Finding the Joy in Valentine's Day
“It simply depends on the attitudes, the perspectives, and the reactions we bring to situations...”
In past years, I honestly dreaded turning the calendar to February. As I continue to work on seeking out new perspectives, I set out to find the joy in Valentine’s Day and use it as fuel to thrive during the holiday. It feels uncomfortable to admit—so far into this game—that a lot of what I don’t like about Valentine’s Day falls purely on my attitude, my perspective, my reaction. But I’m writing this with a few days of reflection and jotted down a best of list for Valentine’s Day 2019.
The Flowers
Since money flows a little more freely and at a higher volume during the Valentine holiday, we have more flexibility to stock a wider variety of blooms. This year we stocked lilacs, hellebores, ranunculus, anemones, scabiosa, and viburnum, as well as all our usual Valentine stock. Before the rush, I was able to enjoy designing with these stems, creating both online content and product for our retail space. It was a great opportunity to continue becoming more comfortable designing with these blooms, learning about their performance, and accepting what they are and are not capable of.
Our Website
In May of 2018 we migrated to a new platform for our Ecommerce website. This was the first Valentine’s Day with the updated layout. It was satisfying to see our Valentine designs displayed in this new format, and to see how the new site continues to be a fundamental tool to communicate our style and selection to our customers. For us, gone are the days of nonstop dozen red roses. The majority of our Valentine deliveries this year were for one of our fresh-cut floral designs. Orders placed in advance of the actual day clearly favored flower varieties other than red roses. (Last-minute orders still favored the red rose.) It’s really nice to see this trend of givers taking the time to thoughtfully browse different designs and options.
Eventually I’ll write a blog post devoted to Instagram, but for this entry I just want to mention how much fun I had creating images for our Valentine Instagram posts. I took time at home to work on these images. There was less pressure to hurry and no guilt about skipping over another job. By no means am I a photographer and not all the images turned out how I had envisioned, but I find a lot of joy in photographing flowers. Taking the time to regularly post to Instagram has inspired me to design for the sake of designing. For me, it’s been a really beneficial practice.
The Energy
On a regular day in our studio and retail space, we’re in a groove. In general, this is a really good thing. We’re all doing our job at a nice, steady pace. But there’s something about that energy of extra delivery drivers running in and out, extra staff in the retail space and office, and all the design benches filled with designers. I wouldn’t want to live like that every day, but it’s a pretty good vibe now and again. This year, in particular, we had a great team with great attitudes and a great work ethic. A big thank you to Tam, Dani, Kim, Sandy, Gretel, Karen, Phil, and Matt who are not a part of our permanent team, but were invaluable this Valentine’s Day.
So, it was a good Valentine’s Day for me personally. I didn’t cry, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t yell. I took time to enjoy the flowers, did solid work, and had sushi and a cocktail at the end.
Jennifer Schuitema
Co-Owner of Wyoming Stuyvesant Floral, Wyoming, Michigan
Third-generation florist working in the same location established by her grandparents. She’s worked in flower shops most of her life but only in earnest since 1998, when she graduated from Western Michigan University with a BBA. She lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
