Who am I?

 I’m Atalanta! I am the founder of Camellia Wedding Flowers which had its humble beginnings as Flowers by Atalanta waaaaaaay back in 2003. You will see when you meet me that I am energetic and like to have fun. I smile a lot. I have really strong arms and hands from designing flowers for over 27 years. I love that I get to make people happy for a living and I work incredibly hard!

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How did I get started in flowers?

 I had worked in flower shops since I was 15 years old. On December 1, 2003 my mom gave me $500 to buy my first batch of flowers which I sold at a tiny bucket shop in La Jolla. Since then my business has grown and evolved. I have done hundreds of weddings and events throughout Northern and Southern California. In 2011 I opened Camellia Flowers at a cute little corner building in eclectic Ocean Beach. I love having a little shop where my clients can stop in and see our workspace, talk flowers until our heads are spinning, then head off and grab some fish tacos while overlooking the gorgeous ocean just a few blocks away!

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How did Camellia Wedding Flowers get it’s name?

People call me Camellia all the time, BUT the company is actually named after my super hilarious, incredibly talented and drop dead gorgeous daughter Camille. She is the light of my life! At only 14 years old she is already a gifted floral designer and one of my best salespeople at the shop. Her cuteness guilts people into spending lots of money on flowers!

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Why I am I the florist for you?

My Yelp reviews tell the story best. I am easy. I am flexible. I am attentive. When my clients walk in the door, I LISTEN to them! If you have no clue what you want your event to look like, that’s fine, I can help! If you know exactly what you want, GREAT! I’ll give you exactly what you want! What I won’t do is talk you into a bunch of stuff you don’t need. I won’t try to sell you on putting an old typewriter on your guestbook table for no reason at all. I also won’t let you copy someone else’s wedding. My goal is to take YOUR personality and translate that into flowers. My personality translated into flowers would probably be fuschia garden roses, dark purple calla lilies, yellow billy balls, bright yellow ranunculus, gloriosa lillies and gorgeous orange ball dahlias!

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What kind of clients do I work with? 

EVERYONE! Brides and grooms, grooms and grooms, brides and brides, groomsladies, bridesmen, you get the idea. I even have worked with a few bridezillas and groomzillas (and mother-in-lawzillas), but by the end of the event they were all as happy as clams!

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What do I do when I’m not playing with flowers? 

I love all things OLD! My favorite old thing is my gorgeous 1965 Chevy Corvair “Miss Rita Red”. Anytime I have a rare weekend off, Rita, Camille and I are cruising car shows in San Diego. I have also recently found a deep love of hospitality. I run two vacation rentals next to my shop in Ocean Beach and I absolutely love curating fun vacations for my guests! You can learn more about my vacation rentals here www.retrorvbythesea.com  I love Mid Century Modern design and spend a lot of time at swap meets and thrift stores searching for treasures. 

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What’s with these doggies? 

I have three silly little dogs that you may meet running around the flower shop. Sadie is my sweet Australian Shepherd. She has been “working” with me in flowers for 15 years! She greets people at their cars, herds them into the shop and will often sing to them with her pretty voice. Freddie is our sweet little Schnoodle boy. All he wants to do is climb in your lap and love you up!  Luna is our funny little rescue Border Collie Terrier from Mexico.  She wants to play, play, play all day!