Patty Henry and Jessica Henry Westin opened a new floral business in Lake Elmo recently (Submitted photo)
The Henry Girls, a mother-daughter team, recently opened a new shop in Lake Elmo that aims to provide help in the form of flowers to those planning weddings and events.
Their shop, Henry Girls Floral, grew out of a gardening service they established in 2005. Five years ago the pair extended their gardening service to include a floral business. Originally working out of their home Patty Henry and Jessica Henry Westin rented their new location this summer while they were working with Lake Elmo Inn’s gardens.
The response has been wonderful from the Lake Elmo community, according to Patty Henry. She says that everyone’s been very welcoming and so far they’ve had seven brides stop by their shop.
“The business emerged to include weddings because I loved weddings,” Patty said. “I have a catering background and lots of our work is gained from referrals. We’re getting people as far away as Chaska, and we’re booking two more (weddings) tonight.”
Though working out of the home was beneficial Patty said that they opted to open their shop because with more and more people who were stopping by the higher need there was to open a place that was a quiet meeting ground for brides and the Henry girls.
Patty Henry said her interest in floral arranging and gardening arose when she was working as a caterer. She said that the decorating groups and those who set everything up looked like they’d be having so much fun and she wanted to be a part of that. After working in the food service for several years she decided she wanted to start her own business and the gardening aspect of their business was born. Her last boss was the first to hire her.
“Some jobs have grown into landscaping but we prefer to manage the maintenance aspect of it. Digging plants, putting together window boxes and decorative planters,” Henry said. “It really gives you peace and my daughter and I have taken a variety of classes that help us with this. My daughter once said, ‘I should’ve been a horticulture major in college.’ She was able to leave her old job a couple years ago to join me full time. We really enjoy doing this together and we’re hoping to eventually have her take over the gardening portion of the business going forward since that’s the part that she most enjoys.”
Though the floral arranging is part of their business as well they are still working on planning the retail portion of their shop.
“We’re trying to find the happy balance. We’ve advertised on Facebook but not so much on the website. We’re encouraging people to order their Christmas arrangements ahead of time so we can accommodate them, we’re hoping to do something with Valentine’s Day. And we’re still working on figuring out the details of that. The brides are our focus.”
Their mostly home grown stock of seasonal flowers lowers the cost of bouquets and helps brides find a way to make their budget work toward their advantage, and Patty Henry insists they never up-sell.
“For me my favorite part of working with the brides is the planning help. We tend to want to make their ideas happen for them within their budget and if we know it’s out of their budget we usually suggest some DIY projects,” Patty Henry said. “I love to see them get excited and see the vision of what they can really do and work with them to achieve what they want to get. Sometimes they bring their grooms along and I always get a little giddy when I see he grooms reaction. Some of them are so into it while others are looking at their watches but it’s quite funny and we make sure they both enjoy the process.”
Wedding consultations must be done by appointment. Rates for the shop’s services can be found on the company website henrygirlsfloral.com or you can find them on Facebook and twitter. A $200 deposit holds the wedding date and the couple can make payments or pay the amount in full two weeks before the wedding.
Contact Avery Cropp at avery.cropp@ecm-inc.com
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