When you knock on the door…

…and your community answers

It’s a pretty scary thing to put yourself out there. To put your vision, your ideas, your heart into something, then open it up to the world as if to say,

“All right everyone, what do you think?”

It’s way easier to sit in a comfortable place, and not open yourself up to criticism. And the thing about me is, while I come across as having a pretty tough exterior and bounce back pretty quickly after getting knocked down, inside I might be a little softer with a bit more of a gooey center than I let on.

But sometimes you just believe something is right, and you throw caution to the wind (okay really there were MONTHS of financial analysis and research prior to signing the lease), and just decide to go for it.

So I did.

I went for it.

I opened up a flower shop, in Granger, a town I genuinely love. A town where the community members are my neighbors, where my kids attend school, where we have chosen to raise our family. I opened a flower shop, filled with items I hand-selected, with flowers and gifts that make ME happy, and invited our community to visit and enjoy [and also maybe judge just a bit].

And visit and enjoy, they did. Our Grand Opening took place on April 22, 2025, and we had a better turnout than I could have hoped. Our community showed up with their families and their friends, to cheer us on, check out the flowers and wonderful products. The feedback we received was SO kind, and helped affirm what I have believed for years:

Granger, Indiana, needed a flower shop like ours.

What meant even more to me was, not only did we get to meet new friends and customers, as well as start getting to know our neighbors within the Mirador at 23 complex (spoiler alert: they’re fabulous), but we were able to see so many familiar faces were there as well.

Friends, family members, old classmates, former brides from Cherry Road Florals, their families… I can’t even begin to say what it meant to have so many people who have stood behind me on my journey here show up for our Grand Opening.

It’s been seven weeks since we opened our doors, and I invited Granger (and surrounding cities as well - we love you, too) in to see our new flower shop. Many of you who visited the Grand Opening asked me how it felt to have the doors open for business. Did it feel wonderful to see my dream become a reality? Did it feel like I had achieved something amazing?

In truth it feels like we had achieved something, yes, but it felt more like there was still SO much work to put in. We want to be the flower shop you visit to find the perfect flower bouquet, the special centerpiece, the freshest blooms. We want to be your go-to Granger flower shop for Valentine’s Day, their best friend’s birthday, or an every-day bouquet.

But first things first.

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I knocked on our community’s door, and you answered.

Now we get to show you what we can do.

Your Bouquet of Granger team, (left to right): Karinne, Trudi, and Kaitlyn

All photos in this blog post were taken by Katya Dolgykh Photography.

Behind the Bouquet: Construction Progress

On Construction of our New Space

“I just want to go look at it,” I told my husband, trying to get him to understand why I was, once again, going to look at a vacant retail space for a retail flower shop we hadn’t even agreed to opening.

I thought I would go view the space, talk about the rent, and decide that no, this wasn’t a good fit for us.

Instead I walked into a [somewhat messy] bright, open space with wonderful natural light and a gorgeous view of a small wetland area. It was right next to Burn Boot Camp, Park Place Medical Spa, and Amy Nedderman hair salon. The clients we wanted to serve were either already in the parking lot visiting the other businesses in the complex, or driving by every day.

I could see it, instantly. The potential. The promise.

Fast forward a couple of months and my family and I held a ceremonial lease signing on December 9th, my daughter’s 9th birthday. I began purchasing products, and working through a vision in my mind.

We would have our flower shop, a European-inspired, warm and welcoming flower shop, with gentle music, wonderful scents and soft flower petals at every turn. A new business in our own community of Granger, where families could come and visit, touch, smell, and enjoy.

Our [future] shop was used as a storage space for construction crews working on other units within the complex.

Our sweet Theo visiting when he was about 4 months old.

Once we decided we would in fact OPEN a shop, we decided pretty quickly this was the right fit for us. I wanted to have the flower shop in Granger, because that’s our family’s community, and we love the area so much.

For a few months after the first time I visited the empty shop space, I was deep in the process of learning more about the overhead of running a shop, while pricing out construction and start up costs. I reached out to florists across the country to chat about numbers and day-to-day operations.

Nick and Sawyer checking out the view of the wetlands.

It took a while to convince my very level-headed husband that opening a flower shop was a good idea. It’s a big risk, a big commitment, a BIG move. But he could see the passion I had and how ready and prepared I was. And so, we signed a lease.

Once the lease was signed, we delved deep into picking an aesthetic for the shop, and it was time to start purchasing! I wanted to bring color into the space, while maintaining a calm feel.

Fast forward a couple of months, and we had drywall!

If you have never been a part of a construction process, I’ll just tell ya: it is one of the best and one of the worst experiences you’ll ever go through. Things will go wrong [this is normal!], things will be delayed [also normal!], but the end will be totally worth it. We were fortunate to work with a great local construction company, and the finished product is just what I hope it would be.

Throughout the entire process, I was working on my Pinterest board, ordering wallpaper (Spoonflower, y’all, and it took me WEEKS to pick), cabinetry, faucets, lighting and so many more things.

Just the flower shop, being cute

Approximately 8 months from the time I first set foot in the space, we opened our flower shop. She’s a GORGEOUS little shop, so calm and pretty, and she smells quite nice.

This process was a labor of love, and I ran for weeks on adrenaline and dreams in hopes of getting the doors open in time.

The process of getting her from dirt floor to shiny and lovely was a long one. I would 100% do it all over again. Just maybe I would have an extra glass of wine or two to handle the stress better.