Blog Post Index | Weddings

I hear it all the time: “No one will run my business like I do.”

In fact, I had that same exact fear a few years ago. I was wearing way too many hats in my business. I thought wearing all the hats meant I was in total control of everything. Turns out, it was the complete opposite.

If you’re tired of clients ghosting and price shopping, leaving you with an empty calendar and empty bank account, it’s time to turn things around!

This has to be one of my favorite weddings that I have designed. Sean and Sydnie, and each of their families are some of the kindest, sweetest people that I have met, and it was truly an honor being involved in such a special celebration.

Again, you’re probably thinking, “Sounds great, Jessica, but I’m still figuring out how to pay myself regularly, let alone salaries for six people.”

I did not and do not pay each of these people a salary. Now find out exactly how each team member gets paid.

We’ve all experienced seasons where we can’t seem to get the right clients to book our services. You’re either not getting any inquiries at all or you’re getting inquiries only to have people ghost you after you’ve invested time and energy into booking them.

Either way, it’s frustrating!

Inspired by the natural beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the stonework architecture of Castle Ladyhawke, this design collaboration was intended to enhance our beautiful setting with a level of relaxed sophistication.

If you read my blog over the past few weeks, I’ve talked about THE BIGGEST mistake most creative entrepreneurs are making: not building an effective team. After reading those posts, you know I left off by encouraging you to identify your strengths as the leader of your team. You can’t possibly know how to build a team until you know what skills you do have, and which skills you’re lacking! Identifying our strengths gives us the power to own our own tasks and delegate effectively.

I've never been particularly good at listening to people like this, people who live their lives with such limitations. The beautiful thing about entrepreneurship is we really do get to choose how we spend our time.

Inspired by the natural beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the stonework architecture of Castle Ladyhawke, this design collaboration was intended to enhance our beautiful setting with a level of relaxed sophistication.

If you’ve been keeping up with the blog, you know we’ve been talking about how build your business team from the ground up. To dive even deeper than those blog posts, I also made a video to share how building my team totally changed the game for me and my business.

Have you been reluctant to hire help? Do you have concerns like: You can’t afford it. You literally don’t know how. You’ve been burned before. You don’t know what help you need, you just know that you need help. You have control issues.

I can relate to all of these!

Looking for a behind the scenes peek into my floral studio? You've come to the right place. In this video, I'm giving an in-depth tour of my floral studio and full work space!

This is a continuation of the Moss Mountain Farms event. View all the bridal party details in part one.

Nestled along the Arkansas River is P. Allen Smith’s garden home, Moss Mountain Farm, A MAGICAL PLACE known for promoting education, conservation and experiencing what the land provides us.

When I first acquired my business, it was an event rental business that came with a full staff. After I decided I wanted to do florals exclusively, I was told that I didn’t need all the employees I had, but I was absolutely determined to keep everyone. This ended up being a mistake.

Want to know how to create organic, loose arrangements full of texture? Watch me create a signature centerpiece!

Nestled along the Arkansas River is P. Allen Smith’s garden home, Moss Mountain Farm, a magical place known for promoting education, conservation and experiencing what the land provides us.

When I share with creative entrepreneurs in webinars, through my course, or in individual mentoring calls, we inevitably talk about building a business team.

As your wedding business grows, you might find yourself wanting to outsource smaller budget weddings, but still maintain a level of creative control.

Remember that one time my flowers were in a music video?!

YUPP!

When Shay Mooney of Dan + Shay and his wife Hannah tied the knot, she held a sweet bouquet of Zimmerman blooms

I got to sit down with Mary Baird-Wilcock on her show, The Simplifiers Podcast.

As a former wedding planner herself, Mary was the perfect person to ask me about how to simplify the process of starting a floral design business.

Mary and I talk all about the one simple question you need to ask yourself as you’re starting your floral business, streamlining processes, hiring teams, pricing for setup and delivery, and so much more!

Everyone loves a good neutral and greenery bouquet, but when photographer Kati Mallory asks you to complete her flower power vision for a bright and summery southern elopement, you make it happen!

Nothing screams summer like some bright, punchy blooms! It’s like sangria in flower form.

In the past few years, I’ve loved seeing couples include their dogs in wedding celebrations. But, if there’s anything better than a dog wearing a floral collar, it’s a horse wearing a floral collar!

Sometimes, bride’s best friend is a different four-legged beast! We love how this bride honored her beautiful steed by including her horse in her bridal portraits.

Congratulations to Zimmerman groom Shay Mooney on his Best Country Duo/Group Performance Grammy win as one half of the country group Dan + Shay! 

Make sure to check out their Grammy performance of Tequila, and Shay and Hannah's wedding gallery featured here on our blog!

I had the incredible opportunity of working with Ashton for 11 months leading up to her wedding. She and Drew met each other in fifth grade and we had the best time planning every little detail of their wedding day. Ashton was a dream bride to work with because she really trusted me to create something unique and beautiful for her and Drew.

We love the opportunity to travel with our clients.  One of our brides wanted her bridal portraits to stand out from the normal environments that she was used to seeing with other brides.  After brainstorming with photographer, Heather Payne, we came to the conclusion of Vizcaya Museum and Gardens.  The mix of Spanish settings and European architecture paired with the peach and golden toned floral provided for an unforgettable afternoon in such a stunning space.

This was a special wedding for us, not only because we fell in love with the bride, her family, and her fiancé, but we also were the first ones to produce a wedding in their brand new, gorgeous venue. The truth is, there aren’t just a ton of great venue options in Conway, AR, but my clients didn’t let that stop them. They took matters into their own hands and built a gorgeous space. (Legacy Acres is now available to rent!) I’ve never designed a wedding based off a stack of blue prints before, but I was up for the challenge. Thankfully, visualizing a space has always come easily to me. Bailey, the bride wanted an all white wedding, but she had already chosen blue bridesmaid dresses. While we kept the ceremony all white, I’m thankful she trusted me and allowed us to add a touch of color to the reception to really tie everything together and reflect the spring season. The southern, yet clean space was the perfect backdrop for a truly beautiful wedding.

Last fall, we had the pleasure of working with Shay Mooney of country music duo Dan and Shay, and his bride, Hannah Billingsly, on creating their wedding floral!  Dan and Shay have produced a new song, "Speechless" paired with a music video compilation of their weddings.  We are thrilled to have our floral featured as part of this video.  Get a glimpse at their gorgeous wedding in this post!

I love when clients come to me with a few ideas, but want me to take over the overall vision.  That is exactly what happened with Madison and Grant's elopement.  Surprisingly, the groom's sister inquired with us to do the floral for her brother's wedding, and asked for us to bring together the entire vision.  I gladly accepted, especially because they had already booked an amazing photographer, too - Erin Wilson.

Every once in a while, I get the opportunity to travel with my clients to a destination location to make a bouquet for them for bridal portraits.

One of my favorite things to do is making a bouquet specifically for a photographer.  It is so wonderful getting complete freedom when it comes to making floral, and the photographers always love the fun color palettes and varieties of texture filling the bouquet.  BJ Matthews shot all of these beautiful images here in the natural state of Arkansas.