Q&A with Charlotte Wood | Wild Wood London

Charlotte Wood runs Wild Wood London, a bespoke floral studio based in Wandsworth, South West London that specialises in florals for weddings, events, press days and fashion brands. They also provide one to one tuition and workshops including a combined calligraphy and bouquet making as part of a collaboration with Pale Press London. We caught up with Charlotte to go behind the scenes and talk about a typical day in the life…

What is your background and why did you set up Wild Wood London? 

My background is in fashion design and I have a degree in womenswear design. For my first job I worked on the Burberry Prorsum catwalk line alongside the design director and senior designers. It was an incredible formative experience and I loved the buzz and creativity. The offices were beautifully designed and I was surrounded by the most talented designers. After Burberry I moved to ALLSAINTS to design their womenswear and work in a slightly smaller design team.

Research design trips were a highlight but after a few years I started thinking of how I would like my work/life to look like and working 6 days for a fashion brand, I realised that it didn’t fit that ideal. My dad and sister are entrepreneurs and have always advocated working for yourself. I was constantly at Colombia road flower market every Sunday and started to develop a real love of flowers. From this I enrolled in a City and Guilds Level 2 floristry qualification and then studied at McQueen floristry school and worked there until I was ready to set up Wild Wood London.

Can you describe a typical day in the life?

Days are incredible varied and can be quite long – a 5am start at the flower market with a 12am finish is not unusual and during that time I’ll be doing everything from preparing proposals, meeting new clients and working on exciting top secret briefs, ordering and designing the displays for events and weddings. I work from my studio in Wandsworth but I travel all over London for meetings with clients and viewing venues.

What’s your dream project / client?

I love working on events and especially collaborating with clients that have complete trust in our services and designs. I always go the extra mile for clients that give us free rein.

How did you get into teaching workshops? 

Believe it or not I am actually quite shy and the thought of standing up and teaching a group of people would of terrified me five years ago. I have an interest in psychology and personal development and I am a voracious reader and podcast listener especially to Tim Ferris and Tony Robbins. You have to step outside of your comfort zone to achieve new goals and providing workshops was one of them for me.

What’s one of your favourite aspects of running your own business?

I adore instagram and our @wildwoodlondon account is steadily growing, I really enjoy connecting with like-minded people and have made some great friends. Due to its visual nature it really helps promote our aesthetics and we receive enquiries based solely on our Instagram account.

I have recently started a blog as well and have fallen in love with writing it. We feature bespoke caterers, photographers, venues, interior design  – one of my favourite recent features was all about  Rikke Hansen who helps clients transition from their existing career and unlock their potential as an entrepreneur.

It feels like a really exciting time for Wild Wood London, what plans have you got for the rest of 2017?

We have lots of weddings booked in and I am in talks to provide flowers for London hotel which is a dream for me. Also we are working on potential pop up shops within fashion brand stores as well as expanding our faux flowers/ plants offering on the website and have a couple of holidays hopefully!

All images:  Amandine Alessandra (except instagram collage)