Seaforth and area brides who go to Blooms N' Rooms most likely do it for Kendra Jewitt's creativity and reputation throughout her own community. For ten years, this young business owner has focused on simple yet gorgeous wedding floral designs to win her brides over. The last five and a half years she has done this through her company, Blooms N' Rooms. Believing that flowers should accent the beauty of a bride as opposed to outshining it, she seems to be making her mark on Midwestern Ontario weddings. Staff at The Ring sat down with Kendra to find out more about what she had to offer us in the way of flowers, inspiration and ideas. Here's what we found...

Weddings

Blooms N' Rooms does absolutely anything floral for their brides and grooms' wedding days. From arches and centrepieces to bouquets and ceremony arrangements, Kendra and her staff make it their aim to "do anything we can to make a bride's day beautiful." She says that flowers are as big a part of the ceremony as they are in the reception. They can set the stage for the personality, theme and style of the wedding day, whether it be bright and colourful or more simple and elegant. "It's really about what the bride and groom want." In fact, Kendra admits that seeing the expression on the brides' faces when they see their flowers is one of the best parts of the job. "It's a positive business, very rewarding."

From meeting with Kendra, staff at The Ring found her to be patient, sweet and certainly filled with creativity. Because she's young, Kendra likely doesn't have trouble providing flowers that fit in nicely with what younger brides want, making it easy to relate to, and plan with her.

And because her overall floral design style is to both simple and gorgeous, she says she sees a lot of older brides, too. After all, she believes that what makes the bouquets beautiful is you. "We don't want to out-do the bride with a bouquet. We want to create something beautiful that will accent her."

Kendra told us that she loves to work one-on-one with all brides. "I enjoy creating a relationship, getting to know the bride and groom and then creating flowers that are perfect for their wedding day." She adds that customer service is a key priority in the daily running of the flower shop, and that it makes a difference to the clients who come through their doors.

From the beginning

The love for flowers isn't new to Kendra. "I did a co-op in high school at a local flower shop and just fell in love with the business," she explained. Taking her new passion to the next obvious level, Kendra graduated from high school and signed up for the Retail Florist course at Humber College. "I never thought of myself as being my own boss until things seemed to just happen that way..." After graduating in 2000, working in various flower shops, Kendra purchased a floral business in Seaforth in 2005, changed its name, and says she's been busy with flower orders and weddings ever since.

Well-known to the local community, the Blooms N' Rooms shop demands a lot of Kendra's time and creativity, but that doesn't seem to faze her. The young florist works six days a week – by choice - doing most of the daily work with her own two hands. "I love the chance to be creative... to take the time and come up with something unique for someone." The shop employs just one other part-time employee and one co-op student.

Floral trends at Blooms N' Rooms

Kendra says she sees more and more couples going with table centrepieces that use less flowers and more glassware, candles and mirrors to pull the arrangements together – all of which they can get at Blooms N' Rooms.

Also, during the past wedding season, she says that hand-tied bouquet styles and bright colours ruled the day. "Calla lilies, roses, berries and gerber daisies are still popular for weddings."

The shop

The Blooms N' Rooms shop is cozy, with hardwood floors and a country style. The shop acts as a flower shop and a gift shop in one, carrying fresh flowers, plants, European and dish gardens, silk arrangements, dried floral arrangements, greeting cards, gift and fruit baskets and a cute selection of gift items that Kendra hand-picked from her favourite suppliers. June 2005 bride and groom, Amanda & Nathan Marshall, describe the store as a "something for everyone store that goes just a little further, offering quirky things other places don't [carry]." Especially, they cater to weddings in the Midwestern Ontario areas including Seaforth and surrounding areas.

And when they're not busy with weddings, the Blooms N' Rooms shop caters to other special events such as anniversaries, new babies, birthdays and funerals.

Budgeting for blooms

Kendra aims to stay within the budgets of the brides who come to see her, with most of her full wedding packages running between $800 and $1500. While prices vary by design and flower types, the average bride's bouquet costs between $100 and $200. A 15% deposit holds your wedding day on the Blooms N' Rooms calendar, though it is recommended that you book your first consultation at least four months in advance – and the more in advance you book, the better, of course.

Details, details, details

• Kendra recommends booking her for your wedding about 4 months or more in advance.
• 15% of your final order price is due at your first consultation.
• The balance is due when your flowers are delivered to the venue.
• Delivery is included in the Seaforth area, but set-up is extra (contact Kendra for details).

In other words...

"Thank you so much for making our bouquets for our wedding! You did an amazing job, and everybody loved them (including us!)" - Jenny & Jacob

"When I hired Kendra to do the flowers for my wedding, she asked me what I liked. I told her I had seen what she'd done in the past and totally trusted her to make the right decision to make my wedding flowers spectacular. She did an amazing job! When I came back from the hair salon, Kendra was waiting for me. As soon as I saw the flowers all I could say was 'WOW!' Kendra really helped make my wedding day even more special." - Tabatha

"Thank you very much for doing such a beautiful job on the flowers. They looked gorgeous." - Sandra

"With sincere appreciation, we both send thanks to you for the wonderful job you did on our wedding flowers. The flowers looked incredible. Thank you so much Kendra!" - Kelly & Jason

"...Our wedding was an outdoor wedding and many, many hours had gone into making the garden and setting just perfect! It really did look amazing. So we were a little nervous about having the bouquets and boutonnieres just blend completely with the garden, we wanted them to stand out a little. Kendra consulted us on the garden and what we should use to set our 'wedding flowers' apart from our garden. She had samples of 'our flowers' to look at well in advance so there wasn't a wedding day surprise... We had a lot of confidence that Kendra would do the perfect job, and she did! She took on the job and made us feel like it was one less thing to worry about on our special day! We are very happy with choosing Kendra and Bloom's N' Rooms for our special day!" - Amanda & Nathan Marshall

Book your consultation with Kendra...

Located at 17 Main Street in Seaforth, the Blooms N' Rooms shop is open Monday through Friday 9 am to 5:30 pm, and 10 am to 4 pm on Saturdays. However, the shop is available for after hours appointments if necessary. Toll-free, you can reach Kendra at 1-866-363-8846 or 519-527-0555 locally. Her email is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and to see more samples of what Blooms can do for you, check out www.bloomsnrooms.com.