Fleurs de Villes
Opportunity knocked and we answered. To be a part of Fleur de Villes was a dream. Did we have any idea what we were doing? No. Did we figure it out? Yup.
Saying yes to this opportunity meant many things:
Putting our creative forces and passion first.
Cancelling holidays.
Planning it during the busiest month we have ever had on the tiniest timeline.
Closing the doors to our studio for two weeks.
Driving to Calgary every 2 days to refresh the installation.
And above all, embracing it as a fun, soul filling experience when we could have easily been overcome with the stress and pressure.
There is so much to say about this experience it is hard to know where to begin... so we’ll start from the beginning (haha).
Our mission from Fleur de Villes was to create a chuckwagon bursting with florals driven by Jenny, our badass chuckwagon driver. We named her Jenny in honour of our favourite, hard working and amazing floral supplier representative in real life. She is 100% REAL flowers - hat, hair, shirt, buttons and bolo (minus the disco balls). Every petal was hand glued to achieve this funky signature western style to fit right in at the Calgary Stampede. We don’t know how many hours this took, but we will say double digits.
It’s easy to make flowers pretty, but it was our mission to create a story. We didn’t want it to be flowers on a chuckwagon. We wanted to capture the thrill of the race.- wheels spinning, dusty-hued blooms billowing behind, flowers splashing outward like dirt on the track. It wouldn’t be Sonic if it wasn’t bold. We don’t want to sounds like a broken record, but all the elements in the entire chuckwagon were real flowers. Calgary Stampede goers approached the installation to inspect whether they were real or not. The one morning we arrived to find a sign saying not to touch the flowers. We love people’s curiosity and will accept a few broken stems for the hands on experience.
Part of our brief was to create and use mechanics that not only work with the design and fit the chuckwagon, but also never be seen. Trust us when we say it wasn’t pretty underneath it all. Zip ties, floral cages, pool noodles, saran wrap, pins, sandbags, garden caddies, pee pads, step stools, cardboard. Bee hand smashed a platter to the correct size. Shards of plastic flying. Not pretty.
The installation took us 8 hours. We are a mighty team of 2, but for this adventure we had a steadfast and dedicated # 3 - Bee’s amazing hubby. Standing ovation for him. Again, this install process was not pretty. Alarms set for 5 AM, sweat dripping, skipping lunch (unheard of for Kaley), tarp and pee pads thrown on the floor, and endless trollies pushed up to the third floor. To clarify, the pee pads were for watering the designs. We did take bathroom breaks.
The design looked beautiful when we finished, but it wasn’t over! We needed to ensure that Jenny and the chuck looked amazing for the full 10 days of Stampede. This was a huge task that took planning, commitment, and a lot of gas since we had to drive from Lethbridge to Calgary every two days.
One of the highlights of this whole experience was meeting and being surrounded/inspired by other Canadian florists. Anyone that visited the Calgary Stampede saw the incredible artistry and talent of these floral professionals. Runner up highlight was the $15.00 ‘Dirty Monster’ energy concoction from the midway - worth it!! In fact it was all worth it and we would do it again!
Thank you for all the support and local love that was shown to us. This means so much to us and is what keeps us going. The biggest opportunity for Sonic Bloom since opening. We feel so honoured to have been a part of the Fleur de Villes COUNTRY at Calgary Stampede.
And now you know we can do custom floral outfits and vehicles. Call us with your order!