Based on your budget and preferences, Hunter & Sarah Photography
could be a great fit for you.
Based on your budget and preferences, Hunter & Sarah Photography
could be a great fit for you.
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Southern Blooms
Immaculate Local Blooms and Accents
A talented mother-daughter team, Pat Roberts and Sherry Spencer have been crafting show-stopping wedding moments together for more than 20 years. Sherry joined her mother’s floral team in 1998 after studying opera at Carnegie Mellon and returning to her hometown to help Pat grow her beloved shop.
“My mother purchased the business in 1986 and ran it as a local florist,” Sherry says. “Against all odds, she fought her way to live her dream, to own her own business when most women weren’t doing that.”
Together, Pat and Sherry changed the Charlottesville wedding floral design narrative. When everyone else was sticking to traditional red rose or daisy bouquets, Southern Blooms was gravitating towards free-flowing, natural garden-style creations.
“We were pioneers. The originators. And it really spoke to people,” Sherry says. “At the core is our love of this natural garden style.”
Today, Pat has stepped down and Sherry has taken over the family business, growing every year and setting new industry design standards. The Southern Blooms floral team hand-plucks arrangements for Charlottesville wedding bouquets, boutonnieres, centerpieces, flower girl baskets and more. The fabulous crew of designers uses gorgeous in-season locally grown flowers and greenery while selecting from one-of-a-kind vases and décor to build out custom wedding day ambiance.
Behind every design stands Pat’s original ethos: Listen to the flowers.
“We let the flowers speak and have their own voice,” Sherry says. “We don’t try to force flowers to go the direction they don’t want to go. Mom has always said ‘listen to the flowers.’”
Couples that thrive with Southern Blooms’ style are those who appreciate free-flowing florals and an organic aesthetic, couples that give Sherry and her team a color palette and a general style and say here you go, you do what you do.
“That creative freedom is wonderful,” Sherry says. “They’re confident in us and it relieves them of any floral planning stress.
How great is it that we get to be a part of the best day of somebody’s life.”
Real Talk with
Floral Designer Sherry Spencer
My biggest piece of advice is…
There’s a lot of inspiration out there these days. Being realistic is important. When you come in with inspiration from a celebrity wedding, it may not be within your budget. It’s my job to fit it into the budget and figure out how to bring these visions into play.
My favorite flowers are...
it changes with the seasons, but my single favorite is in our logo, it’s the hellebores. A little spring flower that adds a little extra whimsy. I love dahlias in the summer. And fern.
My favorite special wedding moment is...
when we take the bride’s bouquet to her and the bridesmaids start squealing. And when the couple walks into the reception space and you can just see them light up.
We’ve saved the day when…
Every wedding has a moment where something needs fixed. I remember a spring ceremony where it was pouring rain and the bride was heartbroken — she just wanted to be outside for the gorgeous Pippin Hill views. I’m standing there looking at the radar. We’d already put the arbor up outside. We said let’s delay the wedding for 15 minutes and do it outside. If we were to move that arbor and put it inside, it’s not going to photograph as well. That’s always a good lesson: Take a breath, let the storm pass and get out there and enjoy your day. And that’s what they did.
We continue to be inspired and passionate about what we do. We made it through Covid and we’re here. It’s important to know and trust your established floral design team.
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