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

Sylvia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?

My interest in floral design came from wanting to do something creative and freeing away from the computer. I work as an art director/designer in advertising and marketing and while I enjoy that side of my career, I missed working with my hands and feeling connected to nature. I started dabbling in the flowers as a personal outlet. Working with flowers can be so therapeutic. I’ve never seen someone not cheered up by flowers so I thought, it would be so nice to be a part of that, making people happy.

I started making bouquets for popups, to a store for one of my friends, haku lei (flower crowns) for friends and eventually people would ask for them. From there, I had a first invitation to do a wedding and it slowly developed by word of mouth. All of this was with support and encouragement from my friends and family. My friends gave me the opportunities to practice and trusted me to make flowers for their weddings, for events, and holidays. Without them, I would never have made the transition from doing it for fun to being able to make a living from it.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I purposely limit it to a small number of events a year. I don’t like the term side hustle because that makes it feel as if it’s less of a priority or carries less importance when in actuality, I’ve just been able to rearrange my responsibilities to manage both a job as a designer for agencies as well as manage my floral design. When my florals first began to pick up, I felt like I had to choose one over another but I also remembered how I got interested in florals in the first place and it was for fun! Keeping it small, while business-wise is counter-intuitive, is what works for me. I’m also able to have friends who are creative professionals in other industries come to work on the floral events and they enjoy it as well for the same reasons. I feel like it’s a great way to provide beautiful floral work by artists while also giving creatives a wonderful therapeutic outlet and to me that’s a very special and unexpected gift that has come out of this whole experience.

It also seems to be complementary. My work as a graphic/web designer helps me better communicate and visualize design ideas for my floral clients. I use a similar design process in developing floral designs where we go through rounds of designs, discuss tablescapes, overall look and feel. It’s very collaborative and we come up with a design and floral composition that is unique for each couple or event. I love working with photographers for editorial as well and we do things in a similar fashion. That is very much my favorite part of the process. I think the final result of the florals is of course very important but what is special about my service is that I am more of a floral consultant with my clients. It’s very bespoke and tailored to what my client wants and it’s the experience of being able to craft the design of their florals with me.

I also think it’s important to try and have some sustainability efforts or as environmentally-friendly as possible. I source locally as much as possible. I love to support local farmers and growers and to share that with my clients.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

My full-time job provided the initial capital and investment into my floral business. The majority of the investment was in education, learning the craft and portfolio building: I took as many floral workshops and studied as much possible with floral designers and schools I admired, a lot of online community resources these florists provided, and flowers themselves to design and create the arrangements and installations I wanted to be hired for. Whatever I was able to make from my florals would go back into the business so it grew slowly but organically.

I would also do a lot of collaborations with photographers whose photo styles I loved, contributing as much as I could to the florals. These collaborations gave me the opportunity to meet more people within the local events and wedding industry and it’s also what I discovered I enjoy the most of. It’s still something I enjoy doing!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I think the most rewarding aspect is making something for people to enjoy and get lost in for a moment. For my clients, it’s being able to be the hands to bring their vision to life and to have the opportunity to share my skills to be in service of creating something meaningful and special for them.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sfleur.shop/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sf.fleur/

Image Credits
Ari Theel – Theel Wedding Productions Lauren Baer Photography Emily Choy Photography Masha Sakhno Photo Lacey Maloney