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

Natalie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Was there an experience or lesson you learned at a previous job that’s benefited your career afterwards?

The most important experience I had prior to creating my floral design business, The Happy Hydrangea, was as a middle school teacher. I taught middle school for 7 years prior to my jump into florals and oh man, what a bittersweet time that would prepare me for my current line of work. I think the most valuable thing that transferred from teaching into being a floral designer was the ability to stay flexible. When you have 30, 12 year-olds in a classroom, chaos is bound to ensue. I would constantly be changing my plans, my deadlines, my demeanor, my decisions, and my expectations class to class and student to student. In the floral industry, I am constantly reminding myself to go with the flow. Both in my previous job as an educator and now, working with florals, there is a limit to the flexibility too and that’s okay. If I was and if I am too flexible, you can get taken advantage of easily. The kids would walk all over me and now, customers will do the same. I have to stick to my deadlines on contracts and pricing to be successful but if there are small instances and small changes that a bride or groom may need, like forgetting a mother of the bride corsage, I am willing to make adjustments and not be so rigid. As a teacher, I had to hold firm and not make “empty threats” or assigning (positive or negative) consequences and not following through. For example, if I say, “Bobby, I have asked you two times now to stop disrupting. The next time will be a phone call home,” you best believe that I need to call home on his third strike or else anytime I threaten a consequence, he will call my bluff. The same with my customers. If I say, “here is your quote, it is due in full in two weeks to secure your date,” I would be silly for turning down other clients while waiting an additional week for payment. I have also found myself doing a lot of educating for my couples getting married and having unrealistic expectations when it comes to flowers for their wedding. Many times couples have a smaller budget than what is necessary to produce installations and centerpieces for their big day. Education is informing on prices, flower types, but also giving real-world examples via pictures because so many of us are visual learners. I am constantly learning, practicing, and educating myself like I was doing as a teacher. This is so important as a floral designer because you learn new techniques, new flowers, and new mechanics just by listening to your peers! Teaching in my previous job absolutely allowed me to have a head start on being a floral designer because I am not scared of hard work and talking to people!

Natalie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

2 years ago, my sister in law asked me to help her with wedding flowers. She asked me specifically to create flowers on gold hoops that were handmade by our uncle. I was completely lost on where to start or what to do. Sharon at Carlstedts in Greer, a wholesale floral shop, was so kind and took her time to help me come up quantities of what flowers and how to stay within a pretty small budget. I had no idea how much planning and work went into picking flowers! I truly thought I would walk in and leave with some bundles of flowers and call it a day. Jokes on me because I didn’t take into account mechanics that cost money and time planning, how to process the flowers, how to keep the flowers fresh leading up to the wedding, how much the flowers cost, and finally, how to arrange them! I pulled it off with some help from my husband and family and I remember being relieved it was over but also pride! A few months later, my mother in law and father in law got married and she asked me to arrange some pew hangers and her bouquet. I was honored! Not only because I could help on their big day but because she trusted me enough after seeing my work at my sister in law’s wedding. Again, with some help from family, I was so proud of my work!

I think I am the most proud of the fact that I am a mother and I work part-time but I STILL wake up and plan, educate myself, create, and truly dive into this work to make people happy. There is no outstanding paycheck. I am not able to live off of what I make as a floral designer but I still pour my time and energy into this so that my couples have gorgeous weddings, my customers can send flowers to loved ones, and private events are elevated. As of today my biggest accomplishment are the two weddings I have had in Charleston, a smilax wall installation, and multiple bridal bouquets that took me months to plan and execute. I really owe a lot to my husband who will not only watch our daughter on weekends when I am working weddings and events but because the amount of logistical planning that goes into one arrangement has he and I troubleshooting and planning for days and weeks.

The Happy Hydrangea offers full-service weddings with florals, candles, and installs as well as flower bars where you create your own bouquet, and custom floral arrangements.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Resilience or perhaps a negative experience in the floral industry. After shadowing or freelancing for a very well-known and very successful floral designer, I almost quit. I was so beaten up by the experience and left feeling so dumb that I almost stopped completely out of fear I was embarrassing myself. I was seriously just starting out and had never worked for a floral designer before. I was thrilled to be invited to help after reaching out several times. My first day was processing flowers and I walk in to a team of maybe 12 other girls. No one was particularly nice and welcoming. I was so confused. I was there to learn and no one was helping or explaining what to do. It was clear I was “in the way,” very early on. Fake it till ya make it just kept running through my mind. A few times the mom would come over and explain how to do something more effective and I was appreciative but it seemed like an annoyance. Regardless, I was beyond thankful. The second day and third day of helping, I began to notice girls taking videos of the work and of the sheer abundance of florals and posting to their social media accounts! I learned that the floral budget for this particular wedding was $70,000 JUST for flowers! Holy cow I was stunned! I made it through the wedding doing odds and end jobs but only able to design one thing out of about 100 but hey, I was so thankful! Here is where it gets embarrassing. I made a post on my social media showcasing the volume of flowers we were working with and in the caption said something like, “this is what $70,000 of flowers looks like.” I made sure to not name the bride, the venue, the wedding date, the designer, etc. No one was in the video, just buckets and buckets of flowers. Maybe a day or two later, the floral designer messaged me on Instagram where the post was made and asked me to delete it because she wanted to make sure the bride didn’t see my caption because those details are private. I was mortified. Everything compounded from feeling like a fraud and like I didn’t fit in and now I was embarrassed because I was being asked to remove a post that was not only innocent but also got me so much interaction from people for the first time on my new floral account! I definitely took it personally and wanted to argue and say, “nothing is identifiable, etc etc.” I put myself in her shoes and said to myself, “Natalie, this is her business and this is what she is deciding for her business.” I responded and said, “I am so sorry, yes, I will remove it.” I got my paycheck from about 4 full days of work and I was not paid as high as the other girls, I wasn’t asked my freelancing rate like the others, and I have not worked with this designer since. I decided to pick myself up, not take the experience negatively, and focus on what I learned and some of the sweet people I got to interact with along the way.

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

Being a team and hyping up other vendors along this journey has been the absolute best way to bring in new clients. A wedding mostly always comes with a team of vendors. A caterer, a venue, a photography, makeup artists, florist, DJ, etc are all part of the usual vendors for a wedding. I will say that not only does it feel like there is a secret bond between vendors but always show off their work, always converse with them, always recommend the good ones that you really believe in, and they will remember you and will do the same for you. Several of my clients start off inquiries with, ” My photographer _______ said she really likes your work and I need a quote for my wedding!” These are my favorite. Not only vendors and their word of mouth but satisfied clients bragging on you is the absolute best way to build your reputation! I ask my couples for a review afterwards and so far, knock on wood, they have all been very complimentary!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.happyhydrangeaflorals.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.happy.hydrangea/?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA%3D%3D
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092187780413

Image Credits
Lily Faith Photography Wonderlight Photography Amanda Morgan Photography Charleston Photo Art Photography Ryan and Alyssa Photography Reflections Media Carolinas Photography