Today we’d like to introduce you to Toni Sicola.
Hi Toni, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
The story begins with a succulent obsession in Alameda, California and ends with a multi-service weddings and events operation in Moab, UT. Back in 2017, I knew I was burnt on corporate life, but I didn’t know what was next. I quit my job with four ideas for how to make money. Becoming a wedding florist wasn’t one of them.
I started a corporate improv business with a friend, I began freelance writing, I worked on making my health and wellness blog profitable, and I began selling succulent arrangements.
My husband and I had a tiny property in Alameda, CA, and one of our favorite hobbies was gardening with succulents. Over the course of our time there, we overhauled the entire front and back yard from half-dead grass into a full dryscape completely packed with succulents. It was a labor of love, but I also saw opportunity once I started making gifts with cuttings from our yard. From there, I was at craft fairs selling my pieces, doing workshops, some home staging with live plants, and making gifts at Christmas time.
Then a friend asked me if I’d ever do a succulent wedding—she was engaged to be engaged and wanted me to do her flowers. I started experimenting, did her wedding and a few others, and the rest is history. I kept working on those other avenues, but eventually all but two fell away—succulents and freelance writing—and my business, Succulents for Hire, was born.
We moved to Moab post-pandemic after spending the spring of 2020 here by chance—we were here for a planned month-long vacation in March of 2020, and when my spring season fell apart because of the pandemic, we just stayed here for a while. By the end of April, we were talking to a real estate agent, and by November of 2020, we were pulling a U-Haul up to our new house in Moab. It was so sad to leave so many succulents behind, but the new homeowners have done their best to keep the dream alive.
Living and working in Moab has been quite the journey. The flower side of the business has shifted heavily toward fresh-cut flowers, although we did build a greenhouse as quickly as we possibly could after our move. That was an adventure all its own—greenhouse gardening in the desert is NOT the same as gardening outside in coastal California, and there were many, many casualties and many, many tears. But we finally dialed it in, and the succies are happier than ever. I only offer them to couples who really want them and who plan to replant them when they get home. I’m so much more precious about them now than I was when I started and they were plentiful.
The business has grown, and I rebranded to Tangled Sage Event Artistry in 2022. We expanded to offer event design, full-scale floral installation, a creative suite of rentals, custom signage, and music services. Two years ago, I finally accepted help in the form of an outstanding flower team after doing everything either by myself or with the help (and free labor) of my incredible husband for the first five years of the business.
I also have a five piece band called Toni and the Enablers, and we offer live music for weddings and private parties in Utah and in Western Colorado. We’ve mused about a summer tour up the Rocky Mountain Corridor, but I’m not sure when that will happen.
It might be cliche to say I’m living the dream, but it truly is a dream come true to be paying my mortgage and living my life doing creative work. I never thought that I’d be able to do this at this scale, and reach the level of success I’ve found. Best of all, the work I do is for people on their happiest days—my team and I get to share in celebrations of love with couples who have brought their most favorite people together in one place to party, enjoy each other, and basque in the insanely gorgeous landscape of southeast Utah—and that feels magical and special.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Three big hiccups come to mind right away.
I mentioned the greenhouse ‘adventure.’ That was a euphemism for ‘absolute rollercoaster.’ The extreme climate in Moab is really … well … extreme, and figuring out how to grow and care for succulents under these conditions was kind of a disaster. The summers are hot hot hot, and the winters can get pretty cold, at least when it comes to the needs of delicate plants that are full of water than can freeze and kill them. In our first Moab winter, we didn’t have the greenhouse yet, and we had our succulents in the garage under grow lights. Many of them molded and died. Who knew mold in the desert was a thing? Then, our first summer came, and the plants cooked in the greenhouse. It was devastating. We brought them all out to our back porch, where the ones that faced the sunset cooked all the same.
Also, in the Bay, the cold nights bring out succulents’ vibrant colors, but out here, those colors stay muted without a little help and strategy. I didn’t know that yet or how to fix it. The one and only time in over eight years of working weddings I ever had a bride unhappy with her bouquet was during this window when the succulents just weren’t as happy or as beautiful. It was such a blow. Luckily, after literal years of trial and error, I cracked the code, and we’re rolling now, even in the summer. The biggest challenge these days is keeping plant pests at bay, but that’s true of any garden anywhere.
The second big hiccup was shipping. I used to ship a lot when I first started my business—succulents do great in the mail, and the flowers I was using at first were all hardy or dried flowers that didn’t require refrigeration. But moving out to Moab changed that. The ship time is almost always longer than the post office says it will be, and I made a fatal mistake of shipping something priority that should have gone out as 2-day express. The bridesmaid flowers didn’t arrive until after the wedding, and it became a huge fiasco. I stopped offering shipping after that.
The third obstacle, which is both a positive and negative, is the seasonal nature of working in just about any industry in Moab. Our local economy depends heavily on tourism, and tourist seasons are Spring and Fall. The town all but clears out for winter, and summer is so hot that my husband I don’t really want to be here either. We have to make all our money for the whole year April-June, and September-November. It’s tough to make that work, and we’ve run into some issues along the way, especially since my husband started a business (Stargazer Social Club) in the same industry that runs for those same months. We’re still working on the best ways to account for these gaps, but neither of us would trade our work for anything else.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My gut answer to what I’m known for is COLOR, COLOR, COLOR. I started (but didn’t finish) school as a fine arts major, and I come from a long line of painters, crafters, and creatives, so color theory plays a role in everything I do. I think my creativity really sings when I work with bold color combinations, coupled with whimsical designs. I came up with a list of my favorite palette combinations and the names I use to describe them are:
– Sherbet tones—raspberry, fuchsia, lemon, and tangerine
– Botanical blends—burgundy, mustard, gold, chartreuse, dark leather brown
– Light and bright—soft periwinkle, lilac, dusty rose, apple green
– Jewel tones—emerald green, ruby pink, blue sapphire, amethyst, and deep garnet
– Valentine with a twist—saturated red, blush pink, dark burgundy, and very deep cool green
But I’ve also found unexpected joy and creative challenge doing white, neutral, and monochrome weddings. Last year, my seventh year in the business, was the first time I was ever asked to do a fully white wedding, and I absolutely loved it. That same bride had a tea ceremony, for which she wanted all bright red flowers. When you have monochromes like that, so many additional options to diversify your designs present themselves, and working that way enhanced my vision for everything I’ve done since.
Many Moab couples tend to be drawn to the colors of the desert landscape: terra cotta, tans and browns, golds, burgundy, and sage green. I’m also happy working in that palette, and I keep things interesting by introducing new textures and playing with design balance within the parameters the clients are looking for.
My favorite thing to hear is, “We trust you, do your thing.” I love a good Pinterest board and inspo pics, but if couples don’t have that, it’s just as fun to create from scratch.
It’s really hard to say what I’m most proud of. Event-wise, I’m incredibly proud of the first blended Indian wedding I worked on last spring. The couple didn’t want a Mandap at the ceremony‚ they loved my signature Juniper Tree Skeletons instead—a nod to nature and the great outdoors—so we dressed those up with Indian-inspired florals and brought that same vibe inside for the reception with four large hanging installs of garlands and greenery. I’m also really proud of that white wedding I mentioned before. We did a modular altar meadow with tall towers that framed the couple and brought all those pieces inside to punctuate the ends of the guest tables and add accents throughout the party after the ceremony was over.
This past spring we did a hanging install in which I created three-dimensional designs using gnarly walnut branches covered in florals and foliage. It was an engineering feat I spent a lot of time working on in the studio to perfect balance, shape, and composition. It was maybe the project I was most nervous about this year, and the couple was absolutely floored with the final result. The bride said she “spent the majority of dinner just awing over all of [my team’s] work with [her] husband.” Those kinds of reactions inspire so much gratitude that I get to do what I do.
Three things set Tangled Sage apart: the level of professionalism, the attention to detail, and constant creative growth. Couples who work with me regularly comment on my quick and thorough communication, the efficiency of our proposal process, the full-service experience (I like to give my couples the local’s inside scoop), and how easy it is to put their trust in me to make their day everything they’re hoping for.
My team’s attention to detail is unmatched. We overdeliver at every event, staying longer if we need to, offering a helping hand to the planning team if they need it, often bringing extra flowers and extra rentals, just in case something unexpected comes up that we need to solve for. I work with the best, and we provide the best, every single time.
Lastly, I’m always innovating. After each successful season, I invest money and time in floral trainings and experimentation so that I will have new techniques and ideas in my arsenal of offerings for my next batch of couples. I always do a handful of styled shoots or art shoots each year to test run new ideas and learn where things will and won’t work for a live event. This commitment to stretch, grow, and innovate give me and my team an edge above the competition.
What’s next?
My husband started a mobile bar and lounge business out of a 36-foot vintage school bus in 2022 and kicked off with his first wedding in the spring of 2023. The business is called Stargazer Social Club, and his services have already expanded to offer not only the bar and lounge inside the bus, but two other stand-alone satellite bars, a suite of furniture rentals, and lighting for the spaces around the bus.
Last year, we collaborated to develop an offering called the Stargazer Experience, in which our businesses combine forces to offer a virtually turnkey wedding experience for couples who want an out-of-the-box concept for their wedding of 100 people or fewer at a group campground or other public land in Moab.
We’ve already rolled out the concept for several couples, and 2026 is shaping up to be the biggest year yet for this offering. A huge goal for both of us is to continue to grow and expand this vision into a solid, consistent component of both of our businesses.
Services provided in the Stargazer Experience include:
– Wedding Coordination and Consultation
– Full Event Design
– Mobile Bar and Lounge
– Lighting
– Location Procurement and Permit Acquisition
– Rentals for ceremony and reception
– All Florals for ceremony and reception
– Music (DJ or Live Band)
– All Signage
– Mobile Restrooms, when needed
– Cake
The only vendors our Experience couples hire on their own are Catering and Photography, and we have our preferred vendor list to provide introductions if they need them.
We’re both so proud of what we’ve done together and the incredible parties we’ve already thrown, and we can’t wait to do more in 2026 and beyond. I’m incredibly bullish on this concept and look forward to seeing the idea take flight and gain national attention. There’s nothing like the Stargazer anywhere else in the US that we know of (and we’ve looked), and it’s just going to take getting it in front of the right audience for it to completely explode.
Pricing:
- Elopement floral starts at $450
- Full-Service floral starts at $4000
- Wedding band starts at $2500
- Event Design Services start at $1200
- Stargazer Experiences start at $10k
Contact Info:
- Website: https://tangledsage.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tangled_sage/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tangledsage
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/tangled_sage/
