How to Become a Floral Designer

floral designer

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a floral designer? I recently wrote a post on the details of being a prop stylist so I thought it would be great to do another about my other career as a floral designer. I’ve had such a love for flowers since the time I was a kid and no matter what turns my career has taken, it sort of just always returns to flowers. It’s a bit of an obsession I guess. And I think obsessions make great careers!

My journey:

I started truly obsessing over gardening and flowers when I was around 12 years old. My mom bought me Martha’s book on gardening, gave me a plot of land, and I grew my first cottage garden. I made little herbal bouquets and generally just read every book I could about gardening, flowers, and floristry. The obsession remained through high school, where I spent most of my time in my garden donning a straw hat and making dried flower wreaths while the rest of the Olympia teenagers were at Nirvana concerts (1992-ish). When I was 18, my older sister got married, and I made her wedding flowers. I was lucky enough to have friends and aquaintences throughout college that allowed me to “experiment”as a floral designer on their weddings!  I generally lost money on these or broke even, as I was just charging them for the cost of the flowers. I always took photos though and was able to build a portfolio.