Hanover’s Perspective
Hanover florist has grown 15% each year since 2010
This article appeared on the Richmond Times-Dispatch website on Monday, March 24, 2014
By Joan Tupponce, special correspondent
Erica Hutchison and her husband, Cameron, found a niche in the wedding market shortly after opening Black Creek Flowers & Sweets in 2010. At the time, a design company had contacted the Hanover County-based business to supply flowers for several Indian weddings across the eastern half of the U.S. “Those weddings are huge and elaborate,” she said. “We did weddings in Detroit, New Jersey and Philadelphia. We backed off of that to grow our own business.” Most of the company’s customers are in the Richmond area, but it handles weddings across the state. “We continue to get more and more weddings,” Hutchison said.
About 50 percent of Black Creek’s revenue is wedding-related, with the rest representing flowers for special occasions. “We do about 100 weddings a year. We have done close to 400 weddings since we opened,” Hutchison said. “We do as many as four weddings in one weekend.” Black Creek supplies everything floral-related for weddings, from bridal bouquets to reception décor. “We can also decorate the cake with flowers,” she said. “We deliver, and we set up.” The couple started building a portfolio of weddings in the first few months of the business. “We did the wedding flowers for our own wedding and flowers for the weddings of our friends,” she said. Wedding planner Linda Jackson of All in the Details in Hanover uses Black Creek because of Hutchison’s creativity. “She is young and has a younger vision. She is right on trend,” Jackson said. “She walks you away from being repetitive. She creates your vision. She is going to be around for a long time.” Hutchison had worked in the floral industry part time during high school and college. She had planned on starting a full-service floral shop at some point after graduating from Longwood University in 2009, but she didn’t know she would reach that goal “so soon after graduation,” she said.
The business, named after the Black Creek area of Hanover where Hutchison grew up, first operated out of the couple’s home in Mechanicsville. “We wanted to keep our expenses down, and we wanted to build up our reputation,” Hutchison said about having a home office. The company relocated to its current 1,200-square-foot location on Creighton Parkway off Mechanicsville Turnpike in January after operating from her home for the past three years. Her husband, a lieutenant in the Hanover Fire and EMS Department, helps his wife deliver wedding flowers on the weekends. “He is a huge help. I love the fact that we are a husband-and-wife business,” Hutchison said. The company supplies flowers for all types of special occasions, from birthdays and anniversaries to funerals. Black Creek partners with local bakeries to offer sweets, such as cupcakes, chocolate-covered strawberries and birthday cakes, that can be sent with flowers — thus the reason for using “sweets” as part of the company name. It also sends stuffed animals and balloons as well Hutchison’s own brand of honey with flowers. “We like to give people options,” she said. The company has grown 15 percent each year since 2010.
“Our goal is to keep growing,” Hutchison said. “We would like to increase the number of our weddings and the number of our employees.” Mary Warriner of Mechanicsville buys flowers from Black Creek for every special occasion. “I don’t have to worry about the flowers. Erica takes care of it. I trust her,” she said. “People that get the arrangements are always complimentary. They ask me where I got the flowers.” Emily Zawacki of Lexington Park, Md., used Black Creek for her wedding last April in Mechanicsville. “I enjoyed the personal service,” she said. “Erica took all of my ideas and turned them into a product that was better than I could have imagined. And, she was able to work within my budget. She even delivered the flowers herself on my wedding day.”