We're All Moved In!

A little over a week ago today we opened the doors for the first time at our new location in Centennial Plaza! Moving to the new store has allowed us to DOUBLE our inventory, meaning there are new arrivals any way you look! Here are some of our favorite things about our new store:

Left, middle, right

shorts, sandals

Our new leopard carpet and complementing black sparkly floors (and some of our new arrivals as well)! 

Being right next door to Gigi's Cupcakes in Centennial Plaza with more convenient parking! 

More dressing rooms; the walls are even sparkling and pink!

Our new shoe section addition! You can check out our shoe section online here.

And our new gift section!

You'll have to stop by to see it all for yourself! We're now located at 310 W Cleveland, just down the street from our old house. Be sure to check our the dozens of new arrivals as well on our website FlourishBoutique.com! 

Our Beautiful, Blushing Bride: Brianne!

Wedding bells are ringing at Flourish these days! Our Director of Growth and Development, Brianne will tie the knot in just over a week.  It's exciting to hear about all the special details and of course the wedding fashion.  Plus, many of us Flourish girls will be there to celebrate with her on her big day.  So, it was only fitting that we hold a special Flourish Boutique Bridal Shower in her honor.

This past Wednesday evening, almost all of our team gathered at my house to share dinner and laughter, while we spoiled Brianne with some essentials for married life.  We thought you would enjoy a little behind the scenes peek at our fun night! 

Vanessa's House Decorated for the Shower

The Flourish Girls Visiting and Playing a Game Before Dinner

Who: Brianne, Vanessa, Nicole, Becca, Hilary, Shana, Maria, Emily, Shelby, and Aundrea.  (Ann, Andrea, and Courtney could not make it).

Where: My House

What: Brianne's Bridal Shower

When:  7-10 Wednesday Night

What we ate: Fresh Fruit, Pasta, Mixed Greens with Grilled Chicken, Strawberry Cake & Champagne

Game: Each Flourish girl wrote down their first kiss & Brianne had to guess which girl belonged to each kiss!

What she got: Candles, towels, wine glasses, a friendship sign, coffee mug holder, serving bowl, & more!

Brianne Opening Gifts:  Notice our On Trend Pink Chevron Bag, hehe:)

Brianne Cutting Her Cake

Pink Champagne, of course, for the Flourish Girls!

All the Flourish Girls Present at the Shower:
Top Left to Right: Vanessa, Aundrea, Shelby, Nicole, Maria
Bottom Left to Right: Shana, Becca, Brianne, Hilary, Emily

We even had a special Bridal Shower Playlist:

Chapel of Love by the Dixie Cups

White Wedding by Billy Idol

Wedding Dress by Matt Nathanson

Wedding Day by Casting Crowns

Grow Old With Me by Adam Sandler

You and Me (Wedding Version) by Lifehouse

Marry me by Train

Love Story by Taylor Swift

Kiss the Bride by Elton John

Wedding Bell Blues by the Glee Cast

Most People Get Married by Patti Page

Let's Get Married by Jagged Edge

When We Get Married by the Intruders

Just Married by Marty Robbins

Happily Ever After by He is We

I Love You Always Forever by Donna Lewis

You're Still the One by Shania Twain

We Found Love by Rihanna

Love Song by Sara Bareilles

To Love Somebody by Michael Buble

We Are Man & Wife by Michelle Featherstone

The Cake was definitely a hit too.  It is my mom's recipe.  Below see a picture tutorial and the recipe too.  It was super moist and the frosting is light and to die for!  So if you're in the mood, make a pink, inspired Flourish Cake and tag us in the pix:)  Enjoy!

Flourish Strawberry Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

1 Box Strawberry Cake Mix

1 Box Strawberry Jello Mix

Eggs

Water

Canola Oil

Powdered Sugar

Butter (stick, I used salted by Land of Lakes)

1 Jar of Strawberry Preserves

Fresh Strawberries

1 Tub of Coolwhip

Cake Instructions:

1.       Prepare a regular box strawberry cake and use the directions on back of box. 

2.       After cake has cooled, use a toothpick to pierce cake about every two inches.

3.       Prepare the box of jello, but do not cool.  After jello powder dissolves, pour a little bit of liquid jello into each of the holes in the cake (made from the toothpicks). Do not use all of jello, but rather just enough to pour a little down each hole. If you add to much jello, cake gets too wet.

4.       Put cake in refrigerator for jello to set.

Frosting Instructions:

1.       Use one full stick of softened butter, but not melted butter.  Whip butter until it is light and fluffy in a mixing bowl (about 5 minutes).

2.       Add one cup of powdered sugar to butter and mix on low.

3.       Add approximately ½ of regular size jar of strawberry preserves to frosting in bowl.

4.       Add about ½ small container of cool whip and continue to mix.

5.       Slowly add additional powdered sugar until you get your desired consistency and taste (yes little sneak tasting required:)). Frosting should be fluffy but firm enough to still forms peaks.

Frosting the Cake Instructions:

1.       On refrigerated cake, spread remaining strawberry preserves evenly over cake.

2.       Put a layer of fresh sliced strawberries over cake and preserves.

3.       Add all of frosting on top of the preserves and strawberry layer and frost cake.

4.     Keep cake cool until serving (fridge) otherwise jello will melt.  We served with more fresh strawberries too.

Enjoy!

Flourish Four Legged Friends

The month of May always seems so full of celebrations: birthdays, showers, Mother's Day, graduations and much more all seem packed into one.  We at Flourish Boutique, always enjoy helping our customers find cute dresses for all these special occasions, and love seeing all the pictures that flood Facebook splashed with our dresses and outfits!  But, it has also come to our attention that there is one more little known, but super fun reason to celebrate...it also happens to be National Pet Week right now!  And, who doesn't love a reason to honor our faithful four legged friends?!

Most of us Flourish girls have pets we adore...many of you have gotten to see recent pics of store owner, Vanessa's sweet new Morkie, Bentley.  But we thought you would all enjoy a little sneak peek behind the scenes at some of our other Flourish girls' pets!  

Flourish girls with their doggies!

Brianne on the top left is holding her dog, Lola.  Brianne is our Director of Sales & Development at Flourish.  She is always super busy growing our Facebook fan base, managing web orders & customer service issues for all web and facebook orders....Oh and in her spare time she plans fashion shows, recruits models, and a million other things:)  She's been at Flourish for over two years now and joined us full time when she graduated last year from Saint Mary's College:)  And if all of that doesn't keep her busy enough...did we mention she is getting married in July this summer?  But, Brie always makes time for Lola....who is a Beagle & King Charles Cavalier Spaniel Mix.  She and her fiancé, Pat love to take Lola up to the beach at St. Joseph, Michigan on the weekends to relax a little.
*Brianne is wearing our "Here Comes the Sun Dress"

Vanessa on the top right, is the owner of Flourish and is pictured here with Bentley:)  Owning Flourish and being a mom keep her crazy busy. But she loves being a business owner and staying busy, and no matter what she makes time for her new puppy, Bentley.  Bentley is a morkie (half Yorkshire Terrier and half Maltese). Sometimes Bentley even comes with her to work at the boutique.  We always all laugh because he has it so good...he gets passed around from one Flourish girl to the next...and when there are photo shoot days then he gets cuddles from all our gorgeous models too...it's a rough life for Bentley:)



Flourish Model, Ansley, with Bentley (ie. rough life for Bentley:))
Ansley is rocking our "Could Be Chanel Jacket"

Ann on the bottom left, is our fabulous Assistant store manager and is pictured with her adorable dog Lola.  Ann joined the Flourish team in the fall of 2011 and then became an Assistant Manager one year later:)  She also is a hair stylist and busy mom too!  In fact her son is about to graduate from high school in just a couple weeks and her daughter is not far behind...so she is glad to have the company of her sweet Daschund, Lola.  Ann's even debating on getting Lola a sister or brother doggie because she loves her so much:)

Shana, on the bottom right, is looking super cute with her Golden Doodle, Winnie,  Shana is our Assistant Director of Sales and Development.  She is often the face behind the postings in the evening on FB and helps with a ton of marketing, online orders, and customer service too.  She is one of our newest team members and joined the Flourish family only a month or so ago.  She and her hubby (they're cute newlyweds) live close by and love traveling and The Bears (obviously from the matching Bears jerseys)...and Winnie goes with them wherever they go!  So fun!

So, now you know more about some of our wonderful Flourish team, and their cute pets too.
If you have any pictures of you in Flourish clothes with your pets send them to us at shana@flourishboutique.com and we will throw them up on FB too!  XOXO, the Flourish Girls