COMING UP ROSES
MY MODERN-DAY HEROES /
Nothing beats the beauty of family. My partner Antonis and our two beautiful boys are the apples of my eye. They keep me inspired and on my toes, their smiles have me up in the morning, and tucked in at night.
/a back story
"Sow an act and you reap a habit.
Sow a habit and you reap character.
Sow character and you reap a destiny".
- Charles Reade
Fancy playing out your childhood fantasies across a profusion of branches, stems, vines, reeds, gorse, and gloriously flowering hyacinths ensconced in one of Greece's most multifaceted regions up North, and you can easily see why Maria Voudouri came to be so in-tune with nature and the changing of seasons, long before she began honing her skills in botanical design.
Her Business Administration studies at the ACT (American College of Thessaloniki) were hardly enough to make her green-fingered dreams dwindle; au contraire, taking over the Field & Meadow family business, touted as one of Northern Greece's friendliest garden center, and having spent years amongst flower beds, borders, herbariums, tumbling out herbs, fields scattered with buttercups, ceramics and garden tools, she knew exactly what she wanted to do.
Backdropped by greenhouses and perennial-dotted gardens, Maria added more strings on her bow, focusing on the art of flower arranging, devoting herself to the fine nuances, and many-sidedness of blooms. A floralista at heart, she imbued exquisite hybrid blooms with textural varieties, balancing hues and visual impact, steadily giving life to what M/V is today: a Botanical Design Studio that specializes in weddings and events, offering bespoke floral couture to positive-living enthusiasts and lovers of style-forward petals.
PETAL TALK
/MEET MARIA VOUDOURI
Our early lives define the way we learn to love, and mine was no exception. Murmurs of reeds on the beach, the prattle of water rushing over stones; Grasses swishing as I slid across muddy puddles on a pink vintage bike, the pollen from a mallow stuck on my sleeve; hundreds of tulips shooting up madly in the backyard, and scents of freshly baked custard pies from my grand mom's kitchen window spreading above the rows of ruffled veggies and legumes to the orangery, where I'd hide for hours.
One moment I'd be scraping my knees trying to build a house under the tree and the next I'd be feeding the goats, gathering eggs, and watering the flowers. I learned love listening to women in my family speak of flower beds and vegetables, sharing advice on how to protect their tender nature from the cold, on how to gently pull out weeds, and to extend their fragrances. It was only a matter of time before I knew that all I want to do in life was to occupy myself with florals.
M/V Botanical design is my way to share the love I've learned with positive-living enthusiasts and people who wish to channel the feelings glorious flora sends down their hearts into their best moments. M/V has no shop. All work begins at our 9-acre bowery where we create floral pieces great and small. I approach each and every wedding and event with fondness. I wish nothing more than to tell beautiful stories with flowers, plants, and foliage, picked and arranged in effortless charm.
MY ALL-TIME INSPIRATION /
My father Konstantinos and grandma Chrysoula. They taught me persistence, courage, and kindness, how to respect the earth and its fruit, and how to exercise patience in collecting the gifts life has to offer.
MY SECRET ROMEO /
Meet Mr. Cookie. This 6,5 year old Romeo follows my every footstep and will always hop by the studio to sneak a peek on what's shaking behind these gigantic heaps of blooms. He's always present during flower deliveries and borks for paws up when I'm done.
I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT /
Art, magazines, Netflix, and classical music (my flowers actually thrive because of the latter), anything Paris, Como Lake, and incredible Renaissance architecture. Okay, and Pink Lady cocktails (pink makes yours truly wink).
MY MODERN-DAY HEROES /
Nothing beats the beauty of family. My partner Antonis and our two beautiful boys are the apples of my eye. They keep me inspired and on my toes, their smiles have me up in the morning, and tucked in at night.
MY ALL-TIME INSPIRATION /
My father Konstantinos and grandma Chrysoula. They taught me persistence, courage, and kindness, how to respect the earth and its fruit, and how to excercise patience in collecting the gifts life has to offer.
MY SECRET ROMEO /
Meet Mr. Cookie. This 6,5 year old Romeo follows my every footstep and will always hop by the studio to sneak a peek on what's shaking behind these gigantic heaps of blooms. He's always present during flower deliveries and borks for paws up when I'm done.
I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT /
Art, magazines, Netflix, and classical music (my flowers actually thrive because of the latter), anything Paris, Como Lake, and incredible Renaissance architecture. Okay, and Pink Lady cocktails (pink makes yours truly wink).
WHERE THE FLOWERING
THINGS ARE
/ the m/v studio
To carry a full heart and let in the light, to take stock of what matters, that is the essence of my studio, a leafy bowery of 9 acres where beautiful things are happening. Mine is not a physical studio in the strict 4-wall sense. Sometimes it's an arboretum, a potting shed, a design den, a shed, or the open field outside my home in Northern Greece.
There is constant movement here, burgeoning fresh blooms, ruffled fleurettes clipped just at cracking bud stage, deliveries of new and exciting varieties from the Netherlands, and baskets filled with foraged seeds, alluvions of stems, and wildling sprouts, or veggies right from the nursery. You'll get the heady scent of fuzzy chestnut shells opening (be careful they're prickly) discover cotton balls plush and soft.
No day goes by without the good grind (some serious monitoring for overly-enthusiastic slugs included). Early morning you'll find me feeding our chickens, and right after managing deliveries and orders, jotting out some new ideas for upcoming events, spending time filling out the inventory, polishing my antiques and rearranging the lovely pots and vases on the storage shelves.
