Her Story
About Betty
I'm the Design Manager at Flowers for Dreams in Detroit, where I oversee all of our designs including weddings, events, and daily flowers. My journey in floristry started years ago working in the back of my mom's flower shop in Pontiac, Michigan, and I kept working there through college. After she sold it, I ended up managing the business for a few years. I then found Flowers for Dreams when it was a startup and worked with them as a sales consultant. I also worked as a wholesaler at MASH with flowers, which really taught me where everything came from, the price points, and how the flowers actually get to us. Eventually, Flowers for Dreams reached out and asked me to come back as their Design Manager. My typical day involves handling freelancers we bring in during busy months, running wedding design training courses for our daily designers, printing out cure-outs, making packets for the wedding install team, and then spending the rest of my day designing, which is ideal for me. I studied design at CCS, College for Creative Studies in Detroit, which really shaped my design eye and how I think about the structure of my arrangements. But honestly, learning from other florists over the years and working alongside really talented people has given me more knowledge than anything else.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Betty
01What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Definitely take risks, ask for forgiveness later. I think going out on your own and kind of just doing it, and being a self-starter, that's one of the most important things I've learned. Having that initiative is so important. Learning from other florists over the years has been invaluable because everyone knows how to do things differently, and just being in this industry for years and working alongside really talented people has given me more knowledge than anything else, more than any courses or videos I've watched. It's really just working with other people who have their own way of doing things.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
If you're interested in floristry and don't know how to get started, just go out and get started. It sometimes feels like it's its own world that's hard to get into, but it's important for people to know that this can be your job. You can go to work and make beautiful things. I think it's one of those things where if you just go out and you get started, maybe someone hearing my story will think, oh, this is something that I can do, too.
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