An estimated 2.5 million weddings will take place this year — more than any other year since 1984, according to the Wedding Report.
Delilah Dominguez, 32, the owner and head florist of Stolen Magnolia in Bushwick, Brooklyn, says wedding season is getting longer.
“When I started in the industry, the wedding season was between spring and early fall. But now, every month has been busy. Starting in March, we had three to four weddings a weekend. There’s now four of us working in-house to execute our events.”
“I think if you can survive with your significant other for a year in quarantine, that’s a good reason to get married! And because of Covid, there’s been lots of rescheduling and that’s why there’s so many this year.”
“This is my childhood home. I was born and raised in this building. My dad also owned property on the opposite corner and for a long time he and my mom had a greenhouse there. My dad ran the greenhouse and my mom was the florist — she would make hand-tied bouquets and different types of arrangements.”
“When I was in high school, my dad was like, “Guess what? We sold the greenhouse! We’re going to retire in Florida.” I was devastated!”
“I moved to Florida, too. I worked at a hospital in Orlando, but I was miserable. I needed something green. So I came back to this building to live with my sisters.”
“Eventually, I worked with a lovely floral studio in Williamsburg. I managed the team for a few years and the owner sent me to London to compete in ‘The Big Flower Fight’ on Netflix.”
“Then, right before my dad passed away, he sat in front of the shop here — it was a hair salon at the time — and said to me: “You’re going to open up your own place here.’”
“We opened the month before Covid started. Here I was with this new business and hundreds of plants. I built a website and we sold our stuff online. That is how we survived. Once we could open our doors, it was pure madness! We couldn’t keep people out.”
“Then we started booking events. The microweddings happened first — up to 60 guests. Now it’s 50 percent microweddings and 50 percent traditional weddings — anywhere from 120 to 200 guests. We’ve had to update our contracts. Because of Covid sometimes people have to reschedule. But we’re flexible because this is important to people. And it’s costly.”
“These days, people want their arrangements to be artful. They want something memorable, not just cookie cutter. And our clients are more concerned with where the flowers are coming from. We try as much as we can to get stuff that is local.”
