Teleflora, a national flower delivery service, encouraged lawmakers and D.C. locals to “love out loud” last Wednesday, Nov. 29, when it erected a giant wall outside of the Capitol made up of hundreds of bouquets.
The wall, built at the Capitol Reflecting Pool, included 1,000 handmade floral bouquets. It was a custom 50-foot wide by 8-foot high wall with slots for the bouquets.
“Teleflora wanted to send a positive message by building a wall meant for tearing down, as people come together and make a purposeful decision to show off their feelings for one another,” said Danielle Mason, senior director of consumer marketing for Teleflora.
Hill staff, members of Congress and the public were all invited to stop by and take one of the free bouquets. An insider told TheHill.com that lawmakers were encouraged to “share a bouquet with someone from across the aisle with whom they haven’t always seen eye-to-eye,” while staffers may want to send an arrangement to “their counterpart in another office to apologize for not signing onto their amendment or Dear Colleague letter.”
Once all the bouquets were taken, the wall became transparent, revealing a message – “Love Out Loud.”
As people walked by, they would stop to take selfies or pictures while ogling the wall. One man had heard about the wall before it was erected and reached out to Teleflora about proposing to his boyfriend. As he got down on one knee, a crowd gathered and started to cheer.
“It took 10 people working two full days to create 1,300 bouquets to fill the wall. Once the wall structure was in place, it only took about an hour to insert the bouquets into position,” said Paul Brockway, CFO of Conklyn’s Florists in Alexandria, VA, who provided the bouquets for the wall. “It was worth it to see the reactions of people passing by.”