Today we’d like to introduce you to Cayna Carnes.
Hi Cayna, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
When I was young, I had a collection of vases and silk flowers, and scarves that I would arrange and display on the shelves in my room. I put down on a class survey that one of my hobbies was “flower arranging.” I forgot about this fun fact for a long time and remembered it just recently when reflecting on my business.
I completed my degree at the University of Michigan in Mathematics, with a minor in History, and alongside my degree, I also earned a teaching certificate. I started teaching right away in Warren. I taught high school math and history for five years and middle school math for six years.
During the 11 years that I taught, I coached high school track and cross country, and middle school track for seven years. I won the Middle School Teacher of the Year Award in 2015. I got to work with amazing students, athletes, and colleagues, and I truly loved my job.
In the summer of 2016, I gave birth to my son. I decided to take the year off from teaching to stay home with him. After that year, I decided to stay home with him until he would go to school, and I officially left my teaching job. My husband and I had a conversation about the unique opportunity I had during this time. One of the things we would talk about as teachers was what would you be if you were not a teacher. I always said that I would be a wedding planner. I loved planning my wedding, but it went deeper than that. Many people enjoy planning their wedding to their tastes, but I found that as I helped my friends plan their weddings, I enjoyed the planning process for someone else, and for someone else’s tastes as well. I enjoy details and organization and planning and finding the perfect ideas to compliment someone’s theme.
I decided to enroll in the wedding planning course at Schoolcraft College. I enjoyed the courses and meeting other people that like to plan events. During the time that I was taking my classes, I applied for an internship at a wedding planning and floral design company. I got the internship and learned a lot about the wedding industry and about floral design.
One of my former students that I kept in touch with was planning her wedding and asked for my help. I spent an evening discussing how to go about planning and I offered to make her flowers for her. I made her bouquets and boutonnieres and corsages and decorated her ceremony arch and tent reception with candles and vases and loose flowers.
I then coordinated and decorated a wedding for another friend. Then I made the flowers for another friend. When another former student and another friend reached out for me to make flowers for their weddings the following year, I was so flattered that work was continuing to come in. I thought it was worth investigating if I wanted to start my own company.
I came up with the name, Ensemble Custom Floral because my favorite part about designing a wedding is taking what my client wants and working as a team to make their vision come to life; similar to how each flower is an individual part of an arrangement, and they come together as an ensemble to make the whole look beautiful,
It was a lot of work to get everything up and running, but after starting the company officially in November, I had my first wedding in May! I did the flowers and coordinated that wedding, and it went so well. In my first year with Ensemble, we made flowers for 24 events, 20 of them being full weddings.
Since we are a small custom company, we take on only what events we can handle to ensure that we provide the best service that we can to our clients. That means that typically we only do one event per weekend.
We are currently contracted for 21 weddings for this year as well as a few smaller events. A lot of the work this year has come from referrals, which I am so appreciative for. I am in awe of how supported I feel by my community. I am so grateful for the support of my family, especially my husband and son, and my sister, Carrie, that helps me with every wedding. I am excited for the visions of my clients to come to life this year. It has been a wonderful experience to take something that I always thought of as just a dream and make it come true.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I first had to adapt to translating the experience I had gained in my internship – coordinating weddings, constructing floral pieces, and the logistics of setting up and tearing down events – to actually running a full floral design business. This meant, for the first time, taking on marketing, design, managing estimates and contracts, client communication, and all of the other necessary aspects of running a business that were new to me.
Meanwhile, there has been a global pandemic raging in the background. People probably see the obvious challenges that creates with events, but there are a million other smaller wrinkles under the surface. For example, obtaining glasses and vases–simple items that are plentiful during normal times–has been a challenge with inventory shortages.
Also, we work with fresh flowers, and delays, shortages, and huge price increases are affecting all florists these days. We’re often dealing with very tight windows from when we receive the flowers (if we can even get them) to when we have to deliver fully constructed pieces, so we’re the ones feeling any of these hiccups along the way the most. I’m constantly maneuvering through these challenges to deliver the most beautiful wedding day to my clients without adding to any of their own wedding stress.
Lastly, I think anyone starting a business for the first time feels a little bit of imposter syndrome, and comparing to others on social media probably only amplifies that. I am so grateful to have supportive friends, family, and clients that remind me of my talent and that I have a whole year’s worth of beautiful weddings to look back on and be proud of.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
What sets us apart is that Ensemble is a team-based, custom design company. Clients can be a part of the design process as much as they want. We take a lot of pride in customizing an event based on our client’s specifications.
I specialize in saying yes and then figuring it out! Even if a client asks me to do something I haven’t done before, I spend time researching and testing and practicing to make absolutely sure we can pull off what they want!
We love surprises, fun facts, and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
Floristry is an art form, and creating art requires you to be in the right frame of mind. We use music to help pump us up while we are constructing floral pieces. But when I am going to start designing a bridal bouquet, I personally select a song that sets the tone and makes me think of the bride that I am making it for, and I listen to that song on repeat the whole time I am creating the bouquet. When I get in touch with a bride after the wedding, I let them know what song was played while their bouquet was being made as an extra little touch of personalization.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@ensemblefloral.com
- Website: https://ensemblefloral.com/
- Instagram: @ensemblefloral
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ensemblefloral/
Image Credits
Amber Marie Photography
