By Carmen Rodgers
Elmore/Autauga News
Top Photo: Jenilyn Mercer and her staff have been creating beautiful floral creations for 38 years in Elmore County. Today is their biggest day of the year.
Today is Valentine’s Day and the hard-working men and women at Jenilyn’s Creations in Elmore have been preparing for the biggest day of the year for months.
Thousands upon Thousands of flowers have been delivered in bulk to the business and crew members worked late into the night Monday to get orders put together. Today those orders are being delivered across the Elmore and Autauga County area.
“We started too early this morning,” owner Jenilyn Mercer said Monday afternoon. “And we’ll finish too late this evening. We’ll be until a little bit later than normal tonight. It’s our busiest day out the entire year,” Mercer said.
The orders for Valentine’s flowers and gifts started rolling in just before the New Year began.
“Normally, right after Christmas,” Mercer said. “Valentine’s Day started for us at the end of December. We have to start ordering flowers around the middle of January.”
With the big day just hours away Monday, the orders were steadily coming in.
“The phones have been ringing just nonstop,” Mercer said. “We’ll have about 8-10 vans out delivering,” Mercer said.
Jenilyn’s has been in business for 38 years, and during that time the company has figured out the most efficient process possible in the order, design and delivery of Valentine’s Day flowers and gifts.
“We’ve been doing this for a long time. We take the orders in one building, we process the orders, then we bring them over here to design them, then we route them out to be delivered,” Mercer said.
While Valentine’s Day is best known for giving and receiving flowers, Mother’s Day is also a busy day for the florist.
“It’s creeping up on the biggest day,” Mercer said. “It’s not as impactful to the system because Mother’s Day lasts about 4 days. People will call and say Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday is fine for delivery, but on Valentine’s they all want it that day.”
Valentine’s Day remains the number one day to give flowers, and there are a lot of orders that come in during the weeks leading up to the day of, but with careful planning, the goal is that all of the orders are delivered smoothly, and everyone is happy with their beautiful flowers and gifts.
“It can get intense, but we try to take care of our customers,’ Mercer said. “We do our best. Especially those that plan ahead. If they call the day of, it can be difficult.”
To learn more about Jenilyn’s Creations of Elmore, visit their website at www.jenilynnscreations.com
Or like their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/jenilynscreations
