Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jen Angle. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Jen, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?
Being a full time wood flower florist was actually never part of my plan. I always thought I’d just do it as a part time side gig; after all, many teachers have side hustles! I thought a few weddings here and there, mostly on my summers off would be fun, but within my first year in business things started to really take off. As a teacher for 20 years, I had developed many skills that inadvertently made me a great small business owner, such as being an effective communicator and collaborator, creative and tech savvy, great at setting goals and action steps, strong problem solving skills plus continually learning. I was passionate about my wood flowers and why they were such a great option for a wedding or event in lieu of fresh florals that I found it easy to passionately market myself at my very first wedding expo. As soon as I got 5 couples to book me from that first show, it started to snowball from there. I quickly started putting systems in place to manage my orders while still working full time and directing the school musical. The more I started to connect with other wedding vendors, do styled shoots and market my business, the more wedding orders I booked. Before I knew it by my second year, I was close to have two full time jobs! I knew adding multiple income steams was important so I also started doing fun DIY wood flower arranging workshops. At the time, Paint Nites were the only fun night out around, so I began approaching different venues to host a DIY Night. These were perfect for adding income while waiting for all the weddings to happen, but what they also did was create a loyal client base who came to more classes, ordered arrangements, and recommended me to others. With these two things in place, after year two I was ready to go part time in my teaching career to accommodate my growing business. While I thought I could work that way for a while, my school had other plans and I was going to have to choose full time or no job the following year. The truth was, my year teaching part time showed me that my heart was now really in my business full time. Leaving behind the security of my job with insurance was scary, but I was lucky to have a husband who crunched numbers with me, believed in me and who was able to pick up the family insurance through his job. I don’t believe that I should have sped up this process, because building your business slowly with support systems helps to prevent pitfalls and ensure you are truly ready.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My love affair with sola wood flowers first began in 2018 when I was planning my own wedding. Never being one for fresh flowers due to allergies and me killing them so easily, I fell in love with the idea of wood flowers which seemed like such a cool new alternative to silk. The bouquet I saw on Etsy was more than I wanted to spend so being the lifelong crafter I am I set off to figure it all out on my won. Wood & Word Blooms was born of a desire to explore my own creativity and to provide a unique alternative to traditional flowers.
When I first discovered wood flowers, I knew immediately that I’d found what I was looking for. I began creating my own unique centerpieces and bouquets pairing the wood flowers with sentimental book page flowers for my own wedding. The Wood in my business name refers to the sola wood flowers I work with. The Word in my business name refers to both my love of reading (as a former English and Reading teacher) and the book page flowers I loved to add to my early work.
Wood flowers are great options for just about anyone wanting flowers, but there are definitely some benefits that fit some clients very specific needs. A few reasons I love them are, they are:
Eco-friendly – Made from a sustainable resource
Customized – Imagine endless color & style choices that you can’t have with fresh or might be pricey
Longevity – Enjoy long after your wedding without preservation costs
Value – Your investment in flowers won’t wilt the next day & you have gifts that last
Allergies -Nothing to trigger those sneezes and itchy eyes
It is my mission to create unique long lasting florals that bring an extraordinary touch to your special day. Whatever your vision, I love to bring it to life with wood flowers that are created with you in mind. I am always so excited to hear from clients that people had no idea they weren’t real! One of the cool things is that wood flowers can look so real, but up close you can see they aren’t and there in lies the ultimate cool factor. You want to touch them, smell them, stare at them and it only adds to the appreciation of this art. I’ve enjoyed through the years how i have improved my craft which includes not only painting the flowers but also in floral design. I continually study from fresh florists and apply their lessons to my design.
Many wood flowers can be found online through large retailers or market places, but working with me my clients get “uniquely you” arrangements that are created collaboratively with each client to make sure these are truly pieces that capture their essence and will be enjoyed for years to come. I love getting to connect with others and create for them, knowing it’s bringing a little more beauty and happiness to the world.
I also love being able to help others unleash their creativity. As kids, this is just part of our daily life. Being creative is what we do, but as we get older so many of us let go of that creative soul. I have so many people who come to my classes or do DIY Wedding Experiences in my studio who tell me they are NOT creative and that they can’t do this. What I love about flower arranging and creating with wood flowers is that while there are rules of design and certain things that need to happen, there is really so much room to just experiment and play around with the flowers until you find what you love. I never let anyone leave with an arrangement they are unhappy with but I’ve never had to do it all for them. As a little guide on the side, sometimes just one little tip, piece of advice or bit of encouragement urges that inner creative out and boosts that confidence. I love that I can still play that encouraging teacher role in some small way even in my work as a wood flower florist. I love being able to cultivate laughter and smiles through my classes and art.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
Growing clientele is never easy for a brand new small business, especially one with a product many people have not seen! For both my wood flower weddings and my DIY workshops, Facebook (although everyone says it is not as popular as it used to be) was instrumental in building my business. It was the first place I built an online presence. It allowed me to advertise for free! I have never utilized paid ads, but I built my business page, posted daily, added events which could be seen by anyone, and even more importantly was able to build connections with other businesses and potential clients through Facebook groups. Of course, having my own webpage with an inquiry form and email marketing platform that captured emails from those who found me on FB was also hugely important. I did feel like I was on social media every chance I got – on breaks from my teaching day, at lunch, in the morning, at night, all the time – constantly in the FB wedding groups looking for anyone needing a florist, putting out my own posts with photos, and sharing about what I did as much as possible. After I my first year, I was able to build clients who loved my work and me and did this work for me! When they saw someone looking for a florist, they would tag me and share photos and FB would notify me so that I knew to go in and post. They left reviews and tagged me when they posted their own photos on social media. With DIY classes, clients were more than happy to take photos and tag me with how much fun they were having in their posts and stories and leave reviews. When I shared about a class in a FB group, past attendees would start commenting how fun it was and tag friends. Truly building off the power of community behind social media helped my business get off the ground without having to spend money, which was so important as I began my business without any kind of funding.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
The pandemic definitely threatened the wedding industry but it also threatened the DIY Workshop side of my business. I was stuck with 60 18 inch grapevine wreaths in my garage for longer than my husband would have liked, that’s for sure! While so many wedding vendors were losing business due to cancelled/postponed/shifted wedding plans, I chose to head my clients off at the path with a plan that did not involve me losing them. I learned early on that many couples were still indeed getting married and on their original dates, but doing it much smaller and then doing it again later when they could have family and friends there. Because my flowers don’t die and can be reused years later, I proposed to my clients that they could actually have their flowers for both ceremonies , saving them money on buying something for the first small ceremony and then my flowers again later. I went for an all or nothing approach as I did not want to break up orders and make part now and part later and compromise my artistic work flow. I wanted to make sure all the pieces fit together. In turn, I actually wound up booking even more weddings while others were going under because of the cost benefit of flowers that could be used multiple times.
While the weddings began to boom, all of my classes had to be cancelled, but I was figured many were itching to get out much like me by summer time so I talked to my venues about outdoor classes. Instead of having all supplies out to choose from, I made kits so minimal contact with others and supplies would make them feel comfortable. My first class, I ran extension cords outside a winery window and had cords with glue guns every where. What a mess (and a hazard) so I started to look into other options. A generator seemed to noisy but I did find a cordless rechargeable glue gun online. It wasn’t cheap but I bought a few and after each class bought a few more. It made it so I coudl easily go anywhere and have a class – a field, a parking lot, a back yard- so I was able to start booking classes again. Now I have an army of 50 cordless rechargeable glue guns and have switched over even though Im back indoors.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.woodandwordblooms.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/woodandwordblooms
- Facebook: facebook.com/woodandwordblooms
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@woodandwordblooms
- Other: TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@woodandwordblooms
Image Credits
1st Image – Run Away Sunny Photography 2nd Image – Coppola Photography 3rd Image – Wild Arrow Photography 5th Image – Love Long & Prosper Photography