I’m not a writer and I’ll never pretend to be. But I’d love to share what “knowledge” I have of the wedding world with you!

I would love to start though, by explaining how I got to where I am today, cause it’s kinda a gnarly story.

Picture a young 18 year old Nadine, graduating high school in 2012, top of her class with honors clubs out the wahoo. A typical eager-learner type.

Headed off for Liberty University in August 2012 to study (of all things) nursing!

I love learning things! It is my favorite! But when we started talking about nursing practicals and all that was coming, I wasn’t completely stoked about it. No, I actually started to think “Nadine, where do you see yourself in 5 years?” and I answered “Well, I see myself at home with babies” This was when I first realized that maybe, all the noise about college…just wasn’t for me. I decided to come home from college. It was such a hard decision, Liberty is a great school. But God had different plans.

So I came home and started my job working in the hardware store I worked in during High School. Everywhere I turned, people came at me wondering why I wasn’t in college. It was one of the first times in my life I had no idea what I was going to do and the fact that grown adults were coming at me like lions on a bigmac, telling me ill be a failure…it just wasn’t a recipe for happiness.

Down the line a bit, my older sister came to me and said she has a friend who is getting married and doesn’t want to pay a florist. She suggested I do it since I’d always been artsy-fartsy. Of course I said yes, because art is amazing.

Disclaimer::: I had never been to a wedding before! And the most I’d arranged is tiny home-garden arrangements.

Yikes. The wedding came, and guess who pulled it off? The bride’s aunt & I created a gorgeous pink peony wedding!(Below) But the number one thing I realized.. I kinda super love flowers. (First clue that God had this amazing plan for me.)

My sister and her friends started getting married and guess who got to do some weddings? Me! Experience is everything. I didn’t go to school for this, I didn’t work in a flower shop (believe me, I applied all over). I called myself Petals. (pretty sure every florist starts out with the name petals?!) It was January 2016 and I decided to make a facebook. Maybe get a wedding a month? I started the year with 3 weddings booked. By June I had over 50. Yeah// like five-zero. If I hadn’t been sure about whether I should do this or not, God made that seriously clear here. You ever pray for clarity about something? God knew my heart was yearning for purpose and a clear path. He showed that to me.

The first year, I did about 30-35 weddings. I was blown away. I was a business and that was that!

\\Side note—Both of my parents have their own businesses, so my small business backbone is about as strong as you can get it!//

2017 brought some new changes. I did about 50 weddings that year. I had contracted help when needed from spring-early fall, then was solo again for the busy season. I realized, the bigger I got, that there were too many florists in the area with a name resembling “Petals”. So a name change was in order! I asked my fam and friends for some ideas…couldn’t settle on one, until my sister said “How about Lancaster Flower Co. Dean!” It stuck. At first I was like…uhmmm I do weddings outside of Lancaster County!! My sister came back with “have you ever been to Appalachian Brewing Co? Cause you probably didn’t go to Appalachia for that.” With that, I confirmed my new name and here we are with Lancaster Flower Co.

2018 was a year of continual growth and learning. Going full-time in my business (just a little sidegig for peace of mind) Networking with other professionals, florists, photogs, venues, djs…the list goes on and on. Adding to my team & 65-70 weddings later and it’s 2019 with a January wedding already in the bag.

Small roots. I come from small roots. And I share my story because 1: God is crazy faithful. 2: College isn’t for everyone, and no matter how many times people tell you that you’ll be a loser for not going to college –remember that’s a LIE straight from the mouth of satan. And 3: Doing what you love is a blessing in itself and will *hopefully* show in what you do.

Lancaster Flower Co. is here to love on people. We care about our brides and grooms and clients because this is a small business. I do a happy dance when someone books us. If we can help show God’s beauty to our clients and others we reach, then we can say we put in a good days’ work.

song of solomon 2:12

\\\Our Story///