Photos by Grace and Gold Studios
“I must have flowers, always, and always.” ― Claude Monet”
After a long absence, I’ve decided it’s time to blogging again. Until recently I didn’t have a vision for what I wanted to share and write about so I simply didn’t write. I knew I didn’t want to write promotional sounding articles or simply post recaps of recent work (in part because often the only photos I have from weddings I work on are quick snaps from my cell phone before heading to the venue). So what to write about? Well, simply, I want to write about flowers.
I love flowers. Next to the people and pets in my life, flowers are my favourite thing in the world. Many people might be surprised to learn that prior to starting a floral design business I was a lawyer. It took seven years of training then I practiced for about four years. I went into law because historically it has been an important tool for furthering social change. My last legal position was at an organization that uses law to try to protect the environment. Law can achieve great things, but I discovered ultimately I didn’t have the passion to stay in it long-term. It was not good for my spirit to sit in an office all day drafting documents and I never felt eager to spend my free time writing law journal articles like some of my peers seemed to.
At the same time I began questioning whether law was the right fit for me I felt a magnetic pull towards flowers. After spending seven years and nearly six-figures on my legal education, I began a self-directed education in flowers. With no intention of starting a business at the time, I immersed myself in flowers through workshops, books, attempts at gardening, etc. in my spare time. Eventually the pull of flowers was too strong and I made the leap to a career in floral design. Even now I’ll stay up past midnight looking at pictures of flower varieties on the internet. There is so much science, history, and art tied to flowers that it’s impossible to absorb everything in one lifetime.
Although I imagine I’ll still share business updates occasionally, my plan for this journal is to document my flower related discoveries and share my love of flowers. I expect it to include a medley of topics including flower excursions (including ones I’m still dreaming of), flower art and history lessons, book reviews, profiles, further attempts at gardening, and more. I hope other flower lovers will be inspired or learn something along the way. Thanks for reading!
We had six ladies participate in the workshop which is a great number because it’s enough to create a lively atmosphere but still small enough to give all of the participants some one on one instruction.
This past April I was lucky enough to attend the Little Flower School‘s Wedding Masters Class in at the beautiful Ham House in upstate New York. For those of you who aren’t flower fanatics like myself, the Little Flower School is a joint endeavour of Sarah Ryhanen of Saipua and Nicolette Owen of Nicolette Camille Floral Design. And if you aren’t a flower fanatic, you might not know how crazy talented these two women are and what they have done to revitalize floral design over the past decade. Based in Brooklyn, Sarah and Nicolette are largely credited with popularizing a wilder more organic style of flower arranging. Besides their design skills, they have also worked to encourage a friendlier and more collaborative community of floral designers. I’ve admired their work from afar for years so the opportunity to take an intensive class with them was amazing. Overall, the workshop was an incredible chance to improve my design skills, delve into the business side of floral design (which was much needed!) and connect with other like-minded florists and flower enthusiasts.
