Meet Courtney Walden of Walden Floral LA

Courtney, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
My first career was as a hip hop dancer out here in Los Angeles. I loved traveling productions, live shows, and television. I lived in Guam for a year doing a cirque type of production, with other dancers and acrobats from all over the world. Dancing taught me a lot about being apart of a team, working hard physically, mentally, and emotionally. What I love the most about dance and floral design, is that there’s endless possibilities to be as creative as you want.

After dance, I took a massive shift in careers and worked at Apple & WeWork. I learned a lot of skills in these environments, that have been very beneficial in starting my own business. Due to health complications I had to leave my job at WeWork. Being in that environment inspired me to start a company with my husband.

I had always had flowers in the back of my mind. I even did the flowers for my own wedding before I was a florist. My family friend has been a very successful floral studio owner for years, and when I told her I wanted to explore this industry more, she took me under her wing. She taught me all about the business, and that’s where I received first hand experience with weddings and events. I’m so grateful for her, and to have had that experience. I love to mentor other florists, and help them as much as possible. Being a florist was a dream I never really knew I had, until I decided to dive in and fully go for it.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
We are a floral design studio focused on events, weddings, editorials, and weekly subscriptions. We are based in Los Angeles. We also travel for destination weddings and events. Our style is unique, chic, and modern. Our aim is to spread joy through every flower arrangement. My favorite part of floral design is dimension and using unique flowers and foliages that inspire me. We work with floral vendors who source our flowers from all over the world. I love this  because it opens the door to creativity, giving us many flowers and color palettes to choose from. I enjoy creating floral installations that can change the entire feel of a space. It’s really inspiring to use flowers to set a scene, and even more rewarding to see the joy it brings our clients when they walk into the room. Floral design excites me, and I’m always learning new things.

Do you have any advice for other artists? Any lessons you wished you learned earlier?
Don’t think you need to have all the answers to get started. If you feel like this is what you’re suppose to be doing, just start doing something. Even if it feels silly, just try it. Research your industry, and think about the skills you may need to succeed. Don’t only get familiar with the creative side of the business, but make sure you learn the business side too. There’s so much available to us online, which is a great place to start learning.

Be a cheerleader of other artists in your industry. Tell someone when their work inspires you, and thank them for putting their work out there. Stay as far away from the comparison game as possible, (even if that means not looking at Instagram everyday!) If it isn’t positively helping you and the journey you want to be on, stop doing it.

Moreover, don’t always look to others to validate what you’re doing. Their were a lot of people in my life (close friends and family) that looked at me like I was crazy when I said I was going to switch into this industry. I’m so happy that I didn’t listen, and that I gave it a shot. You can always go back to what you were doing before, if that’s what you actually want.

Lastly, if you feel like your “hustling” all of the time, because most artists and entrepreneurs do. Remember that sometimes “rest” is the best thing we can do for ourselves as artists. Rest fills us up to work smarter, be more creative, and feel good while doing it.