Lex was forced to think outside of the box after the the Prime Minister introduced a ban on all weddings and civil partnerships A wedding florist says her profits have more than doubled since the start of the pandemic, despite being left without a single order on March 23.

Lex Hamilton’s flourishing empire hit a standstill three months ago when Boris Johnson ordered all venues and churches to temporarily close.

"It was terrifying," the former social worker told Mirror Money. "All of my orders had to be cancelled or postponed and I had to terminate the lease on my studio. I just thought, how am I going to pay my mortgage?

"I moved all of the flowers back to South London flat – there were flowers everywhere. At one point my bath was full of peonies."

But Lex, 27, says the pandemic forced her to think on her feet, and with the help of her partner, a professional coder, she decided to change direction.

"I thought there has to be a market for something different – so I decided to expand and do one-of-a-kind and personalised home deliveries instead.

"I turned my online portfolio into a retail website delivering flowers to homes around London," Lex, who lives in Tooting, South London, told Mirror Money.

"I don’t think I’ve ever worked under so much pressure. I don’t think I’ve ever been so efficient in my life."

Lex, who has almost 9,000 followers on Instagram says she used social media presence to raise awareness of her new online shop.

"I started delivering fliers in the local area, I got in touch with bloggers for social media posts and did some local work with a company called Tooting Newsie. I also got involved in some local competitions – and the word quickly got out.

"But it was tough. I was singlehandedly delivering 135 bouquets and I had nowhere to keep my stock."

Within days, Lex’s social media posts started to gain traction – and the orders started to pour in.

"Before lockdown, I was earning around £1,000 a week per wedding – and all of the money was basically profit," she said."I had weddings booked for every weekend until November. But now, things have completely transformed. I’m making more than £2,000 a week out of just flowers."In the first week of lockdown, social media really started to take off, I was getting more than 135 orders a week. The orders were flying. I was thrilled."This has started to slow down in the past couple of weeks, but I’m still processing around 40 orders a week – equivalent to £1,600."Lex gets her flowers from the Shropshire garden company, a supplier called Hoak, and now that it’s reopened, the Covent Garden flower company."I spend around a third of my takings on buying my stock – and my bouquet prices range from £25 to £50.""And with weddings picking up, my orders are building up again – which I’m thrilled about."I’m now taking deposits for ceremonies – which is amazing. I’m also about to move into a new […]