Working -- Shawni Hartman
-- Story by Mary A. Castillo
SHE IS
Helping people express their feelings with flowers
WORK OF BEAUTY
Shawni Hartman is one of those rare people who can truly say that she
does what she loves.
“I wanted to do something beautiful,” said Hartman, a 27-year-old
floral designer with the Laguna Flower Co.
She discovered her love of working with flowers when she took a year
off from her studies at USC to care for a friend who was terminally ill.
Needing to do something uplifting yet productive, Hartman took a floral
arranging class.
When she returned to school, she did the centerpieces and bouquets for
two of her friends’ weddings. But she felt that she needed to do
something practical.
A LONG SEARCH
After she graduated in 1997, Hartman lived in Hungary for a year
teaching English.
“The students were so eager to learn,” she said. “But when I received
a postcard from one of them, in which she wrote ‘you is the best English
teacher in all of the whole world,’ I felt like I failed.”
It took two more years, during which Hartman lived in Spain then later
worked as an activities assistant for a retirement center, to realize
that she had to do what she loved.
“At first no one would hire me because I had no professional
experience,” she recalled. “So I worked for free for one month at the
Laguna Flower Co. and then they hired me.”
PERSONAL REWARDS
Although she still endures comments from a few people who think that a
USC education is quite costly for someone to work as a floral designer,
Hartman’s boss Micky Ford feels otherwise.
“Shawni takes pride in herself and the business,” she said. “She won’t
just throw something together. It’s just not in her to do anything of
inferior quality.”
Moreover Hartman’s work not only has fans within Laguna Beach, her
work even attracts out-of-towners.
“I have a client who drives all the way from Huntington Beach just for
one of Shawni’s nosegays,” Ford said.
THE SUBTLE ART OF DIPLOMACY
While she prepares a bouquet of purple lisianthus and white hyacinth,
Hartman admits that her favorite clients are those who don’t know what
they want because she can really get to know the person as she designs a
bouquet.
Unfortunately for the men out there, the majority of those clients
happen to be . . . well, men.
“We probably do more ‘I’m sorry’ bouquets than the ‘I love you’ ones,”
she said. “Unfortunately a lot of men think that putting one of every
flower together is a good way to go.”
As Hartman and her colleagues prepare for the busy summer months in
which they handle as many as four weddings in a weekend, she stays
focused on what keeps her motivated.
“It feels good when my clients are happy with the results,” she said.
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