Flowers for the happiest moments

Imagine a movie without a soundtrack. Try watching it without music or special effects that reinforce what the images show. Strange, no? Well, that’s what mother and daughter duo Lourdes Blanco and Mercè Thomas do at Art i Flor in Rupià. With their flowers, plants, and bouquets, they compose a floral soundtrack to the great events that are celebrated in the triangle formed by Palafrugell, La Bisbal d’Empordà, and Torroella de Montgrí. They design ivy coverings to accommodate large banquets, columns as if they were tree trunks, flower centerpieces on tables, and compose the color note that’s always just right for these celebrations.

The seed of the company was planted by Pepita Esquena when she opened a plant and decorative materials store in Torroella de Montgrí nearly sixty years ago. Soon, she opened two more in L’Estartit and when her daughter Lourdes started working there, they began decorating for weddings. Since then, they haven’t stopped. In fact, Lourdes is already passing the baton to the third generation, Mercè, who began helping her about four years ago in the same way she did with her own mother.

Since 2005, their center of operations has been the workshop installed in the garden of her house in Rupià, where the shelves are piled full of candles, candelabra, ribbons, jars, baskets, and all sorts of touches that can help them create the environment they are seeking. In the middle of the room, a large table with pruning shears, gloves, and centerpiece samples is proof that their work is completely artisanal. Despite having decorated one hundred and twenty weddings in a single year or worked on five services in a single day, they enjoy customizing every party from top to bottom.

Together, they recall certain curious orders, such as a couple who asked them for a large ceiling lined with white flowers falling in a cascade, or the castle where they created a forest culminating in a large oak and olive tree covering. Moreover, they’ve even worked on some film stages such as those at the Hotel Castell d’Empordà, the Far de Sant Sebastià. “This work permits us to go to incredibly beautiful estates or restored farmhouses that you can’t even imagine exist. We see real wonders!” //