This year, right before Valentine’s Day, an adorable, 60s-era VW truck lined with tins of fresh flowers suddenly appeared alongside Favor the Kind (née The Gypsy Wagon). It was awfully cute. There were chalkboards with bouquet prices along the side, pink ribbons tied around the variety of brown paper-wrapped blooms, and a license plate customized to say “The Gals” on the front of the truck.
In the weeks that followed, I caught The Flower Gals parking their blooms alongside The Rustic, Baldwin, and West Village. Their striking, structural bouquets, often filled with eucalyptus, began popping up on my Instagram feed as well. I needed to know more about these Gals. After much Instagram stalking, I finally caught up with the traveling truck’s owners, Taylor Pierce and her mother Miriam, to talk about how social media plays into their business, what it’s like working together as mother and daughter, and, of course, flower power.
I grew up in Nashville, and there’s a truck there right now that totally reminds me of yours: Amelia’s Flower Truck. Was that an inspiration for the Flower Gals?
Taylor: Yes! Before we were doing the truck, we were doing interiors and home renovation projects, but we weren’t really finding any consistency in it and we were trying to find a different route. Last October, my mom came to me with a magazine article featuring Amelia’s and was like, “You’re going to think I’m totally crazy, but we should do this.”
Miriam: I started searching to see if the Dallas-Fort Worth area had a truck like that, and was shocked to find that it didn’t. We reached out to the owner of Amelia’s to let them know that we weren’t competing.
T: We got the ball rolling really quick. We took a floral arranging class in Los Angeles. We found the truck during that same trip. A girlfriend of mine from high school did all our logo work, and an adorable guy in Denton put it on our truck. We’ve had a lot of local help, which has been great.
When did the truck make its debut?
T: We launched at an event right before Valentine’s Day. The first and only store we’ve reached out to is Favor the Kind. Their brand and aesthetic just aligned with ours, and it ended up being perfect because they were having this major Valentine’s Day sale. Since then, social media has played a huge role in our business and other businesses reaching out to us. That’s where we do all our marketing. It’s been this crazy humbling whirlwind — we’re getting DMs pretty consistently now.
As for where the truck goes, we’re in West Village quite a bit now, and we’re going to Legacy West soon. It’s kind of just finding that mold and where we fit best and where people will respond to the truck.
What has the response been like?
T: It’s been really positive. We’ve had crazy good feedback. I think the convenience is nice too. We’ve had several people pull over on their way to Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s to pick up flowers. We do our best to have really unique flowers on the truck that you can’t find in a store.
A lot of people who come up to the truck are impressed that we’re mother and daughter. I would admit that it’s weird, but we get along so well. We’ve always sort of been yin and yang to each other — we even each other out.
How does the truck work? Is it just grab-and-go?
M: You can build your own on the truck. It’s fun! You get to walk around the truck and grab and smell, but there are also premade bouquets in mini and standard.
Are you sticking to pop-ups right now, or can someone hire The Gals?
M: You’ll definitely be able to book us for private parties. The cool thing about a private event, for example a bridal shower, is that you can pick the colors. So if pale pink is your bridal color, we’ll fill the whole truck with pale pink flowers.
Any plans to expand your VW fleet?
M: Everyone keeps asking us if we’re getting more trucks, but we’re so particular about things.
T: Everything is moving so fast, so we have to keep reminding ourselves how new we are.
M: So much thought and prep goes into each event, and we don’t want to disappoint anyone who hires us.
