The beauty of my job is that every single day is different from the next one. And, contrarily of what’s believed, it doesn’t involve flowers a hundred percent of the time…
The day starts early… I love lifting the studio’s shutter and peaking through the door to see the boxes of flowers that arrived during the night. Most of my flowers come during the night by boat straight from the Dutch Flower Auction Rooms, so the days of waking up at some unmentionable hours in the night and driving to the flower market are long gone. Sometimes I need ‘a top up’ and I just love browsing the shelves of the flower trucks on Mondays and Fridays – I feel like a kid in a candy store, and I have to employ all my will power not to spend every cent I have in my pocket..
The first order of the day is a cup of coffee (first of many, I’m afraid) and turning on the radio. The next three or four hours are spent conditioning the flowers: that is removing them from the wraps, removing the excess leaves and nasty thorns, re-cutting the stems and placing them in clean water (at the right temperature).
Whilst the flowers are having a good drink (allowing them to get fully hydrated makes a huge difference in terms of the longevity of the designs), I tackle my emails and the social media posts and enquiries.
The second cup of coffee is the cue that the designing can start, and that continues sometimes until the very late hours of the night, depending on what weddings or events I have the next day (or how many..). I liked breaking the day with a trip in the country – foraging is my favourite outdoor activity, and I am simply astound with the sheer bounty of green goodies that you can find.
Some days are spent entirely on site, installing weddings or at a photo shoot.. I love the variation the install days brings – the location, the people (clients and industry peers) I meet and interact with, the challenges, and ultimately the fulfilment I get when all the flowers are set and ready to be enjoyed by everyone.
Every day is different and the creative challenges are just a joy! Indeed, the hours might be long and sometimes the back aches a pain but oh, worth every penny when I get a tear of two of joy and admiring words when people see my floral work.