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Photos courtesy of Lauren Starnes.
Wild Honey Flower Truck, owned and operated by Kelsey and Josh Sizemore, officially opened for business in November. Together, they sell fresh flowers by the stem and by the bouquet out of their renovated 1960s Ford pickup truck.
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Photo courtesy of Lauren Starnes.
Wild Honey Flower Truck offers a unique approach to buying a bouquet of flowers.
Everything is on wheels nowadays — food, coffee, yourself — so why not flowers?
Being the always-welcome home addition that flowers are, floral enthusiasts Josh and Kelsey Sizemore thought creating a flower truck — specifically the Wild Honey Flower Truck — would be a fun addition to Birmingham to get fresh bouquets into homes.
Kelsey Sizemore said they first noticed a flower truck when visiting friends in Nashville.
“And I told Josh I thought it was something people in Birmingham would really love,” she said. “So we kind of toyed with the idea but were scared to commit for a while.”
It wasn’t until they found a home for their business — a 1963 Ford Econoline listed on Craigslist — that they decided to go for it. Josh Sizemore’s dad, who lives in Kentucky, drove to inspect the truck, told them it was a great deal and it was towed to Birmingham.
“And once we got the truck, we really got committed to it,” Sizemore said.
They set out to renovate the truck, which had not been updated since the 1970s: the red exterior was repainted a light blue, and seat belts were also added and some other minor maintenance was done, but Kelsey Sizemore said otherwise, the truck runs well.
“I’m sure that we will have trouble with the truck at some point, probably sooner rather than later,” she said, laughing.
They also had a custom striped awning installed off the bed of the truck, where they hold the flowers. Kelsey Sizemore said after the first weekend of business in November, the “truck is almost starting to market itself.”
The design, coupled with the light color and, of course, the flowers, made for great photo opportunities, she said.
“It’s just really fun getting to chat with people and people are just very intrigued by the look of the truck,” Kelsey Sizemore said. “Whether or not they’re going to buy flowers, they want to come up and talk to you or get pictures with the truck.”
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Photos courtesy of Lauren Starnes.
Wild Honey Flower Truck offers a unique approach to buying a bouquet of flowers.
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Photos courtesy of Lauren Starnes.
Wild Honey Flower Truck offers a unique approach to buying a bouquet of flowers.
But before you get your pictures, you can pick out your favorite flowers, too.
Their plan is to have a variety of locally grown flowers on hand at all times, although they will have to supplement their stock with wholesale, too. Kelsey Sizemore said they would like to feature blooms you wouldn’t typically see in a store.
“We buy flowers a lot, and you just have to get whatever bouquet they had pre-made at Publix [and other grocery stores],” she said. “I think that’s what intrigued us was just having a place where people can come and be creative themselves and pick out the stuff they like.”
Flowers are sold by the stem at the flower truck, and people can arrange their own bouquets or ask for help to make their selection and little prettier. The prices per stem are comparable to what would make up a bouquet that costs $20 to $30.
To get the business up and running, they called upon their experiences at their other jobs: Josh as the co-founder and co-owner of Breakout in Homewood, and Kelsey as the marketing and community manager at The Forge.
The duo has also done a lot of research, both about running a flower shop and flowers in general, and they turned a space in their basement into a cooler room to house the blooms.
All in all, though, they just want to be a part of the growth and unique aspects of the Magic City, and “bring joy to Birmingham,” Kelsey Sizemore said.
“Because we think that flowers make people happy. They certainly do us.”
Eventually, Kelsey Sizemore said, they’d like to have a set schedule where people can expect them to be at certain places on certain days, although special events are not out of the equation, either.
To get up-to-date information about the Wild Honey Flower Truck, follow them on Instagram and Facebook, @wildhoneyflowertruck, or visit their website, wildhoneyflowertruck.com.