Hi, I'm Nicole!

 

I co-own The Pink Peony with my mother, Kelli.  We specialize in memorial flowers, weddings, and large events. Our love for the changing Wisconsin seasons and nature influences us the most when designing our abundant and texture filled, garden style arrangements. We source only the finest American grown flowers and foliage available and incorporate locally grown and foraged blooms whenever possible.  We do anything possible to make our business more nature friendly by composting only organic flowers and foliage, repurposing and reusing vintage vessels and materials and have eliminated toxic single use products many florists across the earth still use.

    I am the author/publisher of Returning Home: Reconceptualized Sympathy Flowers, a funeral flower book for death midwives, funeral directors, grieving families, florists, flower farmers, and more.

    About Returning Home: It is typically a florist's duty to provide local funeral homes and death midwives with funeral flower books to share with their grieving families. In my early years of owning my business I realized that finding a sympathy flower book absent of outdated floral displays was nearly impossible. After an extensive search, I found the same displays reminiscent of Victorian-era-meets-1950's-style-arrangements in every funeral flower book and funeral flower internet search. For nearly a century the funeral industry and grieving families have put up with these stagnant and unattractive arrangement styles that we have all grown to associate with sorrowful funeral services. Not only does the funeral flower industry continue with these outdated displays but these arrangements are riddled with toxic foams, single use materials and vessels, and do not promote seasonal, local flower and foliage use.

    I was able to step back and realize I could make the necessary adjustments to better assist myself and other florists with grieving families and funeral directors within the funeral flower industry by creating my own funeral flower book. Each arrangement was designed by me in each passing season with local and American grown flowers and foliage, all vessels used were re-purposed, and all materials used were dropbox donated.

In the opening of Returning Home you will find a welcome page, a note to grieving families, and a note to funeral directors and home funeral guides. Following these introductions is the gallery section of reconceptualized sympathy arrangements starting with winter, and leading to spring, late spring & early summer, late summer & early autumn, autumn, tropical, and patriotic. The closing finishes with a designer reference guide for the returning home florist. It is laid out in an easy floral recipe form including tips here and there, and even suggestions to offer grieving families along the way. Some arrangements have extra pictures showcasing how the arrangement was internally constructed with only repurposed/donated items.

    I invite everyone to use this book for everything that it is; assistance for funeral directors and home funeral guides, encouragement and support for grieving families, florist support, a lookbook, and a proponent of minimalism and supporting local.