Behind the Scenes: Blush Florals Collaboration
We first heard of Chelsea at Blush Floral & Wedding Design while shooting a wedding last September. Our beautiful friend Elyse hired Chelsea to create her bouquets, boutonnieres, and cake topper, and we were OBSESSED. If you read that blog, you’ve heard us say before that we could have spent an entire day simply photographing the florals! (You can see the pictures we did take of them here). Following the wedding, we talked with Chelsea a bit, and decided that at some point in the future, we’d love to collaborate somehow.
Our original plan was a simple vendor feature; an interview with Chelsea accompanied by some photos of her on the job and of her stunning work. Then, the idea of turning it into a styled shoot came up. Enter Kira and Alex, an incredibly kind, easy going, cheerful couple who agreed to traipse around in the 20 degree weather holding flowers and looking gorgeous. Our adventure took us not only to Chelsea’s cute, cozy office and work space, but to a dramatic apple orchard, a moody and mysterious-seeming abandoned Girl Scout camp, and Sodus Point, where enormous waves were crashing on the pier as the wind whipped the snow and sand around us. Check out the photos and our interview with Chelsea below!
When did your interest in florals begin? How did that interest grow into a business?
Originally, I attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC for photography. Through my photography, I became interested in set design and began an internship at Anthropologie, at their flagship location in Rockefeller Center. While I was there, I met a woman who did florals on the side and needed help at a wedding. The wedding was featured on Style Me Pretty, which was amazing! After graduation, my internship ended and I moved back home to Newark and couldn’t find anything that felt quite the same. I decided to look at florists in the area to see if anyone was hiring, but nobody was, so I decided to just reach out to people.
I found a woman named Rachel whose website I really loved and I felt like her work was the style that I enjoyed, and I just called her up and she agreed to meet up with me. Her business In Bloom is located in Canandaigua and I learned so much by working with her for a wedding season. She is super talented and I loved working with her, but I was looking to do something full time so I decided to take it one step further and go out on my own, even closer to home!
What do you like most about being a business owner?
Making your own hours is amazing! Also, working in your pajamas. The freedom is one of the best parts! It also can be a negative though, because if you aren’t answering to anybody, and you make a mistake, it’s 100% your fault.
Have you ever had anything that didn’t go well?
Luckily it’s usually just little things. One time, we were about to go deliver the flowers for a wedding and my car broke down and started smoking, but it all worked out perfectly because we just borrowed a car.
Describe the preparation that goes into a wedding day.
Well, usually I start by meeting with the bride and whoever she wants to bring with her. I get an idea of their taste, style and what they’re looking for, and how much of an opinion they have. Sometimes it’s specific requests and sometimes they have a general idea and there is some more flexibility. I put together a price quote and inspiration board to give them an idea how everything will look. When it’s time for the wedding, I usually get the flowers in on a Wednesday, to give everything time to open up. I do most things, like the bouquets, the day before the wedding, but sometimes I might do table arrangements two days before because they take longer and it’s just me working on them. Then of course I deliver on the wedding day!
How do you stay inspired?
This sounds really basic, but I use Pinterest a lot! I also follow a lot of wedding blogs and a lot of people on Instagram. I also like to follow wedding dress trends, so I follow a lot of bridal designers because that can kind of gauge where the flowers are going. The past couples years, blush dresses have been really in, that’s where I came up with the name actually, so a lot of people have been going for the cream and ivory and blush color palette.
What’s the most satisfying part of your job?
When I get a really nice thank you note! I’ve had some really nice brides who have sent a nice card or note and it just makes you feel really good when you’ve worked so hard on something and you know that someone really liked it.
If you could give a piece of advice to future clients, what would it be? About wedding planning or anything else.
Just relax! In the end, it always all works out, and there are so many tiny details that you can get really stressed out about so it’s important to try to stay calm. There are so many things going on that you can’t control everything so you need to just try to enjoy it as much as you can!
So you’re moving to Boston…What does that mean for your business?
Unfortunately, I won’t be moving the business with me right now, but I’m not ruling it out for the future. I’m definitely still interested in doing florals, so I’ll probably apply to some other floral companies. I’m really interested in working for Anthropologie again actually, so the plan right now I think is to try and get a job doing what I was doing before with Anthro, and freelance for weddings on the side. In cities a lot of bigger floral companies will hire florists to freelance and just work on different weddings with them. I think that’s a great way to feel out other companies, too, because I wouldn’t want to just sign on immediately without having worked with someone before.
You’re still taking clients for the summer though, right?
Yes! I’m taking clients up until Labor Day!
