Jennifer Fiss
Hello, my name is Jennifer, and I am the owner of Olivia Lucas Design. I feel blessed to have found a path that I am passionate about and brings me joy each and every day. In turn, it allows me to bring beauty and joy to others while doing what I love.
My path to floral design was sort of a circuitous route: anthropology major to physician to stay at home mom to habitual volunteer to aspiring party planner and zealous hobby adopter to floral designer. Through all of these stages of my life, I have loved to garden and to bring in little gems to enjoy inside. My first memory of attempting an actual arrangement was Mother’s Day many many years ago. I used what I found in my parents’ garden: pink azaleas and lilies of the valley. Perhaps not the most inspired design, but it began a long love of trying to create a piece of artistry from the beauty that nature provides.
Everywhere I have lived, I have planned, built, tended and cajoled, remodeled and renovated, experimented and practiced with gardens. In my first house, there was a tiny plot in the back, across a long shared alleyway, where I planted my first perennial garden complete with a DIY poured concrete paver walkway and an arbor. I loved that little garden. It was there that I first experimented with color and learned how to choose plants with successive bloom times in order to have beauty and interest throughout the spring, summer and fall. I often cut flowers from that tiny garden to enjoy inside.
As life took me through years of schooling and then to marriage and parenting of two children, Olivia and Lucas, arranging flowers remained nothing more than a hobby. When my kids were in middle school, I was invited to join a garden club. It was there that my passion for floral design really blossomed. I took some classes and entered some competitions. That first blue ribbon lit a fire (anyone who knows me well knows that I am just about the most competitive person out there). I started taking as many floral design classes as I could, honing my skills and developing my personal design style.
I am a person who loves a project. I need something to dream about, plan and execute. When the kids were young, volunteering was a way to channel that energy. As they got older, the itch to create something of my own where I could be creative led to the birth of this business. I started small and intend to stay that way. The idea of creating something beautiful for someone is really what drives me. Oprah says love is in the details and that’s what brings joy and purpose to my work.
