We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sarah Stracke. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sarah below.

Sarah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about how you identified some of your key partners/vendors and how you made those relationships work?

For wedding and editorial focused- businesses in the Midwest, finding key partners and vendors that align with your style and ethos are essential in crafting your voice in the industry. One challenge to floral design is that the work doesn’t exist to anyone outside of your client (and their friends and family who attend the event) unless it’s photographed well. For a florist, having a photographer who cares about the work you’re doing and knows how to capture it in its best light is paramount. I think that it was fated that Locust’s very first wedding in 2020 was photographed by Courtney Meiner (of Courtney Lee Photography) at Klondike Park, outside of St. Louis Missouri. I met Courtney for the first time a few days before the wedding. The Bride was both of our mutual friend, Alyssa Knowling of Visitor Assembly, who had hired the both of us for her union.

The wedding day, as always, for a florist, is a sweeping day full of focused- work, which can be very stressful. Especially if there is any inclement weather, which on this October day, we were holding out for the rain to clear before I could build the site- specific ceremony installation pieces. Since the Bride was a dear friend of mine, after the work was done, I changed into my guest- attire and got to watch Courtney photograph everything. She had two to three film cameras strung around her neck at any moment, documenting everything so intentionally. I knew I needn’t worry about if or if not, this work was going to be captured well, but of course, as with any first- time partnership, I held some nervousness –always anxious if all of this hard work would be well written in history or forgotten. This event was particularly important because it was our first wedding under our new brand, Locust ; this was an imperative portfolio piece.

When Courtney delivered the work from this wedding, my jaw dropped. She captured the florals like they were pieces of art and she photographed them like an artist. She cared about every detail, chose dynamic and creative framing and highlighted details in a way that I had never seen a wedding photographer do before in the Midwest. That was the start of a very special partnership. Courtney and I exchanged numbers at the wedding and spent weeks getting to know each other –personally and professional. We made it a point to work together as much as possible and in the following months, booked several editorial projects and weddings together. Each other’s work is now threaded throughout our portfolios, and is even definitive of what makes our work speak in a way that’s specific to how we mean to portray our brands in the industry.

Sarah, 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 am the founder and owner of Locust Floral. I am a multi-disciplinary artist from Springfield, Missouri focused on drawing from the natural world to create objects and experiences that evoke and speak to the abstract interconnection between human and nature.

I graduated from Missouri State University in 2018 with a Bachelors of Science in Art Education and a Bachelors of Fine Arts, specializing in Photography and Sculpture. Following the years after my undergraduate degree, I worked on the creative direction and business development of Finley Farms and The Ozark Mill, and went on to manage The Workshop at Finley Farms, creating and facilitating the artisan workshop programming and managing the cafe, retail, and floral outlet. In 2020, I founded Locust Floral, after years of working, learning, and collaborating with Alex Crowder of Field Studies Flora, based in New York City.

I find roots between the intersection of art, nature, and economy within the Midwest region. Outside of my contributions to Locust, I offer visual direction and creative consult for businesses and entrepreneurs that are looking to bring new life to their nature- oriented concepts. Along with floral design, I have experience in education, restaurant management, retail buying, creative direction, social media management, marketing and farming.

Locust places emphasis on sanctifying, heightening, and transforming a space through floral design and specializes in concept-driven events, installations, and editorials. At Locust, local flora and seasonality are the crux of our designs. We work rigorously to source from local flower farms and feel that a symbiotic relationship between our land and practice is vital to the distinction and beauty of our work. We go the extra step to ensure our waste is nearly diminished, by using reusable vessels and composting all of our live material post- event.

What sets us apart from others in the industry is our commitment to sustainable practices, our dedication to reshaping nature, and our focus on originality. Our aim is to thoughtfully craft experiences through floral design that remind people of the beauty that exists in nature around us –softening the divide between the inside and out.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

I turned an interest, into a side- hustle, and then into a business over the course of five years.

I made my first arrangement from foraged forsythia, daffodils, and hellebore in the Spring of 2015, on behalf of a dear friend who was working as a florist in New York City and couldn’t make it home to gift her own mother birthday flowers. At the time, I was pursuing a BFA at Missouri State University, and had a good understanding of color theory, principles and elements of art and design, and three- dimensionality which all translated so fluidly into the world of floral arranging.

This was something I did on and off for several years for enjoyment. When Alex would come into town from New York in the summer, we would host dinner parties on my back deck that outlooked our vast field. We adorned the table with full arrangements of foraged locust branches, teasel, rudbeckia, and bright orange milkweed and sourced gladiolas from Millsap Farms.

In 2018, I graduated and went on to work alongside Megan Morris on the creative direction and business development of Finley Farms and The Ozark Mill, and managed The Workshop at Finley Farms when it opened in 2019, creating and facilitating the artisan workshop programming and managing the cafe, retail, and floral outlet.

In 2020 during quarantine, I made arrangements for friends and posted them on social media, saying that I would arrange for the cost of flowers and delivery, to spread some hope through the darkness of that time. Later that summer, I quit my job as the manager of The Workshop to pursue floral design and started working part time at Millsap Farms, arranging bouquets for the Farmer’s Markets and harvesting cut flowers. I launched my business, Locust in the fall of 2020.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

The E- Myth by Michael E. Gerber and The Artist Way by Julia Cameron have both been pivotal books for the creation and management of my business. For floral design, I love Ikebana Unbound by Studio Mondine and my guide to Missouri Wildflowers by Edgar Denison.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.locustfloral.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/locustfloral
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/locustfloral

Image Credits
Courtney Lee Photography