While I love my job, I hate writing about myself, so I’ve enlisted the help of my writer friend, Rosie, to introduce you all to, well, me!
Shaye is a force to be reckoned with and I mean that in the best possible way. She is determined, visionary and hilarious. I love that she inherently understands my bizarre requests for weird-but-stunning flowers on a regular basis and relishes the challenge of getting to know her clients, tapping into what makes them unique so she can enhance their beauty with her beautiful work. She is also the inventor of my all-time favourite hashtag – #shitilovefood
What parts of your job do you love most? Which are the bits that have you fizzing, heading home feeling like you’ve kicked ass?
I love the sales, the creating of nothing to something on the day and the feeling my team and I get when we’ve achieved what we set out to do. End of season is also triumphant. I push myself and the business harder each year and bring my team with me, so looking back at what I’ve achieved as a business owner, as well as manager, floral stylist and mother makes me feel grateful and all “I am woman hear me roar!”
Favourite flower and why?
Can’t do one! It’s like picking your favourite child (Side note: When pushed on which was her favourite child, Shaye’s response was her husband!). Um, mock orange blossom, white bougainvillea, hellebores, anything with vines or floppiness and Queen Anne’s lace.
Favourite season?
Autumn.
Favourite wedding or event?
A fave wedding of mine was a couple of years ago in Autumn. The bride (Carly) is a photographer and had a very set idea of what she wanted her wedding to look like. It was something I’d not seen in weddings before, or done myself. The theme for the flowers was Dutch still life, like the famous paintings. Getting to use dried florals with fresh ones, fruit and dead foliage and arrange them in a really over-the-top, luxurious way was so gratifying! When we set up the wedding for Carly we also got to use taxidermy on the tables – seeing a petrified bat and porcupine quills was pretty exciting!
Describe yourself in three words
Spirited, ambitious, hungry.
What did your school report card say?
Shaye has good ideas and follow-through but is easily distracted.
What’s the one lesson you want your sons to learn most in life?
You can do anything you put your mind to.
