I’m Marissa—a poet, educator, and floral designer.

My business, Garage Flowers, started the way it sounds: in a small, unlit garage, where I began experimenting with flowers the same way I approach writing—with curiosity, grit, and a drive to make something meaningful out of what’s in front of me. As I like to say, my florals were “made with love in a shitty garage.”

That spirit has stayed with me. I’m drawn to arrangements that feel alive and a little unexpected—pieces that hold both refinement and rough edges. To me, flowers are like language: fragments arranged into something fleeting and unforgettable.

My background spans poetry, teaching, editing, and music, but florals are another way I translate the natural world into form. I also work within community-based and culturally rooted spaces in Los Angeles, including SWANA events and markets, where food, flowers, and gathering often overlap. Those environments shape how I think about flowers—not just as objects, but as part of shared experience and presence.

I work on production and event florals (including weddings), weekly arrangements for homes and small businesses, custom designs, and memorial florals—each one crafted with care and made to feel distinctly yours. At the heart of it, every arrangement is made with love.