Panacea Event Floral Design

Posted by MrsJennaEd | 0 comments

Corinne Smith of Panacea Event Flo­ral Design has had her hand in the won­der­ful world of flow­ers for over a decade. She is so fab­u­lous that her moniker is Bloom Diva! Her approach to flow­ers is lush and opu­lent. She never cre­ates the same thing twice. She loves all things French and her trips to Paris inspire her design and lifestyle. And… she lives in one of the most beau­ti­ful spots on the Cen­tral Coast. These tree cov­ered hills are the view from the front of her house. No won­der she’s so inspired!

 

How did you get your start?
I spent many hours in the gar­den with my mother & grand­mother as a young child ~ mostly dis­sect­ing pods, blooms & worms. One of my favorite mem­o­ries is play­ing hop­scotch through my Grandmother’s lilac bushes. In high school, I worked in a flower shop ~ but swore I’d never be in the flower busi­ness. I was the bucket washer & prep per­son. Even­tu­ally I was taught to design for the store cooler, then helped with weddings.You could say the seed was planted.

First (music) album you ever bought?
Rumors ~ Fleet­wood Mac & yes, it was vinyl (I was in the 4th grade)! Just lis­tened to it the other day ~ still love it.

What or who con­tin­ues to inspire you?
Travel, nature & read­ing are my con­stant sources for inspi­ra­tion. Of course my favorite place to pull from, is my beloved Paris. Often, I wake up inspired ~ my sleep­ing hours are many times dreams of cre­at­ing and solv­ing prob­lems. I wake up with a frame­work con­cept or new under­stand­ing of some­thing I’ve been work­ing on dur­ing the day.

How do you nor­mally begin your day?
Hook up to an IV drip of French Press cof­fee while help­ing my daugh­ter get off to school. Then hug my cup of joe while read­ing through all my on-line news sources. News & cof­fee are my vices so I get that out of the way first thing so I can move on to my lists of “have to dos” & “can’t wait to dos”.

Describe a piv­otal moment that led you to be an artist.
At 4 years old, I told my par­ents I was going to be an artist. They both val­i­dated my inter­est & tal­ent, but strongly encour­aged me to head in a dif­fer­ent direc­tion for a career. Three months before grad­u­at­ing from high school I decided I didn’t want to go the pre-med route and busi­ness school would a “hybrid” between art & sci­ence. I’m not sure my par­ents got over that. I tried to fight off my art bug for many years ~ I finally gave in and went for it, com­bin­ing many of the things I knew from mar­ket­ing and hon­ing my design skills. Panacea was born out of a great leap of courage and a huge dose of sup­port from my husband.

What is your favorite flower?
Really?!!! Ok ~ Lilacs. They remind me of my grandmother’s garden.

Favorite movie or doc­u­men­tary?
Out of Africa

Favorite part of a wed­ding?
Hand­ing a bride her bou­quet on her wed­ding day.

What makes your busi­ness unique?
I start from design square one with each cou­ple. It would be a very painful thing for me to do the same thing twice ~ I gen­tly get to know my cou­ple, incor­po­rat­ing ele­ments that uniquely rep­re­sent them. I am a designer first and fore­most. Flow­ers are a part of the design, but ulti­mately I want to cre­ate a beau­ti­ful day that is a reflec­tion of the bride & groom’s per­sonal style. Panacea designs tend to be heav­ily flower indul­gent and I’m very drawn to out of the ordi­nary blooms, con­cepts and visual presentation. On your wed­ding day ~ the flow­ers should be extra­or­di­nary and some­thing you’ll remem­ber the rest of your life.

What is your ideal cou­ple?
Some of my favorite cou­ples have been peo­ple that have trav­eled, have a great love of nature, are into tech­nol­ogy, enjoy wine & food, are keenly inter­ested in beauty and value art. At heart I am a major nerd about the things I love ~ if we have a few of those things in com­mon it goes a long way in the process of work­ing with them to design their wedding.

Song that makes you get up and dance?
Love Shack ~ B52s

What do you enjoy doing on your day off?
Yoga at the gym, cook­ing for friends or hik­ing with my family.

What’s your per­sonal busi­ness phi­los­o­phy?
Be true to your pas­sion, be focused on what you know is your truth and always find ways to fall more in love with life ~ good peo­ple and oppor­tu­ni­ties will eas­ily find you. Don’t let any­one define suc­cess for you.

Why do you do what you do?
I am addicted to the out­come! There is really noth­ing bet­ter than hav­ing a vision of some­thing ~ and then going about mak­ing it hap­pen ~ and then stand in it on the day. To share that with a bride and groom and have them LOVE it ~ wow, what an honor!

Favorite pas­time?
instagram

Some­thing that moved you deeply at a wed­ding or with a cou­ple recently?
Recently I deliv­ered all of the bridal bou­quets to a bride in her hotel room while she was get­ting ready for the cer­e­mony. The room was full of her fam­ily and bridal party and she hugged me and asked me to help her put her veil on. I was com­pletely touched & hum­bled that she trusted me and wanted me to help her. I had a lit­tle tear moment in the ele­va­tor when I left.

Describe your first cam­era?
It was a plas­tic Insta­matic ~ I was 9 years old and I worked a paper route every morn­ing at 6 am before school, to get it. I grew up in Canada — where the win­ters are often 30 below or colder. AND if you know me ~ morn­ing is not my opti­mal time of day. That cam­era changed my life!

First Job?
Paper girl for the Cal­gary Herald.

Great­est accom­plish­ment?
18 hours of labor ~ no drugs!

How do you sign off on your emails?
Cheers!

If you had to move to a for­eign coun­try, which one?
FRANCE

If you were an ani­mal, what would you be?
My cat.

If you were in a band, what instru­ment would you play?
Bass

Nickname/s?
BloomDiva

What’s your favorite wed­ding food?
cham­pagne ~ oh that’s not a food I guess.

Sun­rise or Sun­set?
Sunset

Wed­ding trend that you’re lov­ing right now?
A return to clas­sic beauty.

Wed­ding trend that will hope­fully be out next year?
Cupcakes

Read the book or watch the movie?
Def­i­nitely read the book.

Stranded on a desert island, what would you bring?
My iPad

Favorite song on your iPod playlist?
Lovely Day ~ Jill Scott. My wake up, head in the right direc­tion song.

What’s one of your favorite quotes?
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

What chore do you absolutely HATE doing?
Lit­ter box duty

What sound do you love?
The sound of my daugh­ter say­ing “mommy.”

What do you want to be when you grow up?
An explorer

What would you name the auto­bi­og­ra­phy of your life?
Rainy Day Girl

What was the last movie, TV show or book that made you cry or tear up?
A Mighty Heart

What’s the hard­est thing you’ve ever had to do?
Say “no” to some­one I love.

What’s the great­est gift you’ve ever given or received?
Love

What do you miss most about being a kid?
Not wor­ry­ing about what time it is.

What’s in the top 5 of your bucket list?
Wild ani­mal park in Africa
Pas­try school
Cruise in the Mediter­ranean (sched­uled)
Heli-Skiing in the Cana­dian Rock­ies
Design my daughter’s wedding

What is some­thing you learned in the last week?
Her­nando Cortes was assas­si­nated ~ 5th grade Social Stud­ies ala my daughter.

At what age did you really become an adult?
Still waiting.

Any­thing else you want to add that we didn’t ask?
Favorite Lip­stick: Fast Ride by Nars
Favorite Ice Cream: Haagen-Dazs five Vanilla Bean

Web­site Request More Info