Florist

Sweeping is a very big part of my job. Flowers are very messy,
so if you're going to be a florist, be prepared to do some sweeping. Hi,
my name is Claudia and I'm a florist.
As a florist, we create flowers for customers that walk in.
We work on weddings and events,
and we also create dried flower arrangements as well. So today I am picking out
some flowers to make a bouquet for a customer that's come in.
What I do is I pick out a range of different flowers,
some with big heads and lots of petals, some with smaller heads,
and some with longer heads. So this creates quite a wild flower theme,
which is really nice. So 3 main things I do in my job is going and picking
up supplies. So that could be the fresh flowers at the wholesalers.
Making the bouquets themselves is really important,
and also communicating with customers. So at the moment,
I am replying to some brides who have asked for some wedding florals and we
reply with a quote for them.
The way that we price flowers is there's a price that we pay for them at the
wholesale market, and then we add our markup on top of that.
Our markup changes depending on how much work is required. I think people skills
are really important. Customers are a really big part of the job,
especially brides if you end up being a wedding florist. Also,
being very creative and having a creative eye.
This job is very artsy and craftsy, especially with our dried flowers,
because we make so many products out of them. We have a lot of fun here,
and that's what I mean by it doesn't feel like work. I studied for 5 years to
become an architect,
but I found that it wasn't very hands-on and it wasn't very practical.
So I really like working with my hands. When I realised just that I wasn't very
happy, I decided to move across. I had zero training when it came to floristry,
and I just taught myself - a lot of YouTube videos, a lot of trial and error,
a lot of going and buying flowers,
and some things work and some things don't work. My 2 favourite things about my
office are, of course, the flowers and the foliage.
So working around such beautiful nature. And then the other thing is my staff,
you're often working together to create quite large pieces that require more
than 1 person,
and that's where the team element is really great because you can bounce ideas
off one another.
And being open to different ideas and different ways of thinking is really
important too. Changing my job was incredibly scary,
but taking the leap was the best thing I ever did,
and I absolutely don't regret it. And at the end of the day,
I'm happy and that's what mattered to me.