Verdant Floral Studio Opens In Stonington’s Velvet Mill

The launch of Verdant Floral Studio in Stonington’s Velvet Mill Friday night was more of a homecoming for Carlos Reyes and Alison Andrews than the start of a new business. Walking around the open, historic, flower filled studio I got the feeling they’ve finally found where they belong.

More than 25 years of floral design that began in Colombia, then moved to Manhattan comes to Stonington combining a mixture of tradition, creativity and passion that is so uniquely Stonington it won’t be long before it feels as though has always been here.

“I took a risk, took a chance to move into this place, I saw this raw place and saw, what a great place it could be,” Reyes said.

The design studio isn’t your typical floral arrangements but plans floral designs around the location space, type of event and clients creating unique floral designs that enhance the event, space and people without stealing the show.

The business began with Reyes’s grandmother in Colombia and continued in the U.S. in New York City with Reyes’s aunts, but while the business was something Reyes grew up it wasn’t something he jumped right into. After college he worked as a personal trainer managing his own business while working with high-end gyms such as Equinox and New York Sports Club.

“I wanted something more creative,” Reyes said.

In 2009 Reyes and Andrews, a Stonington native who runs Vigilant, an information security, consulting firm that is based out of New York were searching for a home outside the city.

According to Andrews she didn’t expect to they would end up in Stonington but after looking in western Connecticut they decided that area felt too much like New York transported to the suburbs. In contrast Stonington is: “amazing, totally different, just a nice way to live out here,” Andrews said.

“I fell in love with the history of the place,” Reyes said of the borough. “The attention to aesthetics and well preserved objects and architecture was a major aspect of moving here.”

The couple got married in the borough in 2010 on Church Street in the house that played a role in the Mystic Pizza film. The floral design, Reyes’ aunt and uncle did for their wedding, was well received in Stonington. Reyes began to think of how unique the business was and how it could work in the borough. Reyes said it was following the signs of getting married in a home that was part of a movie he liked in a town he loved combined with the tradition of the family business that led to the creation in the fall of 2010 Verdant Floral Studio with locations in New York and Stonington.

“I love nature and the chance to be creative,” Reyes said.

The two business locations complement each other. In New York Reyes said the main focus is  corporate development, fashion and some residential contracts while in Stonington the main focus is events and weddings. And while New York slows down in the summer the wedding season heats up.

Most of the flowers come from the New York Flower district. In Stonington there will be four core members of the business including Reyes, Creative Directors Norma Satizabal and Florentino Chavez as well as some freelancers.

Reyes said the town and community has been very helpful, and engaging and excited at what Verdant Floral Studio has to offer Stonington and Andrews added that the Friday night launch party was a coming out party but also a thank you party.

“There’s been a lot of support and it’s been great coming back as an adult and seeing a groundswell of new businesses,” Andrews said.

The couple hopes to eventually relocate to Stonington full-time, saying the busier Verdant Floral Studio gets the more time they will be able to spend in Stonington.

“We’re letting people see what we can do here,” Reyes said. “I want to be able to support the area, to bring something to the community.”