I began my journey with Beauty Grows Wild in the beginning of 2020. I had been working for a nonprofit for years and although I loved (and still love) what the organization does in the community, my role there no longer fit well with my family schedule and my ever evolving job description no longer fit me. I longed for something more creative and the freedom that came from entrepreneurship has always called my name.
This journey so far has been incredibly rewarding and also super hard. Farming, flowers or otherwise is really hard physical work. Harvesting flowers is the fun part, but there is so much more to it. Planning and prepping areas to plant, laying irrigation and landscape fabric, ordering supplies, bookkeeping, transplanting thousands of seedlings that have been started in the greenhouse. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes. Like everyone else, I am on social media representing my business. I post the pretty photos and shiny moments. The reality is that I am a mom of three daughters, live on a piece of property with lots of animals that requires lots of work. Between all those beautiful photos are teens learning to drive, toddler temper tantrums, driving kids to and from every place under the sun, camping trips, days at the lake, horse back riding, lots of mud, tears and sweat. It matters to me that I show all the sides of this sweet life I am living, not just the pretty ones.
Last year was tough on everyone, obviously, but in this local area were faced with not only COVID impacting our lives (hello three kids at home full time!) but also massive wildfires ravaged through our area. This year we are dealing with an extreme drought. The area that I had created my entire flower planting space last year had to be abandoned this year at the last minute due to lack of irrigation. What I spent a year creating had to be tossed and I had to start from scratch in a new space. I was so discourage and frustrated! I felt like giving up, but the people around me who know and love me saw what Beauty Grows Wild was doing in my life and encouraged me to keep going.
I share all of this honest, peek behind the scenes because I want you to know my authentic, hard working self is so damn grateful for every single one of you cheering me on. You cheer me on with your purchases, you cheer me on with your sweet messages of love and admiration for what I am creating and you cheer me on by trusting me with your sweet wedding days.
Thank you. Thank you.
-Emily
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