Lilacs & Lace (LL) was born in 2016, from the deep need to do something that existed outside the realm of an ordinary job. I needed more. More what? More love, more passion, more happiness, more smiles… just more. I had been stagnant in a retail management career for the last decade, and at some point, waking up and going to work stopped being exciting.
But there was one element of my career that still made my heart race– that exhausted feeling after a long visual change where you stand at the front of the store with your team, wiping your sweating brow and you think, “Shit, that looks beautiful.” I had spent a decade consulting with brides about their decor, wrapping gifts for holiday parties, creating floral arrangements for centrepieces… and at the end of each of these moments, I got that same feeling. And so began my constant chase for that high, that moment when a job was done well and the client was happy.
I didn’t stumble on flowers by accident, I didn’t choose them from a long list of options– I waited for them to choose me. I’ll pause here for dramatic effect [ . . . ]
[. . . continued] It didn’t matter where I went looking, I found myself back at the computer scrolling through pages and pages of floral inspiration guides. I found myself at the wholesaler, frozen in their floral coolers just swooning at the buckets of garden roses and dinner plate dahlias. I ran my fingers through bundles of Italian ruscus and lily grass. I spent hours wandering the same six aisles, at least a dozen associates must have asked if I needed help with anything. I didn’t know how to tell them that for the first time in a long time, I was home… so I’m telling all of you, instead.
And here we are, three years later, LL is a million dollar company with over three hundred and fifty employees in eight provinces and twenty four states.
I’m just kidding. It has been three years, but there are only a handful of us working on any given project, and so far we’ve barely breached the city border. But one thing remains the same from all those years ago, we love what we do, and we will not stop until you do too.
Lilacs & Lace 