Lauren is one of my (Amanda’s) all-time favourite people. She’s been a business bestie of mine for years and it’s been a total pleasure and inspiration to watch her start her business, develop her design skills, add to her team, develop two different home studios (as her family grew) and watch her expand her design capacity, community connection, and consulting work.

We are so lucky to have her in our local floral industry.

We are so excited to have Lauren a part of our Flower Friend Panel for Camp Rover Conference 2024.

Here’s a bit more on Lauren through a little interview to get to know her.

What is the hardest part about what you do?

Getting people to take me seriously. No, it's not a hobby. Yes, flowers are expensive because they're a perishable item. Yes, I do actually make money. No, I will not give you a discount. Yes, this is a real business. No, there is not a "wedding tax." Yes, I am "being reasonable."

What is the all-time dream part of your job? The thing you still pinch yourself that you get to do? And, tell the people how often you actually get to do it.

The best part of my job is the very end of the wedding, when I see every single element come together. It's very invigorating and exciting, seeing what we worked SO hard on (and seeing what all our colleagues did as well), particularly when it's a complete transformation of the original space into something else. Flowers can transform a space or uplift an ambiance like nothing else.

If you could tell your Day 1, starting a biz self one thing what would it be?

Two things:

1) Let go or be dragged. It's a great quote I read in 'In the Company of Women' and I feel like it would be useful for anyone at almost any stage of their life.

2) I can do anything, but I can't do everything. I learned this from a former employer and I've held it close in my mind for over a decade now. A lot of us go into business and know it's going to be a small business, so we anticipate needing to do all of the things.

That's okay...just know that you can't do everything at the same time. It just doesn't work.

Someone wants to get into Floral & Event Design. What advice - from an expert - would have saved you a lot of time, sweat, and tears?

Learn from other people's mistakes. People are often happy to talk about their mistakes if it's an open environment and that's where I've learned the best things on setting up my business well. If someone wants to get into floral design, they need to go into it with open eyes. IT'S NOT GLAMOROUS AND IT IS EXHAUSTING. You're going to suck at it for a good long time, and that's okay. There are a lot of aspects of the job that suck - there's nothing quite like the stench of rotten flowers and the back ache from leaning over a sink washing buckets and vases on repeat.

Fun fact about you?

I have two sons, and they share a birthday, 3 years apart. When the clock rolled around to midnight while I was in labour with the second, I thought "oh wow. This really is going to happen." I'm a classically trained singer, and my all-time dream would be to be on Broadway...if only I had any skill at dancing.