Today we’d like to introduce you to Brooke and Blake.
Hi Brooke and Blake, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
I began designing florals following a traumatic brain injury. After a life-changing equestrian accident I was not able to do my normal activities, so to relax and decompress I took up floral design. As I got healthier and went to college, I began interning under wedding and event florists again for fun and as a stress relief. During my master’s program, I ended up at the Gaylord Texan in grapevine for my practicum. I went into event management and loved it. This was in 2019 and in the spring of 2020 I was furloughed due to covid.
As I began to search for my new path as a recent graduate, I continued to show horses. At one of our championship shows where I volunteered with Heroes On Horses, one of the riders in the program asked me what he could give his coach as a thank you. I offered to make a floral arrangement for him. He liked this idea, so I made up an arrangement in the barn bathroom of the horse show. More and more exhibitors saw my work and began ordering. Soon, I turned our hotel room into a flower shop, and this is the moment Blooms by Brookie was born.
Following that show, I was asked to be the florist for all of the major breed horse shows. At my first show as a complete business, I had a couple come into my booth and ask if I would consider doing weddings again. I agreed and we transitioned Blooms By Brookie from a daily florist to a full wedding and event floral company.
At this same horse show, I met the love of my life, the man that helped me propel this business to what it is today. Blake, my handsome better half was introduced to me by his mom Amy. Amy has been a longtime friend and was a huge support to me during my injury. Her son Blake also had a traumatic brain injury shortly after mine. Out of his injury, he began Pies for Pups, which is a non-profit that supports kids that can’t afford to have their service dog trained. The proceeds from pie productions goes to scholarship funds for these kids. Amy thought that our two businesses could be very complimentary, so she introduced the two of us.
Two weeks later I was asked to do floral for a photo shoot and also asked to model as the bride. Unfortunately, the groom for the shoot fell out. I ended up asking Blake to be my groom and supply the pies for the shoot to promote the nonprofit. He did and the rest is history! We began dating and have been together ever since.
That winter I moved the business to his family’s cattle farm and Blake began full force in the flower business from designing, ordering, and even website design. One day he looked into what it would take to grow the flowers we use. Quickly falling in love with floral from seed to bloom we made the decision to start growing our own product. He always says he couldn’t just give his flower girl a dozen roses, he had to grow me an entire farm of flowers. I am truly the luckiest florist on earth.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We have grown incredibly fast. I am extremely thankful for this but with this comes many learning opportunities. The first year we took any and every opportunity in order to grow Blooms. This first year we worked harder than we ever have in our entire lives. I learned very quickly how different it is from managing someone else’s business to owning and managing your own. From employee management to the back-end books, you no longer get to just play with flowers all day. The business management side of a floral company is much more in-depth than most people see on the outside.
Everything we do is time sensitive as any floral that isn’t grown here on the farm comes directly from the farms we work with overseas. To get the proper floral here for each event we have to have everything timed perfectly from the final meetings with our clients to payments to then being able to order all our products from each specific country we receive from. This time management has been crucial to learn and improve on as we’ve grown. It’s very different doing one or two weddings a week to then moving to our current schedule of 4-6 events each weekend during the busy season.
Along with product management, employee management has been a huge factor to the success of our business. For the first year, Blake and I did everything ourselves. From ordering to processing to executing the weddings. We took our time to find the correct employees. We wanted to find team members that would treat Blooms as their own. This was extremely hard to find but once we did our lives changed both professionally and personally. Being able to delegate some of our responsibilities allowed us to have more freedom to create a space for self-care, reducing burnout.
This change also allowed us to grow the farm side of our business. We are always learning. Floral is a living good, and we always have to be ready to problem solve and adapt our product and the situations we are put in with each event. We have designed flowers in barns, whiskey cellars, warehouses, five-star hotels, botanical gardens, and everything in between! With each unique location, you always have to be flexible and willing to work with your situation. We are always ready to embrace new situations as we have learned that this is how you most successfully grow as a business.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I would say what we are known for is our customer service and our unique style. When I started the company, I noticed two things about the floral industry. Most florists seemed hard to communicate with and a lot of the designs I was seeing were cookie-cutter. I did not want our clients ever feeling as if their event was just another event. Because of this, we have strongly focused on customization and design. Every event is different and every client behind each event has their own distinct personality. I never want our clients to feel as if they were put in a box and limited to what their floral could be. We brainstorm with our clients to bring to life their dreams in a unique way to them. We take extra steps, such as building our own custom pieces in our inventory, in order to accomplish this.
Lastly, our story I would say truly sets us apart. Our story and the love between Blake and I drive this business. We have had many obstacles in our path but with the support of one another we have pushed past these trials time and time again to not only improve ourselves but to improve our business as a whole. Making sure Blooms is one of a kind is and will continue to be a top priority.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out.
DON’T GIVE UP. There are always going to be opportunities to learn. It’s up to you how you process these situations and if you choose to improve or to continue making the same mistakes. I also would say, do not be afraid to ask for help. It can feel like the pressure of the world is on your shoulders starting any business but remember, you do not have to carry it all alone. When I began asking for help is when I truly started to enjoy our business.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.bloomsbybrookie.com
- Instagram: @bloomsbybrookie
- Facebook: Blooms by Brookie
Image Credits
Estes Photography
Hix Imaging
Roaming Wild Photography
Montse.jpeg
Jennifer Crenshaw Photo
