Designs by Darenda has special date close to heart

Darenda Darnell is a brave woman.

The owner of Designs by Darenda Flowers and Gifts in Homestead, Fla., Darnell is engaged to be married in July 2010. As if there weren't already enough details for the bride-to-be to fret over, she's handling her own floral arrangements.

She wouldn't have it any other way.

"I have [had advice to turn the responsibility over to someone else], but I am going to do most of the arrangements myself," Darnell says. "It's going to be a tremendous amount of flowers for the wedding."

Then again, she's giving herself one heck of an employee discount.

"It's going to be on the house," Darnell says with a laugh.

About 10 minutes from Homestead-Miami Speedway, Darnell has operated the flower shop for about 10 years now. Before that, the store was opened by her grandmother, Josephine, in 1977. It means a lot to Darnell to be able to work in a business started all those years ago by a family member.

"It's carrying on the family tradition that was started by my grandmother," Darnell says. "She's the one who taught me how to design flowers when I was a little girl, so it just brings back memories. It makes her happy that the tradition is still going on. We're still serving south Dade [County] families with flowers."

Designs by Darenda specializes in upscale designs that incorporate any number of kinds of flowers. Darnell is accredited by the Florida State Florists' Association as a master designer, which means that she has underwent extensive testing and judging.

An upscale design put together by Darnell is something far more than a bouquet of roses.

"The arrangements can range anywhere from a bouquet of roses all the way up to something gigantic for an event," Darnell continues. "Flowers (can be) anything from orchids, tropical flowers, Holland flowers, South American flowers. We use so many different things here, and we have shipments of flowers every day."

We're talking about anything from a $35 get-out-of-the-doghouse arrangement on up to productions in the $700-1,000 price range. Darnell has done quite a bit of work at the race track for NASCAR, Ferrari and Porsche events, although she's not a fan of the sport.

For all the work that she's done, Darnell can't come up with a most memorable arrangement.

"I do so many events and so many weddings, there are so many different and unique arrangements that leave the shop here, there isn't one that sticks out in my mind," Darnell admits. "We've had some that have just been solid bouquets of orchids that have been so detailed, that it's taken a few hours to put together."

That'll change in, oh, about eight months, when she does the flowers for her own wedding.