Five Years of MUCK: From Etsy Dried Florals to a Design-Led Cotswolds Wedding Florist

On 24th February 2021, MUCK made its very first sale of dried flowers on Etsy.

It wasn’t a wedding installation. It wasn’t a grand tablescape. It wasn’t even fresh flowers.

It was an £11 posy dried florals.

And I had absolutely no intention of becoming a wedding florist.

Five years later, MUCK has flowered over 170 weddings across the Cotswolds, Herefordshire and Shropshire, with our diary now filling into 2026, 2027 and 2028. What began as a creative outlet during lockdown has grown into a design-led wedding floristry studio rooted in sustainability, hosting beautiful events, interiors inspired design elements and emotion.

Where MUCK Began

Before MUCK, I worked full time in HR and finance for a global company I’d been with since I was 18, It's where I got my business degree. I was early 20's Megan's definition wildly successful. Stable, structured, corporate.

As we came out of Covid lockdowns, while going through a tough time with a project I was working on at work, I found myself hosting the small gatherings we were allowed. I wanted them to feel beautiful, worth the wait. Flowers became part of how I styled my home and my table — not as decoration, but as atmosphere and my way of showing the people I loved how much I had missed them.

MUCK (a combination of my first name Megan and my maiden name Luck — nothing to do with dirt!) began as an Etsy shop selling dried wreaths, posies and candles after I had exhausted all my family members & friends to gift them to. Year one was mainly craft fairs, the odd wedding fair, etsy sales and lots of experimentation.

Fresh flowers came later, after formal training — and quite quickly, but definitely unexpectedly, weddings followed.

The Moment It Became More Than a Side Project

Somewhere in 2022, I realised I couldn’t do both.

Stealing time before my office hours started and during lunch breaks; I'd work 10 hour days at my desk and then into the early hours down in the studio on that weekends wedding. I used up all my annual leave, tweaked working hours all over the place. I dedicated myself to flowers and I was failing big time at keeping my head above water in pretty much every other aspect of my life. I suffered early burnout from overbooking myself and genuinely felt like the balance I needed was unobtainable, the career I longed for out of reach and that my best bet was to forget the whole thing and go back to my desk full time.

Floristry is not a stable. It’s not predictable. It’s not as financially comfortable as corporate employment. The idea of leaving that security and the successful career I'd built was terrifying — almost enough that I didn’t. But I also realised something else: I loved wedding floristry more than excel (my old colleagues will tell you what a genuine shock that was!) and I wanted to give my weddings my full energy. My full creativity. My full commitment.

An opportunity to leave my main job and take on some part time work closer to home came up and in summer 2023 I stepped closer towards that goal of full commitment. In Spring 2024, I left employment completely. Months earlier than I had planned, but knowing going all in was what I needed for MUCK Floral to really take off.

That leap is still the bravest thing I’ve ever done.

Becoming a Design-Led Wedding Florist

In year one, my work was a mix of styles in every colour combination you can think of from monochrome to brights. I took on every brief that came my way and learnt so much while I honed and developed my own style.

Today, my style is firmly natural feeling and garden inspired. I don’t create tight, globe-style bouquets or coffin spray like long and lows. That traditional formality has never felt like me.

I consider myself to be design-led, florals are part of the overall picture. They sit within architecture, linens, tableware, lighting and flow. It’s the difference between wearing something and styling it.

My love of art and interiors shows up in:

• Colour pairings that feels unexpected rather than trendy

• Placement and movement through a space

• Considering what guests see when they enter a room, while they dine - I want every guest to see and experience something slightly different, while also feeling like they have the best seat in the house.

• Choosing vessels and table elements that don't look traditional, but feel cohesive.

• Designing weddings that don't look like you've just 'selected a few options from a wedding catalogue', they feel like a lived-in space or a work of art designed to welcome and amaze your guests.

  
  

  

A Sustainable Wedding Florist — Before It Was a Trend

I trained at a time when sustainable mechanics were simply the first option. Floral foam has always felt like an unnatural second choice to me — both visually and practically.

In summer, British-grown flowers feature in every wedding - I work with a number of local growers within my local area and across the cotswolds.

I believe sustainability is luxury. Luxury is seasonal abundance that doesn’t feel wasteful.

For me, sustainability isn’t a logistical afterthought. It’s part of the design philosophy itself.

Growing as a Cotswolds Wedding Florist

Over the past five years, MUCK has worked on more than 170 weddings, most across the Cotswolds and surrounding counties.

As a Cotswolds wedding florist, I regularly work at venues including:

• Hyde House

• Davenport House

• Elmore Court

• Hampton Manor

I also design many marquee weddings at family homes — some of my favourite transformations.

As the business has grown, the work has shifted. I now take on fewer weddings overall, focusing instead on larger, more immersive installations and full design clients.

The direction is clear: fewer weddings, bigger impact, more of my time devoted to each of my couples.

The Emotional Core of It All

I cry a lot.

I cry when I finish a large installation. I cry when I book a wedding I’m truly excited about. I cry during ceremonies, listening to the love in the room while waiting to turn a space around.

My passion is why I do what I do.

Success in 2021 was a single Etsy sale.

Success today is seeing tears in a bride’s eyes as she sees herself holding her bouquet for the first time. It’s overhearing guests walk into a ceremony space and whisper, “wow.”

Even now, every time a couple books MUCK, I do a little happy dance. Every “yes” feels like confirmation that I am exactly where I’m meant to be.

What’s Next for MUCK?

Five years from now, I don’t want everything to change, I just want to refine it.

More full-design clients. Fewer weddings, with larger, more immersive installs. A continued focus on positioning MUCK clearly as a design-led and sustainable wedding florist in the Cotswolds.

Right now, the business is in a regeneration phase. I’ve streamlined my offering into clear packages available on the website, and I’m working hard behind the scenes on marketing and long-term positioning.

The ambition hasn’t disappeared — it’s just matured.

Five Years In

When MUCK made its first dried flower sale in 2021, I could never have imagined standing where I am now five years later. 170+ weddings. Hundreds of bouquets. Thousands of stems. Countless “wows.”.

Here’s to five years. And to the next five.

Megan x