WEDDING FLOWERS – LET’S GET DOWN TO BLOOMING BUSINESS!
(HOW TO BE SUSTAINABLE AND PROFITABLE IN WEDDING FLORALS)
We’ll teach you how to be sustainable AND profitable within Wedding Floristry!
Are you ready to enter the wonderful world of wedding florals?
Are you looking for no-nonsense, straight-talking, jargon-free teaching methods based on real-life scenarios?
Are you a florist ready to ditch the floral foam and try environmentally friendly methods?
Have you been frustrated by old-fashioned design principles and methods taught at mainstream colleges?
Do you want to brush up your floristry skills and find some renewed enthusiasm?
Are you excited to learn new techniques and expand your business services?
Are you ready for business growth and to learn from people who’ve been there!
We’re here to guide you and help you every step of the way….
Our aim is for you to learn how to turn your flower passion into a thriving and sustainable business using
your own flair and creativity, but with NO FLORAL FOAM.
We are proud to run our business on sustainable principles. We have encountered outmoded and outdated design methodology and had to invent our own way of creating eco-friendly, (single-use) plastic free floral arrangements. We know how hard it can be to source the right materials, stay within budget and stick to sustainable principles but we’ve done it and want you to do it too!
“We both know how profitable wedding floral work can be, and how important it is for our businesses, but we also know just how reliant the industry has been on plastics, and how detrimental to the environment traditional florals have been. We have proved that wedding florals can be both beautiful AND eco-friendly, without the floral foam – and we’re determined to show others how reliable these methods are too”
Roz & Ali.
THE PROBLEM
We know how damaging floral foam is to the environment and the impact that traditional floristry has to the planet. The issues go far and beyond floral foam alone, but we believe that teaching foam-free methods can make the single biggest impact. Sadly, most mainstream colleges haven’t yet caught up with teaching foam-free methods, and their design principles are old-fashioned and often outmoded. Even worse; the wedding florals industry has a HUGE impact environmentally, and is responsible for massive amounts of plastics waste and in particular; floral foam pollution.
THE SOLUTION – OUR ‘WEDDING FLOWERS’ COURSE GETS RIGHT ‘DOWN TO BUSINESS’ IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE!
We’ll show you How to be sustainable AND profitable in wedding florals, with our unique blend of creative, foam-free practical floristry lessons and expert business advice and support.
✅ The Great British Flower School is here to offer an alternative. No-nonsense. Straight-talking practical teaching, that de-mystifies the theory and cuts through jargon.
✅ We focus on the down-to-earth practical stuff: How do you do it? Show me the exact step-by-step process. Where can you source alternative materials? What do you really need and what should you not waste your money on?
✅ We’ll provide you with easy to follow, accessible instructions, clear, friendly and fun video demos and PDF downloads to reinforce learning and provide you with step-by-step references.
✅ We’re here to help you find and develop your own unique style. We like to encourage a creative mind-set, to set you free from outmoded design constraints and boring principles. We’ll show you HOW and you’ll find your own UNIQUE WAY.
✅ We’re here to help you find and develop your client portfolio by streamlining your systems, appeal to the right people and win business with the right approach!
What do we teach at the Flower School?
We have foam-free ‘alternative’, eco-friendly ideas and solutions for EVERY situation – for weddings, for funerals, for bouquet transportation, for outdoor installation, for table decoration… everything! And it’s not just about floral foam either, we also need to address the miles of plastic ribbon, tape, cellophane, card holders and other single use plastics in floristry; Roz and Ali have learnt the hard way; trialling and testing all the alternative solutions and finding better options for their businesses over the years.
Ali’s floristry style is wild and natural – we like to let the ingredients dictate the design, and work with the natural twists and turns of stems. We like to encourage creativity and motivate you to experiment and try different textural contrasts and combinations. We are lucky enough to work with the beautiful seasonal ingredients that Roz and the team grow right here on the farm.
Welcome to Wedding Flowers
NOW! Lets get down to Blooming Business!
What’s the investment?
£697 (payment plan available)
So, for less than the price of 1 x wedding booking, we will teach you EVERYTHING we have learned over the years and EVERYTHING you need to know for success!)
What do we learn?
We will take you through 9 lessons in a clear, no jargon, easy to follow way, including:
Lesson 1: The ‘no wire’ cheats cascade!
The easiest way for florists to create a cascading bouquet, without lengthy, time consuming wiring. This technique is so useful and effective for so many reasons. You can create a wilder- looking loose cascade that looks particularly good when using locally grown blooms, and avoids the stiff, formal placement of a traditional-style cascade, which is very rarely requested by modern brides. More cost effective for you and your business and for your clients - a WIN WIN!
Lesson 2: The Armature Bouquet Method
The armature technique is a lovely way to create an open, front or top facing bouquet for brides. It allows space between blooms without worrying about movement or flower stem damage. Holding everything neatly in place for your piece of mind, it will help alleviate any worries about a bridal bouquet not looking its’ best for the all-important wedding photos!
Lesson 3: The Hand-vase Technique
This technique is an absolute favourite for many florists for wedding work, to create interesting shapes and forms, and create an artistic bouquet within a framework of stems. Particularly useful with certain twiggy stems and branches such as blossom or magnolia but very useful in many applications across the seasons. Quick, yet very very effective - keeping your timings on track when prepping for weddings.
Lesson 4: WIRING made SIMPLE
Wiring is being used less within floristry, for environmental reasons AND for changing styles and tastes. HOWEVER it really can help and is still crucial, in our opinion, to know the techniques, so that they are in your armory of floristry skills when needed. We will look at support wiring AND wiring for placement and longevity. Then we’ll take a deep dive into different buttonhole and boutonnière techniques and designs.
Lesson 5: TABLE-SCAPING; Compote bowls, kenzans and Buds
Creating a beautiful table-scape is a key skill for wedding floristry. Learn how to go foam-free for a gorgeous compote bowl centre-piece, and then how you can expand and build this display with bud vases and other elements. This ‘mix and match’ style of creating a table scape design works really well for your bottom line. An effective mass design, using focal points and then smaller elements to give additional wow factor and design cohesion. The rental/hire elements also help your profitability.
Lesson 6: The versatile MEADOW BOX
The meadow box mechanic is so useful as a design piece. We use the exact same method to create displays on tables, mantelpieces, staircases and to create meadow aisles. That’s why its so versatile and has become our firm favourite to work with! Whatever the season, you can adapt this design to suit the particular flower choices you have, and you can change the style to go loose, meadowy and wild, or more formal, restrained and luxe.
Lesson 7: Registrar/Top Table cascade
Another very versatile piece; the registrar design is a firm favourite for wedding couples, as it can be so easily moved and then double-up as a top table design. Creating a beautiful cascade over the front edge is key, whist also making sure there are well-placed flowers at the back, for this design’s second use! After personal flowers (bouquets, wearables etc) this design is the most requested piece in any wedding order, AND often the most photographed piece - so it is crucial to get it right and looking good for the whole day AND evening!
Lesson 8: Statement URN ARRANGEMENT
Large design pieces like Urns and churns create real wow factor and talking points, especially when raised at height with plinths. They can be a great addition to almost any venue, and are a profitable design in wedding floristry for ease of creation, relative ease of transportation - flexibility (can be made on or off site depending on set up timings of the wedding day) and clients LOVE them. Learn some design principles to help yours look super professional and creative!
Lesson 9: LARGE MANTELPIECE INSTAL
It is absolutely ESSENTIAL for any florist to be able to dress a gorgeous mantel. For weddings that are held within stately home type settings, country mansions or castles or elegant drawing rooms of large hotels and manors. A well-dressed mantel provides wow-factor and can create the perfect backdrop behind ceremonies or receptions, framing the couple perfectly. Any floral mantel will be a draw for guests to stand in front of for photos and will become the backdrop for sure!
And that’s not all!
Each video demonstration will have in depth accompanying course notes in PDF form – for you to access whenever and however you want. Close up shots, step-by-step instructions, and extra tips, tricks and alternatives for you to try on your own.
PLUS useful recipe cards for future reference..
Detailed step-by-step course notes for each module!
How will the course be delivered?
You will receive access to 9 in-depth step-by-step video demonstrations by Ali from our studio here at Field Gate Flowers.
That’s 9 amazing in-depth lessons. Ali has an open, friendly, chatty teaching style and doesn’t like using jargon. She will take you through what she is doing, in a naturally and relaxed way, as if you were there in the studio with her (mistakes and all!)
You can watch the videos whenever you like, and will have UNLIMITED access to the videos, so you can take it all in, at your own pace, when it is convenient.
PLUS… LIVE BUSINESS TRAINING MODULES WITH ROZ & ALI
We have built successful floral businesses with wedding flowers being an ESSENTIAL part of our revenue streams, but it doesn’t come easy! You NEED essential business strategies to go alongside your hands-on practical floristry techniques and designs. So, We’ll cover business training in the following areas:
• Pricing Weddings for Profit
• Creating Standout Proposals
• Marketing & Social Media
• Client Journey & Consultations
• Contracts & Terms
• Sourcing & Supply Chains
• Portfolio Building & Styled Shoots
• Managing Large-Scale Events
Extra bonus materials:
We will also supply you with extra bonus materials to help you on your Wedding Floristry journey:
ALL the Business Training presentations available to download
FREE complete email TEMPLATE System to streamline your WEDDING CLIENT onboarding process!
PLUS! Our FLOURISH online COMMUNITY
your own Private Facebook Community for the whole duration of your course
A Facebook group for you to ask questions 24/7 and feel part of a business community that has your back. No question is a silly question, we are all here to learn and expand our knowledge through shared experience. It’s also great to know that others are going on the journey at the SAME TIME as you – as the group will only be for your class cohort! We’re here to support you on your foam-free journey, so will open up the floor and regularly pop into the group to help answer some of your questions.
What’s your investment?
an investment in your Wedding Business , to secure your future
We’ve thought long and hard about the content of a sustainable Wedding Florals course, to give just the right balance of information, skills, knowledge and valuable content but to keep the cost reasonable and within reach . We firmly believe that eco-floristry is the future, and that it is important to spread awareness and knowledge to make this happen within the wedding industry, which is notoriously bad for waste.
We have both invested heavily in our own training and development, have paid several thousand pounds on training, and have a combined industry experience of 20 years in the industry, learning and developing our techniques along the way. Our experience and business knowledge is based on real-life scenarios, yes we have made some (costly!) mistakes along the way - but that means you don’t have to!
We wanted to keep the cost under £700, and ask for that investment from you to secure a great business in providing wedding florals for your clients.
Not quite sure?
Wanna know more about Our Great British Flower School Philosophy?
Roz and Ali are straight-talking, down to earth people. When they met, their friendship was instant - with so many connections, past experiences and a very similar outlook on life. Ali is very much a creative ‘ideas’ person (mostly with her head in the clouds, if not in the flowers!), whilst Roz is the experienced grower and business woman who gets stuff done.
“The balance between grower flower-farmer, and florist is fundamental to success in this industry and as a partnership, we reckon we are a pretty dynamic duo! We laugh a lot, talk a lot, cut to the chase, work exceptionally hard to achieve our goals and like a no-nonsense approach. (It helps that we are both outdoor-obsessed people, with not only a shared passion for flowers, but a love of animals, our family and friends, and a love of Greece.)” Roz
So how does that benefit me?
Ali has been through the traditional teaching system, after re-training mid-career, from garden design into floral design. She quickly became frustrated by traditional floristry courses, methods AND teaching styles. At the same time, Roz was looking for a creative florist with a friendly teaching style, with industry experience, who could explain and demonstrate clearly.
The result? The Great British Flower School
This is for you, if you like your learning delivered in a friendly down-to earth style, and….
You are new or just starting out in floristry
You are ready for a career change, and thinking about floristry
You are a flower farmer, keen to learn professional floristry skills and techniques
You are a keen hobbyist who wants to learn professional flower arranging methods
Or… you are a traditional, foam-trained florist who is nervous about making the change to eco-techniques
Or… you studied at mainstream college but, like Ali, have been frustrated by old fashioned teaching designs
Or… you may just want to refresh, update and re-vitalise your existing floristry skills.
Still not sure? Let’s ask if any of these relate to you?
Are you nervous about ditching the foam for good?
Have you tried some eco-methods before, but had a bad experience?
Are you just starting out in floristry and keen to start off on the right foot?
Do you want to be more environmentally friendly but are just not sure where to start?
Have you looked for a course or training program and not found quite the right ‘fit’?
Are you worried that you are not ‘creative’ enough ‘talented enough’ or ‘skilled enough’?
Do you prefer to learn at your own pace, in your own time, but with professional support and advice when you need it? Maybe you like to take your time…or speed through content.
Do you just want to try at a low-commitment level, and decide whether this is for you?
Have you been put off by high fees for residential or ‘fast track’ courses?
At the Great British Flower School (GBFS) we believe that eco methods, environmentally friendly techniques and creative tips tricks and advice, should be available and accessible to all.
We are here to share our knowledge and experience, (and even our mishaps and blunders!).
Let’s be honest, the options available to you thus far, have been pretty limited
(we get it we’ve been there!)
We’re delighted that you have found us, and we can fix your problem.
Let’s work on it together…
Why should I sign up to the Great British Flower School when there are so many out there….?
It’s true – there is an overwhelming array of floristry courses available to you, so it’s important you choose the right one. Let us tell you a bit more about ourselves…
Meet the Founders
Roz Chandler – Flower Farmer, Mentor, Business Strategist
Roz has always been drawn to the outdoors. Her journey began with a BSc in Environmental Science, later complemented by an MA in Digital Strategies, where she researched the sustainability of flower farming. With over 30 years in marketing and sales, Roz uniquely combines business acumen with hands-on flower farming expertise, making her one of the few globally to do so.
In 2012, she founded Field Gate Flowers, a thriving 5-acre flower farm in Lathbury, Milton Keynes. Committed to organic and sustainable practices, Roz and her team use biological and cultural controls, promote sustainable floral mechanics, and advocate for British-grown flowers. The business has worked on over 500 weddings and many thousands of farewell blooms.
Her expertise extends beyond the field—having built a successful digital marketing agency and served as a Non-Executive Director in UK agriculture, Roz knows how to turn a passion into a profitable and sustainable business.
Roz’s dream is simple: to empower more people to be sustainable in their flowery creations . She met Ali through a mutual contact and was immediately drawn to her floristry style, skills, and eco-conscious ethos. Over many cups of tea, The Great British Flower School was launched.
Ali Conway – Florist, Designer, Educator
Ali’s journey to floristry wasn’t linear, but it was always leading her here. With a Master’s degree in Psychology from Glasgow University, she initially pursued a career in marketing, working in agencies from SoHo, New York, to McCann Erickson in London. Despite the excitement of agency life, Ali longed for a deeper connection to nature.
Becoming a mother provided the opportunity to change course. She retrained in Garden Design while balancing motherhood, running a global postal design service, and freelancing for large firms. But something was missing—Ali had designed countless gardens for others but spent too much time at a desk, feeling disconnected from the very thing she loved.
That all changed when she discovered floristry. Launching Rambling Stems in 2020, Ali found her true calling in creating natural, foam-free floral designs with British-grown flowers. Her work resonates with clients who appreciate her warm approach, creativity, and unwavering commitment to sustainability.
Ali’s frustration with traditional floristry training—its rigid structure, outdated techniques, and lack of eco-conscious education—led her to a clear mission: to teach floristry differently. She wanted a school that prioritized sustainability, eliminated unnecessary jargon, and provided practical, relatable training. And so, her path aligned with Roz’s, and The Great British Flower School was born.
