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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Blakelee’s Bouquets owners Edward and Shelby Lee inside the flower shop at 931 Oxmoor Road in Edgewood.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Shelby Lee makes a holiday flower arrangement at Blakelee’s Bouquets in Homewood. Lee and her husband, Edward, opened the flower shop at 931 Oxmoor Road in early November.
Edward and Shelby Lee opened a new flower shop in Homewood in December. It’s called Blakelee’s Bouquets, named after their 5-year-old niece, and it’s located in Edgewood at 931 Oxmoor Road.
Although the pair is in the business of love — providing customers with bouquets of flowers for every occasion — Edward and Shelby’s love story bloomed at this flower shop, too.
Shelby started working at the flower shop five years ago when it was in Tuscaloosa. She was in college and looking for an easy, part-time job. She thought a job at the flower shop would fit the bill.
“I thought people who worked in a flower shop just made a couple of arrangements and then sat around and didn’t do much,” she said. “But it’s actually a fast-paced and fun environment.”
She didn’t realize at first how much she would love the industry, Shelby said. But within months, she went from part time to full time and decided she never wanted to leave.
“I love creativity and anything I can do with my hands,” she said. “I love being able to make things for people and see their reaction. You’re bringing joy to someone’s day.”
A few years after Shelby started working there, Edward walked in the shop for a job. At the time, his aunt owned Blakelee’s Bouquets. Edward had been working in video and media, but after going to a rehabilitation program for drug use, he wanted a life change, Edward said.
“I was working for my aunt and was just going to deliver part time to kind of reacquaint myself with the world, come up with a new routine and be around decent people,” he said.
Shelby likes to get to know her coworkers, and she said she’s very nosy. But when Edward’s aunt introduced him to Shelby during work, she noticed Edward was standoffish.
“We had a big window that I would stand behind, and sometimes I would scare our drivers,” Shelby said. “I remember he walked by, and I banged on the window, and he jumped. And then he just looked at me like he hated me. It was awful.”
Shelby tells the story while laughing, but at the time, Shelby said she remembers thinking “Oh no, he hates me.” Edward said he was keeping to himself back then because he didn’t know how long he was going to be there.
“It was just going to be a stopgap, but I actually really enjoyed it,” he said. “I enjoyed the people, and I saw what she likes in it.”
The couple started dating. As they fell in love with each other, they also fell in love with the flower shop.
“My favorite thing is the people who come in to order flowers and the reasons they come in,” Shelby said. “Sometimes people will forget and come at the last minute, and it’s funny to hear about.
“We actually had someone come in a couple of days ago. He scared me — he came in running because it was his anniversary, and he said he forgot. He had to get it right then. His wife was basically on her way home.”
Edward laughed and said, “He basically busted in and said, ‘I’ve got a problem.’ And usually when someone busts in and says they’ve got a problem, you think it’s with you.”
Some of Edward’s other favorite memories are when his niece, Blakelee Imgram, comes into the shop. Blakelee loves pink flowers, she said, and she doesn’t let her young age stop her from arranging her own flower bouquets.
At the end of 2019, just as Edward was making plans to propose to Shelby, another opportunity also came up: an opportunity to buy the flower shop from his aunt. In January 2020, Edward, Shelby and Edward’s sister bought the store, and they continued operating it in Tuscaloosa for about seven months. However, they noticed most of their deliveries were in Birmingham, and in December they moved to Homewood.
On Jan. 2, one year into owning Blakelee’s Bouquets together, Edward and Shelby celebrated their wedding day. They did their floral arrangements themselves.
Despite having to change their business model in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, both Shelby and Edward say 2020 was one of their best years yet.
“We’ve done a whole lot of personal growing,” Edward said. “And we got to spend an entire year engaged, and that was fun. We got to go through all four seasons together. It’s been good for us.”
Edward and Shelby plan to spend their first Valentine’s Day as a married couple a bit differently than other couples. They’re typically too busy to celebrate Valentine’s Day on Feb. 14 or even during that week — Valentine’s Day is the busiest season of the year for them. They’ll probably go on a trip, they said. Shelby said she loves a good road trip with stops along the way at antique stores.
Beyond that, the couple have big plans for the future. Edward said they hope to expand and hope the COVID-19 vaccine works so they can start to see people’s faces.
“It’d be really nice to look people in the face again and shake hands,” he said. “We really want to build a relationship with the community,” Shelby said.
