Today we’d like to introduce you to Kyra Schaeffer.
Hi Kyra, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Bloom & Gathered Floral Company grew from a lifelong love of flowers, gardening, and creating beautiful things by hand. I, Kyra, grew up spending time in my parents’ garden here in Pennsylvania, and that early connection to growing and working with flowers has stayed with me throughout my life. What began as a creative passion eventually grew into Bloom & Gathered, a family-owned floral design studio and specialty cut flower farm rooted in the historic Oley Valley.
Over the past seven years, I’ve had the opportunity to grow both creatively and professionally within the floral industry, and today, Bloom & Gathered specializes in wedding and event florals. We design with a love for natural, romantic, garden-inspired arrangements, incorporating seasonal blooms whenever possible. Many of the flowers we use are grown right here on our farm, and we also source premium local and American-grown flowers and specialty blooms to bring each couple’s vision to life.
Although our flower farm is based in Berks County, our work takes us far beyond our little corner of Pennsylvania. We regularly travel throughout Philadelphia, Lancaster, the Poconos, New Jersey, and beyond to create florals for weddings and special events.
One of the things that makes Bloom & Gathered especially meaningful to me is that it truly is a family business. My husband works alongside me, helping bring the behind-the-scenes pieces of the business to life, and our three young daughters are growing up surrounded by flowers, gardens, and the beautiful chaos of a family-run business. It’s a joy to share this with them and to watch Bloom & Gathered continue to grow alongside our family.
At the heart of everything we do is our philosophy: Hand Picked. Hand Made. Hand Delivered. From growing and selecting the flowers to designing each arrangement and delivering it with care, we believe there is something special about knowing the hands and heart behind your flowers.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Like any small business, it certainly hasn’t been a completely smooth road. There have been plenty of learning curves along the way, but thankfully, Bloom & Gathered has grown very organically, which has allowed us to learn and evolve with the business rather than trying to rush the process.
Farming adds a whole other element because so much of what we do is dependent on the weather. Every growing season is different, and each year brings new challenges with different crops, weather conditions, and growing seasons. It keeps us on our toes and has taught us to be flexible, adaptable, and to embrace a little bit of the unexpected.
One of the most rewarding parts of the journey has been the incredible couples and families we’ve had the opportunity to work with. So many of our clients have supported us from our very beginning stages and have continued to trust us as Bloom & Gathered has grown. We’re incredibly grateful for the relationships we’ve built along the way and for every couple who has allowed us to be a small part of such an important day.
Looking back, I think the bumps and learning curves have been an important part of the journey. They’ve helped shape the business into what it is today while allowing us to stay true to who we are and how we want to serve our clients.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Bloom & Gathered is a specialty cut flower farm and event floral design studio, with a strong focus on weddings. We grow specialty cut flowers right here on our property, with our growing season generally running from April through October. Our farm is a little over an acre, tucked into our own backyard, which makes what we do feel very personal and hands-on. We’re quite literally growing the flowers we design with just steps from our home.
From an event florist standpoint, I think one of the things that sets us apart is our ability to harvest directly from our own fields and bring those flowers straight into our designs. We love using local and American-grown flowers whenever possible, and growing our own gives us access to unique varieties that you don’t always find through traditional floral wholesalers. There’s something really special about walking through the field, selecting what is at its absolute best, and then incorporating those blooms into a wedding bouquet or centerpiece.
Our design style is very inspired by nature and the changing seasons. We gravitate toward floral designs that feel natural, romantic, organic, and a little bit gathered rather than overly structured. We love allowing the flowers themselves to guide the design and celebrating what is naturally beautiful about each season.
I’m especially proud of how we’ve been able to bring the farm and floral studio together. There’s a real connection between what we grow and what we create, and I think that gives our work a sense of place and authenticity. Every season brings something different, and we get to share that with our couples through their wedding flowers.
Ultimately, I’m proud that Bloom & Gathered has remained a small, family-owned business where we can be involved in every step—from planting the seed, to harvesting the flower, to designing the final arrangement and delivering it to our couples. That hands-on approach is really at the heart of who we are.
What makes you happy?
One of the things that has been making me especially happy lately is finding new ways to share our flower field with other people. For so long, the field has simply been my workplace. I’m out there every day growing, harvesting, weeding, and tending to the flowers, so it can be easy to forget just how special the space really is.
Recently, we started opening the field for a few small experiences, including Yoga in the Flower Field and Pick & Paint. For our yoga evenings, we collaborate with a local yoga instructor who leads guests through an evening class surrounded by the flowers. Afterward, everyone has the opportunity to slow down, walk through the field, and create their own arrangement to take home.
For Pick & Paint, we’ve teamed up with a local artist who leads guests in painting while they enjoy the flowers and the surrounding landscape. After painting, guests can wander through the field and hand-pick flowers to create their own arrangement.
What I’ve loved most about these experiences is seeing the field through other people’s eyes. What is normally work for me becomes a place where people can slow down, connect, be creative, and simply enjoy being outside. In a way, sharing the space with others has reminded me to slow down and appreciate it myself. It has given me a completely different perspective on something that I see every single day, and that has been incredibly rewarding.
I think that’s what makes me happiest—being able to create a space where people can experience the flowers in a really personal way, rather than simply receiving an arrangement. They get to be in the field, choose their own flowers, and take a little piece of that experience home with them.
Pricing:
- We don’t offer specific packages, rather we create custom proposals for wedding clients.
- We also have a Front Door Flowers Program where we deliver flowers weekly or bi-weekly throughout our growing season right to their front door. Pricing ranges from $120 for 4 weeks in one season to $720 for the full season.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bloomandgathered.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/bloomandgathered
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/blooomandgathered
