Bloom Floral Creative in Winkler is the 2023 winner of the P.W. Enns Business Excellence Award.
    
The Business Excellence Award. is one of five awards being given out by the Winkler and District Chamber of Commerce atThursday's P.W. Enns Business Awards Gala being held at the Meridian Exhibition Centre.
    
Madison Schiller is the owner of Bloom and the main designer for weddings and events. She says it feels amazing to be validated for all of the hard work they have put into Bloom over the past five years.

Branching out into various ventures with Bloom, including event planning, weddings, and community workshops, has opened the door to many great connections with a lot of people, she noted.

"When we first started, that was definitely scary. I'm actually not originally from Winkler, I grew up in Plum Coulee. So even schools and everything, I didn't have a huge circle here," said Schiller. "But starting to know our customer base and other people in business, actually, through the Chamber quite a bit, meeting other owners at lunches and other entrepreneurs and working with them, and often sharing our struggles, especially through COVID times, it's been a really amazing experience." 

Schiller said it definitely makes you feel like you're not alone at any point. "I do have people I can ask for advice or support, or just share the journey with them. That's been really, really amazing."

Being a local business owner, Schiller said she also strives to support other local businesses wherever they can.

"Our gift shop is stocked with local makers, and we're constantly trying to move towards being more environmentally conscious...whatever we can to support other businesses, like even our workshops, we try and host them in different venues, coffee shops, cideries, things like that," added Schiller. "So it's a really good marriage because if people come to design, but they're also now exposed to the second business that we really love and want to support. So hopefully it broadens their horizons a little bit." 

Schiller said they really push to do workshops, and "just go bigger" and really connect with people to share why they love what they do. "I think when people can get together and create with us, that's always a good way to do that." 

The Blooming Still Life art events they have run two years in a row have been amazing as well, noted Schiller. She said it's truly amazing being in the gallery, enjoying the art they have put together. She said it's a larger scale of what they do every day with no rules, which has been incredible to share.

Asked to share a highlight about working in the floral industry, Schiller said the recent opportunity to do a full-service, luxury-based wedding was an incredible experience. She said they brought in a truck rented from Kroekers for extra refrigeration, adding it was a two-day event to set up. 

"First of all, it was an honor that they trusted us with that project, and also just a really thrilling and satisfying experience to see it come together. So I'm very proud of that this year, and how that came out. And I hope that we can do more of that on a larger scale."

Schiller said they always strive to have a spirit of excellence in everything they do, with top quality. She said it feels very good that the community sees that and appreciates it. 

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