A lovely customer’s response to, “Would you like to attach a handwritten gift message with your arrangement?”
“No message – just glad that you are back up and running.”
Élan Flowers, New York City’s oldest flower shop, is open for business and it has become a family affair.
With our designers’ concern to leave their homes to come to work amidst the environment COVID-19 has brought, (which we wholeheartedly support) we have managed to crank up the gears of our small business by keeping it in the family. My husband, Patrick, wakes early to bike down from Chelsea to our SoHo shop to put the flowers in water and begin designing arrangements. I remain at home as the immune-compromised member of the family and answer the phones forwarded to my cell phone. I answer emails, print orders and handwrite the gift cards, entering delivery information into Google Docs for Patrick to read as he works. Our son, volunteers by sweeping the floors and breaking down boxes for recycling, doing the grocery shopping and feeding the newest family member, the sourdough starter. Our daughter, home from college, and still in finals, helps by walking to the shop a few times a week to prep gift wraps for the floral orders. At night she helps me write gift cards.
As we move towards Mother’s Day (and since we have received the blessed PPP loan) we have added one designer who bikes from the Lower East Side to work in a separate room and now, our wonderful events coordinator/administrative has joined, working from her home in Brooklyn. It’s been quite a journey, but we are beyond grateful to be healthy and to have a business to return to.
These times are tough, but we find ourselves so lucky that we are able to safely “deliver” our motto, “Be Kind” to the strong and resilient residents that make New York City so special.
