How Unique Floral Designs Can Make Hotels Shine

When it comes to creating unique floral designs for hotels, you may be wondering why it is so important and what constitutes a unique design? I had the opportunity to chat with Christi Lopez, a floral coach and founder of the Floral Business Academy, all about how we can create unique floral designs and make our hotel clients shine. 

Come From A Place of Service

What will make florists stand out for hotel clients? Is it simply just unique floral designs? First off, it is essential to understand that it is all about coming from a place of service in the hospitality industry. But, what does that mean exactly? 

Let’s take the recent pandemic, for example.  

When Covid hit, many hotels were hurting as people were no longer traveling, business trips and conferences were all canceled. Even my hotel clients were struggling and began to enforce the force majeure clauses in our contract.

Even though my own floral business crashed overnight, I had two options. I could try to fight the contract and make them pay per the terms, worrying about what I needed, or I could choose instead to come from a place of service and meet my hotel clients where they were at and trust that they would bring me back when business picked back up. Ultimately, how could I help them during this challenging time continue to shine? I went one month without my hotel floral income, and then they did bring me back, and we went to once a month installs. Even with a smaller budget, I put all my energy into creating dried, unique floral arrangements that still met brand standards and wowed the guests.  

Another way we come from a place of service and make the client shine is by understanding that it is not about you. It is about your client and what you can do to take what you know and your unique floral style and bring that to your client and make them shine. Sometimes as new floral designers and business owners, we get so caught up in what we need to deliver, even if it is just to deliver on something. Still, we do not necessarily think about what it is precisely that the client needs to shine.

Christi shares that one of the most significant ways to make a hotel shine is by designing unique floral arrangements for hotels that create a buzz in the lobby. Show-stopping lobby designs that get guests talking and snapping photos. She once had a GM approach her and question one of her designs, wondering if it was over the top, but she quickly pointed out the guests in the lobby —they were looking at the design, talking about the flowers used, and taking photos. The unique floral design impacted the guests, and she told the GM that though a particular design may not appeal to him personally, it was appealing to his clientele and made the hotel shine. 

Educate Yourself and Step Out of the Box

So how can you create these unique floral designs? Christi is a huge proponent of education and how necessary it is to develop your unique floral style. So many copycats believe they are doing something special and unique, but they are not. They are finding new flowers to design with, they are buying local, but the creativity part has gone out the window.

I completely agree with how Christi feels. We all want to be leaders, but we are actually just being led because we are just constantly looking around seeing what is working for other people.

I tried to do this in the beginning because I wanted to be successful. So I took the courses, saw the Pinterest photos, and did all the things I saw other successful florists doing. But every time I made an arrangement this way, I felt something inside of me die. It was not actually how I wanted to design, and it never looked the same as the Pinterest photo.  

It was not until I just decided to try my own thing and develop my way of designing that I felt good. I did not have to justify anything; I liked how the design looked, and when I started to develop my original style, the creativity just flowed. Yes, I was influenced in a way by other, say, really well-known floral designers. I'm not saying I reinvented the wheel. But I feel I took ownership of designing in a way that made me feel fulfilled, and I feel like many florists are missing that right now because there is a lot of copying in the floral industry just for the sake of wanting to be successful. 

Christi shares that we all copy in some way or form because we are influenced by everything we see. Look out the window; what do we see? Color. Color, shapes, and forms influence us. Often, we believe that if we copy someone else, we will be successful, but all it does is make us always competitive in the same market. Nothing sets us apart for someone to look at what we do and think; wow, there is something about her and what she is doing is just unique.  And that is what we should be doing —coming up with our own brand, our own story, our own style. Those are the things that are going to set you apart.

You have to trust yourself to think outside the box and know that there is no such thing as failure. You either get the result that you wanted or the lesson that you needed to learn. And that is it. There is a difference between confidence and courage. Confidence is something that you get that someone else gives you. For example, I have confidence because I felt I got this excellent feedback. But courage has to come first. You have to step outside your comfort zone to get where you need to go, and then you gain more confidence by doing that. The same thing goes with your creativity, trust yourself, and have courage. 

Has this post got your wheels spinning, and you want to learn more about how to design for hotels? Then, be sure to watch my FREE masterclass for florists who want to create consistent 5k months without depending on unstable wedding & event income. Learn how designing as a hotel florist is NOTHING like designing for weddings & events and the common mistakes florists make when approaching hotels. 

Grab your seat here!