Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Heather Wingate. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Heather, appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I attended the American Floral Art School in Chicago, Illinois the summer after I graduated from high school. It opened my eyes to floral design. I remember the colorful explosion of beautiful flowers all around and I just fell in love with designing with flowers. I learned all about the visual importance of balance, color and symmetry. We worked in class with fresh flowers and it was so incredibly inspiring to see the projects around me becoming arrangements that were like artwork to me.

I soon after received my first job at a local flower shop near my home. I learned the most real side of flower arranging and the realistic truths about the labor involved. I was taught how to care for, process and feed the flowers to maintain their lifespan at that job. I never grew tired of the reward of holding so many flowers in my hands each day. I feel so grateful for the experience of working at a flower shop to learn so much more than the school could have ever taught me. Since then, I have continued my schooling online to stay current within the world of designing with flowers.

The real change happened for me when I fell in love with weddings. By putting both my school training and real life hands on training from the florist together, with my love of flowers, I realized I needed to go forward alone to be able to express my own designs from my thoughts and serve the wedding and event world with what I had to offer, rather than be stuck in a box.

The most difficult steps came when I had to venture into the business world of wholesalers and tax numbers, business licenses., websites and social media accounts. Those things were not my strengths in life but once I got on the other side of that, the beautiful, dreamy flowers started surrounding me once again and I was reminded of my passion for floral design.

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

I am a mom of four children with a husband of thirty years. I knew leaving the florist job would be a step that would allow me to create and stay home at the same time with my family. I purchased a large floral cooler and designed a boutique floral shop all of my own within my garage. I have all the same chemicals, tools and products that keep everything running smoothly as a flower shop would routinely have on hand. I focus mostly on weddings, and deliver and set up everything myself to the event. I am very intent on helping my brides and customers vision come to life. I also promised myself to never take on more than one wedding per weekend, which sets me apart from others. I feel as if I can better give all of myself to my clients special day. I also use high end flowers because I love the aesthetic outcome more than any monetary reward.
I was so honored when I was featured last year in Architectural Digest online catalog in their Creative section, for a floating floral arbor I created and shared on Tik Tok that received more than 370.5k views and 12,000 likes. I was also so excited to be asked to share my story in Voyage Michigan Magazine for my journey with floral design. I feel overwhelmed with the opportunities this door has opened up for me and am so humbled by my experiences these past few years since I stared out in 2020.
I am always so honored to get to be a part of another persons dreams and see their vision come to life for their most sentimental day. I never grow tired of it. I know what I’m doing in life is my passion.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding part of my job is definitely pleasing my client. I love when I receive the note in the mail a few weeks after their wedding with their heartfelt words and how happy I was able to make them on their most important day. It always thrills my soul and encourages me to keep going because it makes me so glad to make their dream come true.

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

I think that the timing of going out on my own in 2020 was difficult and risky. I never knew if the weddings would proceed and go forward or not due to covid being so unpredictable. I’m glad to be able to say that every wedding went on without any cancellations or losing any events.     

Contact Info:

• Website: Floramour.shop
• Instagram: Floramour_floraldesign
• Facebook: Floramour.floraldesign
• TikTok: – @floramourfloraldesign

Image Credits
Lisa Lakes Photography Blu Tree Studios Photography Elizabeth West Photography White Harvest Photography