How I became a floral designer

So here’s a bit about how all this started and how I became a floral designer...

I've been creative since I was little, but I put a sensible day job first, dabbling in lots of creative things and flower design on the side. A few years ago, that changed, and I made the decision to put the flowers first. I had a terrible time with fertility issues and postnatal depression, but it gave me two amazing things. Firstly, my gorgeous squishy daughter, and secondly, it allowed me to re-think my priorities and do what makes me happy. And so North and Flower was born. I set up my boutique floral studio servicing weddings and events across the north west.

Flowers and growing are like therapy to me, they captivate me and absorb my focus. I get a bit obsessed with natural forms and shapes. We now live in a lovely spot on the edge of the Peak District with lots of space for my studio and a small cut flower farm where I grow my own pallet of unique floral ingredients.And if you want to know about my past lives, I worked in government policy and non-profits, specialising in development and foreign policy. I had an amazing time traveling the world, living in Burkina Faso, Rwanda, South Sudan, Afghanistan and London town of course.

In the corporate world, I gravitated towards my strengths of creativity, strategising and people stuff, leading amazing teams… but I always felt I didn’t fit in. I found out quite late in adulthood that I am pretty neuro-diverse, with Dyslexia and ADHD diagnoses. This was a relief to understand why my brain worked differently. I gave myself permission to be happy and work with flowers every day. I also don’t give a f**k if I make spelling mistakes now.

At the moment, I’m trying to make space to keep exploring creativity through flowers, painting and generally being in nature. Something I highly recommend.

Love Sarah x

C