What if you could make it yourself?
My DIY backstory and a request for your feedback
DIY Bridal Bouquet, Photo by Onethirtynine Photography
I got into floristry almost by accident.
By nature, I’m a frugal, thrifty person. When my husband and I were planning our wedding, keeping the cost low was top priority, because it just wasn’t in my nature to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a single day, but also because finding the lowest cost option to get to my end goal is kind of like a game for me.
When it came to the flowers, I don’t even think I got any quotes from florists. I knew I wanted a wildflower aesthetic, we weren’t having a wedding party, and it sounded like fun to arrange some flowers with my friends and family. It was honestly never even a question: I would be DIYing my wedding in as many areas as possible, including the flowers.
I ordered a nice mix of seasonal flowers from a local flower farm, watched a few bouquet building tutorials on Youtube, and started thrifting some vases. The day before the wedding, friends and family members gathered alongside me and we put it all together. The end result wasn’t perfect,, and we were crunched for time, but so many guests noted how much the environment felt like us, and that was absolutely the best compliment for me.
After the wedding, and after getting compliments on little arrangements I would make for events at my job from time to time, I began to wonder if there was a way to explore this artform further. I found some part time freelance work, and eventually, determined I had what I needed to start my own business.
Field and Hand Bridal Bouquet
I jumped right into wedding work, because that’s just “what you did” as a florist, and had a great time with it for many years. I loved translating client visions into custom floral plans, and especially loved when authenticity was a core focus for my couples. But I will say, there was always a tension present in my body when I would send quotes to my clients. Not because I was overcharging (if anything, I was almost certainly undercharging), but because I knew that seeing those numbers would make my own bride self wince! I can’t tell you how many times I heard “I love flowers and would love to be completely surrounded by them on my wedding day, but I just can’t afford it”. And that was totally something I understood.
Everyone deserves to have flowers in their daily lives
Fast forward a bit, and I decided to stop offering weddings. Things changed for me after becoming a mom, and the wedding work schedule, physical workload, and to be honest, that tension I felt, led me to let go of something that was technically “working” in order to find my way back to that authenticity I wanted to feel. I cycled through some different ideas of what the next phase of my business could look like, and at the end of the day, I just kept coming back to wanting those people who “loved flowers but couldn’t afford them” to have the flowers they craved. All of my post-wedding work ideas were rooted in this core value.
Everyone deserves to have flowers in their daily lives. As a florist, I don’t want to gatekeep the beauty of flowers. I’m here to help flowers feel approachable and accessible, within any budget.
DIYing this business over the past couple of years has been a process of finding my way back to that original authenticity. From my guests recognizing me in my DIY handiwork, I want anyone following along with Field and Hand to be able to quickly identify authenticity as well. It feels good to be back in that lane.
Fresh flower bouquet
Which brings me to something I've been thinking about.
What if you could have that experience too? The cost-saving element of DIY flowers, but with professional sourcing and instruction so you end up with the beautiful designs you’ve been dreaming of. An experience that is designed to give you and your people a moment to pause amongst the chaos of to-do lists, and interact with each other, and with organic material. Presence, instruction, creativity, beautiful flowers.
I'm exploring the idea of curated DIY floral kits - everything you need to create your own arrangements in an informed way, without the stress of needing to figure it out yourself for the sake of saving money. For weddings, dinner parties, showers, or any other type of gathering where you feel flowers would make you happy.
This is still very much in the idea phase, and I’d love to know if this is something you could see value in. I’m completely open to your feedback, ideas, personal stories, etc. and would be so honored to hear from you. My inbox is always open.