Today we’d like to introduce you to Courtney Morales.
Courtney, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I first became interested in floral preservation during the summer of 2020. I’m actually a wedding photographer, and being stuck in my home that summer, unable to work, found myself doing a lot of research and education for my business. While I was searching different ideas on Pinterest, I came across an ad for floral preservation. I had no idea preservation was even possible, so I was naturally intrigued and decided to learn more.
After learning about the process, and taking a few online educational courses, I decided to try it myself! I bought some flowers and dried them in silica gel for a few weeks while I waited for my resin and molds to arrive. I started off making a few smaller pieces and gradually made some larger pieces. After making my first large, 9x9x3 inch floral block, I was hooked! I sat down and made a business plan, showed it to my husband, and he said “Let’s do it!”.
I immediately reached out to all my florist and planner friends and they started handing out my information to all of their clients. I officially launched my business in May 2021, and after only 6 months, I’m now booking weddings well into next year!
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
For the most part, building this business as been pretty easy. Being in the wedding industry as a wedding photographer, I was able to market my new business fairly quickly through word-of-mouth referrals of other vendor friends. The biggest struggles I’ve faced included a resin shortage earlier this year and now a silica gel shortage. It was also a struggle to find an insurance company that would sell me a policy because this industry is still too new and insurance companies don’t have codes for this kind of business.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Flora Creek Place specializes in preserving flowers from any special occasion, and turning them into a piece of art to be cherished for generations. While I mostly work with wedding flowers, we can also work with flowers from anniversaries, baby showers, memorial services and more. I pride myself on offering a personalized experience for each of my clients and creating a work of art that will make them smile every time they see it. I offer multiple shapes and sizes of floral blocks, along with several smaller pieces that clients can choose from.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Being successful requires a lot of hard work and not being afraid to fail. Especially starting a new business, sometimes you never know how things are going to play out. I knew when I first started looking into the preservation industry that I would need to really dig in and take the time to learn and understand the process completely. There were a lot of late nights, sometimes no sleep, and a lot of tears trying to figure out if I could make this work. There’s a lot to sacrifice to get to where you want to be, but it’s so worth it!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.floracreekplace.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/floracreekplace
