Bio & Experience

I am a native New Yorker from the Upper West Side. My family (husband Chris, our daughter Sam and Layla (the Boxador)) moved to Uptown Minnapolis in 2022. We left New York City, seeking a better quality of life and work/life balance. We’ve found it.

So, who’s Giselle you ask? Well, it’s my middle name and, when I was trying to come up with a business name, it sounded a hell-of-a lot better than “Designs by Big Al”.

I began my floral education at the New York Flower School in 2017, after a carreer in intellectual property law. Before the Pandemic, I interned and/or freelanced with Belle Fleurs, Designs by Ahn, L’Atelier Rouge, Surroundings and Swoop in New York City.

I’ve done extensive installation, wedding and event work at many of the city’s iconic venues. I’ve provided weekly arrangementss for restaurants and law firms. Some of the many venues I’ve serviced are: 583 Park Avenue, Cipriani 42nd Street, Cipriani Wall Street, Lafayette Grand Café & Bakery, Carbone, The Grille, Sadelle’s, The Mandarin Oriental, Prospect Park Boathouse, The Loeb Boathouse Central Park, The Bowery Hotel, The Colony Club, The Lotus Club, The Metropolitan Club, The American Museum of Natural History, The New York Historical Society, The New York Public Library, The Plaza Hotel, The Rainbow Room, The River Club, The Weylin, Seyfarth Shaw LLP and Tribeca 360.

I’m passionate about design and love working with clients to help them achieve their design goals. I am totally to themes of all kinds. I cook a lot, love wine, am a dancing fool and dig getting into a boxing ring. I am goal-focused and driven. I also play well with others in the sand box.

On the more mundane side . . . I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, cum laude, with a B.A. in East Asian Studies and also from Washington University in St. Louis Law School, where I received my J.D. I’ve lived in both Europe and Asia and speak French, German and Mandarin.