Life and Work with Brittany Corrales

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brittany Corrales.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
In short, I grew up loving gardens. Gardens aren’t just flowers though. I grew up loving soil, sprouts of any kind, the ladybugs, the bees, the hummingbirds, the butterflies and, of yes… the flowers. Food was also poignant. Food also grows in gardens. Your average human forgets that. Our society has become so disconnected from the earth we forget the food we eat is made of earth.

Both sides of my family used food as a special way of showing “care,” “togetherness,” and “celebration.” Gathering together is not out of the norm for families, but the togetherness found in being together is rare. Not all families actually cook, share, sit down and eat together, participating in the whole process together. And especially not anymore. Our lives are expected to be much more complex, fast-paced, momentary. We are expected to post all about it instead of actually “being about it.”

Anyways, back to flowers and food… both sides of my family have in some ways or all ways made the choice to grow their own food and flowers. It’s different when you grow something, nurture it, harvest it. Something changes. This is what I mean when I say “true scratch cooking.” Part of growing what you’re able to can be linked to the need for low-cost seasonal food and part of that need was to grow it from the heart.

On my mother’s side, my grandfather Jerry Twomey was a plant scientist who bred roses and other flowers. His love of rose-breeding was extensive and recognized many times. He won awards and received accolades for unique rose varieties that have continued to surpass his physical lifetime. I would carefully play in the rows of roses in their home, some of which were named after my grandmother. He and my grandmother “Noonie,” were king and queen of the phrase “stop and smell the roses.” The only thing Jerry loved more than his strong roses was my grandmother’s pot roast and pan fried garlic toast. Noonie was and still is a big believer in scratch cooking. She had a huge influence on my respect for flowers and food.

On my biological father’s side, the “Corrales” side, I was shown countless times that a cozy home and scratch meal held the power to blend three, four sometimes five generations of Corrales’ family at a time. All of my older aunts, uncles, and grandparents would sit at a handful of crappy wiggly-legged tables together inside my grandparents’ home in Vista, while the kids played tag or softball in the dirt. All of these games took place near the peacocks, chickens and goat barn. This property was pure gold as a kid. Fresh lettuce, fresh strawberries, fresh citrus, fresh avocados, fresh eggs, fresh chilies, tomatoes, you name it. Plus, the magic of peacocks and chickens! The garden boxes were painted a friendly green color that is burned into my memory. I’ll never forget the color- or being yelled at for picking the strawberries too early. In my eyes, they had a lot. This is the feeling I hold tightly to when I feel lazy and want to take out.

This memory, this feeling of home and growth is what pushed me back to the earth, away from office jobs, and back to FLOWERS.

My Corrales family had family and perfect garden and home in Vista, but at one point they also had greenhouses all along Quail Botanical Gardens Road in Encinitas. They grew flowers for years. They provided flowers for places like the Elks Lodge, Tony Jacal in Solana Beach and local weddings. Their roots were so alive in Encinitas for a long time. A bad business handshake-deal later crashed my Grandparent’s flower business and they were forced to give up their land. They had to give up the earth that grounded their business and allowed them to share flowers with this community.

My choice to return to the earth is a personal choice that links me to my family and my passions on so many levels. Growing flowers and scratch cooking is ingrained in my family’s past. My business focuses on Flowers and food. Mariposa Events Company will be my family’s legacy lived out through me. I am choosing to return to flower design as a gift to my ancestors and family that helped shape this community before any of us were here. Mariposa Events Company is homage to them.

Mariposa Events Company is an all inclusive Event Planning Service that helps clients in Southern California and Baja California plan and execute both corporate and private events. Our team can provide Planning and Strategy assistance, Custom Floral Design, Personalized Wine Tours in Baja and Temecula, Menu creation and boutique Catering services. Mariposa Events Company was designed to fit the needs our clients, so we work with budgets and guest lists of all sizes. We also offer Private Flower Design for parties and Private Cooking Demos so you can enjoy special events in the luxury of your own home.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The road as an entrepreneur is by no means easy. Being an entrepreneur is hard. Let me reiterate that, BEING AN ENTREPRENEUR IS HARD. I don’t say that to discourage anyone but rather as a disclaimer. You can be the best new artist, graphic designer, chef or florist in the world but unless you’re willing to do hard work, you’re most likely never going to make it. You won’t make the money, you won’t make the connections, you won’t land the gig. For the record, I have started every venture with my own money. I have zero advice for you if you’re backed by the investor because I have zero knowledge of what that would look like. If you have a few hundred dollars or even $10,000 of money you’re investing into yourself and your craft, you can read along.

Life and entrepreneurship is about doing the hard work. I too must often remind myself of this fact. Learning every aspect of what it takes to be a master of your craft and asking for advice. No matter how great you think you are, collecting advice from people you admire and even people you don’t admire all plays into a strategy. It’s this strategy that is going to help you see the bigger picture and actually become better. Not necessarily better than whoever the top dog in your field is, but on the whole, better. You’re going to hate doing the shitty work. You’ll feel like it’s below you. Doing the junk jobs is how you make connections. It’s how you see your craft in a new light and become truly grateful for your skill in this “chosen craft.” People are lying to you if they tell you it’s all fun and games. Yes, your chosen craft will feel fun, but the labor, the long hours, the cleaning, the permits, the taxes and all the tedious stuff that goes into your craft, that’s not fun. Entrepreneurship is a lot of late nights, convincing your friends, family or partner “it’s going to work, I’m going to make it, I’m gonna make money soon,” and a whole lot hard ass determination and crossing your fingers in hopes that it actually does work out.

Being a female is hard enough in a society like ours. Being a woman in a world that still doesn’t value women the same as we value men is even more challenging. Women aren’t taken seriously. We’re not respected. We’re still an image of sex or of the home. We are seen as too soft or too angry. We are seen in whatever light the male ‘seeing us’ in. Many women aren’t even ‘seen.’ And we are living in a world where women of color are raped, kidnapped, stalked and murdered more than any other group of people. This fact creates a strong tone and challenging unjust system that is very unwelcoming to women of color, especially in business. My point is, women of color aren’t heard and they aren’t often seen. We need more women of color in business and I want to support that in any way I can.

I am so honored to have been spoken to in this piece. I feel recognized and valued by this. My skin is fairer than your average person, but no matter any way you slice it, I am a woman of color. I am Mexican, I am Apache and I am Irish. I am not here to claim obstacles based on my appearance. I am “lucky,” I appear white I guess?! But this interview feels good. I am here to tell you, no matter what, being a woman in business is harder than being a man in the business. So, to all my women, put on your ass-kicking boots and believe in your craft. Seek advice from as many people in your industry that will share their advice with you. And take any job related to your craft, even the crap ones. I promise, it will push you forward.

Please tell us about Mariposa Events Company.
Mariposa Events is not just a service. We are an Event Planning and Floral Design Company with an in-house DJ and an eclectic background in education, art and food. Hiring me will help you learn something new! I am most proud of my extensive background in teaching. I am a natural teacher and love to teach others how to work with flowers, how to cook and how to design their event. Most Event Planning companies don’t have clients that want to learn as they go. I often do, and I embrace that. If my clients can take away skills from our interaction or relationship, I have put the relationship first, not the “money-making business” first. A client that feels like we have a relationship and was able to learn something from me will become a lifelong client and friend. I taught cooking classes for children in Encinitas for about four years. Over those four years, I worked with over 1000 students and hundreds of parents on seasonal nutritional edible education. I also started, produced and cooked for a pop-up dinner club in North County named CLANDESTINO92024 that hosted a variety of guests with approximately 40 pop-up dinner events. I specialize in full event design and event flower design. Seeing enamored faces of guests is why I do what I do. I love to bring joy and surprise to my clients and event guests.

Who have you been inspired by?
I am inspired by pretty much any democratic or progressive woman in the political world, any woman working on behalf of world hunger, any woman working as a domestic abuse advocate and any female teacher… that’s a short list of who inspires me.

In relation to politics, if you are a heterosexual female, imagine all the little buggers from your junior high or high school that picked on you, broke your heart or picked on your friends or broke your friend’s heart. Remember that boy who said he was better at throwing, building or math, simply because he was a boy?!! Take your heart to a scary place, an insecure place. Now, imagine trying to join a fraternity made up of those same buggers. That’s what most of the political scene is still made up of. A bunch of pushy, wealthy or semi-wealthy white male bullies. I am not just repeating democratic or progressive news. I have actually lived this reality. From late 2017 to early 2018, I helped manage a candidate for State Assembly and all of her financial/fundraising events. To be a woman in that environment is the definition of perseverance. To be a woman fighting for justice, that is the definition of determination. Women in politics are their own strong breed. I admire them.

• Website: www.MariposaEventsCo.com
• Phone: 760-500-7493
• Email: MariposaEventsCo@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mariposaeventscompany/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MariposaEventsCo/

Image Credit:
Paco & Betty, Cheyenne Arnold, Jessie Brito, Jax Connolly

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