The inspiration for Paper + Fleur came from three generations of my family:  my mother, my daughter and me.  The catalyst was my daughter Christie’s wedding, where my lifelong passion for color and pattern met the blank canvass of wedding design.  When Christie got engaged, I was immediately “hired” as wedding creative director (a job I was clearly born to do!).  Christie wanted to combine romantic florals with a quirky artistic vibe—so it’s no wonder the wedding and reception ended up at one of the most unusual art galleries in existence, the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. 

Our shared vision was to integrate color and design into every aspect of the wedding celebration, and that meant a lot of DIY elements were needed to combine things that don’t always show up in traditional wedding décor.  Paper combined with florals was the answer for almost everything we needed to create Christie’s dream wedding.

After the wedding, I was overwhelmed by the number of people who urged me to turn my ideas into a business.  I knew I could help other brides create unique color and pattern palettes, and offer products they could use to easily design very personalized weddings.  Then I realized those same principles could be applied to showers, parties, photo shoots and home décor.  Paper + Fleur was born!  

So where does my mom come in? Her life was defined by friends and flowers; connection and creativity.  She was an avid and incredible gardener and spent hours shaping and crafting her outdoor floral spaces.  And she had her own business, too—using pressed flowers from her garden to create floral “paintings” and decorate wedding invitations.  She called her business Fleurage.  Mom’s been gone for ten years now, but her spirit and flair for “fleur” lives on.