By LILY TINOCO | Reporter
Marquez Knolls resident Nicole Burgess shared that she is elated to offer arrangements to locals and beyond from her bespoke design studio, LA Native Florals, located at 871 Via De La Paz.
Born and raised in Pacific Palisades, Burgess ventured off to the East Coast before becoming a florist. She earned a fashion degree from Parsons School of Design and explored different areas of fashion for years before establishing floral design as a career instead of a hobby.
Because of her affiliation with fashion, as well as her network of publicists and event planners, she started as an event-based florist, pivoting her business during the COVID-19 pandemic. She officially opened LA Native Florals in February, and has since expanded her business to offer contactless deliveries and consultations.
“I started doing deliveries because people were at home and still wanted pretty flowers but weren’t going out to get them, and to brighten people’s days,” Burgess said to the Palisadian-Post. “But I realized I couldn’t keep basing this from home because I didn’t have the space and capacity to grow if I didn’t get a location.”
Of her arrangements, Burgess said she incorporates elements of her fashion background into her designs.
“In terms of color theory and proportion, it definitely carries over into flower designing and flower arranging because it’s a composition of each arrangement and bouquet,” Burgess explained. “I consider myself a creative person … I want to push that, and do something that’s different and not super traditional … I think that plays into how my arrangements might differ from someone else’s.”
She described her arrangements as having an organic garden style with a little bit of edge: “There’s always some element of surprise.”
Burgess said she sources her flowers both locally and from different parts of the world, including Holland, Denmark and Ecuador. At the start of summer, she got ready to bid adieu to sweet peas and lilac to make room for seasonal favorites like peonies, dahlias, tulips and cosmos.
LA Native Florals offers flowers for weddings, birthday parties, bespoke events, installations, deliveries and its monthly subscription service where a fresh seasonal bouquet is delivered every four weeks.
Burgess said community members are welcome to pop in and grab some flowers, but she hopes to transition in the coming months to a retail shop that offers ceramics from local ceramicists, custom greeting cards and other gifts to go alongside an arrangement or bouquet.
She also shared that she hopes to coordinate a few workshops this summer where individuals can join her to create a wreath or curate a floral arrangement together. She said she aims to offer one each month.
Of working in Pacific Palisades, Burgess said it’s been nothing short of a dream come true.
“Being able to have a shop in the community that I grew up in, and love so much and take so much pride in is really exciting and makes me really fulfilled and happy,” she shared with the Post. “I’m excited to be able to offer my services to everyone local and meet more of the community that I might not know otherwise.”
For more information, visit lanativeflorals.com.
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