Florist questions, answered

No, and that is the honest answer rather than a dodge. North Carolina has no florist license and no State Board of Florists, and the General Assembly's own analysis of occupational licensing boards lists every board in the state without one. A florist claiming to hold a state florist license is telling you something wrong. Ask instead whether the shop is registered with the Secretary of State and where its plant material comes from.

Salt spray settles on petals and ribbon and burns it, and the humidity off the water cooks an arrangement before it is placed. On the sand, white and cream pick up grit and anything with an open petal collects it. That is why beach work is built from sea holly, allium, statice, dusty miller, yarrow, waxflower, protea and beach sunflower, in low weighted vessels.

Earlier than most people expect. The Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, the official tourism authority for Dare County, calls this a popular and romantic destination and advises making wedding plans well in advance. Give us your date and your ceremony time, and we will tell you honestly whether we can take it. A weekday in October is a different conversation from a Saturday in June.

The Wright Memorial Bridge is the only highway crossing of the Currituck Sound on the North Carolina coast, so a Friday-afternoon delivery window is a different promise than a Tuesday one. We plan around bridge traffic rather than around the clock, and sound-side flooding can close N.C. 12 on Hatteras Island. We give you a window we can hit and we tell you when a date is tight.

Wine, coffee, a local treat, and a beach towel or a local guide is where we start, and we vary it by season and by who is arriving. The basket goes into the house before the guests get there, which is the whole point of it. Most owners set it up as a standing weekly order for the season so it repeats without anyone re-booking.

Nags Head, Kitty Hawk, Corolla, Kill Devil Hills, Southern Shores, Duck, Manteo and Wanchese, plus the Hatteras Island towns — Avon, Buxton, Waves, Salvo, Rodanthe, Frisco and Manns Harbor. The longer run onto Hatteras Island affects both the delivery window and the price, so ask us before you book rather than after.