You don’t have to walk the red carpet runway to receive star treatment at an event decorated by Charleston Charm Paper Flowers. With ingenuity and artistry, entrepreneur Simone Simmons, who founded the company in 2018, creates memorable, photographic events for her customers. Whether it’s a baby shower, bridal shower, wedding or birthday party, Simmons handcrafts paper flowers into many different arrangements for an unforgettable backdrop to your event.
Forget templates, cookie-cutter Cricut flowers and fragile tissue paper designs; Simmons wows her customers with handmade flowers of exceptional quality. Each petal is meticulously cut by hand from card stock, and the flowers can be reused as permanent home décor when the party is over. Just as in nature, each petal on each paper flower is unique due to the custom crafting process. Simmons elevates the design of paper flowers to an art as she crafts entire walls—a cascading waterfall of botanicals as a party backdrop and photo booths for party-goers—in addition to paper flower bouquets and centerpieces.
Through meticulous research, Simmons discovered what types of paper can be cut and folded to last the longest, even in inclement weather. Learning origami techniques helped her perfect the design of each flower she creates. Customers enjoy all types of flowers, designs and colors as she creates each novel piece of art.
Simmons’ path to becoming an artist and entrepreneur is full of serendipitous twists. After earning a studio art degree and a master’s in marriage and family therapy, she began providing therapy for children. While she was working in the therapy field, her friend sent her an Instagram photo of some paper flower designs she saw and asked her to put some of her artistic skills to use by creating a display for an upcoming party. “I have always created for the people in my life, so my friend assumed I could do what she wanted,” Simmons says. She accepted the challenge and began researching the best ways to cut and craft the origami-inspired flowers in the photos. When she attended her friend’s party, she booked five events that same evening from others who wanted her paper flower designs for their events.
It was a nice side hustle until 2020 threw Simmons another curve ball, and her therapy practice suddenly came to a halt. Her pandemic pivot came in the form of a full-time business designing and installing paper flower displays for small, intimate events. Today, she also designs permanent flower installations as home décor, such as nursery wall displays, and for commercial installations such as in salons. She receives requests for increasingly larger projects. “My ultimate goal is to design a permanent installation for a hotel,” she says.
Customer Sheena Hudson uses Charleston Charm Paper Flowers to create backdrops so she can photograph the memories of her children’s lives. Simmons created displays for a baby shower, Hudson’s daughter’s first and second birthday parties, and soon for her son’s graduation brunch. “I constantly call on her for any event I’m hosting at my house,” Hudson says. “It’s rare to find someone who really enjoys what they do, and it shows through her work and her attitude.”
“It’s a creative process and one in which I invest a lot of time and effort,” Simmons says. “The goal for every project is a picturesque and lavish design that helps my customers create a lasting memory.”
Ashley Thomas, executive director of The Hive Community Circle, agrees, saying, “Simone took the vision we had for our Annual Survivors Summit and brought it together in a way that was beautiful.” From floral backdrops to table centerpieces that incorporated words of affirmation within the bouquets, Thomas says Simmons perfectly captured the messaging of the event with her designs.
Dana W. Todd is a professional writer specializing in interior design, real estate, luxury homebuilding, landscape design, architecture and art.
