South Shields florist who launched during lockdown and went on to serve celebrities opens shop after business blooms

Residents of Whiteleas have welcome new florist ‘Stems Exclusive’ to the area as the shop officially celebrated its grand opening.

The new florist has been set up by Rachael McKeith with the help of her partner Omar Ames, bringing bespoke flowers, funeral tributes and wedding bouquets to the community.

The idea for the new florist stemmed from lockdown when Rachel who runs events company One Stop Events was out of work due to the pandemic.

As she was self-employed, she needed to act fast to make some income. A client asked if she’d be able to provide some sympathy flowers and rearranged some supermarket flowers into her own bouquet.

She said: “I shared this on my One Stop Events group and the customers went crazy. I then quickly found a wholesaler and found an online floristry course I could do from home. I was supplying flowers all over the North East even quite a few celebrities (including Little Mix’s Jade Thirwall and Geordie Shore star Charlotte Crosby) ordered flowers.”

As a qualified florist and experience of running an events company she was then able to provide decor and flowers for wedding days as the world started to return to normal.

As lockdown restrictions lifted, Rachel’s partner Omar also took up a floristry course and has now too gained a qualification in floristry. Omar will now run this along side his business Five Star Events which supplies event hire equipment.

With the pair both experienced in events and newly gained floristry qualifications, Rachel and Omar joined forces to launch Stems Exclusive. As well as flowers Rachel will still also provide balloons which she had built up a reputation for.

She added: The feedback has been amazing and after five long months we finally open our doors with our local mayors support.“We think it’s going to be an amazing asset to the area and can’t wait to meet the locals.”

South Tyneside Mayor Pat Hay and Mayoress Jean Copp attended the shop based at 168a Whiteleas Way to cut the ribbon for its official opening.

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