As a young child, I had a deep desire to be outside constantly, rain or shine! I spent many days in our backyard, using my imagination to come up with adventures and games, often using materials found all around me. As the trees would bloom each spring, I was filled with this sense of wonder at the smell and sight of the hopeful buds that would transform into glorious blossoms. I'd gather and collect (often to my mother's dismay) flowers, buds, leaves, petals of all sorts in order to to concoct "recipes" with my friend, Hannah, who was equally enthusiastic about all things outside. It was charming beyond belief that I felt so connected with nature, and if you had told me I'd get to play with flowers as a job someday, I probably would have laughed and continued making my flower petal "soup" and "salad".

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Fast forward, and I found myself at 18 with zero clarity around what I would pursue. I'd always loved art, though I didn't feel confident enough to pursue one specific type, so I decided to study Art Education. Thoughts of becoming a classroom teacher didn't excite me, but working with so many different art forms did! I'd found a love and appreciation for ceramics back in high school, enjoying the way I could work with my hands and connect with both the hand-building process, as well as the more disciplined practice of wheel throwing. Through my Art Education degree, I discovered another love in addition to ceramics: watercolor painting. Watercolor was exciting and unpredictable. I loved mixing paint and coming up with color schemes, at times almost more than the finished product! I also found plants and flowers consistently showing up in the subject matter of my work.

 

A little while, after getting my BS in Art Education and marrying my husband in 2017, we moved from Ohio to Indianapolis, where I quickly got connected into the world of floral design. I spent the next year gaining lots of experience freelancing, which included everything from washing buckets to creating and helping install larger floral arrangements. After having our first baby and going full mom-mode for about a year, I kept sensing this pull to get back into wedding flowers and to pursue my own business as a wedding florist. At the beginning of 2020, Rooted Blooms was born.

 

Now, being a florist really gives me the unique opportunity to combine my love for the physicality and tactility of ceramics with the more free-form, organic nature and color mixing elements of watercolor painting. It is also my joy to take these passions and share them. Not only does floral design allow me to appreciate the artistry of working with flowers themselves, but it provides me the chance to share that beauty with others, stepping into a couple’s planning process and serving them on their wedding day. It is always a great privilege to help conceptualize a plan, to organize the details, and to bring that vision to life, arranging flowers in a way that brings beauty and honor to the spaces and the people who encounter them.