Wedding Bootcamp Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of the Wedding Bootcamp recap! As I mentioned in my last post, hosting a Floralpreneur® Workshop with a commitment to foam free designs and a balance of business strategies has been a privilege and a proud accomplishment over the last 3 years! In all of the work we’ve done, not one piece of floral foam has been used. The reason for this is simple: if we can work more sustainably as floral designers, I believe we should!

I love learning and sharing new foam free techniques because it can truly be quite simple to reduce our environmental impact by cutting out single use plastics in our work. And when I can use the same simple mechanics in more than one way, I am really winning! Here you can see how we used the floral table runners above (from Part 1 of our Wedding Bootcamp recap) to create a foam free arbor design. We just placed the designs in boxes and marched them over to the arbor with a step stool and a few floral tools.

It was a beautiful spring day here in Vermont and we enjoyed the time outside to set everything up and enjoy the views of our work! We used Holly Chapple eggs, water tubes and bind wire to attach each arrangement to the arbor–so all of these mechanics could be reused if you want. Lori and I placed the first two pieces and then everyone jumped in to add a personal touch!

One of our reusable mechanics included these water tubes on bamboo skewers that I made in a workshop with Hitomi Gilliam several years ago. Sometimes the finer details on our mechanics can transform them into something that adds value to the design! As you can see below, another foam free flower design tip I share often is to mist your flowers with water. That’s why I gifted everyone with a 3-second mister to help encourage good flower hydration.

We’re a good looking group, aren’t we?! You can hardly tell that we’d been working hard for the last few days! (Although thanks to our wonderful hosts at The Round Barn we were eating quite well, too!)

In addition to the centerpiece designs and arbor decor that we made on Day 2 of our Wedding Bootcamp, our students created hand-tied bouquets, cascade bouquets, wearable flowers and floral crowns on Day 1, which Isora Lithgow Creations captured in the images below, too! Each student used their time to explore something they’d never made before or wanted to just experiment with. Every designer’s work is unique, though we did work with recipes and price out our designs.

A tremendous thanks again to all of our students and to my co-teacher, Lori Bley of The Hidden Daisy and her fantastic assistant designer, Kollin. We’re a great team and this was a truly special experience for everyone who attended!

A successful workshop requires so many tiny details coming together and it was an absolute pleasure to get to do this with you! I’m kicking around an agenda for 2026, so let’s plan to meet up again for another memorable floral gathering at The Round Barn. I’ll see you here!

xo. -Alison Ellis

See Part 1 of Wedding Bootcamp recap here.

By Alison Ellis

Wedding Bootcamp Part 1

This year’s Floralpreneur® Workshop was a Wedding Bootcamp at The Round Barn in Waitsfield, Vermont with instructors Lori Bley and Alison Ellis. This was my third year hosting floral design students for an intimate workshop at The Round Barn and once again, it was an absolutely incredible group and I can’t wait to do it again!

Isora Lithgow Creations was there (for the 3rd time!) to document our final day of the Wedding Bootcamp and here’s a little recap and glimpse behind the scenes at our students, their beautiful work, and the foam free designs we created together. I can’t fit all of the fun into one post, so make sure you follow the links in the post for Part 2 of the recap!

Our floral palette was a mix of lavenders, yellows, whites, pinks and blues, including roses, jasmine, delphinium, tweedia, and some phenomenal tulips from von Trapp Flowers, which just happens to be located a few minutes from The Round Barn. Our students absolutely loved the tulips as they got to select whatever colors they wanted to work with, and we made tulips a highlight for our decor for the Welcome Party, which was sponsored by EveryStem! Thanks, LuAnn!!

My Floralpreneur® Workshops always include a mix of practical business training and hands-on design work. After our morning discussion on pricing, recipes and a look at how I use the EveryStem app in my own floral business, Lori taught a demonstration on a foam free elevated centerpieces. Her mechanics, recipe, pricing and finishing touches were all revealed in detail so designers can feel confident in every aspect of this piece. Lori is generous with her knowledge and answered tons of questions as well!

We then moved onto my favorite mechanics for a foam free table runner that we also transformed into a design for a ceremony! I gave some brief instructions, gave our designers the recipe they had to work with and let them go for it! Check out Part 2 of the Wedding Bootcamp recap to see how we used the same mechanics two different ways.

Before our lunch break, each designer placed their foam free table runner piece on the table to see how it all comes together. And after lunch, we used the same pieces to create a completely different design for the ceremony arbor! You can check that out in Part 2 of the Wedding Bootcamp recap here.

I want to give a big thanks to all of our students as well as our sponsors and gift contributors! EveryStem, FlowerBox, Harmony Harvest, Floral Genius, and DV Flora! We appreciate your support!

See Part 2 of Wedding Bootcamp recap here.

By Alison Ellis

Show Up For Your Business

How do you show up for your business?

When things are going well, it can be easy to show up with enthusiasm and focus because you know what you need to work on today to get your orders out the door!

When business is slower, or when sales are lower than you projected and uncertainty looms heavy, it’s important to keep showing up for your business.

I say this to you from the bottom of my heart because I know it can be hard to run your business when you’re feeling down and you don’t have enough money coming in.

This can be doubly true for established floral designers, since there’s no rule that your business will always grow or maintain itself year after year. There are in fact, down years in any business sometimes.

And that’s just one of the reasons why running a business isn’t easy (and no one every promised that it would be).

So when you contemplate your next moves, just know that the most important step is to continue to show up!

Showing up will look a little bit different for everybody.

In my floral design business in Vermont, it means I’m bending some boundaries and taking on work I find interesting–even if the orders are a bit smaller.

I just booked a great new client for a wedding in about 6 weeks–that’s not the usual timeline for me, but flowers are a huge priority for the customer and I’m excited for the gig!

I also took a graduation party order this week that’s much smaller than a usual wedding, of course, but then I got a few special prom orders from friends and a former bride from 18 years ago whose son is now in need of a corsage! And that’s a sweet set of sales I hadn’t planned on.

Then today, I got another order for tomorrow and since I’m getting flowers anyway, it’s an easy yes!

The reason I share this is because small sales stack up and so does the good energy you put out there when you keep tending to your work.

So what can you do to show up from here?

When sales are down, how do you keep your energy up? What steps can you take to keep yourself moving forward instead of feeling stuck?

And when business is booming and you’re barely keeping up with the work, how do you stay focused on what matters most so you’re working smarter, not harder?

There’s a lot of self-talk and self-management in business ownership. And yes, you can do this!

If there’s anything specific you’re working on or struggling with in your business, feel free to reach out to get in touch. We can book a call to talk about a good strategy for you! (And if you prefer to work alone, I’ll list a few more options on where to start to show up for your business as additional resources below!)

Just remember that giving up isn’t going to get you closer to your goals, so you might as well show up for your business instead.

xo. -Alison Ellis

Additional Resources:

Update your business plan: Get my Business Plan Jumpstart

Read: Actions to Take When Things Seem Uncertain

Join my Patreon Community for monthly inspiration

Get my Website Bootcamp to improve your first impression with clients

By Alison Ellis

Tariffs Are Bad For Business

Well, it’s been a tricky start to the month with the American Trade War Tariffs announcement. Hold onto your bootstraps because there’s no denying that tariffs are taxes on American consumers and they’re especially bad for small businesses.

Understandably, for the last 6 weeks or so, florists have been asking, What should we do about the new tariffs? What are you telling your customers about future price increases?

In fact, it was the first question in my Q&A for Flower Math students, too. So here’s a short behind the scenes look at the answer!

It’s a tough position to be in and at this point, I am NOT making a “big tariff announcement post” from my floral business. This is a brand messaging decision and there are several factors to consider. So first, ask: What do you really need your customers to know right now?

Because if we’re being honest, we don’t fully understand how our businesses will be impacted yet, so we may have to see how much prices increase on the wholesale end in the upcoming weeks to make an informed decision on how much to raise prices.

What if you raise by 10% this week, and then realize it should be closer to 20%? Will you make another announcement of a larger increase or keep it to 10%?

If you’re a floral designer who already charges on the upper end of the floral markups, you may need to consider whether it’s even an option in your market to raise prices, before announcing any new company tariff policies. This is one reason why these new tariffs are especially harmful to small businesses like ours.

If you’re pricing appropriately to reach your profit goals, there’s still a ceiling on what the market will bear (meaning, there’s a maximum amount that your customers are willing to pay).

If you happen to work with more affluent clients, they’ll likely feel less effected by the increased prices. Everyone else in the middle or lower income demographic will feel the impacts more acutely.

For any existing orders such as weddings and events, should your clients expect the original price will go up? If so, by how much exactly?

How will customer receive a 20% increase on their floral budget? Can they afford to pay $600 more when they originally budgeted $3,000?
Could you revisit your pricing formulas and revise your floral recipes to include fewer stems or less expensive flowers to honor your original pricing?
Can clients have the option to pay a little bit more to keep the original design “as is” OR can you modify the recipe to swap out certain flowers or make designs a little smaller so you’re attempting to meet in the middle?
Are there any other business expenses you can cut so that you can make up for the import taxes you’re paying on COGS as well as in your everyday life?

As a floral designer with weddings booked myself, I know that it’s hard to feel uncertain about what to say to your customers and most of us want to feel like we’re “on top of things”, but a thoughtful policy rollout is preferable to a prompt announcement in my opinion here.

Also, I’m not an economist, accountant or a lawyer, but it seems like it’s possible these tariffs could be found illegal or unconstitutional based on the fact that Congress is supposed to set tariff policies. (Several lawsuits are currently underway.)

In lieu of a tariff announcement, if you’re looking for some inspiration on what to say to stay engaged with your social media followers, I post 5 Blog & Social Media Prompts specifically for floral designers in my Patreon community every month. If you’re interested, you can get this month’s prompts and check out several prior months of post ideas when you join as a Marketing Maven for $29 Here.

The intention of creating these prompts for my Marketing Mavens is to make it easier for you to communicate with your customers to make a connection–beyond just following social media trends and talking about tariffs!

And if you have any questions for me, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Keep doing beautiful work. And keep your chin up as things remain unpredictable.

xo. -Alison Ellis

Additional Resources:

Flower Math: The Florist’s Guide To Pricing & Profitability

Wedding Bootcamp! April 27-29. Last Chance To Sign Up!

Business Plan Check-In

By Alison Ellis

Business Plan for Florists

As we are about to close out the 1st quarter of the year, it’s a good time to take a look at what’s happening in your business so far and look ahead to what’s coming up! So I want to invite you to join me for a quick business plan check-in. Set aside 1 hour and watch now!

Whether you updated your business plan in the last 3 months or you’ve never really had a “plan” at all, this is for you–because you cannot improve what you do not measure. Let’s check in and regroup together.