Today we’d like to introduce you to Melissa Duncanson.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Melissa. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I’ve always been a creative as long as I can remember. After growing up, embracing my natural abilities, I took my hopes for a career in a creative field to college and achieved a bachelors degree in studio art with a focus in printmaking and ceramics. Following my college experience, I landed professional roles in art museums, shifted to high school and higher education roles, then back to the arts.
In the museum world, there are endless of events year-round and a major part of my duties in any given museum role was to be coordinate events of all kinds from beginning to end. My favorite events to execute were weddings (with the highlight being the flowers of course). As my career in the non-profit field was in full swing, my now husband, proposed and we began planning our wedding. Being the creative type I am – I jumped straight to the details and started collecting vintage brass, silver, and copper vessels that I would then hand over to my florist for centerpiece arrangements. When I was sourcing my rusty gold, I always wished I could keep up the thrifting after the wedding. In a short time, my vintage finds developed into curated collections that I began to rent my goods to local brides and florists.
From that point on, my wheels were turning and I found myself pulled to be my own boss. My husband and I wanted to grow our family during this time as well, so I was driven to build a business that could support the mom life and utilize my organizational strengths. This led me to develop Madmade Designs as a wedding coordination business that also offered specialty vintage rentals. I juggled a full-time gig and a small business for about 2 years then made the shift to self-employed full time the summer of 2015. During that transition, I focused on streamlining what I was offering to my clients. On a personal note, I was also looking for a new medium and wanted to reconnect with my artist self again. The natural world was a reoccurring theme in my artwork so it seemed fitting to start experimenting with foliage and blooms.
Once in, got my hands on my new medium, I loved everything about florals straightaway. I practiced a ton, mustered the courage to start sharing my floral work online, and clients began to request florals along with my other services. After a year of wearing too many wedding vendor hats, I decided to follow my gut and focus my business around what I love. Arranging beautiful floral elements for my client’s most special day had me inspired wedding after wedding so as of 2016, I shifted my business to exclusively offering wedding and event floral design. I embraced my creative strengths this go round and I’m thankful I did.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The road to today has been fairly smooth but there certainly have been moments of struggle and I’ve experienced burnout for sure. Times were a bit bumpy when I was deciding what sort of business I really wanted. I would ask myself… are the late night computer hours worth it? How important is flexibility anyway? Wouldn’t it be easier to just show up to a cube farm and sell something to someone?
After I focused my business on a floral design, I had a renewed passion and redirected motivation. The late-night computer hours shifted to early morning flower market runs and flexibility is everything I need. Also, come to find out, it actually wouldn’t be easier to show up to a cube farm on the daily. I tried that along the way, I was bored, my days were dull, and it just wasn’t for me. Redirecting my focus has been everything for me and has taken my business to the next level.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Madmade Designs story. Tell us more about the business.
Who is MADMADE?
Simply put:
Melissa Anne Duncanson (my maiden and married initials) + my love of making things = madmade
Madmade Designs is a boutique wedding and event floral design company located in San Marcos, CA. We offer full-service floral design and a curated collection of vintage rental items. Every opportunity to collaborate with a new client or couple is a source of inspiration for Madmade Designs. We encourage our clients to be imaginative and have fun with developing their vision. We pair our client’s visions with our aesthetic and create a personalized proposal that includes a custom mood board and itemized contact. At Madmade Designs, our primary goal is to provide clients with a top-notch client experience, high-quality floral product, and a fresh take on garden style floral designs.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
It has been my experience that I have been lucky enough to work with and learn from other like-minded, hard-working, genuine, and inspiring wedding professionals. Martha Stewart hasn’t called for me yet but when my number is up I’ll feel really lucky that day.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.madmadedesigns.com
- Email: madmadedesigns@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madmadedesigns/#
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/madmadedesigns?ref=hl
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/madmadedesigns/
Image Credit:
Corey Villicana of Corey Villicana Photography, Morgan Olsen of In Frames Photography, Justin Vasquez of The Justin Jay, Alyss of Honey Photographs, Geoff Rivers of Geoff Rivers Photography, Jordan Howard
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