Stephanie Easterling first saw Fairhope during a Mardi Gras weekend around the turn of the millennium, and she never really left. The flower beds lining the town’s streets captured her imagination, and today her business, Wildflowers Floral Design on South Church Street, is a bustling hub of flowers, home goods and event design that has woven itself into the community’s biggest celebrations and hardest moments.
“The town was absolutely beautiful, like a Norman Rockwell painting,” Easterling said of that first visit, which by 2022 had been 22 years earlier.
A Check on the Counter and a Leap of Faith
During that trip, she spotted an apartment around the corner from where her store now stands, with a for-rent sign and the monthly rent posted. She knocked, realized the place was vacant, poked her head inside and made a decision on the spot. She left a check on the counter with a note saying she would take it. She did not actually move in for another year.
At the time, Easterling was a top-producing pharmaceutical sales representative living in Montgomery. Her company did not want to lose her, so it reassigned her territory to include the coast. After working a while longer, she took a sabbatical and spent time working at Something Else, a gift shop owned by her new Fairhope friends, Lee Postle and Tracy Corte.
Restless and eager to “do something,” though unsure exactly what, she got a nudge from a friend who pointed out that wherever they traveled, the first thing Easterling always did was find a flower shop. Wildflowers was born soon after in a little cubbyhole off Church Street. In the early days, she would buy a bucket or two of fresh flowers and make a few arrangements to sell.
Growing Into 50 South Church Street
A year later, Easterling took a big step and rented retail space in the building Wildflowers still occupies at 50 South Church Street. The building sits on the site of the old Corte family home in Fairhope and was built by the late Dan Corte.
“Wildflowers has always been a floral and gift shop,” Easterling said. “The name Wildflowers is more about personality and less about a field of flowers.”
The business eventually outgrew its original space and moved to the other side of the building, doubling its room. Wildflowers also operates a warehouse where the team custom-builds everything needed for events. The Something Else partners, Lee and Tracy, now run the retail side of the store, from buying merchandise at market to tracking inventory. The shop features a large gift department, and Rachel Sims oversees its retail operation.
Designing the Whole Event, Not Just the Flowers
Easterling and her team of 20 or more create designs from start to finish, and the work goes well beyond centerpieces and bouquets. Most of their custom designs revolve around social events, including weddings, Mardi Gras balls and birthday parties, though they also handle corporate events, and not all of them involve flowers.
A typical project begins with a consultation and site visit, which leads to a “design deck,” or inspiration look. From there, Wildflowers designs and curates everything specific to the client. The team can build walls, order tents, rent furniture for seating, design custom lamps and artwork and do whatever else is needed to create the look. For weddings and Mardi Gras balls, clients usually give themselves about a year to pull everything together. For parties and corporate events, the shop welcomes three to four months of lead time.
That lead time reflects how complex full-service event design can be. Large events often require coordinating rentals, lighting, installation crews, venue schedules and flower orders sourced from growers around the world. On the Gulf Coast, where outdoor celebrations are popular, planners also have to account for heat, humidity and the possibility of summer storms.
Mardi Gras Balls and the Eastern Shore Social Calendar
Mardi Gras is a natural fit for an event designer on the Eastern Shore. Mobile is home to the oldest Carnival celebration in the United States, and the tradition of mystic societies hosting elaborate balls, each with its own theme, decorations and tableaux, extends across Baldwin County as well. Fairhope, Daphne, Orange Beach and other communities host their own parades, and many organizations stage formal balls that can involve months of planning and dramatic transformations of convention centers and ballrooms.
That Carnival tradition is fitting for a business whose owner first fell for Fairhope on a Mardi Gras weekend. Weddings round out much of the calendar, with Fairhope’s bayfront setting, historic churches and gardens drawing couples from well beyond Baldwin County.
Because ball themes are often kept secret until the night of the event, designers who work with mystic societies must plan carefully and discreetly, building sets, backdrops and decor in advance and installing them in a matter of hours. Having a dedicated warehouse, as Wildflowers does, makes that kind of large-scale fabrication and storage possible.
Weathering the Pandemic
Like many florists, Wildflowers faced serious supply chain problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. Easterling said about half of the flower producers had gone out of business during that period. Most clients, she said, were flexible about using whatever flowers were available when planning events. As restrictions eased, a wave of postponed events returned to the calendar.
“There have been a lot of rollover events that had been postponed and are now happening,” she said in 2022. “It’s been busy.”
Easterling marveled at how the community supports small businesses through thick and thin. From hurricanes to COVID to recessions, she said, “People go out of their way to make sure you survive.”
Then the pandemic became deeply personal. Easterling contracted COVID-19 and had to be flown by air ambulance to UAB Hospital in Birmingham. It was touch and go for a long time, and she spent a full month there before returning home. She was out of commission for months afterward.
In her absence, Wildflowers received hundreds of calls a day, and handwritten notes from strangers wishing her well arrived at the store. Her staff carried the business through multiple buying seasons and even took care of her house. People from all over followed her ordeal on social media, and Easterling said thousands told her they had gotten vaccinated after learning about her illness.
Tips for Planning Event Flowers and Design
For couples, Carnival organizations and hosts considering a full-service designer, the process Easterling describes offers a useful road map. A few general pointers apply to most events:
- Start early. As Wildflowers recommends, weddings and Mardi Gras balls often need about a year of planning, while parties and corporate events benefit from three to four months.
- Gather inspiration. Photos, color swatches, invitations and venue pictures help a designer build a design deck that captures the look you want.
- Schedule a site visit. Seeing the venue in person lets a designer plan for ceiling heights, lighting, power, load-in access and where guests will gather.
- Stay flexible on blooms. Flower availability depends on growing seasons, weather and shipping. Being open to substitutions with a similar color and feel can keep a design on track, a lesson many clients learned during the pandemic.
- Think beyond flowers. Furniture rentals, tents, lighting, custom backdrops and signage can shape an event’s atmosphere as much as any arrangement.
- Plan for Gulf Coast weather. Outdoor events should have contingency plans for heat, rain and wind, and some flowers hold up better in humidity than others.
Working with a local designer also brings the advantage of relationships with nearby venues, rental companies and vendors, which can simplify logistics on the big day.
A Shop Woven Into the Community
Easterling said she was overwhelmed by the support from the community and her Wildflowers team, and grateful that she and her business were lifted up in her time of need.
“Sense of community is the most important aspect of this area,” she said. “Wildflowers has been part of the community’s greatest joys and greatest sorrows. When I stood on that corner 22 years ago, I knew I wanted to live here. It felt like home the minute I arrived.”
A florist sees a town at its most emotional moments: weddings and births, anniversaries and graduations, funerals and hospital stays. Over two decades, a shop like Wildflowers becomes part of the story of countless local families, which helps explain why so many people rallied when its owner was the one in need.
Fairhope itself has long embraced flowers as part of its identity. The city is known for the colorful plantings that line downtown streets and fill its parks and bayfront, maintained year-round, and the downtown district around Church Street, Section Street and Fairhope Avenue is filled with independent shops, galleries and restaurants. For visitors, a stroll through downtown offers a chance to see the very flower beds that first inspired Easterling, along with the storefronts of the small businesses that give the town its character.
Wildflowers Floral Design is located at 50 South Church Street in downtown Fairhope. Those planning weddings, balls or other events should contact the shop directly for current services and scheduling, keeping in mind the lead times Easterling recommends.