Source: Asheville Citizen-Times

Business: BobbyMark's Design, Event Planning & Floral Design.

Who: Owners Bobby Hill and Mark Arrington.

Key to success: “Bobby just has a natural gift” for design, Arrington said. “My gift is to run my mouth.”

Services: “We can plan the event, find all the vendors, and then we can do the floral design as well,” Arrington explained.

Services are also sold separately: “You can use us just for planning, just for floral or the whole package.”

Prices: Event planning starts at $1,500; floral design fees vary widely.

Back story: The partners met in Asheville in 1985 — in an aerobics class Arrington was teaching — moved away together and returned in 2002.

“There's a sense of coming full circle,” Arrington said.

Hill, an Erwin High graduate, worked as a general manager and district manager for retailers including Pottery Barn, The Gap, The Limited, Williams-Sonoma and Warner Bros., a career that kept the couple on the move to cities including Washington, Atlanta and Miami.

Arrington, meanwhile, honed his skills in the event, hospitality and restaurant industries in each city where they landed.
They came back to Asheville to escape the corporate world and establish a permanent home base.

The two were customers at the Flower Gallery in downtown Asheville when the owner, Luck McElreath, put them to work. Hill found that the design sense he developed working with home furnishings in the retail world translated well to flowers. They helped McElreath win downtown's Holiday Window Display Competition three times.

“I started helping her out with windows, and then I just sort of fell into it,” Hill said of his entry into design and event planning.

He and Arrington worked in the industry part time for a couple of years, handling some major nonprofit and corporate events, before formally launching BobbyMark's Design in August.

Satisfied customer: Craig Madison, president and CEO of the Grove Park Inn Resort and Spa, said he sought out Hill and Arrington after being wowed by their work for the Asheville Area Arts Council's White Ball in 2007.
“They have that sense of total experience,” Madison said. “It's not just decoration, it's the flow. They blend the elements extremely well.”

Madison first enlisted Hill and Arrington to handle a tricky situation: The Grove Park Inn had planned an Oscars party in 2008 but didn't have a ballroom available.

The plan the designers created involved heated tents — this was February, after all — on the resort's outdoor terraces.
“They turned it into a three-tiered tent city,” Madison said. “They took a disadvantage and turned it into an advantage.”

Tip for a tough economy: “The big corporate parties slowed down tremendously, so we decided to get into the wedding business,” Arrington said.

“Our events haven't been as elaborate,” he added, but “people are still going to get married.”

Up next: BobbyMark's will take part in an exclusive, invitation-only wedding event hosted by The Knot magazine in Charlotte in April.

Valentine's Day: The firm is taking orders for Valentine's Day and offers delivery even on the day itself, a Sunday.
Offerings include a dozen red roses for $55 or two dozen tulips for the same price.

Contact: The firm has no retail storefront, but it operates out of space at The Venue, 21 N. Market St. For information or orders, call 450-3702 or 450-3532 and visit www.bobbymarksdesigns.com.