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

Jill, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

Success can be in the eyes of the beholder but for me success is doing what you love and doing it well. Being educated and professional, honest and transparent with clients has kept us in business for over 30 years. That in itself is successful.

We have whethered many storms over the years, and always pulled through. We are now growing and so many changes have transpired over the last two years, that we hope to continue being successful.

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

At 23 years of age and living in Northern Minnesota with my husband and expecting my first child and the onset of the balloon industry, I started a home delivery and event business.

We added costumed singing telegrams and continued to add other items. We moved into a store front, and then opened a second location in Connecticut where I am born and raised.. By 1991 two years into the bussiness we started getting request for fresh florals incorporated with balloons.

I jumped on the band wagon of education immediateley with school training and two florals shops with master certified designer training me. After six months I was able to start incorporating flowers into all our designs. We grew and grew. We are still growing with added employees of most recent.

In 2013 and being tired of the cold weather, we moved to sunny Central Florida. I rebranded the business stopped all balloon work unless for close family and friends and went full steam ahead just in florals. We are a full service all inclusive floral design company.

Ofcourse It has taken time to get the clients in Florida with being so new, but we have really flourished in the wedding industry.

What we want from our clients is for them to have the love of flowers as we do, Our brand is about us, but also about our clients. We want them them to have a stress free over the top floral expeirancewhen they hire us to design their dream inspired wedding.

We are a true designer, not a drop and go retail store florist. Every bloom is hand selected for the color palatte and style, We use alot of flowers from Europe as well as Central America and some in the US.

We support the military and first responders with discounts, We do booking incentives which always means something free depending on the floral budget selected.

We can do everything from ceremony to reception all the inbetween places that need flowers, We offer arches and all the little details that incorporate florals. Vessels whether elevated or low and all the different types of candles.

For the very large over the top weddings we have an in house fabricator we use the create the unimaginable.

At the end of 2021 we purchased a building in Winter Haven for equal distance between the Orlando and Tampa market. That way we now have a full working floral design studio. We now offer consultaiton in our studio where brides can have the oppurtunity to see everything we have to offer. We can put it on round or oblong tables so they have the visual of how there special day will look. We continue to offer virtual as well.

Our work spans from the I-4 cooridor and south on both coasts and we do some northern counties as well.

We are always over the moon excited to learn about the brides vision how they met their significant other and how what we can design for their special day.

I am also a mother, grandmother, wife who loves the Star Wars Trilogies, Musical Theatre, the Boxer breed Coffee and Dark Chocolate.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

After I got married and decided to open as a balloon designer I cashed in a very small life insurance policy that was not growing at all. It was a whopping $1500. It allowed me to get all the equipment and merchandise need to begin the journey. At first I worked form home then moved into an office space and then finally into a store front in MN and a warehouse space in CT.

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

It was a struggle at first, but then getting to know other vendors that want the same as you do and creating a workship and firiendships has really lessoned that struggle.

Not all vendors will click with you, but you find your niche. It allows you to refer them and they refer you. It becomes such a wonderful working relationship. Networking events have also helped. You just have to network with like minded vendors to help succeed in my humble opinion.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jillheatoneventdecor.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/jillheatoneventdecor
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/jillheatoneventdecor
• Other: www.pinterest.com/jillheatoneventdecor

Image Credits
rutphotography christinajanelphotography the Don Cesar Adams Esate Margarittaville Orlando Florida Lifestyle Photographer