Category: Wedding

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Living My Floral Dream: My Floristry Business from Idea to Launch

In Summer 2018, a bright and bubbly florist caught my eye who was on the cusp on launching her unique floristry boutique in Poundbury, Dorset. I was instantly impressed with the passion and precision with which Lauren Hooper set about opening the doors to her new floristry business, at a time when so many new florists are working in a studio set-up. The shop floor has provided a brilliant platform for Lauren to host workshops and events, it’s given her public visibility and she’s even hosted a Royal visit. I asked Lauren about the journey leading up to her living her floral dream. Has it all been roses and Royalty?

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Why is it so Hard to Write About Me?

Working on a new website has been an existential ordeal, and nowhere more so than writing my “About Me” page. I’ve sat at my laptop unravelling my own personality, juggling my desire for authenticity with what and how much personal information I want to share within my business. I’ve grappled with my authorial voice, knowing that every word is offering my potential botanical illustration clients a reason to book me, or walk away. 

Time to call in the pros. 

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“How Do I Preserve my Bouquet” and other Wedding Flower FAQs

Trends in floral design are always evolving. What seems fresh and exciting one year, can seem old-fashioned the next. I only have to picture my own wedding bouquet (a tight, rigid posey of antique roses) next to today’s wildly abundant asymmetric styles, to see how quickly “classic and timeless” is reinvented, season after season. In Summer 2018, I enjoyed a lively lunch with Sally Murray of Halo Blossom Floral Design. Sally described how she’s seen so much change in the world of wedding flowers in the last decade, but if she were to list the questions she is asked the most, her 2019 couples have identical concerns to those of 2009. We discussed the tricky business of what to do with the bouquet following the wedding and how her brides are always looking for fresh ideas. Naturally, I signposted my Wedding Bouquet Illustration Service as a chic and modern way to answer that familiar enquiry “How Do I Preserve my Bouquet?”

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How Does the Wedding Bouquet Illustration Service work?

“How Does the Wedding Bouquet Illustration Service work?” is a question I am asked regularly. I’m asked if I attend the wedding and draw live in situ. I’m asked if I am sent the bouquet by courier straight after the wedding. I have even been asked if I work from a preserved bouquet – to which I probably couldn’t disguise my bafflement. 

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The Personal Development Book That Changed My Life

I don’t think I had ever picked up a personal development book before 2018. Formally known as “self-help books”, it was a section of Waterstones I had never explored, put off by the strange stigma that surrounded the kind of people who sought improvement in this way. Maybe I thought these books were for those with a specific vice – smoking, say – but I never considered they were for me. 

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The Creative Process: Behind the Scenes of a Styled Shoot

“I love to create,” says Victoria Vaught, founder of Ivy Amelia Florals. But in business, our creations are usually subject to a client brief. It’s a complex creative process and one that fascinates me with its subtle twists and turns. We are hired for our skill, our talent, our vision. But we mould that vision to sync with our clients’ own expectations, budget and constraints, and amaze and delight them with our ability to do so. The aim, of course, is always to create something better than they could have imagined, but also exactly what they wanted.

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Why I Started My Creative Business For Me

A creative business may be born for many reasons. Redundancy, frustration, impulse, illness, lifelong ambition, the need for flexibility, or change in circumstances such as the arrival of babies – all reasons I’ve hear over and over again. In this blog post, I host a virtual discussion with three female entrepreneurs about their experiences starting up their creative businesses.

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