...and a testimonial so special it deserves a whole page to itself #loveisnotcancelled
When you make the tough decision to go rogue and set up a little business by yourself because it just feels.. well.. like the right thing to do, you do not go in to it for outpourings of thanks or appreciation. You go in to it because you've stumbled across something that fills you with joy, that sends you into a daze of deep concentration every time you snip a stem and place it exactly where you want it, fading out all the other noise around you. You go in to it because you want to scratch that creative itch you've had forever and see where it takes you, you go in to it to create a different sort of lifestyle for yourself and of course, because you want to share your joy with some really special people who choose you to be part of the most love filled day of their life.
With that said, you can imagine my utter delight and sheer pride when I received this heart warming and slightly hilarious but touching review from my most recent couple who amongst many many others were blighted with the woes of 2020 and multiple date changes
.. I won't go in to the detail because Jo tells the story so very well..
"Lucy has been so brilliant all throughout our wedding planning process that I honestly don't know where to start. Full story below but when my flowers arrived on our wedding day I was grinning like a crazy a person, they were so beautiful!
Prior to the madness of 2020, we had always planned a small ceremony in London and a big party abroad, and first up Lucy was one of the few amazing florists I could find online who would do a small order for a micro-wedding but who also had her prices clearly on her website (an absolute must when you're trying to make and stick to your wedding budget!). She was super friendly, professional and responsive when discussing our requirements and made some brilliant colour palette and flower recommendations for our late spring wedding.
Then of course 2020 happened...! We initially replanned for a wedding in December - Lucy was again fantastic in adjusting the colours and suggesting seasonal looks that were still really classy.
In the end, we actually shifted our wedding to October and gave Lucy two weeks to plan it! Not only did we have YET ANOTHER colour palette, we'd also been chopping and changing the flowers we needed to suit our new elopement plan. Lucy barely blinked at the chaos and again rose to the challenge.
The flowers themselves were stunning: I wanted to support British growers as much as possible and Lucy had worked with her suppliers to create the most gorgeous combinations of autumn colours, I really felt like an autumn queen! When they arrived I could not stop grinning, there are some very unflattering but hilarious pictures of me swooning over the bouquets...! Her signature style of contained wildness is just so beautiful, and I'm desperately trying to preserve as much as I can so I remember these flowers forever.
Massive thank you to Lucy who has been brilliant, and looking forward to finishing the collection and maybe working out summer flowers for our wedding party next year...?!"
HELL YES!! Is my answer to that, I couldn't have asked for a genuinely nicer couple to work with, cool as cucumbers and totally trusting of my floral suggestions.. absolute winners in my books
Stunning photos by Annie Bradney Photography https://www.anniebradney.com/
Venue The Old Marylebone Town Hall London
Date Friday 23rd October 2020
A rhetorical yet very serious question hangs in the air as I write this, to blog or not to blog..
I can’t help but feel I’m always a little late to the party on every occasion, be that finding my ‘thing’ I want to do always (I was 31 when I found flowers), getting around to offering local deliveries during a lockdown which in hindsight would have been a superb way to subsidise lost income as many other fabulous florists before me did so, or indeed starting a blog for my tiny small business. I just.. haven’t.. quite.. turned up yet. I was even one of the last of my ‘university alumni’ to join Facebook back in the day (when that’s what Facebook was all about..) and even then a friend set the whole thing up for me.
Talking of blogging specifically though, for years those savvy social media types have been penning away their witty and innermost thoughts about their creative journeys, what sparked their passion and sharing a wealth of insider knowledge and musings to build their brand and engage with their network. But not me no.. I’ve actively rejected this for as long as I can get away with. Why is this? Possibly because I really quite enjoy the idea of a simpler world where we rely less on technology, time spent behind computers, smart phones and social media profiles and where we don’t have pangs of guilt at our sky high screen time percentage that pops up like an unwanted blemish. Maybe my fire sign causes me to rebel and resist from following the crowd, or possibly because really and truly I rather dislike the idea of self promotion for fear of appearing arrogant, or too self involved which really means I’m stuffed because in this day and age if you have a product or a service to sell and especially if you’re doing it solo.. then you really need to wake up, drink that coffee and take a good whiff of those roses and realise it just has to be done. As a good friend once said to me JFDI (just fucking do it)
So here we are, a solid 14 months since launching LCFD and my very first blog is born if I can call it that. I do wonder who reads these things, why are they interested in my prattlings and I suppose this self doubt and bad habit of occasional crisis of confidence is really the answer to why I am indeed always late to the metaphorical party. Note to self.. stop giving a **** about what strangers think and just do what you need to do. I have to admit actually, in some way it's quite therapeutic to just type away every spark as it runs through your brain. So here I am, channeling my inner Carrie Bradshaw to scrawl this down at 6.03am on a Saturday morning while I can’t sleep.
I’m not sure this has answered my title question and I certainly can’t promise this blog thing to be regular because honestly, I’m not sure I have that much to say. But please if you have read this (thank you very much) and would actually like to read something particular or hear about something specific please drop me a message and tell me what to write! One thing we may all agree on.. better late than never to join that party.
LC x