About Claire

Heaven Flowers is run by Claire Nellis, a freelance florist based in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. The business covers three things: weddings and events, sympathy and funeral flowers, and small-group flower arranging workshops. Each part of the business has its own pace; together they make up a small but full-time floristry studio.

Background

Claire trained formally in floristry in the early 2010s and has been running Heaven Flowers as a freelance practice for over a decade. Before that, she worked for several Hertfordshire-based floral studios in event and wedding work — those years are where she learned the design language she uses now: structured but not stiff, seasonal-led, more "what's beautiful in season" than "what's the trend this year".

Her LinkedIn record will show two florist roles — one at Heaven Flowers (the current studio), and one at Stephanie Rose, where she worked as part of a team for several years before going independent. Both experiences shape how she thinks about wedding work specifically: she's seen the team-based "we'll make 80 centrepieces overnight" approach as well as the freelance "one wedding per weekend, with attention" approach. Heaven Flowers is firmly the latter.

Training and continuing development

Floristry is one of those crafts where the basics can be learned in a year but the depth takes a decade. Claire regularly attends advanced floristry workshops — most recently a multi-day "Advanced Floristry Skills" course at Moreton Morrell College in Warwickshire, which covers larger-scale event work, sustainable mechanics, and the kind of complex sculptural pieces that don't come up in everyday wedding work but are useful to have in the toolkit.

Industry professional design days are also a regular part of the calendar. These bring together florists from across the UK to learn new techniques and see what other studios are doing.

The Hitchin studio and the Stotfold workshop

The main studio is in Hitchin — where wedding consultations happen, where order processing runs, and where the bulk of bouquet-making takes place. The workshop space is in Stotfold, about 10 minutes up the road, and that's where flower arranging classes are held. The two-location setup means the studio can stay focused on production and consultation, while the workshop space is set up for groups — generous tables, good lighting, sinks, parking, and refreshments.

Approach to wedding and event work

One wedding per weekend. Always. We could take more — the demand is there in peak season — but the difference between flowers we'd be proud of and flowers we'd shrug at is the amount of time spent on the wedding before the wedding. The consultation, the conditioning, the on-the-day setup, the careful matching to the venue: all of these require time we wouldn't have if we were juggling two weddings on the same Saturday.

The result is that summer Saturdays book six to nine months ahead. If you're thinking about booking us for a wedding, getting in touch early matters.

Approach to funeral and sympathy work

This is the part of the business that needs the most care and the most flexibility. We always have capacity built into the week for sympathy orders that come at short notice — usually 24–48 hours' lead time is enough for most arrangements. If you're contacting us about funeral flowers, we'll respond promptly and we won't ask for payment upfront; an invoice goes out after the order is delivered.

Approach to workshops

The workshops are partly a business decision and partly because Claire enjoys teaching. Each group is capped at 8 for the scheduled workshops (up to 14 for a private booking), small enough that everyone gets attention and goes home with an arrangement they're proud of. We don't run them as "watch the florist demonstrate" sessions — they're hands-on, with the goal that the techniques translate to flowers you'd buy from a supermarket on a random Tuesday.

Connect

Email [email protected] for any enquiry — weddings, funerals, gift bouquets, workshops, or just to chat through an idea. Replies usually within a working day.

Social: Instagram (the day-to-day studio life and finished pieces), Facebook (longer posts and reviews), LinkedIn (the more professional side).