Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Olivia Irigoyen. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Olivia, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
I always joke and say flowers found me. I always enjoyed art, I come from a family that is very open to art and culture. I never realized that design and floral design specifically fell under being an “artist” until I became a florist. I started at an incredible space in West Palm Beach, Hive Home Gift and Garden and then decided to lean into my own business and freelancing. I think I realized I wanted to peruse floral design, event planning and event design when I was almost itching to move out of the original space I was in. The design style no longer aligned with what I was falling in love with, and I found that I could exercise my creativity if I tried it on my own. It was the scariest and most courageous thing I ever did for myself!
Olivia, 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?
So I am a floral designer. I work specifically with brides to make their wedding day dreams come true. I absolutely love it, but I would love to branch out and possibly lean into interior design, photoshoots, workshops and then do a fun wedding every few months. I would also love to start growing my own flowers. I truly got into the industry by accident. I had just graduated college, Covid was at its peak, and a friend from school told me about a job opportunity as a floral assistant. I took it and that’s how it started! I loved it, I loved the space I was in, I loved my clients and my friends at work, it was truly a dream job. But once I really decided that I wanted to continue Floristry, I also realized that style was no long aligning with where I was. So I switched gears. My brand, in its entirety is truly about living in a constant state of bloom. Being open to growing and changing and challenging yourself. I value self growth, important conversations and organic connection. I love serving others, truly, nothing makes me happier than making others happy and helping them achieve their dreams. So while it’s absolutely about flowers, for me it’s more than that. It’s about creating community and relationships. I would love to find space for that in my brand as we expand and change and grow.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I believe resilience is in all of around us. And I can honestly say that when you own a business, you have to constantly dig deep for resilience, you have to choose resilience. When I was younger I experienced some really traumatic events and they changed the trajectory of my life. As I’ve grown and healed, I have hit new road bumps, one of those being my mental health, more specifically my anxiety and depression. I was diagnosed at a very young age and have had to find resilience since I was young. I believe my life experiences, particularly those that have been incredibly difficult, have built a resilience in me that I hold very close. We can do hard things, we can support others as they walk through hard things. The point is we must lean into one another, lean into ourselves and for me, lean into God, as my faith has been the only reason I have my resilience and am here today.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
I have a few missions or goals that drive my creative journey. First, I truly don’t think I could survive without my creativity. I think it runs so deeply in me and I can’t function without it. My relationship with God and my faith is my main drive on my journey. I believe God gave me these gifts to serve with and gave me the community of creatives to commune with. I can’t tell you how many times deep, hard and happy conversations have happened around a table while we are all working on flowers. Magical things happen when you work with flowers. Lastly, I’d say I do it to honor my younger self. Younger Liv would be in awe of how far I’ve come and so I often thank her for bringing me to where I am today and honor here in what I will do moving forward.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Image 1: @auroraphotgraphymiami
Image 2: @livinbloom
Image 3-5: @kgracephotography