About

ABOUT
TWO LITTLE BUDS

 Founded in 2004, Two Little Buds is a boutique floral design studio that specializes in wedding florals, event design, and editorial work. 

Our designs reflect our love of farm-fresh, local product and show the best that each season has to offer.
 Mindy Francis Staton is one of the owners of both Two Little Buds Florist, Morning Sun Flower Farm & The Farmer's Collective. Girl loves to spend her days with flowers! She has an unbelievable passion and appreciation for the beauty found in nature, and backs it up with the talent to bring her amazing visions to life (but don't bother asking her about how amazing she is—she's also the most humble, down-to-earth person you'll ever meet!). Mindy truly never forgets that, while she may have done thousands of weddings over the last decade, each couple only gets one wedding day—so each wedding is important, each couple is important, each flower is important. 

In 2015, Mindy was lucky enough to attend a workshop hosted by one of the nation's leading floral designers, Erin Benzakein of Floret, the 2014 Martha Stewart American Made winner for floral and event design. She came back to work with some big plans for her shop and her life! And thus, Morning Sun Flower Farm was born of a few sentences written, at that workshop, as a dream for her future. Since Mindy is the kind of dedicated person who gets things done, she convinced her husband to start a flower farm with her, and, in the spring of 2016 (less than a year later!!), the first perfect anemones were cut at her farm and brought to Two Little Buds to share with her incredibly lucky clients and customers. And the flowers didn't stop there! Soon the shop was brimming with her beautiful ranunculus, tulips, dahlias, sunflowers, zinnias, sweet peas, and more!

Mindy continues to grow and expand the farm, with fabulous plans to include a design space and a meeting area to sit down with clients. She manages to run two locations of Two Little Buds PLUS a flower farm, and still have the time to hang out with her best friend (spoiler: it's her husband) and their three hilariously goofy bulldogs. Mindy loves Chinese food, her mom, milkshakes, working outside, and facing challenges head-on. And her best quality in our book? She's never met a stranger and will literally do anything to help others!

Mindy has now opened The Farmer's Collective which features other local flower and produce farmers as well as local makers. The brick and mortar will be opening next to The Two Little Buds studio in the Fall of 2022.
 Alice Stone Francis, co-owner of Two Little Buds, was born and raised in Hamilton, Ohio, but has always had a connection to Oxford, where she lives now. She was super close to her parents, loving to cook and garden with her mom and joke around with her father. He was a great practical joker, including a time when he put a block of Limburger cheese in the trunk of her car right before she left for a date (um, gross!). Alice met her husband Bill when he came over to her at a softball game and handed her an apple, and how does a girl say no to that?? They went on to get married and have four amazing children. Alice worked as a school teacher while Bill served in the Army, and she also loved to go to craft fairs and sell wreaths that she handmade using flowers her father grew especially for her. Once her kids grew up and moved out, she started right into taking care of her grandkids! Then in 2005, Mindy and Alice started doing wedding florals out of Alice's greenhouse. Their work was so amazing that the demand grew too big for the greenhouse, and the Two Little Buds storefront in Hamilton was born! When you meet Alice, it's easy to see where Mindy got her willingness to help people, her love of animals, her appreciation of nature, and her creativity. Talent definitely runs in this family! She is the sweetest, most loving and loyal woman you could have the joy of meeting. Alice loves her family (she has a real soft spot for her grandkids!), white chocolate mochas, dogs, and keeping the rest of us at Two Little Buds current on her favorite Instagram accounts. If Pam the bulldog doesn't post for a few days, we all hear about it! She inherited her father's sense of humor, so she loves to joke around and tease her employees. And she literally wouldn't hurt a fly... and gets upset if she sees you hurt one! Alice loves all things pottery and you can find her ceramic flowers in the shop. You seriously want to meet this amazingly caring and talented woman!
 Josh Staton owns and operates Morning Sun Flower Farm with his wife, Mindy. How many guys do you know who, when their wife comes home with a somewhat crazy plan, would immediately be on board to start running a flower farm? But Josh is a hard worker who loves the outdoors, so he's basically perfect farm material! Josh is devoted and kind, and Mindy and Josh have learned that the couple who farms together, stays together. They are an awesome husband and wife team who truly loves and supports each other, no matter what. He loves to tend the flowers and plants while being kept company by their adorable bulldogs (p.s. if you're not following wrinklesfordays on Instagram, you're missing out!). Josh is a big fan of beer, as long as it's craft, and music, as long as it's good. He loves pizza and has a real sweet tooth... so now you know lots of ways to win over this farmer's heart!
 Ashley started helping out through a program with Fairfield High School, and we just knew we couldn't let her go once it ended. She always comes in smiling, would do anything for you, and is simply beautiful inside and out. She's so great that she's been Employee of the Month for the last 7+ months straight! Ashley loves pups, her family, and her boyfriend, but hates fruits and vegetables (unless in smoothie form!). She graduated from Ohio University in 2021, and has taken on the role of Creative Director for Two Little Buds & The Farmer's Collective! 
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