Every bride wants their wedding to be memorable and everything should be perfect. The flowers should reflect your own particular taste and personality. We must admit selecting the perfect flowers is not easy: the color, the theme, quantity, bouquets, decorations….! So let’s talk with a professional, someone who knows everything about wedding flowers.
In 1987, Mauro and Marcela Gomes began their florist careers. Mauro said: “I had a knack for working with my hands and an attitude to learn by observing the works of others in the floral business. My inspiration comes from the countryside where I vacationed in my childhood, in Rio de Janeiro. And most of all, carnival and its multitude of colors and textures which I try to reflect through my design.”
The couple works together in New York City, in their own company, MagnaFlora. Mauro is Brazilian and is the designer he is what they call “Carioca da Gema,” meaning born and bred in Rio de Janeiro. “I think that in South America we tend to use very vibrant and vivacious colors and lean towards the culture of more is more. Here I see a tendency to keep a more monochromatic route and not venture to a mix colorful spectrum.”
Marcela is the MagnaFlora’s Business Manager, she handles the daily operations, from customer service to personnel, logistics, event planning, accounts management and general hands on help to ensure everything is fluid and flawless. “Mauro and I have been together for sixteen years. We work together for the past nine years. We first met when I moved to New York. We had mutual friends and I ended up as one of Mauro’s roommates. After a couple months we started dating. The rest is history.” Nice. Marcela was working in a beauty salon in Upper East Side, Manhattan, when Mauro called her and propose to work for him. He was changing a lot of things internally in his company and needed a trusting hand to help with a smooth transition. “I’m very friendly but at the same time very shy. It wasn’t easy but little by little I learned the trade, got more familiar with this brand new world and a decade later we’re still here making it happened.”
For more than 15 years the Gomes family has worked with a variety of weddings, brides, personalities, decorative ideas while working around seasonal availability. MagnaFlora specializes in innovation and they tailor every design to fit each client; the entire process is carefully and meticulously curated to bring their vision to life. When you entrust the designer on your very special day, that you can rely on them to create your vision without compromise. Floral prices can range from $500 to $50,000, it is totally dependent on the scope and scale of the designs requirement.
Marcela and Mauro are not just brilliant florists, they also have a great marriage. So we asked them to tell us a secret, and this is what they said: “We sure have our ups and downs as in any relationship, but there’s a trust level and confidence that surpasses all the obstacles that come our way. We got each other’s back. We make most decisions together but our field/departments are very distinct. Mauro is in the forefront of the actual beauty of it all. He’s the face of the company dealing with everything floral—his signature is all over the MagnaFlora concept and design style. We both put a whole lot of work into it and at the end of the day, there’s a sense of pride in this accomplishment. Despite all adversity we did it because we have each other. ”
Thank you Mauro and Marcela!!
