When Karly Elbrecht began selling flowers from her grandfather’s 1984 El Camino two years ago, she never expected it to blossom into a full-time occupation.
Elbrecht owns Camino & Company, a floral shop with a floral design studio at 654 Logan St. in Noblesville. The business will hold a private celebration of its one-year anniversary in July.
“During our grand opening in 2023, we had a lot of small businesses come out and had a parking lot party with live music,” Elbrecht said. “Our anniversary party will be similar to that, but more of a celebration.”
Although the celebration will not be open to the public, the business is also preparing to launch a partnership this summer with Fabee’s Simple Farm, a family-run agribusiness in Cicero that specializes in growing cut flowers.
“We are launching the partnership this summer, but in July, we will have our first public event, which will be an experience where people can go to their farm,” Elbrecht said. “We’ll have workshops, experiences and events to offer the Hamilton County area.”
Camino & Company was started in May 2022 by Elbrecht in the 1984 El Camino that belongs to her grandfather, V.E. Witham, while Elbrecht was still working a corporate job.
“I had just met a flower farmer in October 2021, and we were both newer moms,” Elbrecht said. “We grew a friendship, and I went to one of her flower workshops. Late one night in April 2022, I messaged her and asked if she would ever want me to sell her flowers out of my grandpa’s El Camino. She said she was interested and had some other farmer friends who would be interested, too. So, in a nutshell, that’s how this started.”
Elbrecht’s grandfather has been her neighbor all her life. His El Camino inspired the business’s name.
“My grandfather and my grandma were always super involved in my life, so I feel like the Camino symbolizes them and the support they’ve given me,” Elbrecht said. “I’ve always wanted to be able to tie in my work with my family if the opportunity ever presented itself. When I asked if I could sell flowers out of it, he did not hesitate. That type of support is such a huge part of my life and what I hope to live out with my family.”
Since the company works with local flower farmers, it primarily sells what is in season.
“The most popular are peonies, then coming up, dahlias are usually our big end-of-summer and fall flower,” Elbrecht said. “We have a lot of fun things with dahlias coming up and offerings. With our partnership with Fabee’s Simple Farm, we will have more opportunities for people to see a lot of different dahlia varieties and build arrangements.”
Elbrecht started the business by selling flowers at farmers markets and pop-up events. In the beginning, she contacted the farmers she first partnered with and they supplied flowers for customers to build their own bouquets.
An Arcadia native, Elbrecht credits the annual Indiana Peony Festival in May in Noblesville for much of her success, as the event helped her business get noticed.
“The week that I decided to launch and put it on social media ended up being around the time of the Indiana Peony Festival,” Elbrecht said. “The festival gave a lot of traction that I wasn’t necessarily expecting. That is a week I’ll never forget because it was the first week of people asking about Camino & Co., and I was able to connect with various businesses. Throughout 2022, we just kept growing.”
After business grew rapidly, and as a mom to a toddler, Elbrecht left her job in sales enablement in May 2023, opened her storefront and began running Camino & Company full time. Now, the business primarily caters to weddings.
“About 75 percent of our business is now weddings, which I have been thankful and excited about,” Elbrecht said. “We hired our first hire, Maggie Books, in February, and she is our lead floral designer. My mom is also now the co-owner and COO of the company, and she handles the financials and strategic planning.
Elbrecht’s mother, Angie Witham-Dugdale, said it is a blessing to work so closely with her daughter, and she is focused on supporting Elbrecht’s continued growth and expansion.
“Camino & Company has evolved so much in this short year since the storefront, now a floral design studio, was launched a year ago,” Witham-Dugdale said. “It’ll be fun to reflect on all our adventures so far and share the dreams of those to come at our upcoming anniversary party.”
The storefront is a floral design studio. The business offers bouquet bars for weddings, corporate events, showers and parties, and private events. Elbretch still occasionally sells flowers out of the El Camino, including at the weekly Noblesville Farmers Market.
For more, visit camino-and-company.com.
AWARD-WINNING
Camino & Company was presented the “People’s Choice” award at last month’s Indiana Peony Festival in Noblesville.
“They had a number of floral designers do installations at the park for the event, and we ended up winning the vote,” Elbrecht said. “Our floral designer, Maggie Books, designed the installation.”
The company also had peonies painted on its storefront to honor the festival.
