The secret that makes Gate Way Flora the premier sustainable, eco-concious wedding florist of northeast Ohio is our ability to connect and recognize the hidden life around us -connect and recognize what is unique in you, connect the beauty in our blooms, connect with and care for the delicate nature that gives our world life.
Comparing flowers -just any flowers -and designed flowers, is comparing the alphabet to a love letter written by your loved one.
I have professionally worked for multiple florists, studied with world class teachers including the renown Gregor Lersch. Any design I consider with an array of the finest design techniques at my fingertips; but see even the most simple, gathered field flowers may be what truly speaks your heart and mind.
I begin with general concepts for what flowers mean to you, and work down to specifics through virtual, or in person, experience of you and your personality.
Events are gate ways, flower are gate ways -the decisive point where you mark a line in the sand -that something is changing. It’s the point of bloom.
From there, color, form, and how the flowers present themselves in an event, flows from a regular dictionary of design vocabulary I take deep pleasure in articulating.
I have been drawn to flowers since a young age, often ending my walks along the wild edges of my farms with a bouquet in hand -fresh or dried.
I never thought of myself as a florist or even lover of flowers, and yet my skillset brought on requests to design flowers -more design brought on more conscious skill.
I begin with growing the flowers myself as much as possible. With a huge array of exotic annuals and perennials in my nearly 200 acres of farmland, this is an enormous array of fresh beauty.
This goes further than where and how the flowers were grown though, and includes how the flowers live and pass into dust after the event.
A part of my design vocabulary -which is crucial to sustainability -is the continuation of life after the event.
Plastics, wire, glues, and so many items of artifice florists use for rigged designs in the moment of celebration, age into toxic poisons and junk after the fact. This speaks volumes to what we do not want in our symbol of life’s unfurling.
In contrast, the designs I create are intended to return quickly into rich soil that will grow flowers anew in a matter of months -not millennia.
Organic mechanics are a must for the life-filled designs my clients crave. I am grateful my teachers have shown me how to make this difficult challenge a reality, with advanced crafting techniques, to better speak what is in my clients’ hearts and minds.
Participating in the FREESIA Challenge was a highlight of building my skill in organic design.
It was an honor for my design to rank in the top 10 out of over 50 participants from 18 countries for the Sympathy Design challenge in this series.
I look forward to recognizing your uniqueness, connecting you to the life of the earth that blooms as flowers, in all its fullness, for your special moments.
Gate Way Flora 