By Laura McAlister
Journal Editor
The flowers decorating the altar and reception halls don’t have to be tossed out after the big day. Thanks to a Vestavia Hills resident, they can actually brighten someone else’s day after the wedding.
Jennifer Slaughter started Perenity Flower Ministry 13 years ago. At first, the avid gardener was just taking flowers from her yard and creating arrangements for hospice patients.
The demand for the bedside arrangements soon became so great that Jennifer realized she was going to have to find another source for flowers.
“I was making 25 to 30 arrangements a week to take to hospice patients,” she said. “My garden was starting to get depleted. That’s when we started going around and collecting them from weddings and receptions.”
Word spread about Jennifer’s little ministry, and soon florists and event planners began contacting her about collecting their arrangements. She said weddings and receptions allow her to make an average of about 50 arrangements per week, sometimes even up to 200.
Weddings are the perfect venue, Jennifer said, since the flowers are typically still in good condition after the ceremony. If they’re not, she won’t use them.
Once she’s collected the arrangements, Jennifer “repurposes” them. Then, with the help of her business partner Margaret McColl, she distributes them to area hospice patients through New Beacon Hospice.
“I’m the arranger,” Jennifer said. “What I do is take them all apart so we can separate the really good ones. I’ll clip those and put them in buckets and then begin the process of arranging them.”
Using small vases, jars and just about any containers she can find at a dollar store or that are donated to the ministry, Jennifer is able to create several arrangements from one wedding.
She does it all from her Vestavia Hills home’s guest house overlooking her garden.
It was in her garden that she and husband Terry came up with the idea for the ministry.
Both love gardening, and their yard is full of all sorts of flowers, from hydrangeas and peonies to roses, tulips and more.
“This really started as a little hobby that I wanted to do,” Jennifer said. “I love gardens, and we were walking around our yard one day and my husband said, ‘These flowers should be beyond us. There are just so many.’ That just got me thinking.”
Jennifer wasn’t sure where to donate her arrangements at first. For some reason, the idea of hospice just kept coming back to her.
Then, she didn’t really know much about the end-of-life care hospice provides but soon would become all too familiar with it.
“I don’t know what drew me to it at the time,” she said. “I can tell you all about it now. I experienced hospice with my mother about three years ago. It’s just a very sad, dark place.
“I think knowing that the flowers are there throughout those final days really brightens the spirit, just knowing that somebody is thinking about you.”
Jennifer and Margaret don’t actually deliver the flowers to patients. They leave that to the hospice workers. Cindy Hubble, volunteer coordinator at New Beacon, said they don’t even get to experience the full impact of their work.
“They are just angels,” she said. “Jennifer does all the work, but we get all the glory. She fills our foyer with these beautiful arrangements, and it’s the social workers and nurses and people like me who take them to the patients.
“It just brightens their day when they get them. You see the smiles on their faces, and even if the patient is not fully aware, the family is. It means a lot to them.”
Perenity Flowers is a nonprofit organization. Jennifer said she had no idea it would last this long or grow this large. She estimates some 37,000 arrangements have been delivered to hospice patients since the ministry started.
Thanks to the help of volunteers and donations, as well as weddings and other events, she’s been able to keep the ministry going strong, she said.
She delivers the flowers year-round with the exception of December. That’s when she’s making miniature Christmas trees for hospice patients.
“This might not seem like much, but it is,” Cindy said. “These people and their families are going through the worst time, and I just can’t say enough about what Jennifer does. I don’t know how long it takes her, but the arrangements are beautiful, and the trees are just wonderful.
“She’s truly an artist, and just so selfless.”
Weddings aren’t Jennifer’s only source for leftover flowers. She accepts them from just about any event that uses floral arrangements.
To have her pick up flowers from an event or for more information about Jennifer and Perenity Flower Ministry, visit perenity.com or call 979-0997.
