As Monday was a public holiday and the dawn services started as early as 6am, Ms Dean explained she had to open the store on Sunday night so that people could collect their fresh flowers for the early morning ceremonies.
“I actually went into the store at about 6.30pm so that people could collect their wreaths. We had about seven groups of people coming in to collect, including the Moama police.
“I worked through until about midnight that night but it was definitely worth it.”
Ms Dean explained she tried to tie in with the Anzac theme by making use of Australian native flowers such as proteas, wattle and eucalyptus.
“Aside from the natives, we also used rosemary, we used red roses to signify love and white roses to signify peace because every flower has a meaning.”
Over the past two years of the pandemic, wreaths were often laid on people’s front lawns due to the lack of commemorative Anzac Day services.
Ms Dean said it was “such an honour” to once again be able to cater for the services that people have missed so dearly.
“It was just so lovely to see the community making orders through us for this incredibly important day.
“Moama RSL did a big order with us, the Lions clubs made orders and so did other community groups.
“Some of the local schools even came in to our stores to pick their own flowers and make their own wreath arrangements.”
Ms Dean said she went to the services and it was humbling to see their wreaths being laid down during those services.
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