(Image: Elaine Livingstone) Generally when I tell people that I’m a florist they give me a funny look, which always makes me laugh. I think it’s because people have an image of a florist in their head, being a lady wearing a fleece standing in a shop selling bouquets.

Over the last seven years my business has expanded and my floristry has focused purely on luxury weddings and events and it’s been a really good run. I’m not open to the public, at the moment; I work on a private clients based service.

One of the things that I’ve enjoyed most about my job is working in private castles and stately homes throughout Scotland. It’s amazing because I’ve gotten to see parts of the country that I’ve never seen before and maybe never would have, if it weren’t for my job. I’ve really gotten to see a lot of the hidden or secret beauty in Scotland and I’ve loved that.

I applied to study floristry at college in my late teens, but didn’t get accepted, and it was my aunt who is a lecturer who told me to go and do a degree in business or something similar in the meantime. I did a degree in events management and business and my plan was to move to London afterwards, but I couldn’t find work there. I did some professional modeling around that time, and that was kind of cool and took me into a world of creativity. I’d say that I’m not very academic, I think my intelligence base is definitely a creative one.

After university, through a graduate training program, I went to work for a wedding florist, but on the business side of it, rather than working directly with the flowers. It was so random the way it all worked out, they really encouraged me to work with the flowers and the in-house florist would leave me the offcuts to practice and make my own arrangements. So I’m self-taught and have my own signature style. My floristry tends to keep up with current trends; I just wouldn’t have been successful with traditional floristry. At the moment my styles are modern, minimalist and quite bold. It’s very creative and the fashion interest industry and the Pantone Colour Chart are big influences in my work.

I’ve actually welcomed the lockdown in a sense, despite it having been necessary for devastating reasons. I’ve just tried to accept it and use it as a personal reset.

Over the last few years, a lot has happened for me personally. I had already taken a step back from work a little, so that I could focus on my personal life and what I want to achieve in my life.

I’ve gone back to learning several languages and I’ve got back into the kitchen because I really love to cook. I felt like the things that give me pleasure in life had really diminished with working hard all the time, and living in a fast paced city. I don’t mean that […]