CREATING A CIRCULAR FLORAL DESIGN BUSINESS
A flower school intensive with Chelsea Fuss at Cucumbi
April 2024
Join Chelsea for a
FLORAL CAREER RETREAT
Create a floral business rooted in the natural world.
Get in-person guidance on naturalistic bouquets, vase arrangements, foraging, styling, large-scale arrangements installations, and floral photography.
Create floral designs and a business inspired by and rooted in the natural world.
Our Itinerary
(subject to change)
The purpose of our itinerary is to help you create or update your portfolio, fine tune your floral design skills, as well as your floral photography skills and help you launch or take your floral business to the next level in an eco-conscious way.
Chelsea will be by your side each step of the way to guide you and help you troubleshoot. You'll also have free time to create on your own with Cucumbi as your inspiration.
All meals and accommodation are included except where noted. Flower clippers, ceramics, and all tools are provided. You must bring your own camera or phone for the photography portion.
It's recommended that you complete Flower Arranging 101 or the equivalent experience before attending this retreat.
Organic, vegetarian meals are provided by the farm where we will stay and we will forage respectfully on the property, supplemented by locally cultivated stems.
Our Location
Alentejo is a special region of Portugal where nature leads the way. 90 minutes East of Lisbon, you'll find Cucumbi, ,an organic farm. The rural guest house on the farm offers an inspiring, natural setting for us to focus in on our floral work. Meals are cooked from the vegetable garden and the immense property offers us a place to forage, to add just the perfect touch to our wild arrangements.
The apartments we stay in are minimal, focused on the textures, and organic materials reflective of the location.
Day One
Arrive late afternoon
Settle in
Welcome dinner
Day Two
Breakfast
Compostable Design and Portfolio Photography
Foraging
Tall arrangement workshop
Lunch
Photography workshop
Flower crowns/garland workshop
Photography
Dinner
Day Three
Breakfast
Compostable Design and Portfolio Photography
Using hand-tieds for vase arrangements
Low-bowl compostable mechanics and arrangements
Lunch
Photography
Dinner
Day Four
Breakfast
Native Study, Compostable Design and Portfolio Photography
How to incorporate native plants into your floral business.
Create a group installation
Lunch
Installation work and Photography
Dinner
Day Five
Breakfast
Flower practice and styling on your own and Portfolio Photography
A free style day. On this day you have access to foraging, flowers, vases, tools, and supplies to create your own compositions to photograph.
Lunch
Portfolio reviews.
Dinner
Day Six
Breakfast
Eco business intensive
How to create a circular business. Create a business plan to build your circular floral business.
Lunch
On this day we get into the details of your product plan, pricing, and environmental impact.
Dinner
Day Seven
Farewell Breakfast
BOOK YOUR SPOT HERE
12 spots are available for this floral career intensive.
If you have questions before booking, reach out to Chelsea at hello@frolic-blog.com!
See booking form for terms. We can accommodate food allergies. You must have travel insurance. You will sign a contract and waiver upon booking.
More Questions?
Why travel with me?
Hello! I am Chelsea! A floral designer (for 20 years!), a prop stylist (I´ve styled shoots for Williams-Sonoma, Bon Appetit, New Balance, Kinfolk, and more!), photographer, writer, social media maven of all things floral, a flower arranging author, and an American abroad. After traveling solo for 10 months with a very small backpack, I re-located to Lisbon, Portugal and it is where I´ve made my home for six years. I am the author of Field, Flower, Vase: Arranging and Crafting with Seasonal and Wild Blooms and I am a floristry instructor.
Is this retreat right for you?
This retreat is right for you if you are a florist or want to be a florist. This will be an intensive floral design course. The bulk of our time will be spent on learning floral design, developing our portfolios, and learning how to create a sustainable floral business.
This retreat is probably not for you, if you are not super passionate about floral design and are not planning on working as a floral stylist or designer. It is also not right for you if you don't like to travel or be in a group dynamic.
What is included?
All flowers, tools, supplies, vases (you can take your vases and flowers (can be dried or pressed) home! We donate any excess flowers.
All lodging and meals
What is not included?
Airport transfer.
Transport and meals during free time on your own
Airplane ticket
Can I attend without the housing and meals?
Meals are always included in our workshops and cannot be removed from the package.
For this retreat we cannot have people attend without accommodation. We have a local option for our Flower and Garden Retreat. Please contact Chelsea for details.
Do you offer scholarships?
We have one scholarship spot available per retreat. Anyone who is not able to afford this fee and has a passion and desire to create a floral design business is invited to apply. The scholarship is for the retreat fee and not for any other travel costs or airline ticket. Please fill out this form.
Recommendations
It is recommended that you add on 3 days before or after to see more of Lisbon or Portugal so that you can do more sightseeing which is not included in this retreat.
More questions?
Shoot me an email! hello@frolic-blog.com