.  We know you are all in full swing too with Christmas shopping and Christmas parties.

This can be a stressful 10 days coming up and we at Arena Flowers want you to feel good this Christmas, so we’ve put together a Top 10 Guide to survival over the next week or so:

1) Going to a Christmas party and hoping to meet Mr. or Miss. Right? Well, you are clearly going to need some mistletoe.  The tradition of kissing under mistletoe is believed to have originated in Scandinavia where mistletoe is associated with peace and love.  Mistletoe is also thought to promote fertility…so use wisely!

2 ) Hosting a Christmas party? Why not coordinate your floral arrangements with your decorations? The Christmas White Bowl is a fantastic table piece. Made with white roses and white candles all kept in place with wonderfully fragrant pine fronds and cinnamon bundles (it almost smells as good as it looks). Our florists also add pine cones and waxed apples for a traditional Christmas touch. This all sits in a wonderful glass bowl wrapped inside with aspidistra leaves.

3) Recovering from a party? Try a lavender and vervain tea with some honey for sweetness. Vervain is known for its soothing effects and lavender for relaxation.  The honey should give you a natural energy boost.

4) Spending Christmas day with family? Why not send them flowers in advance? A lot of effort goes into making Christmas day magical, how best to show your support if you can’t help in person than by sending Christmas flowers in advance?  Try the Festive Fun bouquet. The bright gerbera and traditional warm tone roses contrast with sparkly silver thistles. With just the right amount of greenery, this is a beautifully balanced bouquet.

5) Are you hosting the family Christmas? Dr Edward Bach was one of the pioneers of homeopathic medicine and he championed the use of flowers as natural remedies in his very famous Bach Flower Remedies, still popular today.  Why not try Bach’s Hornbeam remedy? It is used to combat feelings of tiredness before a large task ahead.  A perfect boost on Christmas day morning.

6) Entertaining kids over Christmas? Children love Christmas and there seems to be no limit to their energy. Why not take advice from the Victorians and get the kids’ creativity flowing by having them make some paper flowers? There’s a great video guide and some step by step instructions from the BBC and don’t forget to send us photos of your paper roses so we can compare them with the real thing!

7) Room for more? Complement a hearty Christmas meal with some refreshing mint chocolates and you don’t get any more fantastic than the Prestat mint chocolate box.  Plenty to choose from with peppermint creams and coffee mints.  These are truly luxurious, but don’t take our word for it, Prestat has been awarded the Royal Warrant by Her Majesty The Queen.

8) Saying thank you? What a better way to thank your hosts than to send them some cheery flowers.  The Yuletide gift wrap is a wonderful, vibrant bouquet of gerberas, lilies and our grand prix roses.  Or try any of our Thank You Flowers as a perfect way to show your appreciation.

9) Cheering up left overs? How about making some flowery garnishes to cheer up those inevitable turkey sandwiches and brussel sprout salads?  It takes no time to carve carnations from carrots or turn cucumbers into chrysanthemums.  We liked this handy guide to flower garnishes.

10) Treating yourself? Christmas is about receiving as much as giving and it’s important to put your feet up and relax in preparation for the new year ahead.  Why not treat yourself to this Christmas Faerie bouquet?  It’s an unusual and very elegant bouquet.  The dusty pink roses fit perfectly with the alstroemeria (also called the Peruvian Lily).
With a touch of festive decorations such as cinnamon bundles and sparkling thistles it’s really stunning.

Happy Christmas from all of us at Arena Flowers!

 

Filed under: Christmas Flowers, Flowers, General on December 17th, 2009 | No Comments yet. Be the First! »

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Posted by: Adarsh – Search engine battler on November 5th, 2009

A few months back, Will wrote a first post about previous newsletter winners and had promised to frequently update the winners on our blog. Since Will’s last post in March, we have sent out Seven more newsletters and we have seven new winners (Some are already updated on Will’s Post) who need a grand mention on our blog for believing in Arena Flowers and for winning £50 worth of free flowers. Of course you could catch all the previous winners from our archived newsletters here, but here’s a quick look at the most recent winners.

June 2009 – Simon D – No Picture Received :0(
Simon likes to send tulips and in the past he has sent our 30 Red Tulips Gift Wrap, Tulip Sensation (a lot!), Spring Sunshine, Summer Surprise and Autumn Orange. Simon asked our florists to makes something nice using.. you guessed it ‘tulips’ with his £50 winnings.
Congratulations, Simon!

July 2009 – Kirsten – No Picture Received :0(
A loyal Arena Flowers fan since autumn 2007, Kirsten has previous sent our 35 Magnificent Orange, Red & Yellow Roses Bouquet, Sunset cube, Luxury Romance, Red Sky at Night, Mass of Pink Roses, and Lovely in Lilac. Congratulations, Kirsten!

August 2009 – Helen
A big fan of Arena Flowers since February 2008, Helen has previously sent our Pink Orchid, Bright & Cheery, Summer Surprise, Lovely in Lilac, A Dozen Yellow Roses, Pink Gift Wrap, and Big Balloon Birthday Gift Set. On being told of her win, Helen took the opportunity to tell us that Arena is always her first choice and that she never hesitates to recommend Arena Flowers to her friends and family. She has chosen the deluxe Strelitzia Tropical Arrangement with her winnings to send to her mum and dad, a flower connoisseur’s choice. Ps thanks for the kind words, Helen!

September 2009 – Brian
A frequent customer of Arena Flowers since 2007, Brian has previously sent our Two Dozen Red Roses, Pretty & Elegant,  Autumn Golds Bouquet, Autumn Orange, Tulip Sensation, Black Magic, Sunflowers Bouquet, Red Sky at Night, Mass of Red Roses, Mass of Fifty Red Roses, 35 Magnificent Orange, Red & Yellow Roses, Winter Tulips, Winter Roses, Freesias Cube, The One, Spring Sunshine, and 100 Tulips Special – phew! Brian will be sending a special deluxe version of our gorgeous new African Queen bouquet to a special lady in his life, and as he recently celebrated his birthday, it’s double congratulations to you, Brian!

October 2009 – Heidi Marie
A fan of Arena Flowers since April 2007, Heidi has previously sent our Pink Gift Wrap, Summer Surprise, and 35 Magnificent Orange, Red & Yellow Roses. Heidi has decided to send a special deluxe version of our traditional favourite Country Garden for Grandparents’ Day on behalf of her son Mitchell (pictured left with Heidi). Congratulations Heidi Marie!

Sending out newsletters to our customer base forms an essential part of our efforts to build storng relationships with our customers. We believe that it gives us an opportunity to thank our customers for the support and appreciation they have given us through the years. Our newsletters contain useful information for our customers including reminders of key dates (in case you miss any), exclusive discount codes and special offers on a whole range of flowers, chocolates, wines and other gifts. If you are not subscribed to our newsletter yet, you know what you are missing. Not to mention the opportunity of winning £50 worth of free flowers! Subscribe to our newsletter today!

 

Filed under: Customers, Marketing on November 5th, 2009 | No Comments yet. Be the First! »

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Posted by: Will – Priority Juggler on October 29th, 2009

Hello, dear reader.

Just a quick note to say that deliveries of gorgeous flowers from Flowers HQ to all our UK destinations (and indeed to all the European destinations that we cover) will NOT be disrupted by the Royal Mail strikes now or in the future.

Our deliveries, whether they’re made by our own full time drivers (such as Bart, pictured below with our 35 red, orange and yellow roses bouquet – on “Special Offer” at time of writing, bargain fans) or by one of  our two partners, are totally independent of the Royal Mail network so will be entirely unaffected by the strikes, however long they last.

Here’s hoping that the dispute is soon resolved to the satisfaction of both sides, and that ecommerce and online confidence get back to normal quickly; there’s no doubt that the words “postal strike” do strike (excuse the pun) a bit of fear into heart of consumer confidence and that’s good for no one.

Anyway, whilst the nation awaits a (hopefully) speedy resolution, we’ll keep doing what we do best.  Making beautiful bouquets of stunningly fresh flowers, as demonstrated by Judith, who’s also our head weddings florist, here:

Some more normal flowery posting next week (we know we’ve been a bit quiet – we’ve been busy beavering away on exciting projects!). More to follow.

 

Filed under: Distribution, General on October 29th, 2009 | No Comments yet. Be the First! »

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Posted by: Adarsh – Search engine battler on September 23rd, 2009

A few months ago, Stan had posted a blog on how Arena Flowers is encouraging people to raise money for Cancer Research by sending out flyers for the Race For Life charity event along with all Cancer Research flower orders. Little did we know then, that we had an in-house participant in Carole, our Accountant and keeper of the books.

Carole is taking part in the 10k Race for Life run at Hampton Court on 27th September 2009 in memory of her friend, Janie Cassie who was her colleague at Raven Roofing & Building Supplies in Twickenham. Janie battled breast cancer for five and half years and passed away in December 2008. Carole is keen to raise as much money as possible to help fund research at Cancer Research and she is joined by her ex-colleagues and their families from her former company. Every pound raised through Race for Life counts and with Carole and entourage from her previous company participating in the event, we are certain that they will contribute enough to the charity to help them buy vital equipment used for research into cancer.

Now in its 16th year, Race for life is the UK’s largest women only fund-raising event, where women come together to raise money in support of Cancer Research UK. Hundreds of thousands of women of all ages walk, jog, run and have fun at the charity events across the UK, to help raise money to beat cancer. The event, held annually across the UK since 1994 has raised nearly £240 million and for 2009, an estimated 735, 000 women are expected to raise £60 million.

At Arena Flowers, we work with two of the biggest charities in the UK, British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK and have also extended our support to other charitable organisations such as Global Giving. We are extremely proud to support Cancer Research UK through our flowers site and with Carole being a part of the event this year, we have a greater sense of accomplishment in being truly committed to supporting social causes. If you are interested in sponsoring Carole’s great cause, please feel free to donate by visiting here.

To learn more about our work with charities, please see our posts on good causes and fund raising.

 

Filed under: Ethics & Environment, Good Causes & Charities on September 23rd, 2009 | No Comments yet. Be the First! »

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Posted by: Stan - The Dandy FlowerWoman... on August 27th, 2009

It’s been a while since our last blog post while we’ve been working frantically on a whole bunch of exciting new partnership projects behind the scenes – all to be revealed in the coming few weeks. But one such partnership deserves a blog post of it’s own, as we’re proud to announce a new charity tie-in with our good friends (and all-round nice chaps) at GlobalGiving.co.uk.

They have been working hard to develop their new website to support charities and good causes by putting them in one handy place where individuals or organisations can donate to vetted grassroots charity projects in over 70 countries directly, while staying in touch with their progress through a range of handy web2.0 tools – truly bringing fund-raising into the 21st century.

By visiting their portal on ArenaFlowers.com, we will donate 15% of your order of flowers, gifts, drinks and chocolate towards the work of GlobalGiving.co.uk – with donations divided equally between three featured charity projects which will be rotated each month to give a range of projects – large and small – a fair chance. Most of the projects on GlobalGiving.co.uk are in the developing world where a small amount of money usually goes a long way.

We will be supporting a variety of charity projects, so browse our current supported projects and track your direct impact on communities by sending your flowers and gifts with Global Giving in partnership with ArenaFlowers.com.

If you would like to learn more about our work with charities, you might like to see our posts about good causes and fund raising and you might also enjoy our posts about ethics and the environment.

 

Filed under: Ethics & Environment, General, Good Causes & Charities on August 27th, 2009 | No Comments yet. Be the First! »

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Posted by: Stan - The Dandy FlowerWoman... on July 28th, 2009

Happy Birthday to us, Happy Birthday to us, Happy Birthday Arena Flowers, Happy Birthday to us! Yes, believe it or not but Arena Flowers turns 3 years young today – and to celebrate, our Head Florist Andrew has created us this super-dooper birthday cake made from flowers!

Consisting of our ethically sourced Grand Prix roses, our signature Cherry Brandy roses, yellow and orange spray chrysanthemums, eucalyptus and creamy white hydrangea (all topped off with oranges, limes and kiwi fruit, making this a truly edible cake!), a celebratory flower cake has now become a tradition at Flowers HQ since our 1st birthday back in 2007.

Of course, there’ve been a lot of changes since those early days of Arena Flowers, and these ‘Then and Now’ pictures tell only half the story and make an interesting trip down memory lane:

Since our last birthday we have vastly expanded our product range and bespoke portfolio, partnered with an increasing number of charities and expanded across Europe with our international sites. And that’s all in just the past year!

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank you, our loyal customer base and friends for your continued support, custom and feedback to enable us to expand and establish ourselves as the UK’s leading, fastest-growing online florist in the UK and beyond…

If you’d like to learn more about how it all began, you may like to read this, this and this blog post.

 

Filed under: Floristry, Flowers, General, Operations, Setting up on July 28th, 2009 | No Comments yet. Be the First! »

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Posted by: Stan - The Dandy FlowerWoman... on June 30th, 2009

With our Wedding Flowers hotline ringing off the hook, Judith up to her chin in raffia, and our drivers up at the crack of dawn for early morning Saturday deliveries, the wedding season is now truly upon us at Flowers HQ. With the bustles of brides visiting our wedding team in Park Royal for advice on an almost daily basis, you’d be tempted to wonder whether the recession is really just a figment of the media’s imagination after all…

Although couples are insisting on committing to their 2009 wedding plans, the economic downturn has nonetheless brought with it a whole gamut of challenges for those intending to marry this year. Partner up the recession with the fact that the average cost of a British wedding topped £20,000 for the first time in 2008, shows that deciding when to scrimp and when to splurge on a such a monumental day isn’t going to be easy.

As the wedding season has approached, we’ve seen a significant increase in wedding flower enquiries in recent months, and with those we’re seeing more emphasis laid on price: “We’re looking for something cheap…” , “Could you advise us on the cheapest flowers…” etc. This nature of enquiry can automatically put any florist into defence mode, as any floral designer worth their salt knows that “cheap” is a relative description and doesn’t normally equate for very good (or even appropriate) flower arrangements.

Wedding Flowers on a Budget

If there is a budget involved (see below for more advice on setting wedding budgets), a wedding florist can then easily come up with flower choices and designs that will fall within that budget. According to last year’s figures, the average cost of wedding flowers in 2008 reached £381, accounting for just 2% of the overall average UK wedding budget of £20,000 (Source: Sky News, November 2008). But in most cases, wedding flowers normally take up 10-15% of the final wedding bill – thus proving every wedding is different with an array requirements and preferences.

The task of choosing wedding flowers is a personal, expressive and emotional experience, which is why we always recommend brides drop into Flowers HQ for an informal chat to discuss their requirements in person with our wedding florists, who will source the right wedding flowers for you – not only suiting your pocket but also of exceptional quality too.

Credit Crunch Wedding Flowers

While 10-15% is a good estimate for your wedding flowers bill, you can modify many floral elements to determine the actual amount you will spend on your wedding arrangements. Factors such as whether or not your preferred flowers are in season, the number, size and complexity of the arrangements all influence your final cost estimate.

In economically hard times, creativity comes to the fore, as brides are find ways to spend their wedding budget more wisely, and discovering “cheap” wedding ideas that help them save money. Here are just a few budget-friendly ideas to help you on the way to beautiful, economical wedding flowers that won’t cost you a king’s ransom.

Easy Peasey. Flowers in season are often less expensive and easier to source. For a list of common flowers for each season, visit our wedding flowers tips page for our guide to seasonal flowers. Don’t forget that flowers over peak / holiday periods such as Valentine’s, Christmas and Mother’s Day will cost more.

Simple things. Because the time taken to create your flowers will be factored into your wedding flowers bill, go for less elaborate bridal flowers which are less labour intensive.  For instance, a hand-tied or free form bouquet takes less time to create than a wired or teardrop one. For extra savings, bridesmaids can carry a single flower in a flower wand instead of a bouquet.

Filler thriller. Use more, cheaper foliage and greenery, baby’s breath, wax flower, soft ruscus etc which will pad out flower arrangements. Use flowery blooms as an accent to the arrangement rather than the main ingredient.

Bargain hunt. Shop around for end of line / discounted glassware in charity shops and budget household stores for vases. This way, for the price of renting / paying deposit on breakages, you can keep, sell on or recycle. The Christmas sale period is the perfect time to purchase candles, fairy lights and other decorations at huge discount.

Let’s go outside. Find a venue such as a park or garden that is already lush and beautiful – a springtime wedding in a garden will require little in the way of floral arrangements, while a traditional church may be breathtaking on its own. Also consider that many venues come ready decorated in the lead up to Christmas, so holding an earl-mid December wedding may provide you seasonal flowers for free.

A problem shared. Find out from your venues whether any other weddings are scheduled for the same day. If the two events can share decorating expenses, you’ll save a lot of money.

Recycle arrangements. If you can’t share your arrangements, transfer the flowers from your ceremony to your reception. Save more money on head table decoration by displaying the bridal bouquets on the head table.

Don’t Do it Yourself!

Floristry looks easier than it really is, so if you really can’t afford a florist, make sure you find someone with at least some skill and experience with flowers. We can provide flowers wholesale at discount prices for brides wishing to create their wedding flowers ‘in house’, but don’t forget you’ll need somewhere cool to store them safely and keep them fresh.

Making of the arrangements should be left to the very last minute, so best not leave them to a stressed-out, sleep deprived bride-to-be! If you don’t know what you are doing and don’t enjoy working under pressure, don’t try this – even if the temptation of saving some money is far too much to resist!

A good budget compromise would be to ask your florist to create the key arrangements such as the bridal and bridesmaid bouquets which are important to get absolutely right, then purchase additional matching stems for your own vase displays and other ad hoc uses such as buttonholes, hair flowers etc.

Jilted at the Alter?

With sterling still relatively weak against the euro (therefore inflating wholesale prices) as well as diminishing footfall, local independent florists are increasingly falling victim to the economic downturn, leaving distressed brides empty handed for their big day with little time to make alternative arrangements.

If your wedding florist goes bust, first off – don’t panic. Most florists will be able to stock your wedding flower requirements within 4-5 days, depending on how often they visit their wholesalers. If you are based in the London area (and your wedding doesn’t fall on a holiday / event day such as Mother’s or Valentine’s Day) we’ll be more than happy to pick up your order (we get fresh flowers in direct from the Dutch auctions nearly every day).

In many cases we’ve been known to slash existing quotes, and can sometimes provide wedding bouquets with just a day or two’s notice. So, even with times as they currently are, there are good deals to be found by the frugal bride. If you’re just starting to plan your wedding, our short list of 5 steps to a debt-free wedding might just be of some use…

Easy Steps Towards Recession-Proofing Your Wedding

1. Establish Your Wedding Budget
Choose a reliable method to keep track of all expenditures – there are now lots of websites that offer free budgeting services. If possible, keep your wedding fund separate from your personal accounts, so you can easily determine what’s being spent on the wedding. Don’t forget to call in all those favours: contact old mates, colleagues, family members and even the bloke down the road who you lent that jump lead to last winter, who may be able to offer their services.

2. Wedding Wedding Gifts.
Continuing from the above, barter your way to the wedding you want by asking wedding guests to offer their skills and services as a wedding present. If there’s a hairdresser or keen photographer on your guest list, time to bend their ear and put them to work! Chances are they’ll probably bring you a pressie anyway on the day, too… ;)

3. Beware Hidden Costs
Set aside 5% of your budget for those extras that are bound to sneak in one way or another. If you absolutely cannot exceed £20,000, aim to spend £19,000. When last minute costs such as VAT, fees etc come up (and they will), your reserve funds will save you from debt. Similarly, look out for deals and discount rates often offered during low season, midweek or during the day which can trim significant costs from your wedding bill.

4. Super Skinny Me
Serve three courses instead of five (saving on catering and waistlines). Have two bridesmaids instead of four (saving on dresses). Invite 100 guests instead of 200 (saving on just about everything). If you’re struggling with whom to cut from the guest list, cut out children and anyone you don’t know personally, and you’ll see that guest list rapidly streamline itself!

5. More Wine, Madame?
Don’t crack under pressure of the up-sell! That diamond-encrusted designer dress, the fancy five star hotel suite, the vintage champagne – they might seem like good ideas at the time, and it’s easy to get carried away, but they all add up. It’s important to understand which details are truly most important to you.  Be strong, prioritise what you want beforehand and you’re less likely to face a nasty surprise later.

Similar Posts: If you liked this post you may find our credit crunching post Lessons From Flowers – Tulips & the Economic Crisis interesting as well as our oodles of wedding related posts!!

 

Filed under: Finance & Investment, Flowers, General, Weddings on June 30th, 2009 | No Comments yet. Be the First! »

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Posted by: Will – Priority Juggler on June 17th, 2009

I was recently invited by friend of Arena, Trevor Ginn, to write a guest post for his blog eBay, eCommerce life.  As well as being a blogger, Trevor runs an online baby and nursery shop, Hello Baby and an Internet consultancy, Vendlab.  Naturally, being a sucker for flattery from other webby types, I was happy to oblige.

I tried to avoid the totally obvious and compiled a list of the ten issues (good and bad) that we hadn’t really expected when we set up our little online flower shop nearly three years ago.  If interested, head on over to the post to have a look at the Arena Flowers post. (PS Trevor promises he’ll fix the typos I made shortly!)

If you enjoyed the post, you may also enjoy some of our other posts relating to the early days of Flowers HQ.

 

Filed under: General, Matters Webby on June 17th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

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Posted by: Stan - The Dandy FlowerWoman... on May 29th, 2009

Regular readers of Flowers …uncut will already be well aware of our occasional support of charities and good causes as well as the launch of the Arena-powered Cancer Research UK flower shop earlier this year.  Cancer Research UK and flowers make a great fit, especially around Mother’s Day and  the “Race For Life” (we’re currently sending out flyers for the Race with all Arena and Cancer Research UK orders and you should all join in!).

No sooner had we announced the Cancer Research UK site than we received a call from the UK’s favourite heart charity, the British Heart Foundation, which had been on the look-out for something similar to support its own fund raising efforts.

We were more than happy to oblige, especially given our previous happy experiences working with the BHF around Valentine’s Day and the good fit of hearts and romantic flowers.  So we put our creative hats on and got to work with the lovely ladies in the BHF marketing team to create a BHF Flowers website that reflects the established brand and messaging of this popular charity.

As with our Cancer Research UK partnership, 20% of the gross order value (excluding any delivery costs, which we seldom charge anyway) is donated to the British Heart Foundation, plus 100% of any donation amount (you can add a donation in checkout).  We’re working on ways to allow gift aid too.   To find out more about how we work with the UK’s leading charities, and how we can afford to donate a such a significant amount from each order, check out our blog post announcing our work with Cancer Research UK.

And in the future? Whilst we could do loads and loads of these partner charity sites, we’d prefer to keep the offer narrow and relevant to our flower and gifting business so there are unlikely to be many more (if any!).  But what is certain is that we’re very proud to be working with two of the UK’s most worthwhile charities.  Please show them your support too!

If you found this post interesting, you might also enjoy our other posts about good causes and fund raising and you might also enjoy our posts about ethics and the environment.

 

Filed under: Ethics & Environment, General, Good Causes & Charities on May 29th, 2009 | No Comments yet. Be the First! »

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Posted by: Stan - The Dandy FlowerWoman... on May 26th, 2009

A quick ‘Pop Quiz’ for you: What do Jon Bon Jovi, Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Steffi Graf, Jodie Foster and Tiger Woods (pictured, right) all have in common? Apart from probably having a few bob to their names, they are all reported to be famous hay fever sufferers and/or allergic to flowers.

With an estimated 20% of the UK population suffering from hay fever this summer, watch any weather report from now through to September and you’ll see the emphasis increasing on the ‘Pollen Count’ as the allergy season progresses and airborne allergens attack their hypersensitive victims. We all know somebody who suffers from hay fever, and you may even have thought twice about buying flowers for them over the years.

But why should a seasonal dose of rhinitis stop you from receiving or indeed sending flowers? Truth is, if their allergies are particularly severe, many flowers are going to affect the recipient negatively but, in general, the more dangerous flowers are the ones with the most pollen. So a good guideline for sending flowers to a someone who may potentially explode into an itching, weeping, snotty mess is to avoid choosing flowers that have visible pollen.

Flower No-No’s(e)

Asiatic and Longiflorum Lilies are some of the most dangerous flowers for allergy sufferers, as parts of them are covered in powdery pollen. Songstresses Tina Arena and Britney Spears (pictured, left) are both alleged to have a lily allergy.  As the story goes, knowing of her allergy,  chart rival Pink once sent Britney a bouquet of lilies when they were feuding.

However, Lilies can be a good choice for allergy sufferers, as it is easy to simply remove the stems of pollen from each flower. Just try to find a non-allergic chum to do this particular job, as it will probably have the most robust nose and eyes and running at the earliest opportunity!

Another type of flower that is particularly bad for allergy sufferers is tree flowers / blossom. When choosing a spring flower arrangement, be careful not to include almond, cherry, apple, or any other kind of tree blossom.

Top Flowers for Allergy Sufferers

Andrew, our Head Florist here at Flowers HQ recommends chrysanthemums and gerberas, with new hybrids coming onto the market bred so that the parts of the flower that used to produce pollen now produce extra petals. But watch out for regular chrysanthemums and daisies as they can be highly allergic.

Another great choice for the allergy sufferer is roses. Not only are roses the most popular cut flower to send, modern roses used in floristry don’t have much of a negative effect on allergies. The reason for this is that their pollen is too large in size to be able to become airborne and truly infiltrate the respiratory system. To allergy-proof your bouquet arrangement, choose roses with little or no smell as these will contain the least pollen.

One of the best kinds of flowers for allergy sufferers are orchids and exotic flowers. Very few types of orchids cause any pollen-related allergies, and so are quite safe for those allergic to most flowers. It is important to note, though, that some orchids may cause a slight skin rash on sensitive individuals.

If in doubt, do contact us first before placing our order.

Hypo-Allergic Wedding Flower Tips

Traditional bridal gowns don’t normally include pockets for hankies, so the last thing a bride needs are snail trails up her lace sleeves from a runny nose. If the bride or groom is known to suffer pollen allergies, here are some simple tips to keep in mind when choosing wedding flowers which will help minimise hay fever symptoms:

1. Wedding Venues
   The best strategy is to avoid airborne allergens completely by holding your wedding ceremony indoors during the peak allergy season, especially if the main culprits are tree and grass pollen. So, no posing around in country meadows for those arty post-ceremony wedding photos, then!
2. Wedding Flowers
   Allergies to flowers are mainly due to their pollen count rather than fragrance.  Flowers begin to release pollen due to the aging process, so using Arena Flowers, the freshest flowers available, will prevent this problem. As for bridal bouquets, buttonholes, and other wedding flower arrangements, there are many flowers that don’t trigger severe allergies (see above for some suggestions).
3. Other Wedding Day Triggers
   Although many people may not realise it, hay fever symptoms do not always come from allergic reactions, but instead can be caused by everyday non-allergic triggers — and not just during the allergy seasons but at any time of the year.  So beware of perfumes and hairspray, sudden changes in temperature and even cooking odours.

Allergy-Free Artificial Flowers

If you want an absolutely 100% allergy-proof alternative for hay fever sufferers, then artificial flowers are the product of choice. No-nonsense and low maintenance, we are pleased to announce the launch of our new Artificial Flowers section added to ArenaFlowers.com — due to popular demand.

We will be adding more flowers to this section throughout the year, so let us know which artificial flowers you would like to see in the future.

Click to see our full range of allergy-free artificial flowers.

By following some of these simple guidelines, we hope you enjoy a pain-free summer this year, and don’t forget to consult a GP or pharmacist if symptoms persist!

 

Filed under: Customers, Floristry, Flowers, General, Matters Webby, Operations, Weddings on May 26th, 2009 | No Comments yet. Be the First! »

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Posted by: Will – Priority Juggler on May 19th, 2009

As regular visitors to this blog may know, when we go on holiday we try to bring back some silly chocolate from where we’ve been. So, amongst other things, we’ve had “Cowboy” chocolate from Houston, Texas, a chocolate Eiffel Tower (from, erm, Paris) and various other “amusing” confectionery.  It’s been a while since the last such post (all work and no holiday makes Jack a dull boy), but we now have an Egyptian version.

Sadly, I couldn’t find a pyramid or a sphinx made of chocolate, presumably because the Egyptians design their confectionery around good taste and what sells, rather than around the desires of idiotic British tourists looking for the most stereotypically shaped edibles possible.  However, they do make “Cuttlefish Flavoured Crisps”, which the team reported as tasting “surprisingly good”.  In this photo they’re being held by Henrique, one of our CS team who has been manning the phones and keeping us all amused at Flowers HQ for just over a year now.

Having failed to get comedy Egyptian chocolate, at least I was able to get some very tasty Baklava with an Egyptian motif to share with the different teams and here you see Stefanie with CS’s box.

Stefanie is a bit of a polymath, not only working on customer services for our English websites, but also answering calls from our German website, Arena Blumen.  In addition, Stefanie speaks fluent French and is currently helping translate our site for the forthcoming launch of Arena Fleurs (website still under construction).  Impressive stuff!

That’s it for this episode of comedy chocolate (find V, IV, III, II and I here).  Over and out!

 

Filed under: General on May 19th, 2009 | 2 Comments »

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Posted by: Samwise of the front end on April 27th, 2009

I like gadgets and as such love our Arena ‘toys’.  As the subject for this post is centered around our latest toy I have been charged with telling the story.

Something that I think I should clarify at this juncture is the definition of a ‘toy’.  We are a florist not a toy shop so by toys I mean something that is a fun addition to our flowers and which in particular makes use of the cool possibilities that the Internet has to offer.  Here at Flowers HQ we strive to be at the cutting edge in everything we do and to maintain that position we feel it is important to be as innovative as possible with the user experience.

To date this strategy has meant that we have built many fun (but useful) accessories that are used on and off our site every day.  These “toys” allow our customers to format the way their message appears on the message card and to include a glossy photo or video message to send to the recipient.  Customers are notified by text for free as soon as their order has been delivered.  Visitors who don’t want to send real flowers can send virtual flowers using another fun toy we’ve built, our free Facebook “Flowers & Fun” application.  And if you want someone to send flowers to you, you can “send a hint” from the product page (anonymously or not, the choice is yours!).

And so to our latest toy…

Read more »

 

Filed under: General, Matters Webby, Mega Days on April 27th, 2009 | 2 Comments »

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