Get the Giggles: Unforgettable Valentine’s Day Card Messages from Florists
It's countdown week, and Vonda and Lori are bringing back a fan favorite: they asked Flower Clique members to share the craziest card messages they've ever received during Valentine's Day. The submissions rolled in through the members-only Facebook group, email, and DMs — and here's the first finding: a solid chunk of them can't be read on a family podcast. Lori figures maybe one in four made the cut. Florists, you've seen some things.
The confessional booth with a cooler
The revelation that genuinely shocked Lori — though not Vonda, who ran a shop for years — was how many members reported men sending flowers to their wife and another woman. Lori wrestled out loud between her sales hat, her counselor hat, and her Sunday-school hat ("Sir, are you sure you want to risk this?"), while the shop-owner answer is simpler and colder: you take the order, you keep your mouth shut, and you stay out of the middle of it. You don't know the situation, and it isn't yours to fix. As the hosts note, the shocking ones are the exception — the vast majority of Valentine's orders are sweet notes to wives, girlfriends, moms, and friends. But the exceptions are memorable.
The wildest submission read like a movie script: the day before a wedding, an ex-boyfriend came into a member's shop to send flowers to the bride — along with a letter the couple "wasn't supposed to read." (The staff read it. Obviously.) The letter wished the couple luck and then took a turn nobody saw coming, with the ex angling to somehow stay part of the picture. The hosts' professional recommendation: counseling, for all three of them.
The printable ones
A few gems that survived the editing process. From member Heidi: "Happy Valentine's Day. I can hardly wait to see your feet pressing against my windshield." From Judy — not a Valentine's card, but one that still makes her giggle — an arrangement from the employer "Foot and Associates" that a designer abbreviated on the card as "Foot and Ass." Vonda countered with the shop that used to shorten "funeral home" to "the fun home" — some abbreviations you just have to write out. And a card-message classic: "I know I'm an asshole, but I'm the asshole that loves you." Romance takes many forms.
Why are the messages getting racier? The hosts have a theory: the ordering channel changed. Years ago customers came in and handwrote their own cards — with a person standing right there. Now orders come in by phone or through the website, where nobody's watching and self-consciousness evaporates. The salesperson types what they're told, the computer prints it, and the designer folding that super ticket gets a little surprise.
"Deliver with a smiley face on David" — the quality-control lesson
One submission turned into a genuine teaching moment. A husband ordered flowers and asked the shop to "put a smiley face on the card, with love, David." The card that arrived read, literally: "Deliver with a smiley face on David." The instruction got typed into the order, printed verbatim, and attached without anyone catching it.
That kicked off a real conversation about proofreading during the busiest week of the year. On most POS systems the card prints as part of the super ticket — perforated, folded, attached — and in the Valentine's rush, nobody is formally proofreading. Vonda's advice: build in two natural checkpoints. Whoever prints and tags the order should give it a real look — spelling, instructions, anything that reads like a note to staff rather than a note to the recipient. And the designer folding the card is the last line of defense; if something looks off, grab a fresh enclosure card and fix it. It takes thirty seconds. It saves a customer.
The same thinking applies to packages and add-ons — the balloon, the teddy bear, the candle in the right scent, the pink bear instead of the blue one. Bundles are easy to sell and hard to coordinate, which is why the hosts recommend a dedicated quality-control person during holiday crunch, checking every order as it heads for the van. Nothing stings like sending a second delivery across town for the forgotten balloon.
Countdown-week pep talk
With the big day almost here, the hosts close with the mindset that carried Vonda through decades of Valentine's Days: keep your spirits up, don't let bad attitudes rattle you, and treat every customer who walks in or calls as a challenge and an opportunity. In Vonda's shop it was almost a game — "okay, I've got this one" — a friendly competition to see who could make each customer's day. How can I help them? How can I make the person receiving these flowers love them even more? That's the job. And when the next jaw-dropping card message comes through the printer — just fold it, attach it, and add it to next year's collection.
Key takeaways
- Whatever the card says, your job is discretion: take the order, stay neutral, and stay out of your customers' personal drama.
- Online and phone ordering means wilder card messages — customers write things they'd never hand you across the counter.
- Proofread at two points: when the order prints and when the designer folds the card. "Deliver with a smiley face on David" is preventable.
- Assign a quality-control person during Valentine's week, especially for bundles with add-ons — missing pieces mean costly second deliveries.
- Treat every holiday customer as a challenge and an opportunity — the goal is making the recipient love the sender even more.