Cory Beckman
Owner
So… I Started a Blog
Hi, I’m Cory.
I’ve been running Milwaukie Floral for 17 years, alongside my incredibly talented employees who keep the flowers beautiful, the creativity flowing, and the whole operation running smoothly.
Seventeen years is a long time to spend in one business, and in that time I’ve watched a lot change—inside the flower shop, around Milwaukie, and in my own life. The flowers have changed, the trends have changed, the technology has definitely changed, and somehow I now have a blog, which may be the clearest sign yet that we are all moving forward.
Milwaukie has been at the center of so much of my life. I live here, work here, raise my daughter here, and share this life with my amazing husband. This community is more than just the place where Milwaukie Floral does business. It is home.
For many years, the shop was also the place where I spent nearly all of my time. Running a floral business is equal parts creativity, logistics, customer service, problem-solving, lifting heavy buckets, answering emails, finding missing ribbon, and pretending everything is completely under control.
There is a lot that happens behind the scenes before a bouquet ever reaches someone’s doorstep.
That is part of what I hope to share here.
This blog will be a place for flowers, small business, community, and the occasional honest look at what it means to keep a longtime local business growing and changing. I’ll share updates from the studio, thoughts about Milwaukie, stories from the floral world, and probably a few things that do not fit neatly into any category but seem worth saying anyway.
I also want this to be a place where customers can get to know me—and Milwaukie Floral—a little better.
For a long time, most communication from the shop was about what we were selling, what holiday was coming up, or what needed to be ordered by which deadline. All important things, of course, especially when Valentine’s Day is looming. But there is more to the business than the products we create.
There are people, stories, lessons, changes, and a great deal of community behind it all.
Milwaukie Floral is entering a new chapter, and I am too. The move from a traditional storefront to a studio model has changed the rhythm of the business and opened up space for new ideas, new ways of serving customers, and new ways of staying connected.
This newsletter is one of those ideas.
Consider it my official attempt to keep everyone updated, share more of the story, and finally become a person who has a blog.
We’ll see how this goes.
