Julia Hails, owner of award-winning Ginger Lily & Rose Floral Studio was drawn to flowers and nature whilst on a break from her nursing career. This attraction quickly became a passion of Julia’s, sparking the decision to pursue floristry and turn her passion into a successful career.
Ginger Lily & Rose Floral Studio is now one of the Sunshine Coast’s most sought after wedding florist. We spoke with Julia to learn more about how she got her start and what excites her most about wedding floristry.
Julia, your career in wedding floristry began quite some time ago, tell us about your start.
My floristry career started in Sydney when I was having a break from my nursing career after having children. I desperately missed gardening and being with nature – so doing a floristry course seemed to be the right move in order to stimulate my senses!
What drew you to this career?
I started out studying Botany at UQ, but missed the people contact a laboratory life seemed to attract! Plants and nature went on the back burner while I pursued nursing as a living. As mentioned above, I was naturally drawn back to flowers and nature’s beautiful textures/colours when I was after some mental stimulation while on maternity leave! It was such a natural process- one day it occurred to me that I might be able to make money from my passion!
Take us through a typical wedding day morning.
A typical wedding day morning starts around 5am when I get up and finish off the finer details of the bridal party pieces, and prep material needed for the huge installations we are so well known for. We go through our list of equipment, double check all pieces are accounted for and then make our way to the van for the epic ‘Tetris-like’ loading task…
Over the past few years, florists have been coming up with incredible installations, each more incredible than the last. Tell us about your most grand feat so far.
Our grandest feat so far was a 6-hour installation at Yandina Station of gorgeous greenery cages and of course our well-known edison light-box props. We have two ladders, a scaffold and very strong legs for the amount of up and down we need to do to get these arrangements installed quickly! It takes up to three staff to work together, but we dance around each other like butterflies and it all just becomes a joy to be able to do! My girls are invaluable and so talented.
Do you have any weddings coming up which you can’t wait to sink your teeth into?
We have so many amazing weddings coming up this year – several of which have some amazing new ideas and techniques that we have pitched to our clients. Our favourite clients are the ones who trust our expertise and accept new techniques for on-trend design.
Tell us about your own wedding flowers.
My own wedding flowers were so beautiful – a good friend who really lit my fire for floral design created them. I was married in September and honestly couldn’t pick ‘just one’ type of flower. I told her to use everything! It was styled around the colours of the sunset at Moffat Beach, Caloundra. Pale blue, lavender, blush, coral and mint. Not one flower was out of bounds!
If you were getting married (again!) yourself tomorrow, what colour palette or specific blooms would you choose?
If I were to get married again, I would definitely be having blooms that are bold, moody and really voluptuous. I love pops of random colour throughout as well – I think the colour palette a couple chooses says so much about their own personalities!
In three words only, describe what your job means to you.
SOULFUL. INTIMATE. EXCITING!
