A PEMBROKE florist has been crowned the top of her trade in west Wales at a special wedding awards event held recently.

Quita Jenkins, of Flowers by Quita Jenkins, won the south west florist of the year title at the Welsh Wedding Awards 2018, held in Cardiff on February 19.

Quita, 34, of Lords Meadow View, began her love of floristry at the tender age of 12, working as a Saturday girl in her home town of Tenby.

She said: “I instantly fell in love with the job. By the age of 19 I had moved to Cardiff and opened up my own flower shop in Rumney, whilst here I gained a lot of experience both in floristry and business/management.”

After three years Quita made the decision to return to Pembrokeshire with husband Ben, as they were expecting their first child.

Returning to the county, Quita worked in a shop in Tenby for three years, before working in a local primary school, but her heart still lay in floristry.

So Quita set up her own business, working from home, and began to promote herself through social media.

Western Telegraph:

“I didn’t have a workplace for the first six months, I worked from my kitchen at home. As business picked up it got very hectic and I had to arrange to move my work and set up in our garage.”

Shortly after, Quita was honoured with a special request, to create a floral tribute for a relative of rugby star Samson Lee.

Western Telegraph:

“This became one of the biggest challenges of my career, I felt privi-leged to be trusted with such a request as I work alone; some of the tributes included a large pool table, a box of Maltesers and a family pet.”

Western Telegraph:

Quita, one of seven competing for the South West wedding awards title, was initially surprised to hear she was in the running.

“I just received the phone call one day to say I’d been shortlisted, I thought: ‘Really?,’ I’d got voted by my customers.

“It was the weirdest thing, I didn’t expect to be nominated, it was surreal really; I thought I was dreaming.”

Western Telegraph:

Quita was delighted to then go on and win at the glamourous event.

“I’m absolutely delighted to win. What they said is there’s an independent panel and I would be judged on the amount of votes I have.

“I had supporting evidence, with examples of work and screenshots of customer reviews.”

Western Telegraph:

Quita hopes her win will help a small business like hers.

“Hopefully it will boost the business but I’m quite happy ticking along the way I am, I love this business; just getting recognised as a small business, it’s hard to get recognised.

“Because I work for myself people can be put off by that; if you go to a big business people have that assurance of a big business on the high street.”