We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sarah Sullivan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Sarah thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Any thoughts about whether to ask friends and family to support your business. What’s okay in your view?

After you’ve taken the risk to start your own small business, it’s almost inevitable (if you’re lucky enough) that you will need the support of friends and family along the way. Also, because we are cousins and we have a very close knit family it was immediately a family oriented business. Since we don’t sell an everyday product, the biggest way friends and family support us is through volunteering their time and learning as much about floral design and installations so they can help us. We are very fortunate that our family in particular was generous in donating their time, energy and encouragement to help get our business off the ground. We love that we are to a point now where we can pay them back for their efforts

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Sarah and Shannon grew up together cousins, but most importantly best friends. They spent many nights crafting and creating in their parents’ basements. Life took them in different directions, Sarah all around the southeast as she worked for a corporate company and Shannon to Atlanta as a flight attendant. After several years, Sarah decided the corporate life wasn’t for her and took the leap to work for a big event flower shop in St. Pete, Florida where she learned the trade. In early 2020, Shannon and Sarah found themselves both back in Lexington and knew it was time to put their old crafting ways to work and opened Roséalia. Roséalia specializes in florals for events and weddings. We are known for our boho, artisan style and our ability to take our clients’ unique vision and translate them into floral creations. We like to think our distinct, modern, and expressive styles set us apart from other designs you may see and why so many couples seek us out for their big day! We are incredibly proud and honored to have such amazing feedback from each and every one of our couples. We’ve been continually blown away by the response to our work so far.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

We set up our first bridal show in March of 2020–a few weeks before the start of the COVID-19 shutdown. The first year we dealt with low bookings, postponements and cancellations due to the rise of COVID. We know this was a tremendous challenge for anyone starting a new business, and it was very discouraging to see so many small businesses shut down when we were just starting out. We were lucky to have low overhead, and second jobs that allowed us to adapt our business plan and survive the first year.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Establishing a clear brand, that attracts our ideal clients and is very consistent. We are known as the girls in the pink aprons, which has become our trademark that people love to see. Also, impeccable customer service with very quick response times and fast turnarounds on quotes. Delivering on our clients vision which in turn makes them recommend us to others. Lastly, fostering great relationships with other event industry professionals which has led to referrals and is the base for most of our potential clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: [email protected]
• Instagram: @rosealiaflorals
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/rosealiaflorals

Image Credits
Morgan Tolentino Photography, Madison Renee Photography, Christina Stallard Photo, Blessed Bee Photography, Maddie Baker Photography, Destiny Smith Photography, Macey Joy Photo