Presenting

10 Florist Spotlight April | 2023 Marie Danielle Vil-Young À Votre Service Events New York, N.Y. and Milltown, N.J. avsevent.com | avsflowers.com @avsevents T he winner of FR's May 2022 "Best in Blooms" design contest, Marie Danielle Vil-Young is an "accidental" yet fabulous floral designer and event planner, with an enthusiastic passion for the flower and wedding industries. Interestingly, prior to founding her flower and event planning business, À Votre Service Events, in 2008, Vil-Young worked as a research scientist cloning DNA and doing protein engineering (she holds Master of Science degrees in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Biochemistry); however, her true passion lies in planning, coordinating, and designing high-end weddings and events. Vil-Young's scientific background has complemented all aspects of her event work: She approaches event planning through a scientific lens, be it managing precisely when flowers will open or running numbers like the square-footage-per-guest count. She has been named one of the top wedding planners in the world by Harper's Bazaar and has been featured and quoted in countless newspapers and magazines. In 2021, she appeared on Clipped, a six-episode reality competition show that aired on HGTV and Discovery+ and featured seven designers creating larger-than-life, topiary-like living sculptures of meticulously trimmed shrubbery, plants and flowers. Martha Stewart was the head judge. FR : Tell us a bit about your former career and how you got started in flowers. MDVY: I began my professional career as a scientist doing research on the Human Genome Project, an international research project. Once that was completed, I worked for a private bio-pharmaceutical company, developing antibodies against various types of cancers. In 2008, I got married, and while planning my wedding, I discovered the wedding industry. I loved it so much that I started my wedding and event planning business immediately upon returning from a month long honeymoon to the wondrous islands of Hawaii. It wasn't until 2013 that I accidentally discovered my floral design talent—a "gift" I didn't know I possessed. My passion for flowers and plants feels like second nature. I have traveled to flower farms in various parts of the world to better develop my knowledge in flowers. And while my background as a scientist doesn't appear to have much to do with the wedding/event industry, I have leveraged aspects of it to help me better operate in that space and as a floral designer.

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