It's the Shops First Birthday! ...but is it all Pooh?

“Rivers know this: There is no hurry. We shall get there some day.”

— Winnie the Pooh

Today is my shops business birthday. A year ago today I opened my doors of the little blue flower shop on Mill Street, Bideford. 

To be honest I feel a little like Eeyore on his birthday. Little bit sad, little bit forgotten. No cake, no candles no “whoop whoop”   A gift of an empty honey pot and a popped balloon would be fab but instead I’m in the shop bleach cleaning buckets. 42 of them so far. It’s a glamorous life!

Of course I would have to have been bleaching buckets even if I was open - it’s not a self punishment thing. But hopefully it would have been in-dispersed with customers and at least been in a shop full of fresh flowers and glorious plants everywhere. Because that was the vision when I opened a year ago. 

“What’s wrong with knowing what you know now and not knowing what you don’t know until later?”

— Winnie the Pooh

Oh the dreams and the plans. The Pinterest board and the books full of ideas. It was all there. But of course the world changed. It was changing as I opened. A glimmer of gloom on the horizon. I think we were all in optimistic denial. And then “BOOM” 8 days after opening we went into nation Lockdown 1.0. 

“Could be worse. Not sure how, but it could be.”

— Eeyore

Except we didn’t know it was Lockdown 1.0 - to be followed later that year with Lockdown 2.0, the sequel and then Lockdown 3.0 the dire unwanted further sequel. 

So a year of having the shop has been more stop and start than the number 73 bus in central London. But those times I’ve been open have been great. I’ve loved it, you’ve loved it - the dream was real. So yes it was heartbreaking every time that got taken away from me, but I’ve tried so hard to hold on to that dream, to keep it going and to dream bigger for when we start to move forward again. 

“If the string breaks, then we try another piece of string.”

— Owl

I’ll concentrate on the positives - it’s so easy to be an Eeyore and be full of gloom. I already spoke in my previous blog about the thanks I have for the people who have continued to support me during the last year. Local deliveries have definitely kept me ticking over in the lockdown months. 

“You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”

— Winnie the Pooh

But the other bonus it has given me is time. Time to stop and think and plan. To fully asses the times I was open and see what worked and what didn’t work. What sold well and what else I could sell. Moving stuff around - changing my merchandising. 

“I always get to where I’m going by walking away from where I have been”

— Winnie the Pooh

Would I have had that opportunity if I’d been trading 6 days a week, week in week out?Would I have just have been working rather than planning? Who knows. But I have enjoyed the time to plan, to dream, to dream bigger. 

“When you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen.”

— Winnie the Pooh

So as we hopefully enter the last few weeks of lockdown I am continuing to build on my ideas but with the added advantage of a little bit of experience. There is new stock lines ordered. Some new products and plenty more of what there was before. A little shop shuffle and a lot of cleaning! 

Then a deep breath, feel brave and get those doors open again so hopefully this time next year I can be properly celebrating another business birthday. 

“You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.”

— Christopher Robin

Choosing the best wedding florist for you. (Me of course!)

“It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.”

— Roy E Disney

Happy (!) New Year!

A bit late to the party and I’m sure we can all agree it’s not got off to the most fantastic of beginnings but hopefully for some lucky couples it is the start of something exciting…….

Did your partner ‘pop’ the question over the festive season? If so, then a massive CONGRATULATIONS! And now the fun can really start as you begin to plan your big day (Or not so big under current restrictions). You’ll have plenty of choices and decisions to make over all sort of details you haven’t even thought of yet but it should be a fun and not stressful pastime.

One of the most important decisions is choosing your florist, Obvs! So I could write a fantastic blog about how you should go about this, or I could just use one already written by the tremendous Anthony Lyons of Special Day Wedding Photos! Anthony is a talented local North Devon photographer who I have had the pleasure of working with. (Most recently on a photoshoot at Moreton House just a week before Lockdown One - How little we knew then….)

Anthony contacted me towards the end of last year asking for some input to a blog he was writing about choosing a wedding florist. As he was so kind to incorporate so many of my thoughts, I feel it is only right to share his take on it rather than my totally biased opinion.

Of course it goes without saying that if you looking for a wedding photographer for your North Devon wedding then Anthony should be at the top of your list!

Read on for his opening gambit - and then click on the link to find out what wise words I offer up on choosing the right florist for you.

…….Planning for all aspects of your wedding day is very important. You want it all to come together into a glorious vision you will never forget. Choosing a wedding florist is one of the most important tasks for planning any wedding. Choosing an experienced florist that can help you plan how to use and decorate your space is really important in achieving your dream look. There are many things to consider when hiring a wedding florist, such as, can they work with your budget, have they worked at your venue before, or can they produce a style of wedding flowers that will suit the theme of your wedding? There are many things to consider and hopefully some of your questions will be answered below……..

Read more - including my input - at Special Day Wedding Photos

Thank you.

“Well, there’s not a day goes by when I don’t get up and say thank you to somebody.”

— Rod Stewart

I think we’ve all been more thankful than usual these last few months. Some of it very vocal and well deserved - the clapping, banging, saucepan rattling - for the NHS and other key workers. And some of it more silently for the glorious weather which has surely helped with the strangeness of lockdown. 

Others of us may have been thankful for their garden, their community, their health, their family and all the other personal touches that have buoyed us along these last three months. 

Yes, I am endlessly thankful to all those key workers who have got out there day after day and kept everything going for the rest of us. I’ve been thankful for the weather as I love a bit of sun and it has helped our little family unit enjoy spending so much enforced time together. Gardening, trampolining, tree house building, marshmallow toasting - all much enjoyed activities over the many warm sunny weeks. And I’m also very thankful we live near the coast so we have had a couple of evening outings to feel the sea and sand between our toes. 

But there are a few more ‘Thank yous’ I want to share and put out there. The ‘Thank yous’ to the people that have helped Church Park Flowers stay afloat and rally through some choppy unchartered waters. 

My previous blog spoke of how the business had to adapt and change to the change and adaptions around it. But it couldn’t have done it alone - it needed support, and that support deserves to be recognised. 

So in true Oscar speech fashion, here goes:

I’d just like to start by saying ‘thank you’ to my customers. Over the last eight weeks I have been doing deliveries of bouquets in the area. I’ve had so many more orders than I first anticipated so a huge thank you to those who asked for flowers to be sent. There were ‘thank yous’, ‘thinking of yous’, anniversaries, birthdays and ‘miss you’s. All sent with love and all sent with feeling. Most were from family and friends from afar who wished to be there but couldn’t. But I could. And as much as they were thankful to me I was equally thankful to them for putting their trust in me to portray their message not just in words but in flowers. Thank you. 

Thank you to local funeral businesses and their customers. My previous blog covered that with weddings currently off the agenda I had more time to put to funeral and farewell work. I enjoy funeral work as it is the most personal of all floral creations. So it goes without saying that a heartfelt ‘thank you’ goes to the families that again put their trust in me to create was was needed. Times like this when words are so much more difficult to find and say but colours, scents and combinations can speak volumes. Thank you.

Of course none of the above would have been possible without flowers, and as my cut flower patches have just started to produce some beauties I have needed some extra beautiful British blooms. My supplier did not disappoint. Week after week I would be couriered boxes of wonderfully packaged British grown blooms. Stocks, snapdragons, tulips, alstroemerias, cornflowers, Cornish pinks - all locally grown and in beautiful condition. Thank you. (and thanks too to Ian - the FedEx driver that came every week to my gate carefully delivering my precious boxes!)

But it’s not all ‘thank you’ to those in the physical world that have ordered and enjoyed my real flowers. I don’t need to tell you how important the virtual world has been these last few months. We have all relied on it and you’re reading this now! 

Back in the beginning of lockdown at Easter (I know it seems so long ago!) I put together my first blog and insta story on creating your own spring centrepiece. And so many of you got on board and created and shared your floral arrangements. Thank you. The blog was also shared by local businesses- namely Johns of Instow and HomeSweetHome in Barnstaple - and as always I’m grateful for that support. Thank you

With no weddings and little else going on there has been less to share and shout about on social media. So I dug deep and found a few images I hadn’t shared before. I tried, and failed, to take decent pictures of my bouquet deliveries to share and keep those channels of communication open. So again, thank you to those who liked, commented, shared or even just looked at (just press ‘like’ next time!) because in the words of a big business that resonates to a small business “every little helps”. Thank you. 

Again in Oscar speech style, I should thank my family. You note I said should as I’m not sure how much support there has been amongst the constant feeding, teaching, “mum I’m bored” yells etc etc but I did manage to escape every now and then to the workshop and get a few five minutes peace!

I will leave my final thank you to my brides and grooms of 2020. To all those who have put their wedding plans on hold. Thank you, for being strong and brave. Thank you, for being patient with the world. Thank you, for being patient with me when I forgot to reply to your email! Thank you, for continuing to be a Church Park Flowers bride even if we have to wait that little bit longer.

And then we are back to Rod Stewart to sum up my thoughts on these last few months:

“…fill my heart with gladness, take away all my sadness, ease my troubles that’s what you do.”

Thank you. 

(Next chapter coming soon!)

Elopement Wedding Flowers - the brave and the bold

“Many people spend more time in planning the wedding than they do in planning the marriage”

— Zig Ziglar

A marriage is between two people. Yourself and your love. Most people want to share this special event with family, friends, friends of family, family of friends – and anyone else who they may have bumped into on the bus.

But a brave few choose to escape the centre of attention and opt for an elopement wedding. The choice to elope may be for any number of reasons – diplomatic, financial, personal – but the result is a day that just focuses on the two that really matter.

I’m extremely fortunate to be a recommended supplier for a local award winning wedding venue here in North Devon that specialises in small, intimate and elopement weddings. With two stunning locations in which to get married in and tranquil settings to relax and spend a couple of days together in, it’s easy to see why people choose the elopement option.

The weddings may be small – but they are perfectly formed. All elements are there – the dress, the hair, the cake, the styling, the photographer – and the flowers.

When it come to the flowers, there is no matching of bridesmaid dresses, no centrepieces to plan around table settings and outlandish themes. More often than not it’s just a bridal bouquet and a buttonhole. This does not make it any less important, in fact the opposite. The wedding is so much more focused on the ‘two’  - so flower choices are so much more personal and central to the day.

I rarely get to meet the couple, planning is often at short notice. But with the power of email, Pinterest and occasionally the phone we can work together to create that perfect wedding bouquet for that very special day.

They say there is safety in numbers, so again I say it’s the brave few that will stand up there and declare their love to each other without the fanfare, frivolity or fuss. Just personal perfection.

A year in the life of a florist in North Devon: 2019

“I always say the minute I stop making mistakes is the minute I stop learning and I definitely learned a lot”

— Miley Cyrus

As I’m sure we all do, January is a time to sit down and reflect on how things went last year. I do this on a personal scale but also more of a business audit as I also have accounts to put together for the HMRC

As it is a relatively quiet time it is also good to try and get ahead in planning for the year ahead and look at what went well and what could have gone better!

So, I thought – lets be honest and tell you how it really was to be a florist in 2019!

Behind the scenes

The year always starts quiet – so I have such good intentions of planning, tidying etc. For the last three years I have promised myself that I will redo my website. I have built my own website using Squarespace. Self-taught, it’s not too bad but I do recognise that it needs updating from a visual perspective (New images etc) and a new layout to mirror the growing trend of predominantly mobile usage. I also feel it looks a bit dated (do you agree?) and could really benefit from a freshen up. In theory this shouldn’t be a difficult job. Most of the copy is there. The structure is there. I have stacks of new photos. But I’m scared. The current website may not be perfect – but it works. What if I re jig things and it doesn’t work! A success of a business can really be affected by its’ Google ranking. When you Google ‘Wedding flowers in North Devon’ – I need to be at the top. Not three pages down. I needs to be brave and go for it as the longer I leave it the more dated it becomes…..

Growing British Flowers (or not)

January is also the key month for taking stock (Both physically and virtually) of seeds and what to plant. By this stage I normally have lists of what seeds I have and what ones I need to get. What are the ones to stay in the patch, what to forget about and what to try new for this year. First honest confession; growing did not go well in 2019. I planned my planting and flower list for the year. I was realistic and really cut down on what I saw as ‘essential’ varieties and flowers to grow. I ordered the seeds, sorted out the greenhouse and bought a second propagator. It started well. Germination rates were higher than previous years and I was excited about the prospects ahead. But then it all went a bit wrong. Although germination was good, seedlings refused to grow. Nothing moved. I’m no horticultural expert, I have more of a sow and hope approach, but this was disappointing. After some embarrassed chats with more green fingered people than me – it seems like my failure may have been down to using cheap compost. Now, compost is expensive and I can use a lot so I do shop around online, around the garden centres, supermarkets etc to see where the best cost per litre is. And yes, I went for the cheapest. Seems like this was a big mistake as cheap does not equal good and said compost probably didn’t contain the right nutrients to get my seedlings underway and growing into strapping good plants. I failed my little offspring. I am ashamed. This had consequences:

Overall the number and quality of flowers I grew last year was significantly down. This meant I had to buy in lots more stock – British of course – which obviously impacted costs and overheads. That expense can make a crucial impact on any profit for the year. 

Still unsure what direction I want to take with growing this year. Maybe even fewer varieties and just concentrate on a handful of easy growers to get my confidence back up. It’s a lot of patience, time and work to get those blooms a blooming.

Weddings, weddings and more weddings

My main income stream is wedding flowers. And 2019 was the most amazing year for weddings. The final count was 51 weddings in the year. When you think that weddings are predominantly on Saturdays between May and September then you get an idea of workload. Of course not all of these weddings were big fancy affairs, I do a lot of small scale weddings where the request is just for a bridal bouquet and a buttonhole. But it still saw me doing at least 6 weddings every month in the key wedding season. Two a day is my max – and only if they are both of manageable size and located near each other. Ideally, I would only want one wedding on any given day. I did slip up last year and found myself booked for three weddings on one Saturday. Completely my fault and it shouldn’t have happened. All were completely different styles, not too far apart but included archways, flower crowns and copious bridesmaids and buttonholes. Because I was so worried about it I did actually plan and prep much more than I would normally in a working week. It was a lot of work and a lot of hours but I was really proud that it actually all come together and all went to schedule. Yes, I was tired and slightly stressed, and I’m never doing that again. But I did it. (an added complication was that I also had a courtesy car from the garage as my vehicle had spectacularly died the week before – more on that later)

If you don’t work in the floristry or wedding industry, then you may not realise how much work goes on behind the scenes in the actual planning and admin. It’s not all playing with pretty flowers you know!

Enquiries come in all year, sometimes several a week. All these need an initial response and then quotes, conversations, phone calls, face to face consultations – this all sometimes before I even have the booking! Email threads with upcoming brides can get a bit out of hand – I need to learn how to ‘manage’ this better as my record is a thread of 84 emails over one wedding! Add to this Facebook messages, whatsapp messages and texts and it can become a full time communications exercise. This was probably one of biggest areas of ‘failings’ last year. I struggled to keep on top of my admin and as current Brides obviously took priority, I was guilty of ‘forgetting’ future potential brides and as such I believe I lost some bookings for this year. Major learning in the consequences of being not as organised as I should be. There is no repeat business when it comes to weddings (!) so however amazing one year has been, you still have to keep working on the next.

But with a rare proud ‘me’ statement: I achieved over 50 weddings, single handed. Every one unique and special – and honestly enjoyed every one of them. I was proud of what I created. There were some stand out moments. A staircase at Halsannery, an arch at Sandycove, hanging hoops at a marquee, eleven bridesmaid bouquets, several jaw dropping bridal bouquets - and not a single issue. Flowers are obviously a natural product with no real guarantees of colour, quality and size. I rely on wholesalers for some of the stock and interpreting brides’ visions for their wedding is not always straightforward, so of course there is plenty of scope for ‘error’. But it was a perfect year for my perfect brides and for that I say a big ‘Thank You’ to all of them.

Mechanical failure

Of course it was not without a few stressful moments. Deliveries not complete, or wrong colours can cause a bit of panic but I must admit what let me down most in 2019 was my car! A trusty Volkswagon that actually was pretty Tardis like in its capacity but it had a rough year. On one wedding day I had delivered the bridal flowers to a bride at her cottage then was driving to deliver the buttonholes to the groom and drop off bouquets at the venue. Unfortunately, I then punctured a wheel in a spot with no mobile coverage and little ability of changing a wheel myself! I was utmostly grateful to a passerby who stopped and assisted and got me on my way before the ceremony started! But two weeks later it was all over – the car died on the North Devon Link road and was towed away. The garage tried hard to resuscitate it and I had a courtesy car for four weeks: a Fiat Panda!!!  The most un Tardis car there is. Try doing three weddings in one day with a car the size of a wheelie suitcase and that tests your nerve!

But the upside is that I now have a good practical van. Loads of room and fabulously signwritten. Look out for me in and around North Devon delivering flowers to all!

…and up pops Christmas

As per usual the year ended with Christmas! I have had a pop up Christmas Shop in Butchers Row, Barnstaple for the last 4 years but this year there was ‘no room at the Inn’. I frantically looked at other options and blindly followed others suggestion in trying Mill Street, Bideford instead. I was dubious. I know Butchers Row worked, Barnstaple is surely busier than Bideford, would people find me? But I needn’t have worried; Mill Street was amazing. I was so lucky to secure such a ‘pretty’ shop in such a good spot. Footfall was frantic and even though I was open two weeks less than last year I did just as well! So another big ‘Thank You’ if you were a Pop Up customer.

Wreath workshops? Well who knew they would prove to be so so popular. I ran seven workshops this year at five different locations. Some were sold out by October (Thank you Johns) All in all I taught 63 people how to make their own natural Christmas wreath. And feedback was tops – I even put out a questionnaire to see how it went and yet again another big ‘Thank You’ if you attended and said such nice words. 

‘The climb’

All in all 2019 was the busiest yet. Not all went according to plan, so much could have gone a lot better and I have had to learn from my mistakes in a costly manner. But I am proud of 2019 and buoyant for 2020. It may not turn out to be as busy as last year, but I know I enjoy what I do and what I can achieve.

The unlikely Miley Cyrus may have kick started this blog and she will also kick start my 2020 with some apt words of what lies ahead for me:

Watch this space….

The struggles I'm facing
The chances I'm taking
Sometimes might knock me down but
No I'm not breaking
I may not know it
But these are the moments that
I'm going to remember most yeah
Just got to keep going
And I
I gotta be strong
Just keep pushing on, 'cause

There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose
Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb