From Mexico, With Love
Rogelio Bautista is living the dream. His home is in paradise, he works with some of the most beautiful flowers on Earth, and he helps people make their destination wedding dreams come true.
Based in Guadalajara, Mexico, Rogelio credits his success with valuable lessons learned while he was a student at the Floriology Institute in Jacksonville, Florida under the tutelage of Jackie Lacey, AAF, AIFD, CFD, PFCI.
“For years Jackie has been with me not only explaining everything related to the principles and elements of design, which have taken my work to the next level, but he has also taught me sales strategies — from how to take photos of my designs and show them on my website and social networks, to how to present a final project to a client.”
Still, among all the lessons he has learned, the one that sticks out for him is that Floriology Institute helped him to discover the incredibly talented floral designer that was already inside him.
“Undoubtedly one of the most important lessons I learned is finding who I am as a designer, knowing my talents, what inspires me, and that I love to create my own style, which has given me a unique personality and, in essence, a job,” Rogelio says. “Also, the importance of having a marketing plan to be able to present your services and be able to sell. The part of making a florist profitable has been a very important lesson.”
Rogelio has put those lessons to work in focusing right where he started his design career: designing for destination weddings in Mexico.
“The beautiful city of Cabo San Lucas gave me the opportunity to know and understand how the destination wedding market works,” he says. “I have had the blessing of living and working in top destinations for weddings in Mexico such as Cabo, Cancun, Puerto Vallarta and Valle de Guadalupe (Ensenada) to name a few. I feel a great passion and love for destination weddings especially in meeting brides from around the world, from various cultures and with tastes so different.”
Certainly, working with couples from around the globe offers some challenges, but Rogelio breaks down language and culture barriers the best he can to offer clients an exceptional experience. He does this by immersing himself in the culture and customs of the couples he works with and he also tries to get to know their personalities as he designs their wedding arrangements.
Furthermore, he is always ready to improvise when needed. “Brides expect to find the type of flower in Mexico that they commonly find in their countries,” he says. “For example, peonies can only be accessed in the months of May to June and are super expensive! So I am always ready to go with a Plan B to replace the type of flower, materials and textures they are looking for.”
Rogelio also keeps a close tab on trends and this year, “as for the most popular color palettes these days, we continue with soft pink, light orange, peachy shades,” he says. “The trend that has begun in recent months is the combination of nude/soft colors with a contrasting color such as deep purple or earth or brown.”
Also from a trend standpoint, as part of his continual preparation toward exceeding the expectations of his destination wedding clients, Rogelio is exploring this year’s increasingly popular boho/ English garden styles, along with asymmetrical designs that have a lot of depth, are very loose and free, with plenty of foliage.
