Flora D’Amore

Wedding Florist Spotlight

Todays Vendor Spotlight is all about wedding & event florals. No matter what the occasion floral designers, Anna and Karli at Flora D’ Amore excel at bringing their clients floral dreams to life all while working to stay within their budget.

Flora D’ Amore’s studio is located in Everett, WA and has been creating floral masterpieces for their clients for over 70 years. Like myself they understand and appreciate the that no two weddings or love stories are exactly alike, which is why they have enlisted a team of top notch wedding coordinators & designers to help guide you through the selection process to bring your wedding floral dreams to life .

Meet Anna & Karli:

Anna Porterfield is the lead wedding coordinator and Designer at Flora’s Amore. For over a decade she has been in the floral business, creating stunning arrangements and designing weddings and special events. With a bachelor of fine arts in Costume Design for Theater it is no surprise that she excels at being able to interpret a client’s vision exquisitely.

Karli started working for Stadium Flowers in 2019 and joined the Flora D’ Amore team as a wedding coordinator and designer in 2021. Her eye for design along with her attention to detail impresses not only her clients but all who attend and take part in the events. 

• What led you to become a floral designer? 

Anna- I graduated with a Bachelor of the Arts degree in Costume Design for Theater, where I learned how to get into someone else’s head to see their vision and to then manifest it. My career in the floral industry began at a wedding/events company in Middleburg, VA. I fell in love with the idea of putting on big events that mimicked live theater!

Karli- I love to be creative and work with lots of different materials. I have a live theater background and Bachelor of Fine Arts degree which taught me many valuable skills for putting lots of pieces together. I love getting to work with beautiful things and putting them together to make something even more gorgeous!

• What inspires your floral design vision? 

Anna- The client! We try to give them what they are looking for. I love to take the seeds of inspiration the clients bring and make them grow!

Karli- I personally love color! I love when I get to play with how all the colors come together. I also really love putting on a show, so I love when I get to deliver the weddings and see how our designs and visions come to life. And of course, our clients and their excitement for the flowers is so inspiring!

Helpful information & Tips for perspective clients:

• Is there anything you wish clients knew or considered before contacting you?

Anna-  Doing some research as to what kind of ideas they like is the best thing to do. Look at Pinterest, it has so many ideas. Florals are like the icing on the cake. You have to have an idea of what the cake will look like before adding the icing. It is great to have an idea of what you want to see and then you can add to that with the florals.

Karli- I think it is great for the clients to know they do not have to have all the answers, but a starting point is great. Numbers of center pieces will change and that is totally fine we don’t mind changing with you! The one thing that is important is a starting idea. Pinterest is a great place to start looking! Knowing wedding colors is a great starting point too. We do not expect them to have a list of flowers they want to see, we can definitely work there! Pictures are worth a thousand words!

• Tips For Clients when it comes to picking florals & Working with you: 

Anna- If there is a flower you have to have checkin with us to see if it has specific growing seasons. We want to make sure the flowers look beautiful just like the client does, so we are here to give suggestions and answer questions about flower availability. The best thing to do is keep an open mind. We want to give suggestions that reflect your vision while ensuring the longevity of the florals!

Karli- I will say that we get lots and lots of requests for peonies all year long and I am so sad to say they have a very short growing time. They start around the beginning of May and only go to the end of June. They do come back very shortly around December but just for a couple of weeks. It is always sad when we can not provide those flowers all year long, but we do have options and ideas of how to solve this problem. Garden roses are pretty flowers that do have a similar vibe to peonies. If someone really does want peonies, we can also add silk ones to bouquets. We are full of ideas!

Picking flower should be a fun process! I know that I have fun doing it. I hope that they can relive some stress by sharing what they like and we can really build on whatever they have whether a whole vision board or a color palette.

When to book.

 Based on 12 months and 6 month for wedding planning, when do you recommend clients inquire to book you? Whatever works best for the couple works for us! For the most part 6 months is a fine amount of time. We have a lovely team of designers and do not often book up on wedding dates. We have been known to take them in a month and sometimes same week. That said, there are definitely busy times and less busy times. The last couple weeks of July and first couple weeks of August are some of the biggest wedding weekends and those do get filled up much faster and I would suggest booking those sooner!

When do you usually like to schedule the final detail meeting? We will start our process at any time with our personalized proposals. We will have a meeting around 3 months out from the wedding date. And we try to have all changes wrapped up one month before the wedding so we can order the correct flowers. That said, we are flexible and can work with what is best for the clients.

Fun Fact on Anna & Karli:

When Anna isn’t creating wedding florals she can be found at home with her family creating memories. 

Post wedding season Karli loves to hit the slopes. When she isn’t kicking up powder she can be found warming up by the fire enjoying a good romantic comedy.

Want to learn more about how Anna, Karlie and their team at Flora D’Amore can make you wedding floral dreams a reality ? Click here .