My job involves… Designing and creating bespoke floral displays for events, parties and weddings. I use my unit in New Covent Garden Market as my main business hub, and this is where the magic happens; but I travel all over the UK (mainly the South of England) delivering flowers and setting up floral arrangements at venues, hotels, private houses and companies for events, weddings and personal orders.
I got my job by… Working for another florist for a number of years and gaining experience before deciding to start out on my own and set up Blue Sky Flowers.
My day-to-day work includes… Each day is different. Today, for example, I got up at 4.30am, made up 12 large floral displays to deliver to various clients, made another two for another client, and drove around London delivering and installing these and other displays with a colleague. I then made up another six large and four small displays, installed them for an event and got home at 7.20pm
The most rewarding part of my job is… Seeing the look on a bride’s face when she sees her bouquet for the first time – priceless.
The most challenging part of my job is… Interpreting a client’s brief when they don’t know what they want and can’t explain what they don’t like. Luckily, I have a portfolio of hundreds of floral creations so I often use images as a way of getting my clients to show me what they like and don’t like. Being based at New Covent Garden Flower Market is great as clients, especially brides, often like to have their consultations with me there so that we can walk around together pointing out flowers they like. From there we can start to build up a better idea of what they want.
My advice for anyone looking to get into this industry is… Research good courses, get as much work experience as possible and start young, as it can get tiring and exhausting.
