This is going to be the longest post I’ve ever written. And rightfully so. As many of you know, after 17+ years of focusing a large part of our business on wedding floral design, we are now no longer offering weddings as part of our services. This decision was made for several reasons and largely we felt it was the right time to shift our focus over to parties and events and planning and back to graphic design as well.
My team and I have loved doing weddings for all these years. We’ve done over 1200 weddings at this point and we think that is pretty awesome. If you want to take a trip down memory lane, go flip through the galleries on our FLICKR. It is really something special to have been a part of one of the best days (if not the best day) of so many people’s lives. In 2021, we finished out our season on December 11th having done 31 weddings this year– albeit about half of them were postponements or receptions for clients from 2020.
The past 2 years have been a difficult, frustrating, and sometimes just plain crazy time to be in the wedding industry. It has been even harder to be, specifically, a florist, in the event industry. Well, we all know that 2020 was a total hot mess for events and we didn’t have really any weddings for a while there and then when weddings came back in the later half of the year they were a fraction of their original size and in many cases, just “part 1” for many of our couples.
Fast forward to 2021 and things were still not great. This pandemic has completely decimated our floral industry supply chain. Supplies that used to be commodities (like votive candles, vases, floating candles, wristlets) that were always heavily stocked on the shelves have been delayed for weeks, months or are completely unavailable. There isn’t a can of gold spray paint for sale anywhere in the Chicagoland area and there hasn’t been for a year. The flowers themselves have been affected by supply chain AND climate change as well. Anytime there is a fire in California, if affects the flowers grown there. Same thing with hurricanes in Florida and the unseasonably cold weather South America was hit with this year. Places that never see frost, saw frost, and the flowers hated it and we had shortages because of it. People were let go or furloughed at the beginning of the pandemic and had to find other work which left less people in the fields to pick, less people to pack, and less pilots to fly the planes full of product from Columbia and Ecuador to Miami for US distribution.
Because of the release of the vaccine in early 2021, events were happening again in large numbers which meant the demand for flowers was at an all-time high. All of this and more resulted in the highest price increases we’ve ever seen. Some items doubled or tripled in price from 2019. Not only was pricing horrible, but keep in mind we had priced many of these weddings back in 2019 or 2020 so in many cases we had to eat those higher prices or change our designs to cover the cost difference.
And to top it all off, there were shortages of the most popular flowers. White-colored anything (especially playa blanca roses) was hard to get in late summer into fall. Then fall neutrals (quicksand, sahara, golden mustard, cappuccino roses) were hard to find and cost top dollar. Luckily I have a wholesaler who really cares about me and my long-standing account with her and she is the only reason we had beautiful product for our clients this season. I love flowers but I hated seeing this happen to my industry. I will continue to offer flowers (packaged with other event decor) for events, but at my discretion and typically with smaller events the color palettes are more varied and the clients are more open to my creativity and expertise. Weddings always have a specific look, similar flowers and larger quantities needed and many brides are very set on a look they love from Instagram or Pinterest.
Wedding prep took days out of my life leading up to the weekend to order, process, design and store and then my weekends were taken up with delivery, setup and teardown of the actual weddings. The prep for one average-size wedding is typically 3-4 days, including 1-2 days that are at least 12 hours long, plus evening meetings, calls, regular emails and texts, the cleaning and organizing of our supplies, workspace, vases, etc. My only guaranteed days off ever were Mondays, and I almost always spent them returning emails and doing quotes and contracts because when you own a business it is hard to turn it off.
I need to turn it off though. Even if only for one day a week. I have 3 daughters and a husband who I miss. I miss spending weekends with them. I miss attending events with them on weekends and I have been missing out on the events of my friends and family because for the past 17 years I’ve spent almost every weekend doing weddings. So that. That was a big part of why we are making this transition out of the wedding industry.
But there is more. I also really, really love designing and planning parties and events. I love using MORE of my skills (not just floral) to create one-of-a-kind events for my clients. I love doing graphic design projects and utilizing my illustration degree and product design background. I love teaching and hosting events for adults and kids alike. I enjoy making cool balloons for people and have made over 230 balloon creations over the past 2 years alone! But my absolute favorite thing to do is design parties for kids. I am lucky that I have some really great clients that have me help with their parties ever year and I hope to get more “lifer” clients like them. I love how they make me feel like part of the family. It only makes me want to work harder for them!
The other great thing about kids parties is they are during the day. They end while it is still sunny out. The work days are shorter. The prep is less time consuming. The setups are less involved. I can do a balloon setup in the morning and still attend my girls’ Pinewood Derby races in the afternoon. (Yes, I have 2 DAUGHTERS in Cub Scouts). It is a great thing. Doing these smaller events also allows me to take more events and projects during the week and weekend and spread joy to even more people.
I will be spending some of my Sundays this year hosting some really awesome kids events at Graham’s 318 Coffee House. I have planned 13 totally unique themed events for kids and our first two events which are in January and February have already sold out.
I am hoping 2022 is the year I achieve one of my biggest goals in life. I’ve always wanted to be a children’s book illustrator… and I am currently working on co-writing and illustrating a book with my friend Amanda who is my mom-blogging partner in crime over at Baking Besties. Our book will feature our daughters Vivian and Cora and has a lot of other special surprises too! I will let you know when it gets published!
Want to see some of the fun parties I’ve done in the past couple years? Head over to our sister site Kio and Kompany for some of the most beautiful, colorful, and fun events I’ve done! Bonus- I also post a lot of photos of my family over there because I love them and they really motivate and inspire me every day.
So there it is. Some of my reasons for us moving on to more parties and design (and no more weddings) in 2022 and beyond. I hope we continue to grow and remain busy, healthy and happy. Thanks to everyone who has supported us throughout the years, we hope you continue to cheer us on as we close one chapter and explore the next.
Special thanks to my talented photographer friends Riddle Road Photography, Rachael Osborn Photography, Jennifer Kaye Photography and Scarlet Cardinal Studios. Missing all of my wedding friendors will be tough but at least I will still get to work with all of you!
