We recently connected with Becky Ruby-Wojtowicz and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Becky, thanks for joining us today. Getting that first client is always an exciting milestone. Can you talk to us about how you got your first customer who wasn’t a friend, family, or acquaintance?

When I first started thinking about designing floral arrangements, my original intention was to promote my work as a cost-effective alternative for nonprofit events. My background is arts administration (nonprofit management) and I’d envisioned this as a fun side hustle to my continued work in that sector.

As tends to happen, the universe had other plans for me. I had shared the idea with a few friends of mine, most notably a good friend from college who has happened to be part of most of my major life moments (but that’s another story!). As the clocked ticked over to January 1, 2008 I thought well, if I get a sign that I should try this, that will be my New Year’s Resolution.

A few days into the new year, this friend called me up and let me know that another friend of his was getting married that summer, and her florist had JUST called and cancelled on her. Could I step in?

What I knew about creating wedding bouquets and arrangements was approximately nothing, but I had seven months to learn, so I said sure – and that became the launching point for lilly lane to become a wedding-focused floral design studio. Word spread fairly quickly, and it just so happened that pretty much everyone I knew started tying the knot. I went from two weddings the first year, to nine, to taking a leap of faith and leaving my 9-5 job and booking 36 weddings the following year! We stopped counting weddings back in 2014/2015 when we passed the thousand-weddings mark, but are safely over 2,000 now!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

lilly lane provides a full range of wedding and event floral services, including all design, rentals, setup, cleanup and just about anything else you can think of relating to floral decor! We also offer our HOME line, which includes a subscription Flower Club as well as one-off delivery services three days per week.

Initially intending to serve the nonprofit sector, my connections within the local community (particularly my fellow Butler University alumni!) and the happenstance of when I started my business in 2008 led me to immediately pivot to providing wedding services – which is still the core of our business today as we enter into our 18th wedding season. It was several years before I’d have time to focus on revisiting my nonprofit roots, working on fundraising galas and starting our first partnership to provide floral to a local university. Since then, we have gone on to longstanding partnerships with Butler University, Christian Theological Seminary, Marian University and more to provide florals for events throughout the year.

While we’d offered Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and holiday floral to friends very casually throughout the years, it wasn’t until 2020 that we began offering floral bouquet delivery service on a routine basis. When COVID hit and our event calendar immediately emptied, I was given the gift of time to consider how creating this service might look and what benefits it might bring. I created HOME, our delivery line, in April of that year. We began a monthly Flower Club and also opened up one-off orders for special events such as birthdays, anniversaries, or holidays (now offering delivery three days per week). With literally hundreds of couples who’d used lilly lane for their wedding living locally, creating HOME was the next step in recognizing that our business had grown beyond weddings into flowers for the rest of our lives as well.

At the end of the day, what sets us apart is not just our presence in our local community, but our PRESENCE in our local community. lilly lane wedding clients don’t just go on to keep in touch over the years, attending flower classes, ordering flowers, and more (though they do!), but our children also attend the same schools. We run into each other at Kroger. We donate to the PTO silent auction and show up with our presence as community members first and foremost. I jokingly refer to lilly lane as the “friendly neighborhood florist” when I respond to an online question in our local parenting or swap groups, but it’s true – we’re here to run a business, but the success comes because we provide a great service, at a fair price, in a manner that people are happy to support, and because yes, we’ll loan out decor to the prom, we’ll answer your question about something event-related, we’ll give you referrals, we’ll show up. Happily. Authentically.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I think the beauty (and challenge) of being a small business owner is the constant need to pivot and adapt!

The nature of my work as an event florist is that I’m doing the same job over and over again, but differently every time. From changing the initial goal of our studio from nonprofit events to weddings when we immediately realized our demand lay there; changing physical locations as our needs modified; changing schedules as well as availability to accommodate a young family; adapting to a delivery model and starting a floral club during COVID, and finally changing to incorporate both our longstanding wedding work alongside our relatively new HOME line in the subsequent years. While there is a lot of consistency in our work, each season and each event has its own unique needs!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Over the years lilly lane has built a great reputation as a florist who “gets you” – we treat each client and each event as a complete individual, creating a unique design based on their likes and dislikes as well as their needs and budget. We do not require minimums and we’re very open with clients about what the best options for them will be.

As a result, our clients do not feel pressure to spend more than they wanted to, or feel that they’ve had to sacrifice their vision to meet their budget. While a wedding is an important day, we recognize that we work within a high-stakes, high-pressure industry that constantly promotes flashy, high-end products and we choose to reject the idea that you have to go into massive debt to have a gorgeous day. Interestingly, our more laid-back approach means that we tend to work with a clientele who feel seen and are kind, respectful and wind up having a great time designing floral with us – after 17 wedding seasons, I can count our Bridezilla stories on one hand!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lillylaneflowers.com
• Instagram: HOMEbylillylane
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/lillylaneflowersandevents

Image Credits

Amanda DeBusk Photography (all images except first)
Aubrey Lynn Photography (first)