A Rose by Any Other Name...

On Saturday, my husband posted this picture on Facebook of me holding an absolutely stunning bouquet of roses from Kalla. Beside the photo he said "Happy Anniversary, Honey! I love you!"

And the responses were insane.

Can you blame them? People on Facebook were astounded at the bouquet of over 52 enormous roses and rose buds, arranged in a lovely vase; the entire thing is bigger than my head and weighs at least 40 pounds! My husband quickly achieved "best husband of the year" status in the minds of many a Facebook Friend.

Had I been ON Facebook when he posted that picture, I might have stopped the onslaught of assumptions that this arrangement was a gift from my husband for our anniversary. While he brings me flowers with decent regularity, a bouquet of this size is not something I would have been very happy with him purchasing on that particular day, considering the fact that we were going out of town that weekend for our anniversary trip! For 2 whole days, only our teenager, cats, dog, and helpful neighbors were able to appreciate its beauty. When I returned home from our anniversary weekend rendezvous, the roses awaited us, looking just as fresh as when they arrived, if  not more so.

The truth is, these flowers were a gift from the Kalla flower company. Kalla was a sponsor for a summertime Chicagonista Live! show in June, and as a blogger thank you, they provided bouquets as gifts for everyone who attended* the live taping of ChicagonistaLive; isn't that amazing?

This bouquet is called the Athena and Artemis and retails online for $200. The delivery was in the most secure and appealing box I've ever received flowers in, and their hardiness, at 4 days past delivery, reflects the caliber of roses used.

I haven't received any payment for this post, and I wasn't even politely asked to do one. This is absolutely on my own steam and desire to spread the word about their work. I'd totally recommend Kalla.com for any event you need to brighten up with flowers!

*Truth #2: Even though I have lived in the Chicago suburbs my entire 38 years, I still get lost when I try to get downtown via the 290/294/yaddayadda method. And so, even though I had over 2 hours to travel a distance that should have taken 50 minutes, I ended up about an hour NORTH of Chicago, in traffic, crying and sad. I missed the ChicagonistaLive show! The only show I have been able to attend. And I missed it. AND I WAS CRYING. But MJ and Kalla took pity on me and included me in the blogger outreach, which is why I am sitting at my kitchen table in September, writing a blog post, while blissfully inhaling 50-some enormous roses.