Community Business Profile: Sarah Cioni, Belle Terre Floral

Pun intended: love between Belle Terre Floral and the Niwot community has blossomed since the business opened in 2021. What many don't know, however, is the story of owner Sarah Cioni, who is one of the best floral designers in the region and has maintained a deep love for the area and the town.

Her background as an area florist began a little more than two decades ago, coinciding with one of the most striking moments in our nation's history. "In 2001, I decided it was time to open my first shop," recalled Cioni. "I was a newly divorced mom of a 7 and 9 year-old, and somehow I decided it was a great time to be self employed."

Cioni made plans to open her store in Old Town Niwot on Sept. 15, 2001, calling the store, "The Painted Primrose." Four days before she was going to put out the welcome mat, planes struck the World Trade Center. The effects unexpectedly impacted her fledgling business and caused her to doubt herself.

"In the beginning, no one showed up," Cioni recalled. "I was hearing a voice in my head, my former mother-in-law's voice, saying that I had to sell things that people needed, like gasoline and groceries. But that wasn't anything I had a passion for. I wanted to sell pretty things. Lovely things like French soaps and perfumes. So I bought a flower cooler because I thought it would be fun to sell tulips on Fridays. I put that in the corner of my shop."

Some of her first customers were also influenced by the country's tragedy and also by the general difficulties of life. Two early customers talked to her about the loss they experienced from the Twin Towers, and then proceeded to purchase something meaningful to them.

Cioni recalls her first job as a wedding florist when the mother of a groom asked Cioni to fill in for the wedding florist who was sick. Cioni completed the job and hung a photo of the bride with her bouquet in her store.

That first job and photo led to more business, including a family wedding, and then a call for the husband's funeral two weeks later, for the couple's baby naming ceremony, and then shortly thereafter, for the bride's mother who passed away. "With that client, I became a florist. And I realized that being a florist wasn't just about putting pretty flowers in a vase. It was about celebrating the circle of life," said Cioni.

After that, she saw growing success as a florist, working on two or three weddings a year. But expenses outpaced what she earned, challenging her to the core. She lost her house, her car, experienced bankruptcy and got sick. She wound up seeking help from a homeopath. After crying in his office about feeling like a failure, she received life changing and hope-giving advice: "He looked at me and said, 'Dream it again.'"

Cioni started the next chapter of her life working for a flower shop in Boulder as an assistant manager, and then worked for Sturz and Copeland, ultimately as a lead designer with seven people working under her. With her confidence re-emerging, she rented space for a floral shop from a pastry chef friend who had connections in the wedding industry.

The first year she did over 25 weddings, which grew to more than 75 weddings two years later. Finding a much-needed larger space to work out of wasn't easy. One property manager hung up on her, but she convinced the property's owner to give her a chance. "He told me he believed in me, and I rented from him for three years," she said.

Ultimately, Cioni chose to move back to Niwot, renting the space currently housing Inkberry Books. A contact who had been keeping an eye on her career, gave her enough business to quickly outgrow that space, move into the space now occupied by Rackd and service 165 weddings a year.

But a terminal diagnosis for her brother in California caused Cioni to make the decision to sell her business and move to L.A. She sold The Painted Primrose to an untested, smart and eager 21 year-old who grew it further. "When she interviewed with me, she had a mom that believed in her. I knew she wasn't going to fail. She grew the Painted Primrose into a bit of an empire."

In L.A., Cioni began to work on high-profile celebrity weddings, photo shoots and work at the film industry's award parties. Her work was complete with helicopter monitoring, Kardashian shoots against a flower wall, and having her work featured in national magazines.

When Covid hit, everything slowed down. Unable to do her work or see her brother due to fears of him getting sicker, Cioni returned to her roots in Niwot. Her brother and mother and favorite uncle died after she returned.

"I lost three people in six weeks. I didn't know what to do with all that grief. What I was going to do with my life," said Cioni. "Then I realized I'm going to do what I know how to do. I'm going to 'dream it again.'"

At that point, Cioni developed Belle Terre Floral and began serving the community again through her flowers and gifts. She serves as a core part of the Niwot Retail Committee, on the Niwot Business Association Executive Board, and on the LID Advisory Committee. In these roles, she works to put her knowledge of the town to use, and to help others not only avoid failure, but to succeed.

But Cioni still wonders why her life had turned out the way it did. "How could I go from a five-year-old who knew what I wanted, to finding it all and losing it all. And then with the permission of one man who told me to dream, to gain it all again, and with another who told me he believed in me, to go to Hollywood. And I realized it was just to tell a story. A story about inspiring others to not give up. To just keep going. Because you have no idea what the next chapter brings."