We were lucky to catch up with Kayli Head recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kayli, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

I think there is a misconception that being a business owner equals freedom. In some ways, yes, I have some autonomy and control of my daily schedule, but it also comes with a lot of sacrifices. I primarily work in the wedding industry, which means next to no weekends off. If I can sneak in a Monday off, most of the rest of the world is back to work and needing things from us, so its hard to turn off your brain and really relax and set boundaries and take care of yourself. It also affects friendships and family time…you miss out on a lot of fun weekend things.

The flip side of this, is that I’m actually happier than ever in this career because its my passion. I am in the business because I absolutely love design and making beautiful art for my clients and having that instant gratification of seeing a vision come to life before my eyes using my own hands. Nothing better. I was previously in pretty strict bureaucratic work environments that took forever to make a decision or wouldn’t take risks on new ideas. I take risks and get to be creative daily, so it absolutely feeds my soul and I would choose this over and over versus a “regular job.”

Kayli, 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 took my first floral design class my freshman year of high school at Naaman Forest in Garland, TX, which has a great horticulture program. I took to it really quickly and competed in design competitions and floral identification classes all through high school. I spend a lot of mornings at 6 am in the horticulture building studying plants and skipping lunch to hang out in the greenhouse. My first job was at a flower shop at 16 and I worked in retail floral all through college as well.

I always wanted to design as a career after school, but I couldn’t figure out how to make a living at it, so I studied PR and marketing which would eventually help me down the road. I moved to the Austin area in 2013 and saw wedding-specific florists serving that niche market. After a career in marketing, I ended up leaving that career in 2015 and took a chance on myself and launched The Bloom Bar from my living room. I think I put $500 toward a website and a bunch of florals that I designed and took around to wedding planners in the area, who then started sending me referrals and a business was born. This along with about ten of my friends getting married in one year and needing flowers gave me some content to get going from the ground up!

Seven years later, our business has truly bloomed, designing about 100 events a year in Central Texas and anywhere our clients send us. My husband left his career in 2018 to work with me full-time, so it has been awesome working with my best friend. We recently moved to the country outside of Austin to his family’s ranch, so I’ve tried my hand at growing flowers and get to forage a lot of amazing textures from our land to incorporate into our designs.

What I hope sets us apart is that we love to have fun. I love dreaming with my clients to craft a vision and bring it to life. For a client to walk into their reception space and say “these flowers just look like “me”- that’s the goal. I’ve been told that my floral knowledge and 20+ years of experience makes clients feel confident and at ease that they are in good hands with our team. (thanks to all that nerdy 6 am flower study, ha!) We are a small operation, and I never want to lose that personal feel and service. I think it’s important for our clients to know we put our heart and soul into each wedding and care deeply about the details.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

When I first started this journey, it was hard for me to let people in, to let people truly help me. So much of what I was doing was all in my head: from the actual vision design of an arrangement, to the number of stems I needed, to the logistics, to passwords. All of it. You might have heard of the “If you were hit by a bus” theory- meaning, if some tragedy happened to you today, would someone be able to step in to help you and serve your clients?

Unfortunately, I had to test this theory not once but twice, when my mom lost her battle with cancer and I lost my father-in-law suddenly, both at the beginning of my career. Luckily, I had already began to train and create a great database and CRM that my team could reference. Because of this, they were able to step in during the middle of these tragedies, rally my amazing network of florist friends and get multiple weddings done so I could focus on my family. I’m forever grateful for them for those moments, and it really illustrated why its so important to let people in, to let people help.

I’ll also say, this is why it’s so important to have friends in your industry that you trust and can call for help. They came to my rescue, no questions asked. The Austin wedding industry is very warm and friendly, and I’m grateful to have these professionals to lean on and learn from.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

At the end of the day, every vendor at a wedding is on a team. It’s our job to make the day go smoothly for our clients, so we do everything in our power to go above and beyond on these days.

There is a saying I always think of called “Louisiana lagniappe,” which means giving a little something extra. Whether thats adding in some extra flowers where it might need a little something, or helping out a planner who needs an extra hand at the wedding, our go to answer this day is always “yes.” I think that reflects our work ethic and people remember that. We are in the hospitality and service industry after all, so I try to always remember that, be professional but also have fun! Its a stressful day, so being kind goes a long way, and I try to always hire team members that have that friendly and approachable quality. Being easy to work with on hard days is something that our planner friends have said makes a difference and makes them want to work with us again (which is great because they are one of our main referrals, which I think says a lot!)

Contact Info:

• Website: thebloombar.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/thebloombartx
• Facebook: facebook.com/thebloombar

Image Credits
In order: Julia Soniat Photography April Mae Creative Jenna Routh Photography Lauren Parr Photography Smith House Photo Moments of Grace Photography