Andi Barefoot, owner of BG Bloom Room, looks for flowers to use in an arrangement in the outgoing orders that are waiting to be delivered on Valentine's Day, 2025. “We’re out of baby’s breath!” Andi said to her family. Grace Maxfield, Andi's friend, left to go to the wholesale to get more flowers for the shop to use.
Andi Barefoot talks to Grace Maxfield as she prepares for the incoming orders for Valentine’s Day on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. Andi made the decision to rebrand the shop a month before Valentine’s Day. “We completely redid the inside. We changed the name,” Andi said. “The only thing that stayed the same was the website and the phone number.”
Andi laughs to Grace about being on the local news days before Valentine’s Day. The local news station had interviewed the Bloom Room as a feature story for the Valentine's Day season. Andi held Grace’s newborn while Grace was taking a break from arranging orders. "They called me asking to have an interview the same day," Andi said. "I literally ran home to put on makeup and get ready for the interview."
Andi’s brother, Jack, sits in the cluttered and humid Bouquet Shop on the night before Valentine’s Day. Andi hired her family to help her in fulfill and arranging 200 orders for Valentine’s Day. “I have a few friends that help out here.” Andi said.
Discarded flower stalks cover the floor as Gracie Sutton trims flower stalks to arrange them in vases on the night before Valentine’s Day. Sutton helped the family fill the 200 orders.
Andi’s family and friends lend their hands to Andi’s aid the night before Valentine’s Day. “There's plenty of times in the flower business that were scary,” Andi said. “Valentine’s Day was the most challenging."
The BG Bloom Room bustled with activity as orders flowed through on Valentine’s Day 2025. The shop fully opened as Andi and her family delivered orders and helped customers who came into the shop. “We didn’t get out of the shop until 2 a.m.” Andi said. “We got right back to it the next day at 8 to work on the orders that came in same-day.”
Andi glues a flower tip to a corsage for a prom order. Prom is a big season for Andi. She gets a lot of orders for corsages and flowers for prom dates and couples.
Andi sits on her back patio after coming home from the shop on Monday, April 28, 2025. Myles watches Nick Troutt, Andi's boyfriend, scrub his car in the backyard.
Andi walks with Myles down the driveway behind her house. “My biggest goal in motherhood was to make sure he always felt secure, and that he had that security, that I always love him no matter what,” Andi said. “Even as tiny as he is, I already see it every day. It's the way he looks at me first thing in the morning, and it's the way he comes to me right before bed. Like it literally is true love. And I love that.”
Andi looks for slugs on her stairs as the collective heads inside for dinner on Monday, April 28, 2025. “My favorite snail got crushed,” Andi said. “Someone must have stepped on it!”
Andi and Myles take a moment to drink as Nick prepares to grill steak for the family's dinner on Monday, April 28, 2025.
The group prepares for the dinner that Nick had made. Andi and Nick began to date a year after her split with her husband. “Nick has made it so calm and so normal, and made it feel like so much like home,” Andi said. “I was able to open up in that way, way sooner than I expected it myself to be able to.”
Myles crawls upstairs to the attic to join his mother and Gracie as they hang out in Myle’s play area. Andi joked with Gracie about Gracie’s plan to move in. “Gracie, you still don’t want to move up here?” Andi said.