Courageous Motherhood & Nurturing Creativity with Floristry Duo ‘The Sisters’
Say hello to Esther & Naomi, aka The Sisters, sought-after florists and all-round brilliant creative souls.
Esther (33) and Naomi (36) were raised in a deeply loving European culture, where handpicked flowers from their mother’s garden were packaged up as gifts and graced their dinner table every night.
Over the years their passion for flowers has led the pair to work with global brands and publications, using their craft to create intricate bouquets and extraordinary installs for weddings and events all across NSW.
With over 30 years experience in the flower business together The Sisters now run their business from their beautiful homes.
Naomi works from her studio nestled in the south of Sydney while raising her children Luna (7), Sol (5), and River (3). Esther, mother to Seve (3) and Suki (1), works from her studio located in the sleepy beachside town of Narrawallee, beside her guesthouse Porter Place — a captivating and peaceful space that lulls you to sleep with the sound of the ocean across the road. Despite having studios in different locations, they are often found together, still creating floral wonder for clients near and far.
We caught up with them at Esther's house recently, and we knew this was an interview of courageous motherhood and nurturing creativity you’d love.
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My friends describe me as…
E: I asked a friend and she said: “A breath of fresh air. Warm. Like summer sunshine. Effortlessly creative.. Fiercely caring. The perfect amount of cheeky. A smile so infectious. A “feel good person whom you say goodbye to feeling better then when you said hello” — I’m not tearing up at all!
N: To be totally honest, I’m not entirely sure! Loyal? Kind?
Our childhood was…
E: Spent playing in the bush.
N: Simple. Mum stayed at home and was the biggest facilitator of simple joy and play. Something we definitely aspire to!
My sister is…
E: She is my motherhood muse, my business partner and my closest friend.
N: Growing up Esther was my built-in best friend. We come from a family of 5, we were the two youngest, so we were named “The Little Girls”. We always shared a room and also shared a lot of the same friends. We have journeyed just about every season together. It’s a bond that is forever.
Collaboration means…
E: Something fun but I’m picky when it comes to letting someone else into my creating space!
N: Ideas, fun, dreams….the best collaborations are full of humility and no ego, just pure joy in linking ideas!
We fell in love with flowers when…
E: It’s in the blood! We are Dutch born and bred. Flowers were always in the garden and on the table. Handpicked and gifted to friends and foraged from the bush for the Christmas table. When Naomi got into floristry first, I knew we would do something creative together so I was more than happy to jump right on in. My love for flora grew from there. I was obsessed with plants and nature so dabbled in horticulture studies and now also help run a food and green waste not-for-profit. We divert food and green waste from landfill and compost it. I adore looking after our earth, growing our own food and getting to create with its beauty.
N: I was in year 10, and did work experience in Bathurst, where we were living at the time. I loved meeting the locals, going out to rural properties and delivering flowers and I just knew I didn’t want to work in an office job.
When I left school I pursued floristry at Tafe and got a job at a local florist. I just loved it. But the real fun started when Es and I had the opportunity 6 years in to buy the floristry business where I was working.
The Sisters is…
E: The Sisters is what we were known as for so long, so it made sense to call our floral creative venture just that.
N: Our flower business! After a few years working in the retail space the business started to grow. We were doing lots of events and weddings and we could see that events had limitless creativity. We decided to split the business into two — with the floral retail space going to its original name, Engadine Florist — and our events business took the name The Sisters.
We ended up selling the retail space when my daughter was born and The Sisters has been the source of so much creativity and fun for us both!
Favourite flower is…
E: Oncidium Tsiku Marguerite. It’s a tiny vanilla smelling oncinium orchid and it’s heavenly!
N: Orchids for sure. The colours are wow and I love how they are all so different.
Installations or bouquet?
E: Ohh I love an install.
N: Install — the ideas are limitless!
When we began business together we…
E: Really didn’t know enough about business to know how much risk was involved, haha! We learnt everything on the go and made small and big mistakes.
N: We we’re so eager to succeed. We were also really young (18 and 21)! We took lots of risks and really pushed the boundaries as much as we could. It sounds silly now, but back then we just made all our decisions based on our gut and what we loved. At one point we got rid of coloured paper to wrap all our flowers and decided to go with brown paper. We had some customers who loved it and some that didn’t get it but that was our first lesson in going with our gut. We wanted to show our customers what is possible. We also learned very quickly that not every person was our customer!
We learned that it wasn’t all creative either. We realised that bookwork and back end is a really important part of business and also not our strength so we got a great accountant to help!
“We took lots of risks and pushed the boundaries as well as we could.”
Now we…
E: Run it without a second thought, from planning to ordering to creating. Event floristry comes so easy to us. We often get told how quick we work but when we have a vision it’s so second nature. If we don’t lean into it and we start thinking about what we are doing too much and that’s when doubt creeps in and creating becomes work.
Motherhood means…
E: Surrender. But a good surrender — like a surrender that breaks you and yet has meaning, purpose and is fulfilling at the same time.
N: Understanding, unconditional love, sacrifice. Ultimately doing what I feel I was made to do.
Giving birth to my children was…
E: I recently reflected on sharing my birth stories, and I decided that I am going to keep them in my pocket as a secret moment that was shared with my husband and I.
N: For me it was different for each baby!
Luna was controlled and the best first experience! Induction, epidural (which only half worked) and delivery was quite quick. My husband Nick stayed while I was in hospital, so it was all the lovely things!
Sol was wild and an out of body experience. He came quick. At the time the ward was crazy busy so I did most of the labor on my own. I had to have surgery after he was born and Nick couldn’t stay because he was looking after Luna. I found the difference between the two experiences wild and found those few days in hospital SO hard. I just needed to be home, with my family and our normal routine.
River, by default from my experience with Sol, was my most “organised”. I went private this time, chasing the experience I had with Luna, thinking that by paying bigger hospital bills, I could control that. (Oh boy!)
I was induced and had an epidural, like Luna it only half worked. I was in labour for over 24 hours before making the call to have an emergency c-section. This was during the the second (Australian) covid lockdown so that whole time was so strange. We had no visitors and two littles at home.
I look back and think that Luna’s birth was my favourite because I had no expectations, and really just went along with it. I wish I had done the same with Sol and River — that radical acceptance of whatever will be, will be!
Must have food while pregnant…
E: Pregnancy is the pits for me, my motto is anything that can get me through the moment. Consistently though, cheeseburgers and mandarins are yet to let me down!
N: Strawberry milk… only for the first 20 weeks, while I had morning sickness! Oh and cornflakes and super cold milk.
Favourite item I took to the birthing suite…
E: My voice! I think the midwives find me a little confronting at times. I wanted to know facts not to be told I’m doing well… haha.
N: A little purse with lip balm, AirPods… within arms reach always!
One word to describe being a mum while running a creative business …
E: Tricky at times! My husband works away on the weekends so for me the juggle is huge to organise kids, and everything they need as well as working. There isn’t room for error so I do wear that stress and often the family feels it. I have taken on a lot less work while I’m in baby land just because it can be taxing to the family. I still need to create, it just looks a little different in the baby season.
N: Chaotic.
Returning to work after giving birth was…
E: My last baby was 5 weeks old when I was back to doing bouquets for a wedding. Little dumpling slept in the corner. I booked the wedding before I knew I was pregnant so the show must go on! And I had a few events in the months following her birth. It was a lot and not something I would race to do again. When you have a second child, time seems to go so much faster. I remember treasuring the night feeds so much because I had time to look at and enjoy her.
When it comes to work I really like to be professional and it felt super unprofessional bringing a newborn to a wedding set up. I felt quite panicky, if I’m honest. I felt like I had to do better than usual because people thought I was juggling and I wanted to prove them wrong. Me and my husband don’t have a big family support network so often he would drive around with them in the car while I worked and he would call me when I was needed.
It’s a big commitment and I felt it deeply. It was unfair to put such a weight on myself because the family unit is what paid the price. That’s not something I’m willing to sacrifice. This year we decided that I would only take on 4 or so weddings and I’ve stuck to that and it’s really worked for our family in this season!
N: I found the juggle easy when Luna was born, mainly because Esther didn’t have kids yet, so she picked up the slack, and my husband was always amazing taking her while I was working events on weekends. The real struggle was when my second Sol was born, trying to keep up with the pace of the business with two kids was really hard.
I really wanted to prove that you can do it all, but in trying to do that it was taking all the joy and creativity out of my work. I honestly didn’t feel like I was nailing being a mum either. Somewhere in that time I learned about acceptance. I realised I was in complete denial about being able to do it all, keep the career steaming along, staying creative, being a good mum rather than accepting that my season was changing. It was time to make some changes for the sake of my mind and also for my family.
So I learned to surrender the work for a season, taking on only what I could do, not always what I wanted to do. It left me feeling a bit lost. I feel like this happens with a lot of mothers. But there is a season of rebuilding. Like in that season of babies, and pregnancies and juggling I felt like I also was being reborn. I learned that my identity wasn’t in how many events were in the calendar. I discovered that creativity is also in the mundane, in the simple kids bits, and that ultimately what is for you, is yours. So waiting out that crazy season feels right to me. Knowing that time will circle back when I can indulge in my work again and that one day I won’t need to be pumping breast milk to get out the door for work.
I wish I knew…
E: How to not mess my kids up! Biggest fear would be that fast forward 20 years they are in therapy talking about how I parented! I spend time in therapy trying to make sure they don’t spend time in therapy! I hope it counts for something!
N: Women who look like they are nailing all the things, have help! Also to take the pressure off yourself, work out what are the non-negotiables, ask for help, outsource if you can and spend the time doing the things that are the most important!
“So I learned to surrender the work for a season, taking on only what I could do, not always what I wanted to do. It left me feeling a bit lost. I feel like this happens with a lot of mothers.”
“I discovered that creativity is also in the mundane.”
Being a Maker is…
E: So fun! It’s a space where I thrive and I am very driven.
N: Constantly looking for inspiration in everything! The kitchen table with its little vignette or how you fold the towels or the way you pickup a leaf for the colour.
Porter Place is…
E: Our hospitality. My Dutch culture is hospitable, well designed tidy spaces, homes that make you feel at home. My husband, Jack’s Aboriginal culture is earthy and bringing the outdoors in with art and texture. Porters Place was our creative project and to see it come together so well really felt like a baby birth for us. We have been talking and dreaming this space up for so many years. Jack took on so much of the physical work for it. He would pick up my crazy Marketplace finds and not question my creative plans. I spent so much time planning and designing every inch of it. It was a big labour of love. It was completed 5 weeks before our second was born. We reached the end of the project barely standing. I was a wreck and Jack was holding us all together haha! What creative reno project doesn’t leave you like that though? Only the ones when you know you’ve given your all!
One thing my mother taught me that I want to pass on to my children…
E: Her love for Jesus is always first. She prays for us everyday and I don’t doubt that she really does. I want to be like that.
N: Beauty is everywhere. Mum always has handpicked flowers on the table and would light the candles when we ate a meal. She holds space. I’ve always loved that and I do it for my kids now.
The future is …
E: Bright! We love tinkering away in our little South Coast home, project by project, running across the road to dip in the ocean or surf and running around after our little ones. Being there to teach them all about this wonderful world. What a pleasure it is to be a mum, a wife, a friend and a creative.
N: Putting more time into The Sisters and setting up my home studio properly (which I am dying to do) and seeing what God has for us. I’m smiling at the prospect!
