A bittersweet day for longtime Saukville florist

It was a bittersweet day on Monday for Beth Schaffner — the day she closed Lighthouse Florist and Wine Gallery in Saukville after more than 19 years owning and operating one of Ozaukee County’s last dedicated floral shops.

“It’s sad,” Schaffner said last week as she prepared for the store’s final days and greeted longtime customers and suppliers. “It’s very hard to say goodbye to all this.”

Although she won’t be operating a flower shop full time anymore, Schaffner said she will freelance in the business.

“I know what it’s like on Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, holidays, when you have weddings,” she said. “There’s always a need for an extra hand.”

Her first Valentine’s Day, she recalled, she started work at 8 a.m. and didn’t leave until 4:30 a.m. the next day, went home to shower and change, then returned to the store.

“It just never stopped,” Schaffner said. “Sometimes it’s overwhelming.”

And, she noted, she has seven grandchildren who will likely get married sometime whose flowers she will likely do.

She’s not leaving the floral business because she’s tired of the industry, Schaffner said. 

“My husband needs me,” she said, noting he is dealing with health challenges. “If I stay here, I can’t do what I need to for him.

“I love my job, but I feel like I’m not doing the shop justice right now.”

The hardest part, she said, will be to leave all the friends she has made through the years.

“When I came here, I didn’t know if I would be accepted,” Schaffner said. “Port Washington and Saukville have embraced me. I’ve made so many friends.

“I’ve done so many people’s weddings. I’ve done a ton of funerals, too.

“This is bittersweet.”

The floral industry wasn’t Schaffner’s original career choice, but it’s the one that defines her.

“Floral gets in your blood,” Schaffner said. “It’s almost a calling. It’s very hard to say goodbye to.”

But the floral industry wasn’t Schaffner’s original career.

She started her work life as a preschool teacher, a career she enjoyed.

“I especially loved the art projects and coming up with stuff for the little bitties to do,” Schaffner said.

She stopped working when her two children were young, and once they went to school she found herself looking for something to do.

That’s when she found the world of flowers.

She started working part time as a saleswoman in a floral shop, then bit by bit picked up the skills and knowledge needed to work her way up to floral designer.

In the early 1990s, she began to think big. She wanted to open her own flower shop.

“I’m not a control freak, but I like to be able to call the shots,” Schaffner said.

In 2007, she bought Lighthouse Florist from Tim Bartoszewski.

“He wanted to get out of the industry and I wanted to be more of a part of it,” Schaffner said.

She became more than just a florist; she became part of the community.

“I’ve done high school homecoming flowers, then these same kids’ weddings,” she said. “You watch these kids grow up.”

She noted that mothers often order flowers for prom, and decided early on that the first young man who ordered his own flowers would get them at no cost.

It took some time, she said, but a teen came in and ordered a corsage with orchids for his date even though the cost was $40.

“He came in with two $20 bills, and I told him to put them away,” Schaffner said. “You should have seen the look on his face.”

She talked about one couple whose wedding she did. Now, they return every year to get a flower crown for their daughter’s birthday.

While many people talk about so-called bridezillas, Schaffner talked about the experiences of the day.

“We have sewn beads on brides’ dresses at the last minute, gotten lipstick off shirts,” she said.  “I’ve had brides spit gum into my hand before they walk down the aisle. I’ve had one bride ask me, ‘Do my pits smell?’”

She recalled one day when she and her staff were decorating St. Mary’s Church in Port Washington for a wedding when the bride’s father pulled up and asked, “Can you help me?”

He was wearing his tuxedo and discovered the pants hadn’t been hemmed.

“This was 30 minutes before this little girl’s wedding,” Schaffner said. “We locked him in the bathroom and got the church ready and in the back of church was Denise (Jamrozy, who works at the shop) hemming his pants.”

It’s those memories, she said, that make it all worthwhile.

“I have a stack of thank you cards,” she said.

You would think that someone who loves flowers would have a green thumb, but Schaffner said she’s not a gardener.

“I love flowers. I just don’t want to do that,” she said. 

She recalled when she was a child and picked all the pink roses from her mom’s prize rose bush.

“That rose bush, she claimed, never bloomed again,” Schaffner said. “I don’t know if that’s why, but I just don’t enjoy gardening.”