We recently connected with Cayna Carnes and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Cayna thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?
I am somewhat of an accidental small business owner, because I didn’t necessarily set out to do this. I had previously worked at an event floral boutique and a few friends later asked me to create floral designs for their weddings, so I used what skills I had learned to help with these initial events. However, when other vendors that I encountered would ask for my information, it got me thinking about starting my own company.
As I started to bounce ideas around about what I would need to do to get my company started, how I would want to run the business, and how I would want to present my floral design brand to the world, I knew a company name would be important and permanent so I wanted to get it right: I think it ended up taking four months!
While sitting on the porch one evening, I shared with my husband what I didn’t want the name to be: I knew that I didn’t want it to revolve around me, or have the “my name on the door” feeling. I played around with a number of options that had “flower” in it in – rhyming or cute, playful ways, but ultimately struggled to find the name that felt right (or the ones I liked were already used by other businesses). While suffering from writer’s block one night, a friend of mine joked that I should come up with a French name to make it sound fancy.
Finally, my husband prompted me to describe in detail what I envisioned the company to be. I described a team approach, where I would work alongside my clients to co-create their wedding floral vision. Using this as a theme, and with a trusty thesaurus on hand, we came up with the word “ensemble.”
I particularly loved the imagery that “ensemble” evokes; just like individual flowers work in concert to create a whole arrangement, we work in concert with our clients to create a whole vision for the event floral design and decor. The word ensemble is also steeped in art, music, and fashion, and I liked the creative sense that the word imbues.
I ultimately landed on the official company name of “Ensemble Custom Floral” because each design is a completely individualized experience for each client. I do not have packages or pre-set flower choices. I meet with each client individually to take their preferences and vision into account to create their custom event plan.
Our logo embodies the idea of an ensemble as well, with each end of the word reaching up and around to meet in the middle in a cluster of flowers. And, by pure coincidence, the name ended up being a fancy French word!
Cayna, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I have always loved weddings. Although I began my professional life as a middle and high-school teacher for 11 years, and I loved every second of it, I would tell friends that if I were to choose another career that it would be as a wedding planner.
When I had my son, I decided I wanted to stay home until he went to school, and then I had planned to return to teaching. My husband encouraged me to instead see this as a unique opportunity to explore my interest in wedding planning.
I started by completing my wedding planning certification at Schoolcraft College, and I applied for an internship at a wedding planning and floral design company. I got the internship and used the next year to learn the ins and outs of the wedding industry and about floral design.
I started with helping a few friends and acquaintances with their wedding floral, and it went well enough that they began referring more people to me. I was so flattered, and I thought it was worth investigating if I wanted to start my own company.
It was a lot of work to get everything up and running, but my small team and I have now completed almost 50 events in our first two years. Since we are a small custom company, we take on only what events we can handle to ensure that we provide the best service that we can to our clients. That means that we often do only one event per weekend.
What sets us apart is that Ensemble Custom Floral is a team-based, custom design company. Clients can be a part of the design process as much as they want. We take a lot of pride in customizing an event based on our client’s specifications.
I specialize in saying yes and then figuring it out! Even if a client asks me to do something I haven’t done before, I spend time researching and testing and practicing to make absolutely sure we can pull off what they want!
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
In my former career as a teacher, I always considered myself to be a strictly left-brain type of person; so every time I work up a flower proposal that perfectly mixes colors, I feel a sense of disbelief that I made it! As I was first starting out, I faced recurring sense of “impostor” syndrome; but as I was taking a bouquet class with a renowned floral instructor, she said that I have an eye for color—a compliment that I will carry with me forever.
The most gratifying part of this business is meeting with couples and hearing them describe their visions—this can range from very specific ideas to some couples that don’t even know—and then delivering a design that takes their words, feelings, and emotions and translates it into wedding floral that perfectly matches what they wanted (or, in some cases, didn’t even know they wanted!). I also feel a sense of exuberance that is unmatched when I create something that I have never done before. I’m so honored that our clients trust us with their most important day and fulfilling their wishes is truly exciting.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
While it is extremely exciting and awe-inspiring to make beautiful things, it is also terrifying. Every time I make a large installation or a bridal bouquet, it can be a huge sigh of relief that I pulled it off once again!
When I was a teacher, I was confident of my abilities and, while it was nice to hear compliments about my teaching, I didn’t need or crave it. With floral design, it’s such a different industry. I love to hear that the clients liked their flowers and I crave getting good reviews—not for my own validation, but because I just truly want my clients to love their floral design.
I’ve spoken to other people who do creative work, and they say that they have similar feelings about their fears of reaching creative plateaus and desire to please their clients. I am still getting used to these feelings as someone who is newer to a creative field. So if you have someone in your life doing creative work that you enjoy – let them know! They will really appreciate it!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ensemblefloral.com/
- Instagram: @ensemblefloral
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ensemblefloral
Image Credits
Captured by Grace Photography Jessica Schaefer Photography Amber Marie Photography Ashely Dorazio Photography Kandra Lynn Photography