Caryl Arnet and Sandy Garrett share a building for their businesses, a grave monument showroom and a florist's shop.

Tom Perkins | For AnnArbor.com

Two Ypsilanti businesses now under one roof are offering customers convenient access to both funeral floral arrangements and grave monuments. The businesses, the owners say, go together “like peanut butter and jelly.”

Arnet’s Incorporated and Garrett’s Florist’s owners are also pleased about their location, which they've shared since fall. Their River Street building sits across the street from Highland Cemetery, and Saint John’s Cemetery is a quarter mile to the north.

“It’s quite the marriage that has come together,” said Arnet's owner Caryl Arnet. “We both love it, the location is perfect and the building is outstanding.”

Typically, a customer looking for a floral arrangement will sit down with Garrett’s Florist’s owner Sandy Garrett in the Arnet showroom. Because headstones, war memorials, grave markers and other monuments surround the customers, they are naturally led to inquire about Arnet’s services.

The space is a showroom and sales office for Arnet, which has made monuments in the Ann Arbor area since 1904. The family-run business offers everything from a simple marker starting at $200 to larger projects, like a mausoleum recently built for $300,000.

Once a headstone or a monument is chosen, the order is sent to production at Arnet’s Ann Arbor location, where it takes four to six weeks to turn around.

Arnet’s was formerly located on Michigan Avenue in Ypsilanti Township, but Arnet said the landlord there let the building fall into severe disrepair. Her father had signed a 50-year lease, so she was unable to get out of the contract until Ypsilanti Township building officials condemned the structure.

She moved into the new River Street location in September, and Garrett opened up the florist in October. Garrett’s Florist was previously open from 2005 to 2008, but closed when business dropped during the recession.

Garrett’s son runs Garrett’s Landscaping, which is located behind the storefront. Garrett said Garrett’s Florist specializes in funeral arrangements, but also offers flowers for weddings, holidays or any other occasion.

One of her specialty items are grave blankets, which are decorative floral arrangements primarily used during holiday months to decorate a grave site. Garrett said she specializes in personalized and custom arrangements that speak about a loved one’s life.

Arnet's and Garrett's Florist are located across the street from the Highland Cemetery.

Tom Perkins | For AnnArbor.com

“When people lose someone, it’s a personal thing and we want to bring out who that person was,” Garrett said. “Because it’s really about the person’s life, not their death.”

When customers select a floral arrangement, they can look at monuments and headstones, but Arnet said she typically waits to make a sale until four weeks after the funeral. She said people are in the grieving process during that time and it’s only appropriate to wait.

In some states, the law requires businesses to wait until three weeks after the funeral to sell monuments, because customers aren’t fit to make a decision about an expensive monument so soon after a loved one’s death.

Many people buy their monuments from funeral directors, but Arnet said she’s able to sell markers and monuments for much cheaper because the funeral directors buy the stones from her. Buying directly from her cuts out the middle person.

Both businesses benefit from the proximity of the Highland Cemetery. Its main driveway is directly across the street from Garrett’s and Arnet’s front door, and it provides another avenue for customers to discover them.

Arnet said that was of the location’s selling points while she searched for the business’s new home.

“We have a great working relationship with Highland,” she said. “I think when customers are coming out of the driveway, that’s another great way for them to see us, too.”

Tom Perkins is a freelance reporter for AnnArbor.com.