- Local
- Community
- Journalism
Support the independent voice of Phoenix and help keep the future of New Times free.
Local drag queens will be delivering flower arrangements with a dash of glitz and a heaping side of humor across the Valley this Valentine's Day.
Arizona floral company STEM SWAG AZ has partnered with local drag queens for their "Spread Love into 2019" campaign. For an additional cost, a drag queen will hand-deliver flower arrangements to anywhere in the Valley on February 14. Gary Guerin, co-founder of STEM SWAG AZ, says he wanted to put a twist on the traditional flower delivery service.
"Receiving flowers is always such a cool moment and we thought 'How can we amplify that more?'" Guerin says. "That's when we came up with the drag queen concept."
Local drag queens Whitney Stevens, Afeelya Bunz,
"We chose drag queens because they really exemplify fun, inclusivity, and ultimately not taking yourself too seriously," Guerin says.
After the drag queen delivers the flowers, they will spend about five to 10 minutes at each location talking with the recipient.
"Drag queens could be popping up in corporate offices or even small businesses," Guerin says. "I think (it) will make for a really fun surprise and delight moment and really disrupt people's workday in a super positive way."
Almost as glamorous as the drag queens are the limited-edition flower arrangements they'll be delivering. STEM SWAG AZ designed six arrangements for Valentine's Day, each with a distinct theme. They range from a cactus with a sign that reads, "Thanks For Not Being a Prick," to a bouquet of black roses with black cherry Dum-Dum suckers and a sign that says, "Valentine Sucks, You're Cool Though." Guerin says it was important to be inclusive to all types of loves when designing the arrangements.
"Let's make sure that we really design something for everybody versus your stereotypical type of love," Guerin says.
Although the flower arrangements vary from quirky to downright hilarious, STEM SWAG AZ did design a traditional flower arrangement as well. "The Poet" is a bunch of red roses in a glass cylinder vase. It also includes a card handwritten by local artist Fowler's Fonts. Guerin says he is excited to see everyone react to receiving an outrageous floral arrangement from a drag queen.
"I think ultimately it will bring smiles to everybody," Guerin says.
The Valentine's Day floral arrangements range from $35 to $75 and can be purchased online at stemswag.co. It costs an additional $30 to add a drag queen delivery to your order. Order by 8 p.m. Wednesday, February 13, for guaranteed delivery on Valentine's Day.
Keep Phoenix New Times Free... Since we started Phoenix New Times, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Phoenix, and we would like to keep it that way. Offering our readers free access to incisive coverage of local news, food and culture. Producing stories on everything from political scandals to the hottest new bands, with gutsy reporting, stylish writing, and staffers who've won everything from the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi feature-writing award to the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism. But with local journalism's existence under siege and advertising revenue setbacks having a larger impact, it is important now more than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism. You can help by participating in our "I Support" membership program, allowing us to keep covering Phoenix with no paywalls.
