By Kris Leonhardt

Editor

MARSHFIELD — On Monday, Oct. 31, Illusions and Design opened in its new location at 200 S. Central Ave. in Marshfield.

The move has given owners Sheri and Rick Dana an opportunity to expand their selections and offerings while gearing up for the upcoming holiday season.

“We doubled in space, and we have storage in the basement,” said Sheri.

With the additional space, the couple added a funeral and bride consultation room for privacy, added to their offerings, and just plain spread out.

“Just expanding and having the space,” added Sheri. “Now you can move around, and you can walk, and you don’t feel so enclosed. It gave us the room to kind of spread our wings.”

The Danas purchased the business, formerly known as Spring Green Floral, from David Valle four years ago in its previous location at 505 N. Central Ave.

While the Danas live in southern Wisconsin, they remain very active in the business.

“This in essence is our 401(k),” explained Sheri. “Angie Young handles our day-to-day, and Rick and I are in constant contact, and we are up here every weekend.”

When the Danas retire from their current jobs, Illusions and Design will become their sole focus, but until then they will split time between the two locations with the help of dedicated employees who keep the business going throughout the week.

In preparation for the holiday season, the business will be open all seven days of the week and will offer additional inventory dedicated to the season.

“People are shopping on Sundays in Marshfield, and I am not missing out on that, and it’s Christmas,” added Sheri. “We expanded our gourmet section — so lots of gift baskets, fruit baskets. We have custom pieces, custom designs. We have a phenomenal guy that we get our poinsettias from. He grows 50 different varieties of poinsettias, so we tell him how many we want in each size, and then we tell him to give us best in show.

“The garden is full. We just want to have this big impact now that we’ve moved to downtown, and we are doing it during the Christmas season.”