Floral Decor House,
a Hobart studio built on stubborn stems
Floral Decor House is an event floral studio in Battery Point, Hobart. Since 2016 we have designed, delivered and packed up flowers for more than 640 weddings, galas and backyard parties across southern Tasmania, with styling packages from $950.
still keen
Where we came from
Started on a kitchen table,
ended up on the waterfront
Floral Decor House began in 2016 on a rented kitchen table in North Hobart. Mia had just walked out of a florist job where every brief was "cheaper, faster, whatever's in the bucket", and she reckoned Tasmania could do better. The first paid gig was a friend's wedding in a Richmond barn. Total budget: $380 of wholesale stems, a borrowed ute and a fair bit of nerve.
By 2019 we had signed the lease at Salamanca and learned what a cool room actually costs. Then 2020 cancelled every event in the state in about a fortnight. We kept the studio alive on weekly contract flowers for the hotels and cafes still open, and honestly, that year taught us more about logistics than any wedding ever has. These days we plan around what Tasmanian growers are actually cutting, not what a catalogue says we should want.
Now there are five of us, two vans and a dog named Banksia who takes her supervisory duties seriously. We still do 5am market runs, we still argue about ribbon widths, and the wedding floral work is still the bit we love most.
01 / 2016 to 2018
The kitchen table years
Market runs at sparrow's, conditioning stems in the laundry trough, and slowly collecting venues willing to give a no-name studio a go.
02 / 2019 to 2021
Salamanca, then silence
Signed the Battery Point lease, bought the cool room, then watched the calendar empty. Contract work and dried installs got us through.
03 / 2022 to now
A proper crew
Five florists and strikers, two vans, 14 venues that have us on their list. Still small on purpose. Big enough to handle a 200-guest flip, small enough that you know who's holding the snips.
van era
That photo still hangs over the sink. We keep it there to remember the $380 wedding that started everything.
What we care about
Three rules we
genuinely follow
Every studio says they care. These are the rules taped inside the van door, so nobody gets to forget them at 6am.
Crew, not contractor
The florist who quotes your event is the one on the ladder installing it. If something goes sideways, we fix it ourselves. No call centres, no "I'll have to check with the office".
Local stems first
Around 92% of what we cut comes from growers within 90 minutes of Hobart. Imported stems happen when you want something the island can't grow, and we'll tell you exactly what those are.
Honest over impressive
We've talked clients out of bigger spend when the room didn't need it. Repeat bookings and word of mouth beat a fat invoice every single time.
I started this studio because I kept watching couples get overcharged for flowers that were already half dead. So the deal here is simple. We do it properly, or we don't take the job.
Founder, lead designer, chief 5am market negotiator
The manifesto
Flowers are the first thing guests smell when they walk in and the last thing they photograph before they leave. We reckon that deserves more than a shrug and a spreadsheet.
Mia Calder and the Floral Decor House crew
Written on the cool room door since 2019
The timeline
Eight-odd years
in five dates
2016
First wedding, borrowed van
A Richmond barn, $380 of wholesale stems and one bride who cried at the arch (happily). We were hooked.
2018
Salamanca studio signed
The lease on 87 Salamanca Pl. The landlord thought we were mad, the neighbours assumed we were a bakery for a solid month.
2020
The year everything stopped
Events vanished overnight. Contract flowers and dried installs paid the rent, and we learned to run a very tight ship.
2022
Cool room, second van
Finally invested in proper refrigeration. Installs stopped being a race against wilting, which was a relief for everyone including the flowers.
2024
Event number 640
A 200-guest gala at Macq 01. Also the year we finally bought a decent coffee machine for the studio. Both felt like milestones.
The crew
Four florists and
one very patient van
Small team, deliberately. When you book us you get us, not whoever happened to be on the roster.
Founder and lead designer
Installations and rigging
Senior florist, resident colour nerd
Logistics, strike boss, van whisperer
We post mid-install chaos, not just the pretty afters. And yes, we answer our own DMs. Wondering what to ask any florist before you book? Here's our honest checklist.
Selected work
A few rooms we're
still proud of
Big installs, small dinners and one very muddy marquee. Every event below came through word of mouth.
hanging cloud, Brooke Street Pier
stage columns, Macq 01
garden party, Battery Point640+
events styled and packed up
14
venues with us on their list
92%
stems from Tasmanian growers
1
studio dog, extremely good
Ninety seconds in the studio
What an install day
actually looks like
Shot by our mate Liv on a borrowed gimbal. Banksia makes a cameo around the forty second mark.
5am market run to midnight strike, condensed into a minute and a half.
How we keep stems alive till the last danceNice things people said
Proof we're not just
good at self-promotion
"Mia talked us down from a bigger package because the room didn't need it. Who does that? The result was better than the moodboard anyway."
"They flipped a 300-seat room in 90 minutes and the flowers looked like they'd been there all week. Our sales deck still uses photos from that night."
"Forty bud vases, one long table, zero fuss. They were gone before the guests arrived and back before the candles died."
"The only florist I've worked with who reads a floor plan properly. Vases sized to sightlines, exits kept clear, bump-out done by 1am."
"Three years of Monday lobby flowers and they have never once sent the same arrangement twice. Guests ask about them constantly."
"Wind gusts hit 40 knots during our ceremony. The arch didn't even wobble. I'm told there was engineering involved."
Working out what all this should cost? Our honest wedding flower budget guide is a good place to start.
Boring but important
The paperwork your
venue will ask for
Insurance certificates and references go out with every quote. Usually before anyone thinks to ask.
Come say hi
The kettle at Salamanca
is usually on
Drop into the studio at 87 Salamanca Pl, Battery Point, ring us on +61 7 3218 4705, or write to floraldecorhouse@gmail.com. Give us a date and a venue and we'll tell you straight what your budget buys.