We were lucky to catch up with Alana Weintraub of Flowers by Alana recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Alana, thanks for joining us today. Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers

What comes to mind as the craziest is the time I was setting up wedding florals at an old hotel in downtown Portland, and actually experienced paranormal activity. I was installing a large floral install on a fireplace mantle for the wedding ceremony backdrop. To save install time, I designed it in studio knowing the dimensions of the mantle and it had no issues in the studio. Upon completing the installation and standing back to photograph it, just like dominoes, each section fell off the mantle in slow motion and came crashing down. My on-site assistant and I quickly put it back together, cleaned up spilled water and replaced any damaged blooms with extras we brought on site. We used wire to attach the sections to the mantle to give it more support and prevent it from falling again. We stood back and the exact same thing occurred, as if being pushed.

Some of the kitchen staff of the hotel walked by the ballroom and shared that there was a ghost messing with them the same way in the kitchen earlier. After attempting to wire and having it fall a third time, I took a moment to pause and pray, and then gratefully found a solution. I spoke with a kitchen manager who happened to have heavy glass bricks that worked to attach and weigh down each section. We finished the installation and will never forget setting up a wedding at a haunted hotel!

I am very grateful that I bring extra blooms to recover any damage on-site, and that I had wire and other tools to handle the situation. We’re often thrown curve balls in this industry and have to switch gears and think fast on our feet.

Alana, 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?

I own a wedding flower company in Portland called Flowers by Alana. We are not a retail floral shop, but a boutique wedding floral studio where we service weddings and events in the Portland area and throughout the Pacific Northwest with gorgeous flowers. I discovered floral design by accident, or some might say divine guidance: that I was exactly where I was supposed to be to find my purpose. I studied architecture in college, but decided after a few years that it wasn’t what I wanted to do. I took a pause on college and got a job at Nature’s, a Portland area health food store that later became Whole Foods. After a few weeks working as a general worker, a florist was let go, and the store director placed me in the floral department when she correlated my architecture and model design experience, and also saw that I was creative and artistic. I had never cut a flower in my life and never considered floristry, but she was right. My previous architecture and design courses probably did help me see scale and dimension and other design elements when looking at floral arrangements. On my first day in the floral department, I studied the arrangements already made in the case and duplicated them by switching out the types of flowers. The store director hired me as the store florist! She brought in florists from other stores to train me and my floral design career was born!

After being asked to do a few friends and family member’s weddings, I decided to take a certificate course at the Floral Design Institute in Portland. I worked as a floral designer in the floral department for different grocery stores, as well as multiple high-end boutique floral shops. Not having the confidence yet to launch my own company full-time (I was still only in my early twenties), I decided to go back to college and study botany and environmental science. During college, I was hired to do a florals for a few friends and college faculty member’s weddings, like professors and the school psychologist. After college, I completed a teacher training program and taught Waldorf early childhood education. Every year, I continued to do a few small weddings on the side for friends and family and word of mouth. This back-end, side project always brought be so much joy, and I felt an ease and grace while doing it, as if spirit was moving through me. The numbers of my weddings began to grow, and in 2016, I quit teaching and officially launched Flowers by Alana full-time.

Flowers by Alana has grown tremendously from launch to now. I started doing a handful of weddings a year to doing around 40 or more, and I have been able to grow my business to sustainably support my children and my lives. Last year, I purchased my first home on my business income as a single mother, something I am really proud of accomplishing! I am also proud that Flowers by Alana was nominated in 2023 by Oregon Wedding Day (formerly Oregon Bride magazine) as a finalist for Best Portland Florist!

Something I absolutely love about my work, is the opportunity to creatively bring a vision from idea to execution. I love working with my clients to learn their wedding vision and what is most important to them about their big day. I love designing gorgeous florals that help set the mood and tone of the wedding. And I love seeing how happy my clients are on when they see the final results. I like to say my job is to make brides cry (happy tears!)

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

I shared this partly already, but I will elaborate. Designing weddings was a small side hustle for years as I worked as a grocery store florist, during college, and also while I taught pre-school. Without advertising or establishing an online presence, my wedding portfolio started when friends and family would get married. In the beginning, you really can feel the organic growth that happens with weddings. I would design the flowers for a friend or cousin, and either someone in the bridal party, or a guest would see my flowers and want me to design theirs the following summer. Weddings grew this way ~ only via word of mouth ~ until I ultimately started sharing on a Facebook page, then later Instagram and a website,

Both networking and styled shoots really helped my business grow by building relationships with other business owners and wedding industry professionals. I love collaborating with a group of wedding industry professionals to stylize and execute a mock wedding photoshoot. With these shoots I’ve been honored to be a part of, my work has been published multiple times in wedding magazines, and I’ve made incredible friendships and industry relationships.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Being consistent with a high level of professionalism and communication throughout all the processes in my business. I am consistent with how I show up online and share my floral designs on social media and on my blog. I am consistent with how I take my clients throughout the process from consultation to proposals, booking, and designing their wedding flowers. And I am consistently learning and stretching my creative muscles, so I design at a high level of artistic skill and creativity. My company is consistent with the way we show up and deliver on the wedding day, skillfully and professionally.

Contact Info:

• Website: flowersbyalana.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/flowersbyalana
• Facebook: facebook.com/flowersbyalana
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alana-weintraub-322b0718/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/flowers-by-alana-estacada-2?osq=flowers+by+alana

Image Credits
Brittney Corey Photography