It is a pleasure to work in a field that allows me to celebrate life’s events with my clients. Predominately, my work focuses on weddings, but life is a series of events, and it is important to be with my clients through each one. This includes not only wedding, showers, and births, but also funerals. Funerals are events that bring families together, however they are solemn affairs; a funeral is an affair when the life is being celebrated, memorialized and mourned all at once.
When I worked at my father’s flower shop, we would receive many orders for funeral work. When an order came in, he’d look at the order and say to me, “Dani, people are dying for my work.” This was my father’s way of lightening up a somber event through humor. My father taught me with his clever wit not to take life so seriously.
When I receive funeral work, I always take the family into consideration as I am sympathetic to them for their loss. I design classic casket blankets, funeral sprays and funeral baskets. I also create custom designs and have accommodated special requests, such as shamrocks, Red Sox’s and Yankee’s logos. It is always a challenge because I have no form to follow and create each design from scratch using hundreds of flowers. I go into these particular jobs knowing I never created the design before, but keeping in mind that making the design is going to comfort the family when there is little anyone can do or say to make them feel better. The family and the decedent are my inspiration. Funerals can be challenging both creatively and emotionally, but they offer me great satisfaction.
