By Aprille Janes
Special to The Toronto Sun

Sometimes your first choice is the right choice, although you may not realize it at the time. This was certainly true for Anne Cao, an award-winning floral designer.

Anne Cao's award-winning floral arrangements at her daughter Carys Cao's wedding, above, centre, with her bridesmaids.

Twenty-five years ago, she completed a night course on flower arranging while in California, and promptly opened a florist shop. Four years later she decided to put her university degree to work and sold her shop to teach high school physical education.

But three years ago, burned out from her teaching career and looking for an alternate way to earn a living, fate stepped in. Cao's daughter announced her engagement and a July wedding.

"Since she was 10 years old, Carys dreamed of being married at St. Peter's on the Rock on Stoney Lake. I did the wedding flowers for many family and friends over the years and she wanted me to do hers."

Since St. Peter's is only accessible by water, the logistics of moving floral arrangements, the wedding party and guests by boat were a challenge. But this resourceful woman met it with enthusiasm and style. The wedding was storybook beautiful.

The next piece of the puzzle to fall into place arrived in The Florist's Review, an industry magazine. An announcement of the winners for the previous year's "Picture Perfect Wedding" competition caught her eye.

Carys Cao with her groom, Rolf Holbrook.

"I thought, hmm, I could do that. I filled out the application and then got cold feet. Family members pushed me to enter Carys' wedding. I finally sent it in just before the deadline."

In the second week of January her phone rang and the magazine's editor told her, "I'm going to make your day." Expecting to hear she simply placed, she heard instead, "Congratulations. You're our Grand Prize winner."

Later, a floral supplier told her "I don't think you realize what a big deal this is. This is the publication for the floral industry in North America." To make it doubly sweet, Cao is also the first Canadian to win.

"That's when I decided I would do this full-time again. But I decided to specialize in weddings and funerals, so I approached a couple of local funeral homes and they agreed to try me. Now I get almost all their business and they call me their 'in-house' florist."

Working out of her Courtice home, Cao's business flourished and floral coolers were soon installed in a basement storeroom.

"I keep my overhead down and give my customers better value for their dollar. This allows me to do more distinctive arrangements. The more unique a request is, the more I enjoy it."

She goes on to add, "This is the perfect career for me. It's creative and I work from home. I combine my love of beautiful flowers with the satisfaction of meeting a challenge. In fact, this week I'm flying to Hawaii to do a wedding. I arrive on Thursday, pick up the flowers on Friday and the wedding is Saturday night. I can't wait!"

You can book an appointment with this talented florist by calling College Park Flowers at 905-436-3068.

(Aprille Janes is a freelance writer based in Port Perry, Ont. She can be reached at aprillej@attcanada.ca.)



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