GOS
Livin' for Disney holidays with great friends
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2006
- Messages
- 12,107
My name is Heather and I post mainly on the cruise meet forum. I thought that you might like to read about my night arranging flowers in Selfridges.
About a month ago, our flower arranging club was asked if anyone would be willing to volunteer to arrange flowers in Selfridges on Oxford Street. This is a very well known and huge department store in the heart of London.
Myself and 3 other members were keen and so I contacted the organiser to put our names on the list.
A letter arrived about a week before the scheduled day (18th May), which gave us the arrangements for the evening. We were to arrive at Selfridges at 7pm with our toolboxes, refreshments and wearing light clothes, as the store gets hot at night, the air conditioning is switched off. The arrangements were to depict various products around the store 5 perfumes, 1 face cream, 1 bottle of champagne, 1 bag, 1 shoe and
1 bra. Our team had Chance by Chanel as our product.
I booked a half days leave from work as it was hoped that we would finish by midnight, but could well continue well into the night. I also had to get up at 5am to book our excursions for the DCL Repo in August.
Sunday evening arrived and my friend, Marion arrived to collect me. After picking her Mum up on-route we made good time and arrived at Selfridges at about 6.20pm. We had to wait, and then finally cars were being allowed into the underground car park. At this point, we parked the car on the street and headed for the staff entrance.
The organiser met us and asked our other friend Pat, if she would join the bra team as they were one person short. She said that was OK with her.
We were given our security passes and the Store designer, Roger, took us up to his offices, where the flowers were being stored. I had been given the list of flowers for each arrangement and we all set about emptying good cages and the loading up the flowers for each arrangement. Each group took their flowers down to the shop floor and waited to be directed to the correct location, where our arrangements were to be sited.
My freind Marion with our cage of flowers
We had to wait for the oasis forms to be delivered, but once they did, we realised that we would need to make sure they were well watered before we could even make a start on the flower arranging. This turned into a nightmare as we had to carry pails of water from the Food Hall through the store to our Oasis.
The oasis form
Finally we were ready to start putting in the flowers. The organiser was a bit concerned with our Oasis bottle as the stopper was very wobbly. Marion and I set about covering the stopper with flowers and her Mum (also called Marion so Ill refer to her as Mum!) fed us the flowers.
Marion and Mum
Me and Mum
An hour later and we agreed that the oasis form needed to be put into place before we went any further. The arrangement would be too heavy once completed and it had to go on top of a display case about 5ft of the ground. 2nd problem no one to lift! So Roger and another man, someones husband, lifted the form up and the stopper promptly fell off! Some quick thinking and several dozen barbeque sticks later and the bottle was back together again. This happened several times during the night as forms were listed into place and the oasis forms couldnt take the stress. Thank goodness for barbeque sticks and well prepared flower arrangers.
Up a ladder
At least there were plenty of ladders handy and so with Mum feeding up flowers, Marion and I spend the rest of the night up a ladder. The last flower was put in place at about 1.20am and boy were we shattered. We were one of the last to finish, but we had enough energy to take a tour of the store to see all the other arrangements.
The finished arrangement
Four perfumes in place
A pot of face cream
A burberry bag
Agent Provocateur Bra
The shoe - can't remember which designer!
and Verve Cliquot champagne
I had never realised how busy a store was once it had closed for the night. Cleaners, electricians, designers, carpenters, security etc, etc all working through the night.
We finally left at about 2am Pat had left about 40mins earlier as she had finished and had a long drive ahead of her. I rolled into bed at about 2.50am.
I must say that although it was a long and tiring night, I probably wont get the opportunity again and I glad that I did it. The arrangements looked great when they were finished.
About a month ago, our flower arranging club was asked if anyone would be willing to volunteer to arrange flowers in Selfridges on Oxford Street. This is a very well known and huge department store in the heart of London.
Myself and 3 other members were keen and so I contacted the organiser to put our names on the list.
A letter arrived about a week before the scheduled day (18th May), which gave us the arrangements for the evening. We were to arrive at Selfridges at 7pm with our toolboxes, refreshments and wearing light clothes, as the store gets hot at night, the air conditioning is switched off. The arrangements were to depict various products around the store 5 perfumes, 1 face cream, 1 bottle of champagne, 1 bag, 1 shoe and
1 bra. Our team had Chance by Chanel as our product.
I booked a half days leave from work as it was hoped that we would finish by midnight, but could well continue well into the night. I also had to get up at 5am to book our excursions for the DCL Repo in August.
Sunday evening arrived and my friend, Marion arrived to collect me. After picking her Mum up on-route we made good time and arrived at Selfridges at about 6.20pm. We had to wait, and then finally cars were being allowed into the underground car park. At this point, we parked the car on the street and headed for the staff entrance.
The organiser met us and asked our other friend Pat, if she would join the bra team as they were one person short. She said that was OK with her.
We were given our security passes and the Store designer, Roger, took us up to his offices, where the flowers were being stored. I had been given the list of flowers for each arrangement and we all set about emptying good cages and the loading up the flowers for each arrangement. Each group took their flowers down to the shop floor and waited to be directed to the correct location, where our arrangements were to be sited.
My freind Marion with our cage of flowers
We had to wait for the oasis forms to be delivered, but once they did, we realised that we would need to make sure they were well watered before we could even make a start on the flower arranging. This turned into a nightmare as we had to carry pails of water from the Food Hall through the store to our Oasis.
The oasis form
Finally we were ready to start putting in the flowers. The organiser was a bit concerned with our Oasis bottle as the stopper was very wobbly. Marion and I set about covering the stopper with flowers and her Mum (also called Marion so Ill refer to her as Mum!) fed us the flowers.
Marion and Mum
Me and Mum
An hour later and we agreed that the oasis form needed to be put into place before we went any further. The arrangement would be too heavy once completed and it had to go on top of a display case about 5ft of the ground. 2nd problem no one to lift! So Roger and another man, someones husband, lifted the form up and the stopper promptly fell off! Some quick thinking and several dozen barbeque sticks later and the bottle was back together again. This happened several times during the night as forms were listed into place and the oasis forms couldnt take the stress. Thank goodness for barbeque sticks and well prepared flower arrangers.
Up a ladder
At least there were plenty of ladders handy and so with Mum feeding up flowers, Marion and I spend the rest of the night up a ladder. The last flower was put in place at about 1.20am and boy were we shattered. We were one of the last to finish, but we had enough energy to take a tour of the store to see all the other arrangements.
The finished arrangement
Four perfumes in place
A pot of face cream
A burberry bag
Agent Provocateur Bra
The shoe - can't remember which designer!
and Verve Cliquot champagne
I had never realised how busy a store was once it had closed for the night. Cleaners, electricians, designers, carpenters, security etc, etc all working through the night.
We finally left at about 2am Pat had left about 40mins earlier as she had finished and had a long drive ahead of her. I rolled into bed at about 2.50am.
I must say that although it was a long and tiring night, I probably wont get the opportunity again and I glad that I did it. The arrangements looked great when they were finished.
