Kids Help Out to Expand Flower Duet
When my sister and business partner, Casey, and I started our floral business in 1999 as a part-time business, we knew that when we started to have kids, we wanted a more flexible work schedule. Casey had kids first, and she has two sons. Her oldest is in college, and the other is a senior in high school! My son and daughter are also in high school. So we got our wish when the kids were born and converted our side hustle into a full-time business, and fortunately, it worked out well!
When my kids started walking, we procured our large floral design studio space, where all of our kids (the four cousins) could play basketball, ride scooters, and build with LEGOs in our office space any time they wanted, while we were making flowers in the large studio space.
The four kids early on at our studio space making flowers for fun.
It’s only natural that Casey’s sons and my son and daughter would pick up some flower skills along the way. Now that they are all pretty much full-grown people! And since the oldest just turned 21, I thought it would be fun to look back on how they have all helped us out or are now beginning to help us a lot more in our flower business.
Kit poses with her daughter Keely for a selfie while waiting for tablecloths to be placed at a nearby venue overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
Just this last weekend, I needed help unloading 0.5 cubic feet of river rock from my car to the front yard, and my kids took the bags out of the back of the SUV like they were down pillows and not 50 pounds each! I was barely able to load the five bags from the cart at Lowe’s into my car and was so amazed at how easy my kids made it look. I need to use their muscle power more often!
Keely Helps Out Flower Duet
Keely places a centerpiece at a local Golf Club for a wedding reception.
When you are a florist, you do need those muscles, but you also need patience. For example, my daughter, Keely, is great about waiting in the shadows for the bride and groom to have their picture taken before flipping the ceremony decor to the reception area. Flipping is when you repurpose florals from one part of the event to another. She (and my son Cole) have been integral at times in our family flower business.
Keely posing with Flower Duet flowers back in 2015.
In the beginning, when they were little, they loved helping me take photos of my flowers, installing a fall display for a photo background at our local South Coast Botanic Garden, and then, in 2020, all of our children helped us create step-by-step flower-arranging video lessons for our Living Art Camp online course during the COVID lockdown.
Flower Duet did installations for photo backgrounds at the South Coast Botanic Garden. Cole and Keely helped Kit with the final touches.
Now that Keely is old enough for a worker’s permit, she has been helping me install flowers at weddings, run private flower classes, and set up on board the local city cruises in Marina Del Rey.
Keely after installing flowers for a 90th birthday party on the “Marina Hornblower” boat in Marina Del Rey.
I love Keely’s help, but even more, I love the time we spend together on these little outings. I pay her an hourly rate and more often than not, we also go out for sushi after a job!
Keely is helping Kit at a private home for a sweet 16 flower arranging party
Cole Designs Flowers for a Friend & Galas
Kit’s son Cole (Keely’s twin brother) has been a great designer, too. He gets paid, too! He even helped create the flower arrangements for his best friend’s grandfather’s memorial and assisted with making flowers for another gala event, where we needed to produce over 80 designs this summer.
Casey directs Cole on where to place a finished gala design he made for Flower Duet last summer.
Cole and Keely have always both loved going to The Huntington Library with us when we teach floral design classes, and they’ve always been great help in setting up and cleaning up, too.
Casey’s Son Will is our Gen Z Rep
Will (back right in hat) helps us in our “Make and Take” succulent planter workshop at Crunchyroll HQ in Los Angeles in March.
Casey’s son, Will, has been on many flower adventures with both of us, as well as many with Casey. Most recently, he took a break from his weekend as a full-time student at USC to help her with an all-day wedding setup and breakdown in Santa Ynez, which is about a three-hour drive from downtown Los Angeles!
Will (on the left) has been helping Casey out for many years, including this year, even though he is a full-time student studying film at USC.
Casey and Will at Universal Studios HQ after our ‘Make and Take’ flower workshop we held for employees in May.
Sam Designs Succulent Pumpkins with Ease
Sam is Casey’s younger son, and he has designed succulent pumpkins with his journalism staff for the past two years. This will be the third year that Flower Duet is sponsoring this event for the group.
Sam is Casey’s younger son, and he is now a senior in high school. As the sports editor of the student newspaper, he helps raise funds for their annual trip to the student journalism conference. Each year, we invite the students to come ot the studio and make pumpkins they have pre-sold for their fundraiser. Since Sam has been making flowers since he could hold a stem, this comes naturally. He’s even been making fresh floral bouquets for his girlfriend. So sweet!
Learn more about their fundraiser - Redondo Union High School High Tide Pumpkin Fundraiser
The kids of Redondo Union High School Journalism and Yearbook staff making pumpkins at Flower Duet in the fall of 2024.
So, a family that makes flowers together blossoms together. And, I really love that they can lift those 50-pound bags of river rock, too!
Cole, Will, Sam, with Gram (Kit and Casey’s Mom) at The Huntington Library in 2016 during a kids’ flower class put on by Flower Duet. Keely is in the front of the classroom with Casey teaching (not pictured).
Will, Casey, and Keely introduced our Jurassic Park Living Art Camp Series back in 2020.
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