Jill Landry of Beach Plum Floral and Event Design
Jill Landry is the owner of Beach Plum Floral and Event Design, a full service floral and event design firm specializing in bespoke events and custom floral installations
HER START
Jill talks about starting Beach Plum Floral in 2011. She talks about how it wasn’t planned and all happened by accident. She started out as a wedding photographer and we talk about our love for weddings and how they naturally bring out fun and happiness. Jill speaks about wedding photography being more of a hobby and less of a career for her. She also speaks about her background growing up on a farm and having a connection to nature and how she transitioned from photography to florals within the wedding industry. Jill talks about earlier in her life when she nannied for a family that had a beautiful garden and would make floral arrangements for the mother for fun and how that transitioned to creating arrangements for family and friends. It eventually led to friends asking her to help with their weddings and she found creative ways to bring everything together as she was just starting out.
BUILDING HER BUSINESS
Jill talks about having a sense of knowing that she wanted to own her own business. Once she had done a few weddings on her own she built her website slowly. She felt more confident in her business when she was a year or so in and had built a strong portfolio. She talks about the importance of building great relationships with the wedding photographers that she works with in order to utilize their imagery and build the Beach Plum Floral brand.
THE FARM
Jill talks about starting Beach Plum at their first home in Marshfield and working out of the garage. They grew out of that space and rented a space in Hingham for a short period of time. She and her husband eventually decided to invest in a property that fit their lifestyle and could support her growing business and her love of riding and farm life as well.
FIRST STEPS IN ENTERING THE INDUSTRY
Jill talks about doing a lot of market research about what it is that you love about the wedding industry, design industry or floral design. She suggests to really learn it from square one and talks about the many other aspects that go into their business. She stresses that the time they are actually spending designing flowers is very little. We both discuss the realities for many entrepreneurs in regard to running a business.
ON FUNDING AND GROWTH
Jill talks about having a space to work in and design out of to start and that there weren’t many large initial investments that she needed to make. She talks about how as she grew and money started to come in she would take that money and invest it into bigger items — her first big investment was a walk in cooler and then vehicles for employees to utilize. Jill talks about the hardest part of the job being management and that as she grew and took on larger events and became a bigger company she needed to have a great support system and she talks about her staff truly being her backbone in being able to bring everything together. She talks about how putting a team together can be so difficult but what has worked the best for her has been to have someone come in and work for a few weeks to see them in action and to have them understand all of the aspects of the work.
MARKETING TIPS
Jill and I discuss trying to stay in front of people on social media and just connecting with different people in your industry to make sure there is always something fresh or new that you can show off. She talks about putting good work out there for people to connect with. Jill talks about the wedding industry being a great word of mouth and referral business. Jill emphasizes that social media has also been instrumental in booking clients as well.
SUPPORTING LOCAL FARMS
Jill’s roots and growing up on a farm is where she feels most at home and she discusses how she felt strongly about supporting local farms for this reason. She talks about how, as a floral designer, getting to see her product in its natural habitat is a really amazing thing. She also became very aware of how much of the wedding floral industry relies on flowers imported from other countries and she wanted to focus and commit to supporting local farms for these reasons.
THE IMPORTANCE OF PIVOTING
We discuss the devastation that occurred in the wedding industry due to COVID and Jill remembers back to when COVID hit and she had her first zoom call with her team. Her biggest priority was her team and keeping them working and to find a way to connect with her community with flowers. She also talks about all of the farmers that had grown flowers products that now had nowhere to go. She said that they came up with a few ideas to help them get through and that she’s really enjoyed all of the elopements and smaller weddings so much.
ON STAYING CREATIVE
Jill speaks to relying on being inspired by anything from flipping through magazines, watching a movie or simply being inspired by nature. She also speaks to the importance of keeping connected to your industry and staying on top of the market in order to feel the pulse of what is needed. She says that they involve themselves in editorial shoots in order to try ideas. Jill talks about all of the styled and editorial photo shoots that occur in the industry and how they are so helpful in building a portfolio as well. She talks about all of the networking groups in the industry that focus on this and how you can then submit images to publications to help spread the word.
HER FAVORITE PART OF THE BUSINESS
Jill talks about her favorite part of her work is usually seeing an event at its raw stage of nothing and seeing it transformed and when she is walking through the space and she can absorb the moment and see what she and her team have created.
BALANCING MOTHERHOOD AND BUSINESS
Jill talks about making sure that the time that she is working or spending with her daughter is spent fully present and making every moment quality time. She stresses trying to be present wherever you are.
ON TEAMWORK
Jill talks about how she has learned that you are only as good as your team and support. She stresses that her team is like family and she focuses on keeping them happy and motivated.
UPCOMING NEWS
Jill talks about taking the winter to do a little rebrand and that they are considering adding on an elevated experience for her clients that will include design support to help bring things together.
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