About Us
Family Owned & Operated since 2001
In 2001, our founder Timothy Totten used an old sewing machine and a store-bought quilt to create a nicer cot cover for the Central Florida funeral home where he worked. The response was immediate, and he soon found a casket rep who was eager to re-sell these new "quilted cot covers" to other funeral homes in Florida. After two successful years making covers in his garage and selling through a single rep, Tim decided to launch a website and began selling across the country.
In 2007, the company exhibited at its first state-wide trade show, where a warm reception and strong sales encouraged Tim to seek out a national show. Success at NFDA and ICCFA shows expanded the company's reach and netted new wholesale customers and opened other markets. New customers led to opportunities to introduce additional products and expland the range. The company added dressing table skirts in 2011, zippered pouches in 2012, with Precious Cargo infant removal carriers and church truck drapes joining the growing offerings in 2013. As the company continued to expand the product line, add customers, and outgrow a series of locations, Totten created the amazing VersoTable, which sold more than 700 units in just six months of 2017. The table, which was a finalist for the NFDA Innovation Award, has gone on to become a staple of the company's catalog and spawned variations like the Service VersoTable, which features interchangeable emblems to honor the deceased's military service, civic work, or religious affiliation.
Along the journey, Final Embrace has grown to include another partner, Tim's father Lynn Totten, Sr., and a number of family members and friends. Today, the staff includes more than a dozen full- and part-time employees in two locations.
Meet Timothy Totten
As managing partner of Final Embrace, Timothy Totten is responsible for overseeing new product design, communications & marketing, financial management, and employee engagement. Tim created Final Embrace in a one-car garage in 2001 while working in a small family funeral home. Utilizing sewing skills he learned from his grandmothers, he modified a store-bought quilt to make a beautiful covering for removals to make a better impression with the funeral home's client families. The immediate reaction led Tim to sell a few to other funeral homes, and within a year, the garage was too small for the growing venture.
In addition to Final Embrace, Tim has also branched out as a parallel entrepreneur and now co-owns a travel company and a game company. He also founded and manages the Amazing Race for Charity, which raises $35,000 - 40,000 each year for a dozen local charities.
Our Factory is the Bee's Knees
During the first 20 years, Final Embrace has, at various times, occupied three separate garages, the back half of a uniform store, an 1,800 square foot house, and now a renovated honey production facility. Started in 2001 in an Orlando-area garage, Final Embrace soon moved to the nearby Central Florida town of Eustis, Florida and took over a 2-car garage at the house of company founder Timothy Totten.
Today, the company has two locations. While the corporate office occupies a standard office, the company's sewing production facility is located in Umatilla, Florida. The property was previously the production facility for a company making honey and received a massive renovation from an open-air barn-type structure to an air-conditioned space in 2019. The company's new location features wood beamed ceilings with chandeliers along with pendant task lighting for the four dedicated sewing stations. The expanded facility also boasts twice as much product storage shelving, two enormous cutting/prep tables, as well as a dedicated breakroom, an expansive operations office, along with a roll-up door for large deliveries.
The company also added a 100-watt large bed laser to the tool arsenal in 2018 and this SN4836 from AP Lazer was used to create special cut-out shutters for the building. These shutters feature a design of a beehive and flying bees to pay homage to the building's past.
Our Culture of Giving Back
The culture of Final Embrace stems from founder Timothy Totten's ideals for public involvement and volunteerism. In addition to volunteering for and participating in the Amazing Race for Charity in Eustis, the staff also tackled the mask shortage at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. With slower demand for products amid pandemic fears, the staff used available fabric to create mask-making kits for volunteers in the community. Employee Robin Richter coordinated a group called the "Lake County Mask Creators" to use the kits to stitch masks for area schools, nursing homes, medical offices, and hospitals. The group, which swelled to more than 300 volunteers sewing at their own homes, eventually created and distributed more than 33,000 masks in Lake County, Florida and beyond.
