EverWild is creating beautiful moments and memories in Nottingham
We speak to owner Tarnya Bruce about flowers, workshops, and more...
EverWild in Sneinton Market has fast become the go-to spot people who love picking beautiful blooms and going to mindful workshops and events.
I spoke with owner Tarnya Bruce about her passion for beautiful flowers, collaborating with and being part of Nottingham’s small business-sphere, and even curating Vicky McClure’s wedding bouquet.
For those looking for things to do in Nottingham, it’s always worth seeing what EverWild has on offer. If you love fabulous florals — whether as a gift or for yourself — it’s one the best places in the area to go.
“I love bringing beauty to every life moment, however big or small” — EverWild’s Tarnya Bruce on blooming in Nottingham
By Eve Smallman
Photos by Holly Booth / @hollyboothstudio
It isn’t every day that you get to be a part of a celebrity wedding. But when you run one of the most famous flower shops in Nottingham, having Vicky McClure ask for your beautiful bouquets and blooms is just one of those things that ends up happening.
“It was great because she's so all about local — she’s the Queen of Nottingham, really!” smiles Tarnya Bruce, owner of EverWild. “She liked that I work with seasonal flowers and she wanted something very unformed and unstructured — like she’d gone through a field and gathered it herself, kind of thing. That natural look is the kind of main style and theme we do for weddings,” Tarnya explains.
In fact, she and Vicky McClure did know each other — which they only realised after the wedding consultation. They both went to Ogando School of Dance, which Tarnya’s children now attend. While Vicky went into acting, Tarnya became a professional dancer, working in London for numerous years. After her father passed away suddenly, she moved back to Nottingham to be closer to her family — and then lockdown happened.
When this happened, the seeds for EverWild began to bloom. “I've always loved nature — I feel like it very much speaks to me, with the seasons of my life and just seasons in general,” explains Tarnya. “I've always played around with flowers, making things, and it got to the point where friends would ask me to do things.”
This inspired her to create EverWild in Nottingham, which now sells floral bouquets both dried and fresh, offers workshops, and even caters to weddings and events. The studio is light and airy, and stepping into it feels like walking into a hug. I can totally see how working here could inspire creativity — whether it’s coming up with ideas or perfecting your craft.
Tarnya first began selling dried flowers at markets, such as ones that run in Sneinton Market’s avenues. “I just got to meet so many people and chat with people,” she explains.
Here, people would ask her about doing bouquets. She began with dried flower bouquets, before progressing into versions with fresh flowers, which she especially adores creating.
“I use Floral Media in Newark who are really wonderful — they do pick your own and workshops themselves. This means that I can just go with the seasons — flowers are just happier when they’re in season, rather than when they’re shipped over,” Tarnya explains. “All of the rich colours make me happy.”
She also loves encouraging people to have a go at putting together blooms themselves. “We’re not a floristry school where it’s about doing X, Y, and Z — it’s more about getting your hands started and working,” Tarnya says.
As well as running her own workshops, she also sometimes collaborates with other businesses — for example, with Bloom and Flow, the two businesses partnered up and did flower life drawing. “It's really nice to be able to mix those two different techniques and disciplines together. Plus, it means that I get to work with other people and learn about their creative ideas,” Tarnya says.
EverWild is well-placed for hosting events and working with creatives, just a short walk away from the city centre in cultural hotspot Sneinton Market. When I used to walk through the market even just five years ago, it was completely empty. Now, it’s filled with creativity, with writers, crafters, makers, and more.
Tarnya agrees, saying, “It's a really creative hub, where everyone’s just doing their thing and bringing life to the area. A lot of us are local, too, living just down the road, which is wonderful.”
Not only does EverWild do all this, but it also does lots of floral arrangements for weddings. “Every wedding I do is a highlight — I sit with each client here on the sofa with me when it's just ideas in their mind of what we can do. My role is to help draw that vision out and bring it to life,” Tarnya explains. “Every time we get to the wedding day and I present them with the bouquet or they see the flowers, it’s amazing — I recognise how big of a day that is for people, and I get to just be a part of that.”
Tarnya has started offering a pressed flower service at EverWild, where she transforms blooms from wedding bouquets — whether from her or from elsewhere — into gorgeous prints that you can treasure forever. Much more chic than a photo album you have to keep dusting off, right?
She has also showcased her floristry outside of Nottingham and onto bigger platforms. One job in particular that excited her was working on the launch of the Pinterest Creator Inclusion Fund, which is for Black creators and content producers. “A couple of florists pitched their idea of what they would do, because they wanted a whole theme of celebrating Black history, and they were going to pick just one,” Tarnya says.
They chose Tarnya’s proposal, and she got to spend a couple of months sourcing and making, before going down to London, setting it up, and meeting some of the people on the program. “It was just great because I got to design it fully from the beginning to the end. I’d love to do bigger installations in the future.”
While there have been many things to celebrate over the years, they haven’t come without their struggles. “Being a small business and a company of one, especially in this time, is tricky. Sometimes people are wanting to not spend as much. But if money’s tight, money’s tight, and it’s trying to be accessible for people while also trying to keep the lights on,” Tarnya explains.
She continues, “If it wasn't for the people, I don't think I'd ever want to be here in the studio — like, tomorrow night, I'm gonna meet a whole load of new people, and we've got a supper club happening where we're just gonna sit around the table, drink wine, chat, and paint — all that stuff brings me alive and helps me in these hard times.”
In terms of future plans for EverWild, the focus is on weddings and workshops, which Tarnya would love to expand on. “I’ve seen a bit of a shift with people having more intimate weddings — a bit like Vicky’s — where you go to a registry office, book your favourite restaurant with your friends and family, and then have a party,” Tarnya tells me. “I’d like to tailor to those more — it’s easy for people to come in, have a consultation, and then just come and collect their bouquet.”
There are also lots of new, exciting workshops coming — but Tarnya is hoping to host even more different ones. “The arch is in a lot of my branding and, like in here...” she waves towards the mirror and the open archway inside. “...It all has this home feeling. In the future, I’d really like to embed that a little bit more and invite people to come and be a part of something, and to explore different areas of their own creativity.”
Whether it’s curating bouquets for special days, blooming installations, or leading a creative workshop, she’ll keep bringing her passion for making beautiful things into everything she does. “I love bringing beauty to every life moment — however big or small,” Tarnya finishes by saying.
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