Aug 29, 2020

Wedding Planner Vendor Spotlight | Hop Rabbit Flowers

I was able to chat with Hop Rabbit Flowers this past week. HollyAnn, the owner of Hop Rabbit Flowers popped up on a vendor list when for a wedding I had this summer and when I checked out her website I was sooo intrigued. Read below for our convo!

What made you get started doing wedding flowers?

Flowers have always had a special place in my heart. My parents created incredible gardens around our home when I was a kid. Every Mother's Day my dad and I would go to the grocery store super early in the morning to get flowers and all the ingredients for eggs benedict. I always insisted on picking out and arranging the flowers myself. Even as a little kid, I didn't trust anyone else with my Mom's flowers. To me, there was no greater joy than creating something for the person I loved! I think that's where my love for flowers began, inspired by my parent's gardens and Mother's Day.

I was always a creative kid and participated in choir and musical theater in high school. After enjoying bouquets my friends and family would bring to my shows, I would hang them all upside down along my canopy bed. Pretty soon the entire canopy was full of dried flowers. If anyone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I listed off a few things including owning a flower shop!

There's something a little extra special about creating flowers for one of our couples! I think it brings me back to those feelings I had creating arrangements for my Mom. I just love meeting new people, forming connections, and then getting to create something inspired by their unique story. I have always been in the service industry, I definitely 'live to serve', and serving through flowers just speaks to my heart!

What is your favorite part of working with brides?

Oh, again, making meaningful connections! So many of my clients have become friends & I cherish those relationships. I definitely walk the line between trying to maintain professionalism but most importantly, treating my clients like friends. That's honestly my goal; enter as a client, leave as a friend (who could not be happier with the way their wedding flowers turned out!). I'm definitely a quality over quantity person and I want our couples to feel pampered! I'm all about that boutique experience.

What 'green' practices do you incorporate in your company?

This is an area I'm constantly trying to stretch and grow in! First off, I use EVERY part of the flower. I leave a lot of greens on, I save clippings, I just really try to get the most out of each stem, that way I don't need as much. I forage greenery when I can manage it ethically, and I source as much as possible from local farms. My favorite way that we keep the business sustainable though, is our new side business, 'pretty dead flowers'...

Where did the concept 'pretty dead flowers' come from?

Many florists work with dried flowers, but I wanted to take it a step further and create a dried-only side to our business so we could explore the 'dark side' of our brand. We all have lightness and darkness inside of us and I wanted to reflect that in our business too! I truly believe that both our light side and dark side are 'good' and make up two beautiful pieces of who we are. I think a lot of us gals have an inner-witchy side that craves some serious mood.

I also wanted a way to serve a wider audience of non-traditional couples. I'm such a fan of the adventurous elopement community! I 'married' my parents on top of Long Peak when I was six year old. We stayed up late the night before, camped out in the Boulder Field, and made rings with old rope and a lighter. It's such a happy memory and I'm all about unique weddings that truly reflect the couple! Since our flowers are all dried, we can ship them anywhere in the US. We are happy to provide a more practical wedding flower option for all kinds of couples, whether they want to get married on top of a mountain, on a beach, or at city hall. I'm a pretty practical person myself, and although I LOVE creating florals for luxury weddings, this isn't the route I would go for my own wedding. This side of the business just really speaks to my heart!

It was also really wearing on me to see all the leftover flowers from our luxury weddings ending up in the trash. I'm now able to dry and reuse a lot of those flowers. Pretty Dead Flowers is a more sustainable option for environmentally-conscious couples AND it also makes our luxury side of the business more sustainable because we can 'recycle' that product! Now when I source flowers for our luxury weddings, I try to steer us towards varieties that I know dry well so we are able to re-use them if we have leftovers (& we ALWAYS have leftovers).

What areas do you service?

We will go anywhere, but most of our weddings are in Steamboat, other nearby mountain towns along the I-70 corridor, and down along the Front Range. I have not booked a true destination wedding yet, but it is a dream of mine!!

How can couples find you?

Most couples find us via Instagram or by referral from another local vendor. We are on Wedding Wire, Facebook, Instagram & now Etsy!