Botanica International Design Studio in Tampa helped set the stage this year for the prestigious Congressional Medal of Honor Convention.
On Saturday, October 26, 950 people gathered at the JW Marriott in downtown Tampa, Florida for the Congressional Medal of Honor Convention. Established in 1862, the Medal of Honor is the country’s highest military decoration awarded for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty.” Setting the scene for the celebration: Botanica International Design Studio, led by Ian Prosser, AAF, AIFD, PFCI, the 2019 recipient of the Society of American Florists’ Tommy Bright Award.
The studio created arrangements for 94 tables featuring a green and white palette that incorporated a variety of proteas, lotus pods, veronica, cymbidium orchids, anthurium, foxtail ferns, calathea leaves, monstera, alocasia and green hypericum berries. “The event planner designed the initial look, and then we made floral design suggestions based on her vision,” said creative director Zöe Gallina, AAF. “Because this event is bid on every year — just like the Super Bowl — she wanted to something indicative of the location, so our designs are inspired by Florida.”
The opportunity came about through a past client, Mark Van Trees, director of the nonprofit group Support Our Troops and chairman of the convention. “We did his daughter’s wedding 17 years ago,” Gallina said. “We saw him during set up and he said the day he got confirmation of the bid, the hotel was his first call and Ian was his second.”
Although Botanica has done a number of high-profile jobs, including the inaugurations of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, the team described last weekend’s work as “especially meaningful.”
“This event honored true heroes who fought for our country,” Prosser said. “Their stories were so moving, yet they remain so humble.”
“They don’t consider themselves heroes,” added Gallina, who was awe-struck by recipients’ stories, which she listened to during setup. “They just consider what they did as doing their job. Hearing that, while doing my ‘job,’ just made me speechless. It gave me a completely new level of appreciation for all our service members do. Most of us have no comprehension of what it’s like to wake up in the morning knowing we might have to sacrifice our life for others.”
Katie Hendrick Vincent is the senior contributing editor for the Society of American Florists.