Dani from "She Follows Floral Design" .... she followed her heart
Meet Dani. Graduate of Pearsons Certificate III program and founder of She Follows Floral Design based in beautiful, regional Goulburn.
Here's Dani's story ... her four year journey to living her dream life.
Hi, I’m Dani, a Florist with a strong desire to live each day Creatively, with Adventure and Think a little Differently.
What started as a humble venture to create simple, yet sophisticated florals has now grown to the business that you see today,: She Follows Floral Design (SFFD).
I started in a small shed in the back of my mum and her husband’s backyard, then moved into a slightly bigger shed, and I now moved into THE most beautiful flower shed located in the heart of Goulburn.
More often than not it's filled with beautiful fresh flowers, dried flowers, plants, pots, vases and other beautiful things. This is what I call "The Workshop". This is the heart of my flower world.
- Here I meet with my beautiful brides for their initial bridal consult and its where together we start dreaming up magical florals for their wedding day.
- And from here I prepare, design and create your magical florals, then deliver all around the region.
- During Covid I offered a range of beautiful weekly flowers for my lovely local flower lovers.
- And I am now able to host the most magical workshops bringing the community together.
At the heart of it, I am a wedding and events florist designer, but I also enjoy creating weekly florals to fill any home and heart with a little love.
What is your dream for She Follows Floral Design?
To be creative so that I can continue to bring feelings of joy, love, passion, romance, happiness, desire and playfulness to the lives of those I have the pleasure of creating magical florals for. To travel and create beautiful flowers in new and exciting places.
My dream is to also continue bringing community together through my love of flowers and workshops they are such a nice way to interact, learn a new skill and make new friends along the way.
How did you get started?
After leaving my 9-5 office job I approached an incredible florist located in the southern highlands. I wanted to know if Wedding and Events floristry was for me! I am so thankful that she let me do some work experience with her because from the very first day I loved it!
You realise very quickly it’s not all pretty flowers and smiling faces. You learn very quickly it’s very hard work and very labour intensive but I didn’t care I loved it and understood that that’s all part of learning and the less pretty parts of the job involve scrubbing and filling buckets, heaving heavy loads of flowers from one site to the other and thinking on your feet.
From work experience I moved into freelance work with an amazing, very inspiring wedding & events florist. The lady I was working for suggested training whilst working for her so from there I decided to take my passion for all things flowers to the next level, I enrolled into the reputable Pearsons School of Floristry.
I wanted to gain more skills so I moved to Bondi to start working at Pearsons Florist and another incredible city florist. After living in the city for a couple of years, I knew that my creativity would be put to greater use in a regional setting. So, a love for my humble country community, as well as, family and friends enticed me back to Goulburn, NSW.
Then came my second big leap: SFFD was born.
I am now pursuing and I am wholeheartedly committed to providing magical floral arrangements for weddings, events and all memorable occasions. My passion to bring all floral visions to life drives me to create flawless beauty and to make every occasion as special as it should be.
I couldn’t be doing any of this without the love and support of my amazing family, boyfriend, friends and local community they are what makes SFFD possible.
What advice would you give yourself if you had the chance to start afresh?
My advice to younger less experienced Dani is just relax and enjoy the process. Trust yourself and your love of flowers and design.
So often you can get so caught up in what everyone else is doing and what every else is thinking you should be doing but its so important to remain confident in yourself and your skills. Continue to approach and freelance for other wedding and events florist that you love and find inspiring. Its so important to lift each other up and be part of a community of like-minded creative individuals. Be true to yourself and also find something else that you love that separates you from your flowers for me I have found a love of exercise especially trail running and cycling it gets me out in nature and I find it thrilling and inspiring!
What is a highlight or a real achievement?
Firstly, it was upgrading my mini car to a mini van (with the help of my dad) and then it was the opportunity to move into the flower shed this has created space for me expand my business to a whole new level. I now have the space to create an experience for my brides and customers I could only dream of. I have the space to create florals for beautiful small and large scale weddings and events and to host workshops. It’s just the best and I am so thankful.
Dani’s background: What did you do before Floristry?
Before floristry I worked for Telstra beginning in sales, moving in to business and customer service. I had the opportunity to work in a Call Center in Melbourne for a couple of years which was really cool, but just not for me. Just before flowers I worked in my friend’s local café, Grit Cafe Goulburn. I was so thankful for this opportunity as it gave me the chance to really explore what it was that I loved doing and turns out that is working with flowers!
What initially attracted you to studying floristry?
I really wanted to build my floristry skills! I actually wanted to learn how to make fully wired bouquets and classical designs! Overall, I wanted to learn the basics but most importantly I wanted to learn and grow with other like-minded creatives and to make new friends along the way which is exactly what happened!
What was it about Pearsons School that made you want to study with us?
I loved that Pearson’s had a really great reputation and that it provided you will all the tools you needed to get you started and that they provided the flowers you needed for each class! This was such a bonus because travelling from Goulburn once a week to get to school was hard enough let alone travelling to the flower market before class! Now I love waking up in the early hours of the morning and travelling to the flower market its one of my favourite parts of the job.
How did your experience at Pearsons help you with She Follow’s Floral Design?
Pearson helped me so much! Not only did I learn so much they also gave me first job in a busy retail florist this taught me so much it taught me how to cope under pressure, how to deal with all kinds of customers, how to design a specific floral design specific to the business, how to create floral displays and so much more but most importantly they helped me grow in myself as I found my own creative floral style and I had so much fun along the way!
How did you find your own style?
I have found my own style by working for other incredible floral designers, seeking inspiration through art, nature, design, experimenting, trial and error and learning more and more along the way. I love that floristry is an art and you can try new things all the time. I love working with colour and accepting challenging concepts along the way! I continue learn, grow and develop my style every day. I love freelancing, attending courses, training and just saying YES! I believe it’s a great way to find and develop your own style.
What does the future hold for you?
More and more magical weddings, events and workshops. Lots and lots of destination weddings. I would LOVE my business to take me all the way to Europe! I believe it will. You have to dream big for big dreams to become a reality.
What advice do you have for creatives thinking of floristry as a career?
Have the confidence to approach that florist that you love and admire and ask for some work experience to find out if floristry is something you love, be willing and wanting to scrub and fill buckets and vases because honestly you will be doing a lot of that in the beginning! The pretty floral designing comes later with experience and of course trust! Then enroll in floristry school I think it’s so important as you learn so many valuable skills and make so many amazing connections along the way. Most importantly have fun and trust your creative ability.