Five years ago I took a leap of faith pursuing my passions full time with the creation of Bowerbird Atelier.

This business is a complete dream come true. I get to work on projects that excite and challenge me every day, while meeting new clients and creating pieces that speak to their intentions and vision.

I've come such a long way from that very first year and I’m so grateful for all of it. Working for myself is a dream, privilege, and an accomplishment I try not to take lightly.

Year 1: The Beginning

For those of you who have been following along since the beginning, you may know that Bowerbird started as a collaboration between myself and the crazy-talented florist, Sarah Rheaume. When the two of us met, we were both freelancing for a floral design studio.

Prior to this, I had worked in graphic design studios, been and continued to be a freelance designer, and had a job at a small stationery design studio, which I outgrew after three years time. That’s when I came across a local florist who was looking for part-time help, no experience needed.

I had always loved floral and thank goodness I did, because this path is what brought me to my soon-to-be business partner. She had been a floral freelancer for six years and I had been a graphic designer for six years; how perfect was that? In getting to know each other we decided that together we could make one powerful team running a business of our own. We knew that it would be challenging, but we also knew that with our skills and passion we could create something amazing together, and through this emerged Bowerbird Atelier.

…And wow was it a year of learning.

The first proposal we sent out was one I’ll never forget, it came with a hilariously high price tag, and I am so grateful to that couple (and every other couple after that). Without their willingness to help us iron out out the kinks and get our sea legs as new business owners, we might not have been as confident or successful as quickly as we were in this first year.

Year 2: Sweat, Paper Cuts, Thorns, and Success

The second year felt like we were still getting started. We had launched our first year of business late in the season, but this year we had a full run on wedding season and intended to soak up every minute.

Just as any new business, we were continuing to figure out how to work together and grow our presence in the industry. Mind you, we were also both still working full-time as freelancers. We were dedicated to figuring out the vision of our business moving forward so we could put one hundred percent of our focus into Bowerbird.

This year was full-on passion, nothing short of it. To give you some perspective, we did 22 weddings in our second year, which included a ton of backend work on proposals to get bookings. Our work in year one had pulled in about $18,000 of revenue, compared to year two where we pulled in over $90,000 of revenue.

Beginning our business with a combined service of floral and stationery gave us an edge over others in the wedding industry, but it also provided me with an edge that other stationery designers didn’t have. Floral requires on-site installs to put the magic together. While we were on site I was able to take a behind-the-scenes look into many different weddings, allowing me to gather ideas and inspiration for day of materials.

Many designers make invitation suites and day of materials that are simpler and can be easily shipped ahead of time, whereas I proposed things that were more involved and complicated because I knew that I could be there to put them in place.

This gave me the unique opportunity to push myself to create bigger and more challenging pieces, and really step into my confidence as a designer, making recommendations for my couples and designing super fun collaborations with planners.

Year 3: Growth in Collaboration

Having met and developed relationships with many wedding planners at this point, I dubbed this the year of collaborations.

Bowerbird had the incredible opportunity to be a part of larger installs and a ton of amazing styled shoots. We were able to establish an aesthetic outside of our client parameters and were really starting to step into who we were and what we had to offer.

Having worked so hard in helping to build up the floral side of the business, this was the year I was able to really shift my focus back to stationery design. I spent countless hours pushing myself in creating new, unique designs beyond what I’d ever done before, allowing myself the confidence to fully embrace my personal style.

By the end of our third year my partner and I reached a point where our passions had grown in separate directions, and we decided to part ways at the end of the wedding season. With Bowerbird now solely focused on stationery design, I was ready to continue forging my own path in the wedding industry.

Year 4: In with the New

Excited (and terrified) to be on my own, Year Four was actually when I branched out the most: creating and launching a part of my business that I felt so aligned with, the Fleurot Deck.

With a bit of empty space in my business, and not needing to focus full-time on floral collaborations, I realized I could put my time and energy towards integrating another passion of mine.

I had been thinking about creating a tarot deck for years, but had never been confident in my own illustration style, or at least the type of illustration I envisioned for my own deck. Knowing that I wanted to make all the imagery, I had turned to the “100 Day Project” the previous year to hone my skills in floral-based illustration. The challenge I gave myself was 100 Days of Drawing Flora, which allowed me to try out a bunch of different styles, until I honed in on the style I loved best.

In the fall of this same year I signed up for a botanical illustration class as well. It took me a full year to hone in and feel comfortable with the direction I was headed, but once I knew I got it right, it was a moment of “cool, here we go” and then I created the deck.

This was also the year that I got married! Getting to design all the elements of my own wedding was so fun. After 10 years together I had a grand vision for our redwoods elopement. The detail I poured into this day made all the difference in making our celebration feel completely, uniquely 'us'.

One of the most transformative years thus far, I continued creating more involved stationary orders, high end processes, and cohesive stationery suites. And despite being on my own, I still had the privilege to work with 16 couples!

Year 5: When Passions Intertwine

Creating a cohesive mix of my two passions, wedding stationery and ritual, has been an amazing experience and the ultimate dream come true (despite feeling uncertain for a long time about how to bring these two seemingly disparate things together).

2019 was definitely my best year to date.

Not only did I book a number of weddings, I also had clients reaching out to me to help them with creating tarot and moon inspired celebrations. It felt like the two parts of my business were truly becoming integrated, and receiving inquiries like these served as the affirmation in knowing I was headed in the right direction.

While I’m constantly figuring out what’s next, creating, and evolving, I’m over the moon to be celebrating how far Bowerbird has come.