Family & Flower Power

Willrett Flower Company Is A Haven Of Heavenly Scents In Dekalb

By: Kelley White | Photos by: Mark Busch and courtesy of Willrett Flower Company

ith a passion for community support and entrepreneurship, sisters Mary Grace McCauley and Kat Willrett recently opened Willrett Flower Co. in downtown DeKalb.

“I think that community involvement has been really important to us because we are not from the area,” McCauley said. “We didn’t grow up in DeKalb, so we’re both transplants. We both grew up in Kansas. So, we’re both fairly new to the area and the store is new.”

The shop at 302 E. Lincoln Hwy. opened in September, and the sisters have focused on creating a space for people to connect over their gorgeous arrangements while providing opportunities to learn more about the floral craft.

“Some things that we’ve done to kind of encourage that is putting on lots of classes and workshops, so we have lots of floral design classes and holiday classes and things like that,” McCauley said. “We also like to host other local makers. So, we have candle pouring classes or watercolor classes, and other makers who maybe work out of their homes or don’t have available space can come in and set up a class in our studio.”

The shop also hosts classes like flower gardening, which are free and open to the public.

“We offer a lot of great classes, and we try to bring that educational value,” McCauley said. “We just did a cut flower gardening class that was free and open to the public. We also have a book club that meets monthly.”

The book club is a free event where the sisters encourage readers to be patrons at local bookstores and libraries.

Kat Willrett started her florist journey with a desire to own her own business. Willrett already was living in DeKalb

Willrett Flower Company

302 E. Lincoln Hwy., DeKalb 815-517-1576 willrettflowercompany.com about eight years ago when the seed of an idea started growing. She was working in medical sales, but she wanted to pursue her entrepreneurial ambition.

“My husband is an organic grain farmer. I was really passionate about organic farming and gardening, so I started learning about growing flowers and started with an acre of cut flowers,” Willrett said. The first thing she did with her new business was sell the colorful blooms at the DeKalb Farmers Market.

Willrett started selling flowers in 2015. What would eventually become Willrett Flower Co. quickly evolved from a farmers market stand to a wedding florist in Chicagoland. She maintained that business model until her sister moved to the area to assist and open the storefront.

“It was a full circle thing to have people come into the shop that actually first met me when I was selling Mason jars of flowers at the farmers market years ago,” Willrett said. “So, it was a long path to getting here. But eventually my sister and her family moved here, too. She was already pursuing floristry as well, alongside her corporate job. When she moved here, we decided to open the shop.”

When Willrett was first embarking on her business venture, McCauley and her family were living in Texas and Arkansas.

“I was working in various flower shops and just really honing my craft as a florist,” McCauley said. “So, I have been doing that for several years and really developing that strong retail background.”

When Willrett had a deluge of weddings booked in 2021, it spurred McCauley to move up to the area with her sister and help Willrett run her business.

“I moved up here to work together and run the business together, and that’s when we had the idea to go ahead and move forward with opening the store,” McCauley said. “It was just a really good fit for both of our backgrounds.”

In May 2021, the sisters began their search for the perfect brick-and-mortar location.

“It took us a long time to find the right space, so we were searching for almost a year,” McCauley said. “Then it was just kind of a stroke of luck. We were walking out of our attorney’s office right across the street from our current building and we saw the ‘for rent’ sign. And that’s how we ended up where we are today, which we love. We’re right in the heart of downtown.”

They chose a historical building bursting with character. McCauley said the duo loves having a corner shop.

“We have such a good view of downtown DeKalb,” she said. “We love having our outdoor space really decorated so people see us when they drive by or when they’re walking into El Jimador, so it’s just been a really, really fun, vibrant space to be in.”

The building required some work when they first moved in.

“The building was a little rough, at first,” McCauley said. “We have a wonderful landlord, and we have a great relationship with them. But it was the same business for a long time and there was a 30-year-old blue carpet, so it definitely needed a little bit of work.”

The space features floor-to-ceiling windows, a detail that isn’t missed among their foliage. “After we renovated it, it was basically a big blank canvas, which was perfect for us,” McCauley said. “Our goal when we opened the store is that we wanted it to feel just so bright and happy when you walked in. We wanted to just give you an instant hit of dopamine, so our shop is decorated really, really colorfully and we’re always changing our displays.”

The sisters have loved sharing their business with other female entrepreneurs in town, helping grow that community and support it while they expand their business.

“We have really had an opportunity to work with them to plan more events to help bring people downtown,” McCauley said. “So, that’s been a focus for us, to try and find that happy medium between doing something that is great for the business, but something that also brings a lot of value for the community as well.”

Willrett said they’re able to use their online presence to boost the community.

“We have a lot of social media followers that are not local to DeKalb, so it’s been a really fun opportunity for us to put out on our social media other events that are happening in downtown DeKalb, just kind of showcasing all the events and things like that to our audience that is a little bit wider and may not have known that those things existed.”

Nowadays, the cozy light-filled shop in DeKalb offers arrangements for delivery with a focus on unique, singular creations customers won’t find anywhere else.

“We are not just the traditional flower shop,” McCauley said. “We do have lots of unique offerings that are a little bit different from what you would expect to see when you enter a flower shop.”

Among their services is the popular stem bar, a space in the shop where customers can come in and build their own bouquet or “pick out a few stems” from a selection of flowers that is constantly rotating.

“We also have a really great selection of gifts and toys and items for the home that are always changing,” McCauley said. “We have a big focus on stocking indie brands, especially brands that are women-owned and have a totally unique story.”

Willrett Flower Co. only stocks the best quality of flowers, and they strive to create flower arrangements according to a color palette using as many locally grown blooms as they possibly can. This practice is part of their commitment to sustainability as well.

“We have a big focus on sustainability,” McCauley said. “We really focus on buying locally grown flowers – that’s a huge part of our business model. And that’s one thing that most people don’t know when they’re buying flowers. How much really goes into those flowers before they even reach the florist?”

According to McCauley, most flowers come from other countries before they reach the United States, including places like South America, Holland or Japan.

“A large carbon footprint comes with that and with the water that it takes to grow these flowers,” McCauley said. “Every mile that those flowers travel has an impact. They are also so much more beautiful from locally grown places as opposed to the wear and tear of shipping.”

The sisters of Willrett Flower Co. will continue to celebrate the community, helping sustain female business ownership and local commerce while giving folks the opportunity to take home their unique bouquets of beauty.