This year is especially for the wedding specialists, though there is plenty here for any floral business.  As always, everything we cover will be from the perspective of Sustainable Floristry.   This year we are also placing emphasis on floral craftsmanship, some light design theory, and a solid session and more about color.  Our making will focus on bridal bouquets and installations (and there will be pro photos for your use).  Of course, we won’t overlook business topics!   We have 3 sessions on that: pricing, floral storytelling, and a juicy dive into Pinterest marketing.  As always, when Tobey is producing the workshop, there is no fluff – just precious, well-spent time crammed with information!

THERE IS ONLY ONE SEAT LEFT!!!

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The Details:

Sustainable Floristry with Becky Feasby

Using the lenses of sustainability, examine your business to discover layers of opportunities to become more sustainable.

Organic Pinterest Traffic in 1 Hour a Week with Alex Alexander

We all know that Pinterest is an incredibly powerful tool. This SEARCH ENGINE is the make or break for so many industries, and yet the wedding market has barely caught on. Which is crazy, since we know most couples are sourcing their inspiration on Pinterest.  After this Pinterest intensive, you’ll go home with every bit of knowledge you need to efficiently drive traffic to your site through Pinterest. We’ll tour the business hub and understand analytics, discuss the best images + graphics, learn how to keyword posts correctly and dive into Tailwind loops and scheduling so that your soon-to-be biggest traffic driver runs mostly on autopilot.  This session, my friends, will probably fund your workshop tuition if you put what you learn to practice in 2020!

Exploring Color with Lorene Edwards Forkner

This mindful study of color via watercolor will expand your perception and understanding of the botanicals you work with and help you build a more interesting event palette.

Floral storytelling with Debra Prinzing

Building on the color story we explored with Lorene, Debra will share some writing tips & techniques we can use in our web copy and marketing materials to improve our floral communication.  Debra will share several useful worksheets and templates that you can use for creating future posts and articles. You’ll leave the Whidbey Flower Workshop with no more excuses for not blogging!

Floral Craftsmanship & Design Basics with Tobey Nelson

Proper processing techniques.  Wire & tape techniques.  Make a Great Bridal Bouquet:  learn the essential spiral hand-tie technique and how to apply it to all shapes of bouquets incl. rounded, boho and cascade.  Learn about the importance of focal points and how to build them using the concept of the golden mean and 3, 5, 8.  We will also discuss a few advanced mechanics like creating your own plastic-free armatures and collars, and finally we will include a few thoughts on ribboning and color palette development.

Large scale foam-free installations with Tobey Nelson

Everything you need to know to design & build most any type of installation, be it hung or freestanding.  We will cover mechanical considerations such as rigging, hidden water sources, best material choices, and a variety of foam-free mechanics.  We will also discuss design considerations such as scale, proportion & color use.  We will build a few different installations involving different combinations of mechanics so you can implement your learning.

Pricing with Tobey Nelson: We will discuss formulas, ratios, and pricing considerations specific to wedding/event floral businesses.  We will include discussion of using an “enterprise budget” to test target margins and profitability.

Professional photography by Suzanne Rothmeyer:  Each student will receive a photo of their bouquet, as well as photos of the installations, for their portfolio use.  We will have a professional “bride” model to make it even more useful to you!

Travel & Lodging:

If you are flying to Whidbey, you will want to fly into Paine Field in Everett or Seatac Airport (SEA).  The uber ride from Paine Field is about $10.  From Seatac you can take the Whidbey Seatac Shuttle (to the Coupeville stop).

You also have the option of renting a car on the Island.  Family Rent A Car can help you coordinate getting a car from the ferry or a shuttle stop.  So you could shuttle from the airport to the ferry, and then pick up a car.  Coupeville is midway/35 miles up the island from the Mukileto/Clinton ferry.

When you register for the workshop, I will include you in a facebook group where you can network with other students for ride and room shares.

There will not be lodging available at the farm, but there are plenty of charming places to stay close by.  Check the Coupeville Chamber of Commerce as well as this site for ideas.  You will want to make sure you choose COUPEVILLE spots, not Oak Harbor (who also advertise on those sites).  Some of my favorite ideas are the Fort Casey Inn, Captain Whidbey Inn, and there are tons of spots on air B&B.  There’s also camping at Fort Casey and at Fort Ebey.

Whidbey Island is SOOOO beautiful, and the area where I am holding the workshop is esp. magical.  I *highly* recommend adding a day to your trip, if you can, to soak up some of the beauty that surrounds us!

Have a look at previous years:

2019

2018

2017