Team Flower workshop with Kelly Perry of Philosophy Flowers

We called it Flower Camp:  A hands-on floral workshop hosted by Philosophy Flowers in North Carolina. I discussed and pondered it and had scary dreams at night. “You’re gonna go to North Carolina, alone, to a flower workshop?!”, my friends would ask.  I don’t like doing things alone.  I have an irrational fear of “alone”.  I’m very introverted and don’t talk to people unless absolutely necessary.  Networking is NOT my thing.  But, something tugged at me.  “You NEED this”, it whispered.  So I contacted Kelly and took the plunge….what’s the worst that could happen, right?

I’ve never been in an environment such as this.  Not only is Boone, North Carolina one of the most beautiful places on the planet, but these ladies were incredible.  Each of them was so talented, so eager to learn and so excited to be there.  The energy was contagious and I truly believe there was divine intervention in my decision to go.  My roommate, Deedie and our suitemate, Lauren could not have been sweeter, more welcoming souls and I enjoyed spending time with these ladies so much!

We played in dozens of buckets of flowers as we tweaked our skills creating bouquets, bouts and larger arrangements.  The natural, flowing look that trends on OnceWed and SMP is something I was unfamiliar with and Kelly was so kind to spend time with me and walk me through her design process.  Although this process took me longer than the other ladies and I still don’t feel like I’ve found my groove with this type design, I am proud of the end result.

I was nervous about the centerpiece portion of the workshop, also something I had little experience with at that point.  Kelly encouraged us to walk around and choose flowers that ‘spoke’ to us.  She encouraged us to choose a flower that we connected with and build out from there.  These tulips were outstanding and jumpstarted my design.  I swear, 30 minutes later, I had created this.  I’m not even sure how I got to this point, but I knew I loved it!  With a quick survey from Kelly and a few tweaks, our photographs were taken…..and this.

This is me, covered in flower guts and completely happy.  Pure bliss: surrounded by beautiful blooms and talented, creative women.  So thankful for my time at Team Flower Workshop and the lessons learned.  This smile, which is sometimes rare, was captured beautifully by Heather Payne Photography, as were the other images posted.  I am so grateful.