The Floral Atelier burst into the floristry scene four years ago, with a boutique on Eng Hoon Street that offers bouquets, bloom boxes, wreaths, and even floral subscriptions. Its founder is none other than Lelian Chew, a private banker-turned-wedding planner-turned-florist, who has an incredible eye for detail.
Recently, Lelian also launched her global headquarters. (Lelian owns The Atelier & Co, the parent company of The Wedding Atelier and The Floral Atelier). The 7,000sqf retail and event space at the top of industrial building Delta House comprises a huge cold room containing air-flown exotic blooms as well as a bar and kitchen for clients or luxury companies wanting to hold a private event.
Holding court is the quietly glamorous Ms Chew, 37, whose petite size belies her ability to juggle a client list of 10 to 12 weddings a year for tycoons mainly from China, Hong Kong and Indonesia. She was at Goldman Sachs for seven years before being hospitalised at age 31 – “crazy enough, it was just fatigue”. It led her to stop and re-assess her life.
“I realised that I had spent all those years trying to prove myself – I didn’t study finance so getting into a bank was a real feat – to the extent that I didn’t care about anything including my health,” says Ms Chew. “So I asked myself if this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.” She decided to quit, and plan her own wedding while deciding what to do. Before she could even start, one of her ex-clients requested her help for his son's wedding. At the wedding, she met other ex-clients and potential clients for her wedding planning business as well.
Leveraging on her contacts, her years of experience dealing with the quirks of the super-rich and being able to navigate tricky areas about privacy and Chinese etiquette, she was soon jetting around the world creating fairy-tale weddings on private islands, European vineyards and obscure hotels – to the tune of S$1 million and much more than her non-disclosure agreements will allow her to reveal.
Now that she’s set up her global office in Singapore, her plans are to add more companies to the Atelier & Co stable, including an events atelier and one on education to set quantifiable standards for the floral and wedding industry. And expansion to Shanghai is on the cards too, since that is proving to be her biggest market.
This story was first published on The Business Times. Continue reading here.