A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege to attend a floral design workshop put on by Maxit Flower Design of Houston, Texas. It was fantastic! It ended up being only myself and one other student taking the class, so it was very personal! She gave us a tour of the wholesaler's warehouse where her studio is located, and then we created some wonderfully lush garden style arrangements!
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| My final piece from the workshop! |
I wanted to attend this class for several reasons:
- I think it's super important to always keep learning. Now, I definitely don't claim to be an expert by any stretch of the imagination, and I was in need of a good, high-quality refresher. However, I truly believe that in whatever field you work in you have to keep training and stretching yourself. If you don't, you get stuck in a rut of the same old processes and techniques - which can be especially damaging in a "creative" field like floristry.
- Maria Maxit, owner and creative director of Maxit Flower Designs, uses my favorite design aesthetic - garden style. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the structured, symmetrical, perfectly round, etc. style of flowers. That's just me - there's absolutely nothing wrong with it! (I will say, I do think it's cool when you can really manipulate flowers to do things they would never do in nature - it's very striking.) For my wedding, I specifically went with a florist who specializes in garden style arrangements. But when I was in school, the grand majority of the arrangements we did were that very structured style. By the time I graduated, I felt a little burned out because I didn't like the way my arrangements were coming out. Now I realize that it's because I prefer a more wild, natural look in my pieces, and I wasn't getting the chance to try that out in my design classes. This class was a way for me to get to try out the garden style techniques - and personally, I think I rocked it!
- I got to use some AWESOME flowers! Usually, when I'm getting flowers for my arrangements here on the blog, I'm on a bit of a budget. I also have a pretty limited selection of where I can purchase flowers. And while I have nothing against grocery store flowers (I think it's great that flowers can be so accessible now), they don't exactly have the best selection when you want to create garden style pieces. You either get stuck with one type of flower, or a mix of less expensive flowers, and there are rarely any greens. You just can't create the same caliber of arrangements with daisy mums and baby's breath as you can with ranunculus and delphinium and four different types of greenery. So this class was a ton of fun for me because I got to play with and use all of the gorgeous flowers that I drool over in other florists' Instagram feeds.
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| I got inspired by Valentine's Day and made this fun heart out of the remains of my arrangement. |
Overall, I had an amazing time, and I learned so much! Maria also talked to us about things she had learned along the way by working for different types of florists, different aspects of the overall industry, and design tips she had picked up over the years. I would absolutely take another one of her classes - if she decides to offer them again. I also might do some freelance work for her during this upcoming wedding season!
This week's lesson in floriography:
- Ranunculus means "radiant with charm"
- White delphinium symbolizes the power of youth and new life, but also delphinium in general can be used as an encouragement to someone to reach for their goals
Thanks for tuning in! I think next time we're due for a St. Patrick's Day themed arrangement! See you then!
