La Petite Fleur isn't just a florist

In February, too many of us stampede to florists for the wrong reasons: guilt and obligation.

Here's a flower shop to visit for pleasure.

La Petite Fleur, in Glenside, isn't primarily a retail florist. The business bills itself as a one-stop shop for frou-frou event planning, offering "sophisticated style advice" to a clientele that entertains at ritzy Center City venues. If you have the means, they'll do the decorating, custom-design some invitations, wrangle a photographer and more.

If you don't have that kind of means, you're still welcome to shop for some of the well-priced glam that co-owners Emily Haff and Leigh Karsch sell at their Parisian-themed storefront, which doubles as the office for their event-planning business.

Framed damask wall-hangings are one specialty. They start around $35 and can include a Mary Tyler Moore-style initial if you want to personalize one as a monogrammed wall accent.

Kitten-heel flip-flops with rhinestones and satin bows, at $37, are another find. They're designed for brides to dance in after ditching their ceremony shoes, but are also cute as streetwear with jeans.

La Petite Fleur also carries a nice selection of small gifts, including candles, boxed stationery and chic ceramic tableware. Particularly alluring at this very minute, as February does its gloom thing, are the spring-green BloemBoxes ($16.50) - small, shiny, round containers with a silk flower on top to brighten your day now, and flower seeds inside to plant when the ground warms up.

If you're on the hook for Valentine's Day, the store also sells roses, other cut flowers, floral arrangements and decadent boxed chocolates and caramels. *

La Petite Fleur, 107 S. Easton Road, Glenside, 215-576-1814. Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and by appointment, with Monday hours through Valentine's Day.

- Becky Batcha