Philadelphia wedding vendor spotlight series: Peicha Chang of Falls Flowers

Peicha is an awesome person with a really cool haircut! She’s one of my favorite Philadelphia florists- her designs really stand apart. I visited her at her shop in East Falls to chat about being a small business owner and I loved her honesty about how hard it can be. Check out my photos and interview with her below.

Get in touch with Falls Flowers through their website: (link) / Follow them on instagram – @fallsflowers

Hi Peicha!

How did you first decide to open Falls Flowers?

Before I came to Philly about 7 years ago I worked for a bigger floral company in Boston with high end corporate clients.

I knew I wanted to open my own business but I didn’t feel ready. My husband and I moved to Philly and we started a project renovating our home until we ran out of money. Then my dad said “Come work for me and I’ll pay you money!” And so I did and 6 months into it I was miserable.

I was visiting friends in Boston and I was having a break down and they said, “Well, what do you want to do?” And I said “I just want to open a shop.” And they said, “Then do it.”

We came back to Philly from Boston and my husband and I spent $5000 and built this little stall in the middle of the marketplace in East Falls.. We spent a year making no money and then the stall went out of business a year later. I thought I can either shut down and say I tried or I can figure out how to do this better.

We spent a couple months trying to figure out what to do and then we found this shop in East Falls and that was 6 years ago.

Take me back to when you first opened this shop. What were the first few days like?

Oh my god- you’re like “I’m going to show people! This is gonna be amazing! This is going to be great! I have this vision!”  And then you open up and you get like ten bucks of business the first day and then you get excited if you make $100 in a week and you stand around wondering why no one’s showing up.

And then you get a couple customers and they’re like ‘Why are your things so expensive?’ It was a lot of “I don’t know what I’m doing but if this is what I want I better figure stuff out.”

After the first year we were $20,000 in the hole but I decided to keep going- 6 years later we’re about to double in size- we’re opening a space that will be both a cafe and greenhouse and we’re about to go from 4 employees to 12 employees. We’ll have a gathering space so that we can host workshops and events. We’ll be rebranding with the new name Vault and Vine.

What do you love about working for yourself?

Primarily, the sense of community that having my own shop has created is what makes this crazy work worthwhile.  Most of the friends I have would never have happened without the business!  So, it boils down to community and connectedness.

I love having a business that gives me the opportunity to help others grow and develop as people. I’m motivated by responsibility, and nothing says “responsibility” like providing for others beyond my immediate family!

What do you like about working with couples on their wedding day?

I love connecting with couples and being able to bring their vision to life. I always get goosebumps when I deliver the flowers to my couples.

What do you love about Philadelphia?

One of the things we love the most about Philly is that its kind of unfinished and has so much potential. We came from Boston that’s so white collar and established and Philly has more space to build what you want instead of having to fit into what already is.