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

Tabatha, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start big picture – what are some of biggest trends you are seeing in your industry?

If you want to know what’s stereotypically trendy in the wedding world, all you have to do is hop on Pinterest. There are a lot of (potentially) short term trends floating around for 2023: disco balls, bejeweled blooms & marigold garlands to name a few and I look forward to playing around with these looks and learning new techniques along the way.

I think the “trend” with the biggest sticking power is people aren’t using their wedding day to keep up with the Joneses and they’re focusing more on throwing the best party they can for the people they love. In the wedding industry as a whole, we are seeing a huge shift in what couples value most on their big day. Guest counts are a little smaller, the wedding party is a little larger and the vibe of the day is all about the party!

We have always loved working with couples who don’t take things so seriously and you can see that in their color palettes, the flower selections and where they decide to focus their budget. Rather than the classic muted tones and bright whites in wedding flowers of old, our clients are asking for technicolor bouquets and garden vibes recreated with flower installations. We try to capture our clients’ personality as a couple and get that to shine through in the flower arrangements we create for them. Sometimes this comes through when our couples ask for flowers they had in their yard growing up, or ask us to recreate a modernized version of a bouquet their mom or grandmother carried.

Tabatha, 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?

Fauna & Fig is a two lady team made up of myself, Tab, and my business partner, Kate. We’ve been friends for almost a decade and both got into working with flowers at around the same time. Kate learned the classic way and went to school, I went the more ridiculous route of throwing myself into the deep end and learning along the way. I was asked to do the flowers for a friends’ wedding, so Kate and I used this as an opportunity to see how we would work together stylistically and logistically. After that first wedding, we were hooked, we realized we loved working together and the inquiries started rolling in!

I think the biggest thing that sets us apart from other florists is our admission that traditional floristry is not ecologically friendly in any way. For many years, florists have relied on flowers imported from the other side of the world, handled by employees that may or may not be paid a survivable wage, packed into plastic, shipped on a plane and arranged in foam blocks that never break down and contaminate our soil and water. We couldn’t in good faith continue on with the tradition of creating mountains of garbage just to make pretty flower arrangements.

We still utilize imported flowers but we buy from reputable sources who aren’t supporting unlivable wages. We’re trying to offset our reliance on imports by honing in on a market that values our homegrown flower designs. This year, all of the grass on my front lawn is being smothered out and turned into a flower garden, giving us even more space to grow our own. Our clients seek us out for our use of foraged plants and homegrown flowers and the fact that we design all of our work without using any floral foam. All of the waste from processing flowers and all of the arrangements after an event are composted on-site and used again in the garden the following season. All of our mechanics for arranging can be reused or recycled.

Being honest with our clients is the biggest through-line with our business. We don’t have any smoke and mirrors in our process. We’re able to show where our client’s budget is going, what steps we’re taking to be more ecologically friendly, and we’re open to sharing about our personal lives on our social media. We want our followers and potential clients to know that we love getting to be professional florists for a living, but we’re also just two nerds scrubbing out flower buckets and trying to get through the chaos of daily life.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The most effective strategy for growing your clientele is to treasure your clients and respect your fellow vendors. It’s never lost on me that our clients are putting their trust in me and spending their hard earned money to hire me for one of the most important days of their life. If you treat your clients like royalty, they have the potential to open so many doors for you and your business.

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

2022 was all about resilience for me. After two years of trying, my wife and I found out I was pregnant with my daughter…right before the first wedding Kate and I were hired to work! I worked throughout my pregnancy, all the way up to 38 weeks. Planning weddings months in advance while trying to imagine what life would be like at that point in my pregnancy was absolutely crazy. I had a plan A-Z for every scenario and I constantly had to adjust my expectations for how much I was able to push myself. It was hard for me to lean on those around me, even my business partner, because I’m used to being able to handle things myself. It was humbling but also a life lesson that I had to learn. I know that being forced to slow down and accept the help of others has made me a better person in life and in business.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.faunaandfig.com
• Instagram: @fauna.and.fig

Image Credits
Sonja Cooper Jess Crete Kayla Albers