A life of experience can sometimes culminate in dreams coming true — just ask Bridget Joslin of Bridget’s on the Square, Inc.
Born and raised in Magnolia, the 22-year florist has built enough of a reputation through her businesses and through her numerous certifications to recently catch the eye of a float designer for the granddaddy of them all — the Tournament of Roses Parade.
It’s the super bowl of floral float design, taking place, coincidentally enough, in the lead up to one of the most prestigious and well-known collegiate football games and venues in existence. The Rose Bowl is not only synonymous with the game, which this year pits Big-10 winner Ohio State against Pac-12 champion Washington, but it’s also forever linked with the New Year’s holiday and the grandiose, flower-filled floating masses of creativity, seemingly fallen from the floral gods.
The Tournament of Roses Parade, now in its 130th year, on Jan. 1 will cruise 5.5 miles through the streets of Pasadena, California, on its way to the Rose Bowl. The event is televised by ABC, NBC, Hallmark Channel, and RFD-TV, and begins at 10 a.m. central. Besides the parade floats everyone has become so familiar with, with sponsors ranging from municipalities and international clubs to cruise lines to restaurant chains, the two-hour procession also features celebrity musical acts and specially invited marching bands to aid the lively event.
But how is small town florist from southwest Arkansas invited to decorate and design one of these monstrous parade floats? By asking Joslin herself, it’s due to years of building her skills and chasing dreams.
“I’ve been doing this since I was a teenager,” she said. “My aunt was a florist. She lived in Oklahoma City and came down and taught me the basics of floral design.”
Joslin for a decade owned Bridget’s Holiday Shoppe on Magnolia’s square then freelanced in Texas before opening her current downtown floral operation last year. In that span, she gained multiple floral design certifications, including a Louisiana Master Floral license in 1999, an Arkansas Master Floral license in 2002, a professional certified floral license in 2013, and a Certified Floral Designer certificate in 2018.
Her latest certification also may be the most important. After passing the Professional Floral Evaluation Design test in Washington D.C. earlier this year, she will be invited to join the American Institute of Floral Designers (AFID) in 2019 in Las Vegas.
“There are only 1,200 AFID florists worldwide,” Joslin said. “It’s hard to get. And once you get into AFID, these doors begin to open up for you.”
Of the 40 Tournament of Roses contest floats, each is sponsored by a corporate entity. Those sponsors then contract a float company to design and decorate their entry — and that’s where Joslin comes in.
She was notified of her selection as a designer and decorator in September. Joslin will be a member of the Fiesta Parade Floats team, which is tasked this year with retrofitting 13 parade entries, from the ground up, to compete against some of the most elaborate designs in the world.
“I was invited to be a part of their floral design team,” she said.
Completing the floats in such a short span of time is not left all to the designers. Thousands of volunteers aid the float companies as well.
“We design the floats from the sketches and we put the flowers on the floats,” Joslin added. “The designers lead the volunteers to help put the float together.”
Joslin, along with the 59 other floral designers, is considered a Tournament of Roses VIP. They are awarded a special red jacket, prime viewing spots during the parade itself to admire all of their hard work, and tickets to the Rose Bowl game, which is played just a few hours after the parade finishes.
While judging is ongoing for the floats, the designers are also able to co-mingle with any other VIPs or celebrities or corporate owners in attendance at the event.
“There’s really only a hand-selected few,” Joslin said.
The perks are worth it, considering the amount of labor sometimes involved in designing and fitting the elaborate floats.
“They say you can work up to 22 hours a day,” the designer added. “The floats must be ready, no matter what.”
The Magnolia florist has been assigned to aid in the design one of the 40 sponsored floats. She and her husband, David, also the co-owner of the Magnolia floral shop, leave for California on Dec. 26 and are set to return Jan. 3.
“It’s sort of a competition because we want our parade floats to win,” she said.
The invitation to the parade this year was not Joslin’s first. But with plenty of experience under her belt and a wiser perspective on life, she accepted.
“When you’re younger, you really don’t think as much about the excitement something like this can bring to other people as well as yourself,” she said. “Everywhere I go, everybody wants to talk about it— they want to know every detail. For a little town like Magnolia, I think this has become kind of a big deal.”
With the invitation to such a prestigious and well-known event, the design is in some ways the pinnacle of the floral industry. She said she is proof that big goals can be achieved.
“I want people to understand, that no matter where you’re from, that if you follow your heart and do what you love, you can go do anything,” she added.