How I got here.
Hey I’m Alida, welcome to Lily on the Thames DIY Wedding Flowers. This is my first blog post and I am so excited to tell you a little bit about what I do.
I’ve owned Lily on the Thames for four years now, and I’ve loved every minute. Well, that might be an exaggeration, I’ve had lots of ups and downs. But overall this has been the greatest career move of my life. I’m so grateful for every triumph and every challenge. I’m so grateful for every bride that I’ve worked with, and every workshop participant, and people who have ordered arrangements from me, every post like or comment. I am eternally grateful that you all let me live the life that I dreamt up. You allow me to show my daughters what chasing a dream looks like, and I am just so excited to be here!
I started as a Wedding Floral Designer and in wedding off season I teach workshops that help people create their own floral arrangements. Wreath workshops or spring flower arrangements, things like that. It is my favourite part of it what I do! There’s always somebody in every workshop who says, "I'm not creative, I just came for the wine". They are the person that I watch leaving the class at the end of the workshop with the biggest smile on their face. They didn’t think they were creative, they didn’t think they could make something beautiful, and then they leave so proudof what they made. Then their posts on Instagram tagging me and their creation, it just melts my heart. I'm proud of them and proud of myself for empowering them to to do that.
The tough part for me was; at bridal consults the bride will always bring me pictures of what they want their wedding flowers to look like and they will also bring me a budget. 99 times out of 100 those two things didn't match up. It’s a reality for most people to have a budget. You have to work with it, and I felt like I was always disappointing people by telling them what flower cost and that they couldn’t have everything on their wish list. I wanted to help these people, and I knew early on there was a market for DIY.
Fast forward to 2020 (COVID), I had known for a long time I want to switch to DIY Packages, but with every week doing weddings and workshops (and being a mom of 2 small kids) there was never enough time to do the background work. But the lockdowns and cancellation/postponement of next to all my bookings, gave me the time and financial motivation I needed to make the switch. I poured hours, days, months into building my products, website, policies, recipes, tutorials, wholesaler relationships, and SO MUCH MORE. I re-launched in spring 2021, and it's been the best move I've made so far! People love it, just as I had hoped! They make beautiful DIY wedding flower arrangements, from boho inspired wedding, to rustic DIY wedding flowers, to elegant DIY Wedding flowers. I'm so proud of my brides and all they have created. See a sample of my DIY bride's on my social media .
And so by switching to DIY brides can have the arbour arrangements they wanted that didn't previously fit in the budget. They can have all their Pinterest photos that they saved. All they have to do is grab a couple friends, a glass of wine, and they can do it themselves using my easy DIY wedding flower videos. They get Pinterest quality Wedding Flowers And arrangements at a fraction of the cost. It’s bridal bouquets made easy, I give tips for caring for your wedding flowers. I promise that DIY wedding flowers are easier than you think!
I’ll provide all the tools, resources and flowers for you to create
- DIY centrepieces,
- DIY bouquets
- DIY boutonnieres
- DIY corsages
- DIY arbour arrangements
- DIY ceremony urns
- and so much more
You name it, I probably sell it. I don’t just give you the tools to make your bridal bouquets easy; I also give you florist grade flowers, arrangement recipes, and easy to follow wedding flower video tutorials. It's having a florist expertise, without paying the premium for them to do it for you.
You can read the reviews on my website www.lilyonthethames.ca. You can look at the highlight reel for my DIY Brides on my Instagram. You can read my reviews. People love doing this; it’s fun to do with friends, it’s great to delegate to a family member who wants to be more involved in your wedding. It's a great way to save a lot of money on your wedding flowers and get all the arrangements at a fraction of the cost!
Long story short - DIY wedding flowers helps you save up to half the cost of your wedding flowers, and lets you create lifelong wonderful memories of making the arrangements with your loved ones! Win win.
Thanks for popping by!