5 years ago, I took the big step in starting my own business. Although so much has changed in 5 years, the heart inside Gold & Bloom remains the same–to bring joy to others and to glorify God in all that is done here. Year five has proven to be a challenge with our current pandemic situation, but the light is at the end of the tunnel and weddings are finally able to happen again! This has been the longest stretch of time in over 5 years that we haven’t had an event, and it just doesn’t feel right. Needless to say, I’m so excited to open up the studio again. I’m happy for our couples who finally get to have their dream wedding day. It’ll be a beautiful late summer and fall season!

Photography by Meghan Wallach Photography

 

Because it’s SO fun to see how much Gold & Bloom has grown in 5 years, here’s a little timeline to show just how different each year has been:

2015: Still a full time elementary school teacher, part time blogger, organized my first styled shoot, began taking on paid events (1 rehearsal dinner and 7 weddings), officially filed as an LLC, my average price for wedding florals was extremely low and I was not making any money. That being said, I was gaining experience and setting myself up for the future in floral design. I was spread thin, but I knew (hoped!) great things would come. We turned our one car garage into my floral studio, which overflowed into our laundry room, kitchen, and dining room. It was a constant mess!

2016: Still a full time elementary school teacher, took a big step back in blogging, completed over 45 weddings and small events practically solo (!!!), was filmed in a commercial in our studio (our one car garage!) that would air on HGTV, raised our prices slightly, and we found out we were expecting our first child.

2017: Still a full time elementary school teacher until April, closed the chapter in blogging, flew to Oregon to work with Ponderosa & Thyme, our first child was born, went FULL TIME FLORALS, took on our first five figure floral order, started hosting workshops in my “studio”, began to truly find our ideal clients while becoming more selective with how many weddings we took on each month and year.

2018: Full time business owner and floral designer, flew to Arkansas to assist Jessica Zimmerman for a weekend (amazing experience), moved into our new home and studio (double the square footage), found out we were expecting our second child, continued to fine-tune the business, learn, grow, and we surpassed our annual sales goal…by a lot! We designed for over 28 weddings this year.

2019: Second full year as a work from home mama, our second child was born, Gold & Bloom continues to grow, designed for 21 weddings, honestly this year was simply full of me navigating the new life of being a work from home mama with a toddler and a newborn. #survivalmode

2020 (so far): Three full years of being a work from home mama, we designed for one wedding and then Covid-19 came in and changed all of our spring plans–1 cancellation, 4 postponements, and some really amazing news…

We’ve expanded and hired two amazing women to our Gold & Bloom team! A second designer and an assistant have joined in on this flowery fun, and I just can’t wait to introduce them to you. 

(More on this soon. They deserve their own introductory post.)

We have come a long way in just five short years, and we’ve experienced a lot as a business–the sweet and the not so sweet. We continue to look ahead with hope and determination and are excited to see where the Lord takes us next. Thank you to all of our clients, but especially the ones who trusted Gold & Bloom when we were just a little baby business starting out. You believed in me, and I’ll never forget that.

Here’s to the next five! May we grow in faithfulness, hope, and grace.

XO,

Jenna