This April, I traveled to Holland to spend time learning at the source, walking through the flower auction warehouses where thousands of blooms move through every single day, and visiting the tulip fields in full spring bloom. It’s one thing to work with beautiful flowers. It’s another to stand where so much of the world’s floral supply begins and see the scale, the care, and the craft that goes into it before a single stem ever reaches a studio.
The real heart of the trip was the workshop itself. I spent hands-on time learning new and unique design techniques, working with wire framing, natural branch structures, and free-form, sculptural arrangements that push past the traditional bouquet. I came home with a trailing, wild style bouquet built around poppies, clematis, and garden roses, and I helped build a large-scale floral wall installation woven with orchids, alstroemeria, and branches.
I do this because I never want to stop growing as a designer. Every bride’s vision is different, and some of what they dream up is genuinely challenging to bring to life. Trips like this one are how I make sure that when a bride asks for something unique, something she hasn’t seen anywhere else, I actually have the skill and technique behind me to deliver it, not just the willingness to try.
That’s the standard I hold myself to. Not just pretty flowers, but real craft behind every arrangement I create for you.
Floristic Dialog with Per Benjamin & Hitomi Gilliam
