Photos by Mountainaire Gatherings
Leah McDaniel is the Owner, Creative Director and founder of Black Swan Floral Design - a floral design studio in Upstate NY. The business started as a collaboration with her mother, Pamela Miller, who owned Black Sheep Barn and Gardens - an organic flower and vegetable farm (of 30+ years) in West Chazy, NY. The mother daughter duo decided to combine their talents and enthusiasm for art and nature by focusing on event design in upstate NY and VT. Pam has since “retired”, but you can still find her during the week at Leah’s studio in Plattsburgh NY working on wedding design. The garden side of the business has been simplified to family enjoyment with a few buds here and there for the weddings. Leah now sources as much as she can through local farmers from VT and NY.
Mother, wife, designer, and animal enthusiast, Leah has a need to constantly grow and learn by forming and reforming her style through workshops, life experiences, and inspiration from her clients. She is obsessed with looking for fresh ideas and creative ways to showcase the beauty of flowers and nature. All doing so while being conscientious of her foot print and working with as much sustainable product and mechanics as possible.
Leah is self-taught with a history in Art and Biology. Every “off-season” she searches for workshops and virtual studios she can learn and draw inspiration from. She has been lucky enough to study under various world-renowned designers such as Passionflower Sue, Hitomi Gilliam, Ariella Chezar, Holly Chapple, Nicolette Camille and soon she will be visiting San Francisco to learn from Lucy the Flower Hunter, La Musa De Las Flores and Max Gill.
With every wedding comes incredible excitement to begin a new journey with an amazing couple. Celebrating love, by creating a story with flowers is a dream come true. She considers herself one of the lucky ones to find and love her best friend, start a family, and have a career that feeds the soul continuously.
FAQ’s
How do I get started?
Please head over to our contact page, submit your information and then you will be taken to a detailed questionnaire. We ask you to fill out this questionnaire before we set up a consultation. It will also speed up the process if you send along days/times that would be best for you to set up a consultation. We try to be as flexible as possible knowing that most people have busy schedules. Sending photos of inspiration and/or your pinterest page to Leah@blackswanfloral.com is a great way to put us all on the same visual page before chatting. From there we can schedule a consultation to talk over the phone! Most of our clients are destination couples, so it’s actually rare we meet the couple until the day of the wedding.
Do you have a pricing sheet or packages you offer?
We do not offer packages or a pricing sheet. We are an event floral design studio and not a conventional florist. Our studio hours are by appointment only. Every wedding or event we create is tailored for that specific couple. Any one bouquet or any one centerpiece is never the same. Pricing depends on so many factors that it would be inaccurate to provide you with a list of prices before we spoke. On average, you should expect to spend about 10 -12% of your budget on flowers, however this could be higher for tented weddings. Once we have your consultation, we send a detailed proposal with pricing that includes set up and installation for your wedding or event, along with our contract We generally do have a minimum purchase investment (before tax and delivery) that can range from $5,000 - $10,000. The minimum investment is determined by various factors such as event date, event size, location and style. In rare cases there may be an exception, so please contact us and we can talk it out. It never hurts to ask!
How do I reserve your services and can I make changes once I do?
The first step is to fill out our questionnaire. You will be directed to it once you have submitted an inquiry through our website. Once we receive that, we contact you to set up a consultation. After our consultation, I’ll send you a detailed proposal. To officially save your date, we require a retainer and signed contract. Couples often worry that they won’t be able to make changes once they reserve their date. Changes and additions can be made up until 30 days prior to your wedding. We do only allow a 15% REDUCTION of services that is agreed upon on the original proposal. This means that if we agreed on a $5000 proposal, you have about $750 you are able to subtract. We do this so we know the work load we can expect for every event. Months of planning is required to create a successful event, so this just gives us a little assurance of our workload.
What areas do you service?
We are located just north of the Adirondack Park in Plattsburgh NY. Most of our weddings tend to be in the Lake Placid and Saranac Lake region (including Keene). However, we also do weddings in Lake George, Saratoga, VT and occasionally just outside of NYC.
Why should I choose local vendors?
Supporting local is important to help little towns like ours prosper. Not only are you supporting the community, but you are also working with professionals that know the area and venues. This is a very special area and outsiders might not know the hidden treasures, the best styles for each venue or where in that venue decor should be focused, or the best places to spend your time for a particular event. Not only do the local vendors know the town and the venues, but they know each other. This is incredibly important to help make an event run as smoothly as possible.
Where do you source your flowers?
We started out as an organic flower farm, so sourcing locally is especially important to us. We still provide a couple local blooms from our own gardens, but we get as many blooms as possible from local farms out of VT and NY. If it’s not the right season, or there isn’t a particular bloom available, I source other foliage and flowers from a wholesaler out of Burlington VT.
What floral services do you provide?
We are a floral design studio that specializes in weddings and large events. We offer full wedding design and installation. In rare cases, we may be available for elopement bouquets or smaller pick up orders. We love a good challenge of something unique and creative.