Florist Sarah McQuaid, owner of Island Flowers by Sarah, is taking the next step in growing her floristry business by opening a premises in Enniskillen town centre.

As she looks forward to officially opening her flower studio on Head Street in the coming weeks, Ms. McQuaid reflected on how her love of flower arranging stemmed from a young age.

“Floristry was my first job after school,” she said, explaining that she worked in Erne Flowers from the age of 15 as a Saturday girl.

“Whenever the shop closed, I left floristry because it wasn’t a career that I knew anybody in,” she added.

Years later, whilst on maternity leave from her community job where she worked in social work and care, Ms. McQuaid decided to tend her creative roots and return to floristry.

“I trained in floral design for three years. I started making floral arrangements for family and friends from my kitchen table, which led on to building a home work studio and selling flowers over social media,” she explained.

Continuing, she said: “When the business began to grow, and juggling around my job and young family became more challenging, I made the decision to leave my job in Fermanagh House and focus on floristry full time, and on growing the business to offer more services.”

Ms. McQuaid now provides floral design for all of life’s events and occasions, ranging from bouquets, gift arrangements, funerals and remembrance to weddings, and fun creative workshops.

“This has brought me to move into my new premises on Head Street, Enniskillen, where I can welcome members of the public and continue to grow my business,” she said.

Commenting that her favourite aspect of her job as a florist is its “seasonality”, Ms. McQuaid explained: “[I love] how it’s always changing and the flowers that are available are always changing.

“The type of work that each season brings also changes,” she said, noting that in the summer she is busy creating bouquets and floral arrangements for weddings, whilst in the winter months she is leading more workshops for Christmas.

“I love the seasonality of floristry and I love meeting people as well – just being a part of people’s life events and bringing joy to people through flowers, that’s really what spurs me on,” she said.