In the Spotlight: Featured uBloomer, Janet Martineau

This month’s Featured uBloomer interview with Janet Martineau is going to be a special treat. Before conducting the interview with Janet, I asked uBloomers to contribute questions for the interview (I didn’t let them know WHO the Featured uBloomer was) and uBloomers came up with some pretty great questions. As you enjoy this interview, you will notice that the name of the uBloomer will be next to the question they presented. I’m so pleased that this interview ended up becoming a collaboration of ideas by the uBloom Community which helped to make it the most interactive interview yet.Janet is the owner of Floral Verde , a modern and trendy Wedding/Event Floral Design studio located in Flint, MI. She is married to her husband, David and has been a member of uBloom since February. You can keep up with Janet and all the exciting events she provides flowers for - in her Floral Verde Blog.How did you first become interested in flowers and design?I went to Kroger to find a job when I was 15. During my interview, they mentioned that they needed help in the floral department, but I wasn’t qualified because I wasn’t 16. It sounded interesting, so I told them I’d wait. Three months later I had a job scrubbing buckets and making boutonnieres! That is when I realized that I loved flowers.What is your floral background and do you have any formal design training?I actually have a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Cincinnati. The Architecture program was incredibly rigorous. While in school, I completed a couple of internships in the field - about a year and a half of work. Hand drafting was fun, and model building was a blast, but designing in CAD just did not satisfy my desire to create something with my own hands. Even though I don’t intend to practice architecture, I have found my degree helpful. I believe my architecture training is what really gives me an edge. I’m super critical of proportions, balance and details in my own work.Before and during the time I was earning my degree I held several positions in the floristry industry. I worked for two grocery store florists, an upscale retail florist, and in the hard goods department for a wholesale florist. I started Floral Verde LLC while finishing up my degree.I love to participate in seminars whenever I am available. I went to an AIFD Across America program in 2004; the Michigan Floral Association Great Lakes Expo in 2006, 2008, and 2009; and one of J Schwanke’s awesome corsage & boutonniere workshops in April.Who or what inspired/mentored you in your early years of floral design?I don’t feel like I really had a mentor. It’s just recently that I have really started to network with other florists. I wish that I would have started sooner! I have met so many great florists in the last year!Tell me about your floral design business, Floral Verde.I started my business in June of 2006. I bought a brand new walk-in cooler and booked my first wedding at cost (+ sales tax, of course) just to get something for my portfolio. It was a rough week. Had I charged properly, it would have been a $7000 wedding! I hardly slept that week, but I got it done!When I wrote my first business plan, in January of 2006, I wanted to do everything – weddings, weekly accounts, gift work, and even funeral work. After about a year I realized that I just wasn’t set up to do certain kinds of work efficiently. Since I didn’t have a storefront, and I didn’t keep any inventory on hand, I had to go to the wholesaler for every little order. Once I realized that this wasn’t working for me, I dropped all other aspects of my business to focus weddings and events.What are some of your marketing strategies to increase business? Which ones have been the most successful?Oh my. I’ve done a lot of bad marketing. The craziest idea I had was to print postcards and mail them to brides from the engagement section of the Flint Journal. I spent hours every week researching each bride to pin down her current mailing address. It was insane. I probably sent out 150 postcards and only booked one wedding off of that idea.I’ve also tried a bunch of paid websites – The Knot, Wedding Wire, Wedding Lenox, and Our Wedding Day. Sure, I’ve booked a few weddings off of those, but they were either a lot of work to recruit brides, or I barely made enough profit to pay for the subscription. My favorite website right now is Project Wedding, because I can post a ton of photos and I don’t have to pay anything!I’m finally at a point where I get most of my jobs off of referrals from past clients and other vendors. I’ve found that it’s important to take time and become friends with other reputable vendors in your area.My website and blog are important to my marketing strategy too. In Michigan there are a lot of out of town brides. They get their degree and then move out of the state to look for jobs. When they decide to get married they come back to their hometown, so I have a quite a few brides that book me based solely off of my web presence. Right now, I’m having my blog redesigned, and I plan on tackling my website soon too. My advice is to make sure your web presence reflects the types of events that you want to handle. Then make sure to label all of your pictures with alternate text tags – it really helps the search engines pick up your pictures.What area of design do you feel you know most about? (Question by Suzanne Smith)Honestly, I don’t feel like I know a whole lot about any one area of design. No matter how much I’ve done, I know that there is always something new to learn. If I had to pick one type of arrangement that I excel at it would definitely be hand-tied bouquets. They are my favorite thing to make, and are the Pièce de résistance of each wedding.What do you see as an up and coming trend in floral design? (Question by Shannon Cosgrove-Rivas)The major trend I am anticipating is a switch from tight, clean, modern bouquets to loose, unstructured, romantic bouquets. I’m really excited about making more hand-tied cascades next year. Wisps of feathers, soft fabric, ruffles and movement are going to be really important texturally. Not only will bouquets be loosening up, but this trend will carry into the shape and texture of centerpieces too. I love the look of balanced asymmetry in bouquets and centerpiece designs.As far as color palettes go, I see them becoming more nature inspired. Vintage and slightly dirty colors like mustard, sepia, nude, taupe, eucalyptus, slate, dusty mauve, and eggplant can be used alongside traditional colors to create more complex and interesting color palettes.What are your favorite flowers? (Question by Amanda Johnson)As I move away from a more structured look, I plan to replace a lot of the roses, mini callas, cymbidiums and bling in my floral palette with foliage, wildflowers, pods, berries, and branches. Right now I am excited about scented geranium, dusty miller, leucadendron, bunny grass, seeded eucalyptus, baby blue eucalyptus, eucalyptus bells, cotinus, agonis, nerines, tweedia, scabiosa, astilbe, sweet peas and ranunculus. Novelty items like fern curls, sponge mushrooms, succulents, scabiosa pods, berzelia and privet are great for adding that unexpected touch. Also, I’ve been desperately trying to get my hands on some Japanese maple the last few months… Does anyone have a good source?With money being no object…what would your "dream" wedding job look like? (describe colors, decor, venue, theme..etc)I’ve always thought it would be fun to do an all foliage wedding. It would be in silvers, greens, blues and aubergine. I would have a tall and low element to each table. There would be pin spot lighting on the upper centerpiece, and an abundance of ivory pillars and votives around the lower centerpiece. To dress the tables I would use a heavy, espresso, bengaline tablecloth, rippled art-glass chargers (like the Scarlatti plates from Crate and Barrel), and mahogany wood chiavari chairs. An upscale yet vintage venue like the Colony Club in Detroit would be nice.What motivates and inspires you as to floral design style and why? (Question by Monique Wilbur and Suzanne Smith)I’ve subscribed to nearly 100 blogs. These subscriptions included lots of florists, event planners, interior designers, gardeners, and landscape architects. I love to see what other people have going on. To limit my time looking at blogs, so I scroll through them in my Google reader until something catches my eye. If I see a great color palette or fabulous arrangement I save it to an inspiration folder on my computer. Then when I’m designing a wedding, I can pull picture from my inspiration folder to show my brides, or I just use the inspiration when I get a designer’s block.What is your signature style? (Question by Suzanne Smith)I don’t think that I have a signature style. It seems like my interests and inspirations are changing every year.If you could study under ANY floral designer(s) who would it be?Matthew Robbins and Ariella Chezar are my absolute favorite florists. Matthew seems incredibly sweet and patient. I love watching his guest appearances on Martha Stewart and reading his blog. I love his style.Ariella Chezar designs things that look like nature, only better. Her combinations of vines, flowers, fruiting branches and berries are always so visually pleasing in their balanced asymmetry. Her centerpieces look like mature gardens that are luxuriously overgrown.What do you do to keep things lighthearted when times get stressful in your biz?When I’m feeling stressed I like to queue up a good song on my iPod and have a dance party. If he’s home, my husband will come out of his office and join me!Besides flower designing, what are some other hobbies or interests do you like to participate in?My all-time favorite activity is hanging out with my hubby. Other than that, I mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters, and I’ve recently found some time to start reading non-business related novels.If you could create a design for a famous person (celebrity, political figure, athlete, etc) who would it be and what would the design be?I would design a “world’s best boss” coffee mug arrangement for Michael Scott from the television show, The Office.What is next for you and Floral Verde? Share some future goals that you would like to achieve.I would like to take the Professional Floral Design Evaluation (PDFE) to see if I qualify to join AIFD. I’d also like to move my business out of my home and into a larger studio. Unfortunately, my husband and I will be moving a couple times in the next few years, so I have to wait until we settle down to work on that goal.Describe your favorite event/wedding. It doesn’t have to be the most profitable or biggest but the one you felt you did your best and it came out spectacular. (Question by Amanda Johnson)The most rewarding events are the ones where there is a collaborative synergy between you and the bride from the very start. This bride was the best - she suggested a color scheme and a feel, and let me run with it. We were both super excited about the flowers throughout the planning process. She had a pretty low budget for what she was asking, and the succulents had originally been cut due to budget constraints. Last minute, I was able to get my hands on a box of 50 succulents for $30. I was able to put them in almost every arrangement in the wedding, and she was thrilled!