St. Regis Monarch Beach Pacific Ballroom

Aren't these centerpieces just stunning! There were for a convention's awards night at the St. Regis in Monarch Beach. They were beautiful bugundy dendrobium orchid with cymbidium orchids at the base. They looked so beautiful in the St. Regis's Pacific Ballroom! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get photos of the event with the tables completely dressed.

We also did small vases with matching cymbidium orchids for the high-tops in the entry way. So simple yet so classy!

The Best of Dana Point!

Yeah!! We were voted the "Best place to buy flowers" by the Dana Point Times in their Best of Dana Point article!! Thank you to all our customers for choosing us! (We were runner up last year). That's our Cathy McCool right there on the front cover!

You can read more about the Best of Dana Point 2009 at the Dana Point Times

Bridal Show February 28, 2010

Just wanted to let you know- we will be at the Dana Point Yacht Club for their Romance on the Water bridal event on Sunday, February 28th from 11:00-4:00.

You can order tickets here- or you can read more about it at Romanceonthewater.com

Free!

Our Valentine's Day special includes something FREE!

Get one FREE mylar balloon (while supplies last) with any Valentine's Day floral order you PICK UP at the store (on 2/11/10-2/14/10).

Sorry! Offer does not apply to Valentine's flowers that are delivered. Balloons are available for delivery orders too, just not for free.

About delivery- did you know we can deliver your floral arrangements to Dana Point, Laguna Niguel, San Juan Capistrano, Capo Beach, Laguna Beach (the south part), San Clemente- including Talega, Ladera Ranch, Laguna Hills, Mission Viejo and Aliso Viejo? And if you have someone special you want to send to out of the area, we can help you with that too! We send all over the country- and yes, we have sent all over the world!

And one last note- yes, Costco and Trader Joes sell flowers for less. But one, they don't deliver (it always makes for big "brownie points" when a dozen roses show up at her office or the house (and no- you bringing them in plastic wrap- dripping from the bottom does not count- sorry!)). And two, their flowers will not last as long as ours! Be sure to read about all the work we put into our flowers in the post below. We don't torchure our roses (or flowers) with regular water! Ours are pampered from the time they arrive at the store until they are in your (or your sweetheart's) hands!

Valentine's Day! It's Almost Here!

Valentine's Day is just around the corner! We have lots of cute bears, albums, cards, balloons, frames and of course FLOWERS!

Red roses are always a favorite! Did you know the red rose was the favorite flower of Venus, the Roman goddess of love? The color red stands for strong romantic feelings making the red rose the flower of love.

Another favorite for Valentine's Day- Tulips!
How about some other Valentines Day flower facts?

• 73% of people who buy flowers for Valentine's Day are men, while only 27 percent are women.


• 15% of U.S. women send themselves flowers on Valentine's Day!


• 189 million stems of roses are sold in the U.S. on Valentine's Day.

• California produces 60 percent of American roses, but the greater number sold on Valentine's Day in the United States are imported, mostly from South America.


• Approximately 110 million roses, mostly red, will be sold and delivered within the three-day Valentine's Day time period!

Red roses are not your only option! We have roses in other colors as well, plus other arrangements.

One last tid bit of information. Did you know the cost of roses for florists from the growers increases almost 100% the week before Valentine's Day!? So when you notice that roses are a bit more expensive on Valentine's Day, it's not because we think we can make some fast money! It's because the roses actually cost us more to get.

XOXO

Getting Ready for Winter Formals!

Winter Formals are coming up this week and we are getting ready! Dana Hills High School has theirs on Thursday, San Juan Hills High School and San Clemente High School have theirs on Saturday and St Margaret's High School and Laguna Beach High School have theirs on Saturday!

Whewwwww! We've been busy busy busy taking order! And the girls are busy preping the corsage bands and getting boxes ready!

Just the very beginning of the stack! I'll post again when we get them organized and in the other cooler later this week!


The crew hard at work preping the bands and getting some of them done the night before.

The boys- trying to figure out what they want to order!

Our idea area and bow picking area!

Bodega Chocolates!

Did you know McCool Flowers carries Bodega Chocolates? We are proud to be one of only a handful of stores chosen to carry their award winning chocolate!

Bodega Chocolates? What is that, you ask? Oh, they were only called the best chocolate in the world (yes the WORLD!)by Bon Appetit Magazine and voted #2 in the world by National Geographic! Plus they are the chocolatier to The Academy Awards, The Latin Grammys, The Emmys, The Country Music Awards, TV Land, The Grammys, The Golden Globes, The Image Awards and Dancing with the Stars! Wow!

We offer the English Toffee, Sugar Free fudge, two sizes of assorted chocolates, a sampler platter and individual snack sized pieces. We also offer their chocolates as wedding favors. These come in adorable little boxes for your guests!

You can add a box to any flower delivery order or swing in and grab a box for yourself :0) They are perfect for Valentine's Day!!

Ocean Institute's Jazz in January

We made the centerpieces for the Ocean Institute's Jazz in January concert this weekend at the institute in Dana Point Harbor. The colors turned out perfect for the gold table clothes! The event promises to be a spectacular evening of Jazz. And the money raised helps the Ocean Institute to offer educational programs to the schools!

The Ocean Institute all ready for the concert




During the afternoon- the flowers look a little alone on the tables- but just wait!


They look great with the room all set up and ready for the fun to begin!

Upcoming Wedding Event!

We will be at the Dana Point Yacht Club on Feb 28th for their Brial Boutique "Romance on the Water". Check out their website at http://events.dpyc.org/. We will be sure to add photos just as soon as we have them. We will have a large display area! So it should be exciting! If you follow our blog and attend, be sure to stop by and say "hi" to Cathy or Kristine!

Marbella Country Club Wedding Show

We were thrilled to be at the beautiful Marbella Country Club in San Juan Capistrano for their wedding show this weekend. We met some wonderful brides to be- and even a few grooms to be (poor guys- but they seemed to be handling it well!) and we made some good wedding coordinator connections. Our next Wedding Show will be after Valentine's Day at the Dana Point Yacht Club- more details to come.

The hot trend- Manzanita trees draped with votives or crystals, or both.


The hot topic of the show! This little anemone flower got more comments than anything. Yes it's real and it is another hot trendy flower right now. We put them together with some crystals for simple inexpensive centerpieces for the reception table.


Another great inexpensive centerpiece that is very popular.

Just Added- a Facebook Fan Page!

For all you Facebook lovers out there! We just added a Facebook Fan page. Search for McCool Flowers or follow the link- Facebook Fan Page.

We can't wait to see what happens! There are so many cool ways to let you guys know what is going on!

A Quick Tour of the Shop!

I thought it would be fun to post up a few photos of the inside of the store!



Just part of our great selection of flowers. Did you know McCool flowers specializes in long lasting flowers? Sure, you can buy flowers at the grocery store, but they are not babied like ours are! We start by selecting the freshest flowers for the flower mart. Then we use as special cutting technique that makes the flowers soak up more water- making them last longer. But we don't use just regular water! All our flowers are kept in special "flower food" water that nourishes them- again, making them last longer.

Frames and just some of our beachy fun stuff for the house!


Our selection of garden baskets, blooming plants and orchids. This is an ever changing section! Right now we have lots of cute spring baskets with violets and stunning purple phalaenopsis orchids!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Wedding- H and J

Unfortunately we have not received any photographs from the photographer of "H" and "J"'s wedding at Monarch Bay Beach Club yet. We will be sure to post them as soon as we do! Instead, you get our photos! Far from professional- the photos, that is! The floral arrangements- that's a whole different story! Did you know that McCool Flowers holds tons of prestigious awards for floral design- but we will save that for another blog entry!

Sadly, we only have a couple photos from the reception area and the bride's bouquet. They sure were beautiful! The photos don't do them justice! "H" wanted them to be the colors of the sunset- and they turned out to be just that!

Ingrid and Tony~ Wedding at St Edwards with reception at Cannon's

This beautiful wedding  took place at St Edwards Catholic Church in Dana Point with the reception at Cannons Restaurant also here in Dana Point. Both are stunning choices! St. Edwards is a wonderful Catholic Church with a beautiful ocean view and Cannons is a great restaurant here in Dana Point that has a stunning view of the harbor from atop the cliffs!

Thank you to Jeffery Neal Photography for providing most of the stunning images! http://www.jnpstudios.com/.