We were lucky to catch up with Tori Berry recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tori, appreciate you joining us today. So, let’s start with trends – what are some of the largest or more impactful trends you are seeing in the industry?

The wedding industry and floral industry run on trends that are constantly shifting. I personally love this about my field as it forces me to keep pushing my creativity!

Over the last few years, I have noticed that weddings have continued to shift to more curated, intimate events, especially as we move into a post-covid era. I am just a big fan of micro-weddings and elopements. These micro-events give couples the opportunity to enjoy larger floral pieces and installments rather than spending a majority of their budget decorating dozens of tables . These types of events really allow couples to mindfully create their dream day with their dream team of professionals. Each wedding I am welcomed into is just such a gift.

What is amazing about this micro-event trend, is it has influenced larger weddings to make spaces for floral impact. Which is great news for me, because large floral installations are some of my favorite things to design.

In terms of floral specific trends, I’m probably most excited about how florists have reworked traditional flowers. The best example of this is the calla lily, a very traditional, tropical flower that has been popping up in so many modern designs.

Tori, 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?

My name is Tori, I’m 26 years-old, and my business, Berry Blooms Floral Co. is a full service, wedding and event floral design company. I believe personalized floral design should be accessible for ALL, regardless of race, gender, orientation etc. Berry Blooms currently offers intentionally curated, floral designs for weddings and other events. Whether you need florals for an elopement, or an eye-catching tablescape for your next party, we really just love working with people to create unique floral pieces. We do our best to source flowers locally whenever possible and we value sustainable, eco-conscious designs.

I sort of fell into floristry when my cousin asked me to create a floral arch for her backyard pandemic wedding in December of 2020. I had left my job as an associate scientist and was working as a personal assistant at the time. Part of what drew me to study science (chemistry specifically) was my love for plants and flowers, despite also having a strong artistic bend. I had been following so many floral designers on Instagram for awhile and even had applied to local flower shops in the past to try to gain some experience in floristry.. I had no idea what I was doing at first, but just absolutely fell in love with the craft. Creating the arch–in the hot morning sun, with the wrong tools, mostly by myself–had me in such a flow state of work that I had been craving in all my past jobs. I mean, it’s hard to not fall in love with weddings and making someone’s day extra special while also getting to work creatively with a medium that just brings so much joy.

After my cousin’s wedding, I trained with several other wedding floral designers for about a year before I started taking my own clients in 2022. My engaged friends started asking for my availability, and the rest is history!

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

I would definitely say that working with flowers started out as a side hustle for me. It was only at the end of 2022 that I left my part-time barista job and jumped into flowers full time. Even still I regularly freelance with other event florists. Because I didn’t study floristry formally in school, I started out by reaching out to local florists looking for any level of freelance work. I was down to scrub buckets and just do dirty work for a while! Thankfully someone saw my eye for design and took a chance on me. From there I was able to work with more and more designers, and I started by taking on small elopements and pop-up events. The biggest milestone for me has really been this 2023 fall season. I got to do a wedding for my first clients that didn’t personally know me . They found me on Instagram, loved my work, and hired me. That was a big turning point for me. As a wedding vendor, you get welcomed into people’s intimate lives to help put on these big celebrations and it’s just so special.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

When I first started working with florals, I just started posting more of my floral work on my personal Instagram. I already had a pretty public social media presence. I really believe in being myself online and very transparent, so slowly shifting my public personal account to be my floral business page has been fairly seamless. There are other areas of social media that I’m definitely still setting up, but Instagram has been the best space for genuine audience building for me, as I get to share my work and create content that makes me happy.

For those just starting to build their social media, my biggest advice is to just do what makes you happy! I think we all know by now that consistency is key with social media but maintaining that consistency when social media plays into mental health and other areas can be such a challenge. Follow and interact with other creators that create a positive space and welcoming community. Share work that you’re excited about. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from professionals (that’s one of my goals for this offseason). Above all else, just be yourself and the right people will find you!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.berrybloomsfloralco.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/berrybloomsfloralco/
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/berrybloomsfc/

Image Credits
Lauren Lucile Creative, Cait Photo, Alexis Q Photo, Steph Sousa Photo