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Meet Trailblazer Abbie Turner

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Abbie Turner.

Abbie, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I had a very interesting journey into the floral world… It all started when my husband, myself and our eight month old moved onto an abandoned 30 acre farm in Door County, WI.

We loved living on so much land, and my absolute favorite place to be on the property was the wildflower field. In it, there were little song birds, butterflies, bees and buzzing life all around. It was my favorite place to spend time with our little babe, she could sit in one spot and see so much life around her. It made both of us so happy, that’s when I had that “ah ha moment”. Flowers, flowers made me really really happy. They brought so much joy to me and my little baby, there was just something about them. That’s when I decided I wanted to start a flower farm- I wanted to be surrounded by as many flowers as humanly possible.

That winter (for seven years we split our time between winters in Vail, and summers in Door County) I spent all of my free time researching, reading and talking with other farmers, pouring my heart into this idea, I left Vail that spring with a literal spring in my step! I couldn’t wait to get back to the farm and begin my journey of becoming a flower farmer.

It wasn’t easy, as farming never is, but I did it! We had a wildly successful farm, and our community was all about it, and I was HOOKED! The first year of growing, I designed flowers for four weddings, the next year 13, the next 24, and the last year we had our farm a whopping 30+ weddings!

By 2016, our daughter was in school, and the seasonal living was getting a bit tricky with the educational system. We ended up closing our farm doors and decided to finally set roots and stay in Vail year round, which is when Flower to the People came into existence.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Flower to the People has seen some ups and downs, like any new business I would imagine. The first year we launched, I was working from home. We had a garage that became my floral studio. Having a garage in Vail is a big deal and I felt very lucky to have that space to get started. Unfortunately, our rental that we had been in for years was sold, and we were forced to move, which meant FTTP no longer had a space to work out of.

We ended up a bit down Valley in Edwards, this was our first time living somewhere other than East Vail, it felt like a whole new world! We rented a large house with a two car garage, and FTTP was ready to take on a year of weddings… but guess what- after we signed a big lease and a year commitment, we found out that we couldn’t get packages shipped to our house-All of our flowers get shipped to us! It felt like the universe was trying to make me quit and give up. Did I, hell no! We pushed through the summer in the house and figured out ways to get flowers, but it wasn’t easy. We ended up breaking our lease and found a place back in our favorite area of Vail- East Vail!

While we were searching for a new place to live, I was also frantically trying to find a place to move my business into. I ended up scoring an amazing studio in Eagle Vail, that was SO perfect for what we needed. This is where FTTP currently is, and the space has been so good to us. We finally feel like we are in a good place and are so thankful to be where we are.

If I could give women advice when starting their own company, it would be to stay true to your main desires and goals and DON’T stop! If I had stopped when my farm was literally under water from flooding or quit because I couldn’t get flowers to my workspace then my dream would have died. It’s hard, but you have to keep pushing!

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Flower to the People – what should we know?
Flower to the People specializes high-end floral design. We create organic styled designs for weddings and events. Right now, our market is the Vail Valley, but myself and my team loves to travel. Our goals are to become an internationally known company and create flower magic all over the world.

My favorite thing ever is when clients see our work in person. It’s more of an art than a typical flower arrangement, like what most are used to. We use nature as a main inspiration in all of our designs, and love bringing event spaces to life with our creations.

We’re interested to hear your thoughts on female leadership – in particular, what do you feel are the biggest barriers or obstacles?
In Vail, I feel very supported by all the amazing women in this industry and cannot say how enough how amazing that is. To be able to call competition and talk through real-life work scenarios is such an incredible gift that I’m so grateful for.

Where my business started, in WI, was not like that at all. The other designers in the area were not supportive of each other and everything was very cut-throat. I know it sounds cliche, but community over competition is something I strongly believe in!

Us women need to stand together!

Pricing:

  • Peak season minimums for weddings start at $5,000
  • Off season minimums for weddings start at $3,000

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Dani Cowan Photography, Rachel Havel Photography

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