Freelancing In's and Out's: How to use freelancing while building your floral business to gain experience, make contacts and hone your professional skills.
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Did You Know Wedding Floral Design Can Help Heal a Community?
How can we foster community? How can we hand over flowers that aren’t empty pretty things? How can a wedding belong to more than one couple, and be an agent of unity and restoration in a community? I believe that by the way we think about design and what we communicate in our creations, and by the way we conduct our businesses, actively knitting a family around us as we work, a wedding can serve as a public signpost of hope in a city.
5 Tested Steps for Keeping Your Flowers Fresh Without a Cooler
Team Flower member Madelaine Jean walks through some ways to store flowers effectively if having a cooler isn’t a possibility for your business.
Types of Wedding Bouquets
In reality, the floral design world can be quite overwhelming - both to designers and to potential clients. There are color options and combinations in addition to a vast amount of available flowers, all on top of various styles and design techniques. How does one make decisions with so many options? That’s a loaded question! I believe that the best way is to educate yourself and your client.
How to Use HoneyBook for Floral Designers
As a florist, it is essential that we spend our time wisely to be as productive and efficient as possible. Between prepping flowers, designing, and installing events, the tasks involved in the backend of our business start to pile up and so much falls between the cracks. Especially with couples of today, everything is fast paced. It can be a challenge to keep up and respond to things, and the odds of losing a sale are very high.
Fresh Inspiration from Our August Floral Design Workshop
In August, ten sweet women from various locations, backgrounds, and careers became flower friends at the Team Flower Wedding Florals Workshop. Maybe it was the refreshing North Carolina mountainous atmosphere, or perhaps it was the power of flowers in bringing people together, or maybe it was their welcoming and open hearts. Honestly, it was probably all of the above - the perfect storm - and we watched in awe as these women not only received but also poured out. They came to one another’s aid when needed, offering advice with humility. They celebrated with each other when one overcame an obstacle, and they cheered one another on as they created one arrangement after another.
Conceptualizing Design for Event Florals
Our industry has a bit of a problem with originality, and it’s not entirely our fault. Conceptual design in weddings and florals can be a hard sell when working with clients and colleagues with less design experience. There is inspiration all around us waiting to be harnessed for our next project, but when the time comes to build that mood board, often the first stop is Pinterest to search.
How to Deal with Criticism in the Floral Industry
Call me crazy, but I asked Jesse to save mean comments people have left me since I started Team Flower, and today (maybe even crazier!?) I'm sharing a few with you.
July Centerpieces Workshop Design Inspiration
Seven sweet souls gathered in the North Carolina mountains in July to do just that. They sought to cultivate creativity and find rest in inspiration. They overcame obstacles, broke through norms, and increased their design knowledge. And oh the creations they made! They poured their hearts into these flowers, so as you scroll through and admire the beauty they made, may you also be inspired to tap into the ingenuity within yourself.
Why clients choose silk flower arrangements
Have you ever wondered why a bride would choose fake over fresh flowers? I mean, let’s face it. It’s her big day, and most brides get married with the intent of forever, right? So why not invest in the best and get fresh? After creating Silk Real Touch bouquets for over 400 weddings across three continents, I’ve discovered why some brides choose this option over fresh blooms. Fake flowers offer brides advantages that cannot be found in fresh flowers. This is especially true for beach and destination weddings.
How to make a greenery bouquet
This year, I booked a wedding where the bride requested only greenery. I included a few blooms in her bouquet and the groom’s boutonniere, but other than that, there were no flowers. It turned out beautifully! The ingredients I chose were a compilation of items from a local farm, from a local wholesaler, and from my backyard. While it was much more difficult than I thought it would be to narrow down the ingredient list and choose shades of green that told a cohesive story, I enjoyed the challenge and would welcome it again!
Changing your flower farm business model
We had a seemingly thriving business, but we were approaching burnout. After a while, each time I dropped off an order, I had a sinking feeling that the wholesale stem prices we were getting just weren’t enough to justify the amount of hard work, expense, and time we had put into growing them. It was time to re-evaluate our business model.
Being an Everyday Philanthropist
We need to be an everyday philanthropist in our local communities and world. One step at a time, we can accomplish big things. Teamwork makes a difference.
Design Inspiration from the July Bouquets Workshop
This creative journey began with delicious ice cream and sweet smiles in a cozy living room in Boone. The group of 7 ladies entered into a two-day bouquet designing spree with open hearts and laughter. They encouraged and challenged one another creatively, and they found great delight in one another's company. During the two days of the workshop, attendees created every style of bouquets: round, cascade, garden, hand-tied, pageant, etc. Their individual personalities shone beautifully as they arranged the farm-grown flowers into uniquely designed bouquets that any bride would be lucky to hold on their wedding day!
How to cultivate creativity
Arranging flowers can be a very methodical process. There’s a wonderful rhythm to it. You can develop muscle memory and go extremely quickly with excellent results. As a wedding florist, it’s an important part of the profit margin process. But to cultivate creativity…I think that might be different…slower…Today I’m sharing three ways you can cultivate creativity in your life.
Top 10 Accent Decor Containers
As flower people, we are always on the lookout for fabulous containers to showcase our designs. Accent Decor is one of the leading companies in creating and providing compotes, urns, votives, and more for all of us in the floral industry. They've been kind enough to share their favorites with us! Take a look at what's hot at Accent Decor.
How to use companion planting with flowers
Companion planting for soil health and crop vigor has been done for centuries, and in the age of high producing monoculture farms, the basics of companion planting seem to have fallen by the wayside. However, just a few carefully chosen plantings can make a big difference in your cut flower garden. Companion planting is generally done for two reasons: pest control and soil health. In this article, I am going to share with you the amazing ability of flowers to improve nitrogen availability, decrease nematode destruction, and that dandelions should be your new favorite weed.
July Wedding Florals Workshop Student Portfolio
The ladies that attended the Team Flower Workshop in July were in for a shock when that sweet mountain breeze turned into a flat out wind, and the temperature didn't rise above 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Sweaters were shared, blankets became an essential clothing item, and the sunshine was sought out at all costs! The weather didn't stop the attendees from learning and creating beautiful arrangements full of color and farm-fresh flowers. May their work be a breath of refreshing mountain air in your dry and arid spaces.
Negative space in floral design
As you work through this exercise, you will develop a sensitivity to sense the profound effects of the presence of negative space. Will you be drawn to it in your first arrangement? Like the way it appears? Maybe not and that's normal. Keep at it. New things can take a little time to adjust to.
The importance of floral design
I believe in the importance of finding the deeper colors and hidden rooms of your soul. One of the reasons why I fell in love with floral design is that it creates space for just that kind of work. It is kinesthetic, engaging your body with your mind and your senses. And because it is creative, it reveals preferences and beliefs you hold subconsciously and puts them on display in the piece you design.