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The Peaceful Nook is an Adelaide based premium faux floral hire studio offering event styling and hire using real touch roses and premium faux flower arrangements.

Faux florals are all the rage right now. The Peaceful Nook pride themselves in providing realistic artificial high-end flowers as an alternative to fresh florals. These high-end faux flowers won’t bruise, wilt, or die on your special day and are a great cost-effective alternative while still giving you an end result looking just like the real thing.

Owner and Director of The Peaceful Nook, Samantha Pistilli is a huge advocate for mental health and through The Peaceful Nook, continually works at spreading mental health awareness through her gorgeous floral creations but also through conversations with her followers, peers and colleagues.

The Peaceful Nook is now a vendor on Every Event Australia offering their premium faux floral services and we are so excited to welcome them to our Online Event's Marketplace.

We interviewed Samantha Pistilli about faux florals, the pros and cons of faux florals, upcoming floral trends, how to cope with the stress of wedding planning and what techniques Samantha found helpful in recovering after she experienced burnout in 2021.

Keep on reading our Q&A with Samantha to hear all about it!

Q. How did the peaceful nook come to life and what lead you to working with faux florals?

A. The peaceful nook came to life in February 2022! I have always been quite a creative person and during my burnout recovery in 2021 I wanted to start my own business and do something quite innovative and different. My last job I was involved in account management and the design process of leisurewear and sporting kits for sports clubs including the Adelaide Crows and that gave me a real passion for creative design. I love styling and have always had a bit of a natural flair at it. I have done a lot of research and training into faux flowers, what works and what doesn’t and how to execute flawless faux flower designs.

Q. What are the pros and cons (if any) of using faux florals for a wedding or event and is there anything someone should consider before choosing to use faux florals?

A. Faux flowers are such an amazing option in so many ways! But first of all they need to be done well!! It’s all about using premium quality faux as not all artificial flowers can look amazing. We mainly work with real touch so they look and feel like the real thing. They are a cost effective and eco-friendly option especially because majority of our flowers are on a hire only basis. Flower hire is extremely big interstate but hasn’t quite hit the Adelaide market just yet. By hiring faux flowers it reduces the waste and we have access to all types of flowers all year round so clients have that option and don’t have to wait for the right season. The only disadvantage of using faux flowers that I can think of is they don’t smell like real flowers but if you’re like me, I don’t actually like the smell of real flowers in any case as it sets off my hay fever at times.

Q. What is your favourite thing about working in the events industry and with couples planning their big day?

A. I love being a part of someone’s wedding and seeing them happy and excited makes me happy. Having had my own wedding last year, I feel I can really relate to brides in the planning process and I always try to make the communication and flower design process very easy and fun for the bride as it should be. I love when clients trust in me and ask my advice as to what will work best for them and I especially love hearing what colour palettes clients are thinking of so I can get creative!

Q. What upcoming flower trends do you anticipate for brides or those planning personal events?

A. Voluminous cascading floral installations and arrangements are definitely the trend at the moment! Full of texture and unstructured designs. Baby blues and lilac are very popular and clients are using more colour which is great!

Q. In 2021 you experienced a burnout. This is so common especially for business owners, but also for couples trying to juggle work life, personal life and planning multiple events for their wedding. When you experienced your burnout, how did that effect your daily life and what methods did you use to cope and recover?

A. I didn’t actually know what a burnout was until I was diagnosed with it as we didn’t learn about mental health in school or growing up! But basically, I went through a burnout in 2021 which if those of you are unaware, burnout is a state of complete mental and physical exhaustion caused by prolong chronic stress. I was planning my own wedding at the time, doing big house renovations, working out 6 days a week and work was extremely busy for a long period of time. To me that all sounded like first world problems but I was really stressed for probably about 1 year and because I kept going and ignored the signs I got to a point where I was completely bed ridden. I got down to 47 kilos, developed insomnia and slept for roughly 1 hour a night for 9 months and developed major anxiety. Due to the lack of sleep my brain fog was so bad I could hardly talk and I was basically in survival mode. I developed severe panic and anxiety attacks and I was scared to leave the house for a long time. It’s crazy that stress can do that to someone. It took me 9 months to fully recover! So now I do try and be open about that experience because it is a lot more common than we think and it’s so important to acknowledge and get help before it turns that bad. I sought out help from my general practitioner and life coach for breathing exercises, meditation, hypnotherapy, reiki and I couldn’t work for that whole 9 months. I also took anxiety medication. I can’t stress enough that if you don’t look after your mental health, it will soon enough affect your physical health!

Q. If you could go back and give yourself a single piece of advice prior to experiencing burnout, what would it be?

A. Don’t stress! Stress achieves nothing! You can’t overthink a situation or worry about something that is out of your control. What will be will be! Stress is so bad for your health mentally and physically! I never worry about anything now because I am just so happy that I can get in my car and leave the house without feeling scared!

Q. Planning a wedding is a huge task, what piece of advice would you give to couples planning their wedding who are currently feeling stressed and overwhelmed?

A. Organisation and communication in key! Write your lists down of what needs to be done, budgets, do your research, and communicate with your partner what you both want and don’t want! It should be a happy time but most of the time it ends up being stressful and it shouldn’t be!

Q. What coping methods do you utilise now, to best support your mental health?

A. Staying calm in all situations and not overdoing it. I make time for myself to relax outside of work and also acknowledge if I am having a bad day as we all do but it’s important to also tell yourself that everything will be okay. I find simple exercising also helps my mental health a lot, even if it’s just a 30-minute walk around the block or at the beach!

Q. A portion of all your sales is donated to the Breakthrough Mental Health Research Foundation, why is this foundation in particular, close to your heart?

A. I hold mental health very close to my heart as a result of my mental health experiences. Breakthrough Mental Health Research Foundation are a not-for-profit mental health research organisation based in Adelaide dedicated to help transform the lives of those affected by mental health issues.

Q. What is next for the peaceful nook and what should we be keeping an eye out for?

A. Apart from our weddings starting in October which is very exciting, we have also been selected as the main styling sponsor for the South Australian ABIA Bridal Awards in November 2022! ABIA is Australia’s largest wedding review platform and the annual awards night recognizes the most trusted and top wedding vendors across the country. This is such an honour and great exposure for the peaceful nook to showcase our products and floral designs to many people in the wedding industry and we are so grateful to be given this opportunity!