Real Flower Business

Education and Business Training for Floral Designers.

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Wedding Day Prep

What do florists do on the morning-of a wedding?

A florist asked me recently, “How do you actually do a wedding?” She knows how to price it. She knows how to book it. But how do you actually “do the wedding”?

After 19 years of designing weddings in my home-studio, I shared my Morning-of Wedding Prep with my Patreon membership* and you can see a small sample of how I get started below.

*Patreon members can ask me anything and get access to a ton of tips and training videos to help you book clients consistently, build a solid brand and create high quality work year after year. Membership starts at just $3, but you can unlock more “stuff” with each membership tier.

Click to watch this short 2 minute clip:

In the full video on Patreon you’ll see:

  • How I tie and box bouquets
  • How I present bouquets to clients
  • How I pack centerpieces for delivery
  • How I prep a #foamfree arbor
  • Pictures of my work and the full ceremony set-up

Now, I know that no one wants another “membership”, but if you want to book clients with more ease and ask me anything about how I run my business and execute events, Patreon is the perfect place for you! (click here to join me!) There’s no commitment and you can cancel anytime.

What else would you like to know more about?

Ask me and I’ll turn it into a video lesson you can access any time as a Patreon supporter.

Thanks for making time to watch today’s clip of my wedding day prep.

Keep doing beautiful work!

xo. -Alison

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Foam Free Wedding Arbor

Foam free floral arbors are fun and easy to do!

I just did my first wedding of 2020 yesterday and shared my #foamfreefloral mechanics on Instagram. Click through the pics below to see the before, during and after on this foam free wedding arbor including 2 time lapse videos showing you the greening and the flowering! [Read more…]

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Interview: Alison Ellis On The Slow Flowers Podcast

I am so excited to announce that I’m a guest on the Slow Flowers Podcast today!

Catch me on Slow Flowers With Debra Prinzing here!

Debra and I sat down a few weeks ago, here in Vermont, while we were both attending and teaching at The Floral Field Trip. It was such an honor be invited to be a guest and I hope you’ll take a some time out of your day to have a listen!

Click to Listen

From DebraPrinzing.com:

“I’ve known Alison mostly through social media over the years and I’ve watched how her business of teaching and education has really grown. We also share a fun connection through Florists’ Review, where I’m a contributing editor and Alison is a regular business columnist.

I couldn’t skip the opportunity to record an in-person conversation with Alison to share with you. Lately, I’ve been in conversation with many of you about the term “Sustainable,” and in addition to having sustainable practices in our businesses, I strongly believe the term also applies to ensuring florist and flower farmers are SUSTAINED by their businesses; that they are paid a living wage and compensated fairly for the beauty they bring to the world.

Alison is one of the people helping make that happen, especially as she coaches others how to build profitability into their flowers…”

Click to Listen

Here are a few photos from our experience on The Floral Field Trip in September…all photo credits to Taken By Sarah.

We made a foam free (#nofloralfoam) arbor with custom structures that Kelly had custom made by a welder, and added Holly Chapple pillows from Syndicate Sales as well as short black floral buckets and a few Eco Fresh Bouquet wraps for our design of all locally grown Vermont flowers and foliage from Mountain Flower Farm.

Kelly and Mary Kate picked a perfect time of year for a photoshoot in Vermont. We were lucky to have a real life couple for our models for the day….how beautiful was this day by the way?!

Knoll Farm was an absolutely awesome location. Check out their website here to get a sense of what this unique retreat is all about. They provided 3 meals a day for us and each one was fantastic!

For our farewell dinner we cut down our bouquets from the photoshoot to serve as centerpieces. Including flowers from The Floral Reserve, Mountain Flower Farm, Understory Farm, and Longfield Gardens.

This business retreat was a great opportunity to learn more about sourcing American Grown Flowers (the basis of the Slow Flowers movement!) and it was not only educational, but truly inspiring to connect with likeminded floral professionals. The future of floristry will be “locally sourced flowers” and more eco-friendly design mechanics….especially if we, the florists, do our part to help make it that way!

It was a pleasure to be invited to teach on The Floral Field Trip and a special bonus, and a genuine honor, that I got to connect with Debra for an interview on her #slowflowerspodcast, too!

Click to Listen

Vendor credits for the Floral Field Trip…

Photographer @takenbysarah
Flowers sourced from:
@mountainflowerfarm @understoryfarm @thefloralreserve @longfieldgardens
Dress @meagankellydesigns
Model @erin.benn
HMUA @finishingtouchvt
Supplies @syndicatesales
Ribbon @honeysilksco
Venue @knollfarmvt

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Should florists use floral foam?

Should florists use floral foam?

Is floral foam biodegradeable?

I mean, is it “really that bad” for the environment that you should join the #nofloralfoam movement?…

The truth is, it’s complicated! Florists say, “but Oasis is biodegradable!”….but there are some very specific conditions required for foam to biodegrade in a landfill, and most landfills don’t meet those environmental conditions!….and even the company itself doesn’t purport to be “eco-friendly now” so much as they’re letting us know they’re “still working on it”….

I started my wedding season on June 1st and while I was cleaning out my studio in prep for the big start, I found a partial box of floral foam and I thought to myself, “What am I going to do with this?….” So I hopped into my Facebook group to share my thoughts on how to handle the floral foam in my possession!

Click to watch:

Here are a few foam free designs from the weekend that I shared on Instagram (make sure to scroll the images!):

And here’s a look as we were breaking down the next day (scroll again!):

 

View this post on Instagram

 

The morning after… I got a few questions on the #nofloralfoam ceremony piece from yesterday so here’s another look at it about 24 hours later!…we used no floral foam, but chicken wire and bricks are the main mechanics here!….we water tubed the hydrangea and spirea….the only things things that wilted were the hydrangea and spirea!….larkspur, snapdragons and cremones still look good even without a water source. (Though it rained last night and while we were breaking down!) ☔️ These were 2 pieces put together and as you can tell they’re lightweight! ? You’ll see the back of the arrangement and it’s morning-after condition as ya flip through! ? We covered the bricks with moss and tied them onto the wire with bind wire. #nofloralfoam #floralpreneur #weddingflorist #floraldesign #realflowerbusiness

A post shared by Alison Ellis (@realflowerbusiness) on

The moral of the story is simple: Do your best! Be mindful. Be eco-friendly as much as you can in your life AND in your business!

The floral industry is not “eco-friendly” as a general rule, but there’s nothing that says we shouldn’t try!

As always, keep doing beautiful work, floralpreneur®!

With love from me to you,

Alison

Learn more about Alison here!

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