MT HOOD OREGON SHOPPING

A Flair for Flowers

Let Sally Embellish Your Special Event — Naturally!

Your wedding cake reflects all the rich goodness of the life you’ll have together.  If Sally Schneider is decorating that special centerpiece, you’ll have a work of floral art that not only tastes delicious, but is bursting with the lively, colorful beauty she hopes you’ll always share.

Sally opened Weddings and Other Bloomin’ Occasions” in the Rendezvous Plaza in October 2008, and weddings are her favorite projects.  “Weddings are a very happy and exciting time,” she says, “and being a part of that makes me feel that way too.”  She also gets to bring her artistic skills and instincts into full play, creating arrangements that distinctively reflect each bride’s individual personality.  If the cake is part of the job, often she does not see it until the day of the wedding.  Then she designs on the spot, spontaneously assembling flowers that tie into the entire event’s decor. 
 
That same impulse to share through flowers finds Sally creating arrangements for any occasions her customers wish.  Whether her art is needed for a birthday, graduation, get well, or just because, she’s ready to custom design a lovely natural gift. 

Making Special Arrangements

This past Christmas she created a six-foot-diameter wreath for Timberline’s day lodge, using six varieties of pine cones and two of spruce, all found in Oregon.  Sally insists on using natural or locally grown products in as many as her designs as possible.  Living and working on the mountain as she does, she finds no end of materials:  twigs, mosses, dried pods and grasses, and native flowers and greenery.  This time of year, most flowers must be bought from wholesalers in warmer climates.  Sally and her favorite local growers look forward to the warmer seasons, when Oregon-grown blossoms both common and rare will be ready.

As a courtesy to her neighborhood, she delivers her creations free of charge from Brightwood to Rhododendron.   She’ll deliver anywhere from Vancouver to Portland, and has transported her wedding arrangements as far as Battle Ground, WA and McMinnville, OR.  These are all extensions of home to her, as she’s lived in Oregon her entire life, and on the mountain for the last 13 years, most recently in Marmot. 

 

 

 

About Sally

She grew up in the Gresham-Barlow area.  Her parents owned a flower nursery specializing in primroses, and as a child she learned the Latin names of many other plants from her grandmother.  During her teen years she worked for a Seven Dees field nursery.  Later she spent several years in garden and floral-related corporate departments.  Meanwhile she completed college with Art and Journalism majors, married and raised twin sons, went back to school for an Education certification, and worked for the Oregon Trail School District for 11 years.  She’s also skilled in many arts, including oil painting, watercolor, professional cake decorating, and custom bridal sewing.

Just before starting her own shop, she worked for a local florist for two years.  When the shop she was working in went out of business she started her own, first out of her home for five years, then sharing space till the current shop in the Rendezvous became available.  All these gifts and energy are for Sally a means to give back to her beloved community and to people who call on her talents.  “It is so wonderful,” she says, “to be immersed in the beauty of flowers every day and to know that what I do also blesses others.  I've found that this is my mission in life.  This is my way of serving others by always doing my best regarding quality, price, and attitude.  I am finally living my dream!”

Weddings and Other Bloomin’ Occasions
The Rendezvous Plaza
Welches, Oregon 97067
503-380-9891
www.weddingsbloominoccasions.com

 

Written by Andree Larson

 

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010

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