When Amy Dyer walked down the aisle six years ago, an Earl Grey rose sat in her wedding bouquet. One year later, that Earl Grey rose inspired the name of Dyer’s dream business: Earl Grey Floral.

Dyer graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2016 and married her husband, Dale Dyer, months later. As she planned her own wedding, Dyer learned more about flowers, including the many shades of roses that exist, such as the Earl Grey rose. The name Earl Grey already held significance for Dyer, as her husband Dale would often bring her a London Fog, a drink consisting of Earl Grey tea.

After the couple wed, Dyer made the decision to use $100 of their monthly budget to play around with blooms in hopes of one day making her flower dream come true. This love of nature had been a part of Dyer’s life from the beginning.

“I was always the kind of kid who would find little things, like a flower, and pick it for my mom,” says Dyer. “I would find a pretty rock and wrap it up in a napkin and deliver it to my mom as a gift. I loved nature.”

Dyer graduated with a degree in education and worked as a teaching aide right out of college, but she says teaching “never fully felt right.” After working as an aide for five hours each day, she would spend her afternoons and weekends working with florists in town

As she utilized her monthly floral budget to create arrangements and shared photos of them to Instagram, Dyer started to receive inquiries regarding her creations.

“A friend just asked me to put something together,” she explains. “And then someone took a chance and asked if I could do a wedding.”

Dyer made Earl Grey Floral official in 2017, saying goodbye to education and diving full-time into her new career path. Despite never having taken a floral design class in her life, the newfound entrepreneur knew her love for flowers and fascination with the event industry. She was determined to channel those passions into a career.

“It was the event industry that captivated me more than anything else,” says Dyer. “I just thought it was so fun — the hustle and bustle of an event set-up and working behind the scenes to make all this magic happen for a day. It’s all for one day, and at the end of the night, you throw it all away.”

From 2017 to early 2020, Earl Grey Floral catered specifically to the wedding industry. Dale Dyer joined his wife full-time not long after Earl Grey Floral bloomed, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the couple was forced to pivot into a delivery service and Dale shifted to a different job. Thankfully, the delivery service flourished.

Dyer attributes Earl Grey’s success during the pandemic to her fellow florists, giving credit to the collaboration and generosity of the local flower community. Austin florists passed along inquiries to one another, shared inventory and leaned on one another as small business owners, ensuring their industry could survive the pandemic.

Dyer still missed the magic that comes with crafting event set-ups and preparing for weddings every weekend, and she looked forward to helping brides’ visions come to life again.

“I love collaborating with brides, taking the pieces of their vision and sharing, ‘Oh! I think you would love this seasonal flower,’ ‘Have you heard of this flower?’, ‘What if we added in some yellow?,’” says Dyer. “Expanding on a bride’s vision is really fun. I love seeing a bride excited about her flowers.”

As the event industry picked back up, Earl Grey Floral continued to grow, along with the family behind it, as the Dyers recently welcomed a son. In both a personal and business move, the family purchased a new home with a large studio space for Earl Grey.

“That was a huge personal accomplishment for me because I could spread out more, have more vision for what I want in the studio and more dreams about hiring other designers,” says Dyer.

The team also hired a second lead designer, Chandler Fowler. Before this addition, Dyer would take on three to four weddings each month, hitting around 50 each year, including a few out-of-state. Now with another designer onboard, the Earl Grey team can take on even more projects.

Five years into business, Dyer still relies on her love of nature as she draws inspiration from the seasons.

“I’m constantly inspired by whatever’s in season,” she explains, giddily. “Going to Austin Flower Company and seeing what they’re bringing in, but also just going on walks, going to other parts of the country and seeing the natural foliage, pulling from the seasons — if I didn’t have that, then I don’t think I would still be doing this job.”

With a focus on the fine art of florals and a dedicated team behind its stunning creations, Austinites are sure to spot Earl Grey Floral arrangements at weddings, events and homes for many years to come.

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