Floral designer Sylvia Abraham on creativity, flowers and the importance of passion

Being a floral designer wasn’t on my original career list, although I always loved flowers and colour.

I have a degree in Social Care (Disability Sector). I worked as a social care worker for 18 years with adults and children with intellectual and physical disabilities in day centres and residential settings. My first real job was when I worked in Peter Mark in the Merrion Centre when I was 15. I was sweeping floors and washing hair. 

The most invaluable thing I learned early on in my career was the importance of finding something you are really passionate about and doing it.

I’ve been very lucky to have loved both my very different careers. A lot of people say “Ah, that’s such a nice job playing with flowers”. But creating the floral designs is such a small part of it and it’s not playing!

My main responsibility at work is to… do everything!

I work with very talented freelance designers on the day of a wedding for set up but I look after everything else in the business. I outsource anything to do with my website.

Holly Chapple is my OG mentor.

She is a super-skilled floral designer in the US and I really value her advice and knowledge.

The biggest risk I have taken in my career so far is to give up my salary job and go all in with Bella Botanica.

I sold my house to move so we could build a house on land with a custom-built studio onsite.

The time I wake up at differs from day to day.

If it’s a wedding day, I’m up at 4am. On design days in the studio, I’m up for 5.30am or 6.30am to 7am on admin days. I have insomnia from time to time so this sometimes affects my wake time, especially if it’s an admin day as I have more flexibility on those days. 

The first thing I do every morning is take a few minutes before I get out of my bed and list the things I’m grateful for.

I also do a couple of minutes of breathwork. Then I hop out of bed and have a little chat with the kids before they head off to secondary school and college. After that,  I’ll have a cup of cacao and take some time with my dogs and husband. I’ll work on inquiries, consultations, proposals and flower orders if there is an upcoming wedding for an hour or two then head to the gym for a morning session. Shower on return then back to work until lunchtime. Once or twice a week, I’ll work a couple of hours in the evening depending on consultations. My hours are split throughout the day. Wedding days are long days – typically 14 hours. 

On wedding days, I’m up super early.

I grab a coffee, head out to the studio and finish a couple of designs. I’ll label all designs and buckets to go to the venue. My son Jamie packs the van whilst I have a quick shower, then I’ll go over the van list to make sure we have everything. I’ll usually grab a piece of fruit to eat in the van and off we go. Once we get to the venue, we meet freelancers and then it’s all systems go. Van unpacking begins and we work nonstop until everything looks beautiful. I usually end my day at about 6pm.

Each working day is different.

On design and wedding days, I check the flowers and make sure they are still looking beautiful and hydrated. On admin days, I work on flower orders or proposals first, then emails. I usually break for lunch at around 1pm and have scrambled tofu or beans on toast. 

On wedding days, I can’t go to work without coffee, a van full of flowers and a team of amazing freelancers.

On design days in the studio, it’s flowers, secateurs and my phone for music or random Netflix shows in the background. On admin days, it’s my Macbook and my phone for podcasts. I rarely get through my working day without chocolate and a podcast or music on in the background. I drive a van when I am travelling to a wedding venue to set up, but on non-wedding days, I’m lucky that the commute is less than a one-minute walk from my house outside to my studio. 

The most useful business tool I use every day is a floral software system for inquiries and proposals.

Oh and sharp secateurs for designing!

I save time by creating floral recipes before I create my flower order.

That means that I can use these recipes to split all florals for each design. It makes it easier on wedding days for freelancers.

The best part of my day is when I’ve put the final touches to designs in the venue on a wedding day and I can see how happy the couple are with how everything looks.

The most challenging part of my day is dealing with florals that may have come in the wrong colour or are of poor quality. Thankfully this doesn’t happen all the time. I know it’s been a good day if all my flowers come in and they look gorgeous and fresh!

I switch off from work by reading, catching up with friends, and walking.

After a long work week, I destress by taking long baths and looking at funny Reels. Before I go to bed, I do a minimum skincare routine, brush my teeth and then have chats on the bed with teenage and adult kids and my husband. 

I often prepare for tomorrow by putting a small list of actions I need to do in my Head Plan Diary.

I watch Reiki ASMR videos late at night when I can’t sleep.

The accomplishment I’m most proud of is being the first floral design business in Ireland to create a flower school that solely designs without the use of floral foam.

I’m proud that we offer students the chance to work on real weddings as part of their course.

If you want to get into my line of work, my advice is to seek out floral designers you love and learn from them.

Pay to take a workshop with the florists you admire and practice, practice, practice. You never stop learning.

At the moment I’m working on an upcoming shoot and planning some beautiful weddings.

I am just back from an amazing month’s adventure in Australia and Thailand with my family so I feel fresh for the year ahead.

Photgraphy by Livia Figueiredo Photography: Photographer for Weddings and Christina Brosnan. Wedding planner: Maria Reidy. Venue: Luttrellstown Castle.