Pieces of Liz is a collection of blogs curated to talk a little more about the human behind Liz Likes Flowers. This piece is about when I realized how much I love learning new things about flowers.

Any photos of flowers or designs were only executed by Liz in this entry. The directions, color palettes, and flower choices were decided by the floral shop owner.

*On site views at a Rhode Island yacht club.*

A Rhode Island Summer

One of the best floral jobs I’ve had the pleasure of working at was in Rhode Island during the summer of 2019. I applied on a whim because I was already working as a freelance graphic designer so why not be a freelance floral designer? I heard about this company when I moved to southern Massachusetts after I graduated from college.

I knew I wanted to learn more about how to scale up wedding designs (larger table count, bigger ceremony displays, etc.) and their portfolio was everything I wanted to be doing (at the time) so I sent an email into the void. They never posted about hiring and I said to myself “The worst thing they say is no and I ask another wedding florist if they need help!”

I was soon introduced to eight (!) other florists and given a dark gray polo for on site deliveries. I remember the excited face I had the first time I looked in the mirror while wearing it. I felt so confident when I matched the other florists who actually knew what they were doing.

*Elegant place card table display being assembled at a floral studio.*

Something Unexpected

About halfway through the summer I recognized that this company was something special in the best way possible. The woman who owned the company enlisted the help of her children and husband. Their presence and work ethic were deeply intertwined in the company and I genuinely admired that they didn’t want to strangle each other halfway through the day. There was a special sense of comradery to weave into and I’ve never felt anything quite like it.

Meeting the Husband

The most memorable day was when I was introduced to the owner’s husband. The instructions drilled into my brain from my eighth grade history teacher kicked into gear before I could think twice. I looked him in the eye, firmly shook his hand and said, “I’m Liz, it's nice to meet you!” He had a such a warm smile that made me grin even more.

“Oh Liz, I’ve heard about you. You’re the one who is excited about everything! It's great to finally meet you.” he said politely.

*On site set-up at a lovely wedding ceremony.*

“I didn't think of it that way but yes, I do get excited about a lot of things!” I replied.

“Good luck out there!” and he walked away to carry out his assigned tasks.

The rest of the day went on as any other day but it was one of the most self reflecting days I’ve had in a very, very long time.

Always Learning, Always Growing

Learning something new about flowers is always exciting but it was something I did on my own for most of my life. I was genuinely thrilled to do anything new with this amazing team of florists and I didn’t realize how vocal I was about it until the husband told me in his own way.

I had never thought twice about how I responded to executing a new task and I was working on something new about 90% of the time. I applied to this company based solely on the reasoning that I was hungry to learn about everything they did and it turns out my desire for knowledge was portrayed as excitement.

What’s the Future Anyway?

Even back then I didn’t know what exactly I wanted my future to look like but I knew that I wanted to keep learning more about flowers. No matter what job I have, learning new skills is something I will always keep doing.

After that summer I realized the amount of flowers involved in whatever job I have will (most likely) determine the amount of excitement I’ll have about it.