Jessica Saccardo, the creator of the floral business EightTwentyNine Blooms, believes that flowers bring everything together, and that it’s the flowers that people will remember at a wedding.
Saccardo, who studied marketing and business at the University of New Hampshire and worked in events-planning for more than 10 years, said she always thought a party wasn’t a party until every detail was perfect, including the flowers.
“You can’t help but look at flowers and get happy,” she said. “Your body kind of relaxes… and it just makes everything better.”
829blooms, which is named after Saccardo’s birthday on Aug. 29, began as a pandemic project in April 2020. Saccardo said she started doing
no-contact delivery to nursing homes and as many people as she could reach.
“People very much loved it, and it was because of what we were going through. We all needed something beautiful,” she said.
By November 2020, Saccardo had her website up and running, and was providing arrangements for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Her business has since “skyrocketed” through word of mouth and social media, and she does it all on her own while being a mother of two and working the desk at Summer Street Elementary School during the day.
EightTwentyNine Blooms provides an array of services, including wedding and event floral arrangements, different sizes of bouquets, and a biweekly subscription that delivers the subscriber a new bouquet every other week.
Saccardo also offers “designer’s choice” bouquets, which give her the creative freedom to make floral arrangements based on the quality of the flowers and colors she wants.
“I usually ask people what they want, but nine times out of 10, everyone’s just like, ‘Nope, whatever looks good, whatever you feel works for me,’” she added.
And while she has studied and accepts color theory, she says often the bouquets are made based on how she feels in her gut.
“I love kind of doing unexpected colors as well, something that you normally wouldn’t put together,” she added.
Saccardo’s workshop is in a nook below her garage and filled with flower processing tools — some of which are incredibly sharp — mason jars and vases, and lots and lots of freshly picked roses, sunflowers, hydrangeas, tulips, or basically any flower that might come to mind.
She said during the Valentine’s Day and Christmas seasons, the workshop can be filled wall-to-wall with arrangements to be sent out to customers.
A typical day for Saccardo starts at 5:30 a.m. From there, she heads to the flower market in Boston, then brings the flowers home to process and hydrate while she goes to work.
When she gets home from work, she throws on some Fleetwood Mac and an apron and starts filling the room with floral arrangements.
Also in the workshop are bright yellow aprons for when Saccardo teaches flower workshops.
During the workshops, Saccardo is invited to someone’s home or business to teach them how to process and hydrate flowers and create a beautiful bouquet of their own. Everyone gets a vase that could sit nicely on a kitchen table, shears, a thorn stripper, and ribbon to line the vase.
“It’s almost like a cooking class,” she said. “You’re just using flowers.”
She said the class is often a fun girls’ night in, but other times she has taught the class for men who are creating gifts for their wives and girlfriends.
“And that’s even better, because they are taking it so seriously. They’re like, ‘Did I cut that enough? Did I do that right? I’m not sure if she’s going to like it.’”
This February, she taught a love-letter class at Tin Bucket in Reading, in which attendees made bouquets in a freestanding envelope.
“I always try and see what else I can do. How can I create something fresh?” Saccardo said.
She said the classes are just like hanging out with friends and having a great time.
“I love teaching people the
step-by-step how to do that, whether it’s flowers, whether it’s wreaths… because they walk into it being like, ‘I have no creativity.’”
She added that she always tells attendees, “you start with something beautiful, you end with something beautiful. You can never make a flower look ugly. It’s just not possible.”
Saccardo said her love for flowers started when she was a young girl and her grandfather introduced her to his “incredible” gardens. She said he would always come over to her parents’ house to help with their gardens.
“I always had a love for flowers throughout school, and we always had flowers in the house,” she said.
She said the need for extra and beautiful details has carried on throughout her life and career.
“You see these beautiful flowers and it just makes everything better,” Saccardo said.
