The art of floral designs with Ajja, our Florist

Welcome to a new episode of Sangu Stories!

This week, we are delighted to invite Ajja, our florist, to take you through the journey behind curating floral arrangements that add an extra touch to the beauty of the resort. This episode also explores Ajja's career, how she began in the communications industry and found her passion in the hospitality industry.

For any further information or assistance, please contact Aminath.Haadhee@ritzcarlton.com , Marketing Communications Manager.

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For more information about The Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands, visit our website

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Transcript

Mark Hehir: 0:01

Welcome back to Sangu Stories, today we will take you through behind-the-scenes with Ajja, our creative florist to share how she curates our floral arrangements and add an extra touch of beauty to our resort ambience. We also talked to Ajja about her career journey and how she began in communications industry and now she found her passion in the hospitality industry. Welcome today, Ajja. It's great to have you here.

Hawwa Ajfan: 0:30

Thank you, Mark. Thank you for having me here with you.

Mark Hehir: 0:33

As you know, we're delighted to speak to you about how you became what you are now and how you began your career in the industry. So I'm really interested to know more.

Hawwa Ajfan: 0:44

It's very unexpected. I would say I never thought I would be working in the tourism industry and especially being a girl in Maldives back then, it was very hard to convince our parents that I want to live by myself, away from home. It was a huge challenge.

Mark Hehir: 1:05

Yeah. That happens a lot over the generations that, um, girls have found hard to go off and work in islands and, uh, work in even in Male. Right. It's not been easy.

Hawwa Ajfan: 1:15

It definitely. Yeah. Um, I started, my career as a radio host after school and I went through journalism and being in that field in media and creative side, I was still not able to explore outer side. I was still in home and it was like, my parents wouldn't let me go out so much. So I had to find a way to get out. And then I found tourism industry. My first job was as a hostess in Vilamendhoo island resort. It was in 2012. And then after a year I moved to front office and staying in front office for two years. I decided I want to experience the luxury collections of the Maldives. And I wanted to work for the international brands. That's when I stepped into being a Butler, right. So I was a Butler for the past six years. However, um, I didn't want to leave the tourism industry, but in order to give my creative side a chance, the only way was to leave and go back home to start my creative field. Um, and then suddenly I saw that The Ritz-Carlton Maldives was hiring florist, and I did go through The Ritz-Carlton, Maldives, the concept and everything. And the first thing that was so interesting is the architecture, the design of the island as well, and how the floral concept of the island is as well. And I did not expect to get the job as well because being a Maldivian florist, um, we don't see a lot of Maldivian florists as well. Um, that's how, yeah. Okay.

Mark Hehir: 3:16

And, um, it's very ambitious of you to jump out of being, you know, Butler and then deciding, right. I'm going to give this a shot. What was it that really sort of inspired you to take the leap? Was there anything particular I just happened in your mind, like I'm going to do this.

Hawwa Ajfan: 3:34

I've always been this creative person. I've always been the designer in my friend's weddings or my family weddings. So we've always had that artistic projects in the family and between friends as well.

Mark Hehir: 3:51

So you could sense your personal passion and for your creative side, and you thought I've got confidence now to take the step.

Hawwa Ajfan: 3:59

Yeah. And also I got to work with a lot of big wedding planners in Maldives during the COVID pandemic break. Yeah. That'd be got at home. And it gave me a lot of confidence to work with flowers, to learn how their features, how their behaviors are, every flower is different and being in Maldives, it's a tropical country. It's pretty hard to get around with them as well.

Mark Hehir: 4:31

Yeah, it's a whole different approach here. So when we talk about that approach and that I would like you to share with our listeners and ourselves about the differentiation that you've done in the floral arrangements to create a distinct aesthetic for each location and settings, take us through that, how you did that.

Hawwa Ajfan: 4:51

When we were planning about the designs that we will have in each outlet, the Kerry Hill designs, we kept it in our mind and it really helped us as well. We were going through a more for a simplicity approach, to keep that simple, elegant look in our floral designs as well. At the same time, we wanted to give that exotic feeling to them- floral designs to so all the flowers that, we see around the island are tropical flowers. All the colors we chose, like in our Eau Bar, it's a lot of blue, green around that we see. And then, uh, what we place there is a orange flower, a bright orange flower in a very small bluish vase. So that gives out that bright colour out of very simple, but then it stands out a bit. So that's how

Mark Hehir: 6:02

Okay. And if you progress that conversation into the type of flowers that we used and we find in the resort today, could you take us through what they are?

Hawwa Ajfan: 6:12

We have a lot of flowers around the island as well. Um, we have one very common flower in the Maldives is hibiscus. We have different colours of hibiscus around the island. We have Japanese rose that, um, we will see when we are walking around, it's this very bright pink, very beautiful little tiny flower. We also have spider lilies. We have Jersey lilies around. The Jersey lilies are one of my personal favourites around the island. It blooms, they have a season it's we have this bright orange flower around. It's very pretty. And, um, we have also, um, one of the most common is the sea hibiscus that we have in Maldives. It's very common. It's very tiny white flower. So, yeah.

Mark Hehir: 7:06

Beautiful. And the other flowers that compliment the settings, um, where do we source those flowers from

Hawwa Ajfan: 7:13

Flowers come from all the way from Holland, when I say Holland everyone will be like, oh, that's very far away for flowers to be bringing to Maldives. However, it's Holland have one of the biggest floral markets. And also it's the main place where, um, flowers are brought, shipments are brought to Maldives. So all the florists that work in Maldives, all the flowers are brought from Holland. All the way.

Mark Hehir: 7:44

Right. They, they follow that direction. So if we take it into a bit deeper with the sustainability side of things, and it's definitely the heart of a lot of our activities in the programming of the resort, uh, I'd love for you to share with our listeners, the sustainable practices that you follow in your area.

Hawwa Ajfan: 8:03

Sustainability in floristry is a bit tricky, I would say. Yeah, but also there's a huge community of florists now, uh, practicing there to minimize the footprint on the environment that we impact as florist. Um, there's a florist, sustainable floristry community as well. Now, um, we discuss what we can do in order to reduce our footprints. So we, in The Ritz-Carlton Maldives, we are not going to be using any microplastic form, floral forms. Instead we are using biodegradable forms, these other ones that is in brown colour. Right. Um, but there's also an argument about the forms that it cannot completely be. Uh, yeah. But, but the other thing that we are careful is when we throw it out, not to mix it with our greens, that we have to make sure that we throw it in our general waste. And also the packing that we get from the flowers we are right now, working with our suppliers to make it happen, to change it to all paper packings. So we can minimise the use of plastics that we get onto the island as well. And on top of it, um, when we are doing this special occasion or special projects, for example, if you're using woods around to make sure that I also have researched some of the suppliers who use wood, that, uh, that are thrown away, like not to cut a tree to make a furniture

Mark Hehir: 9:56

So things are being repurposed.

Hawwa Ajfan: 9:59

Yes. So I'm being careful what I use if it's, uh, taken from where it's coming from. Yeah.

Mark Hehir: 10:06

I think that's, uh, for us in the island is our first step is to have all of our Ladies and Gentlemen have the thought of that and, be the friend of mine, so that the selection and always taking the most environmental selection first. And as you said, working back to suppliers to inform them that we have this focus in the company, focusing on elimination of single use plastic is a, is a big thing for us overall. And it's great to hear that that's active in the front of your mind and, you know, it's a journey. It will never be, you know, eliminated on a certain day. It's going to happen over time.

Hawwa Ajfan: 10:44

We are working as we go forward. Step-by-step yeah,

Mark Hehir: 10:51

Yeah, no, it's wonderful to share that with you. And we're so inspired to see a local young Maldivian ladies involved in our property in growing and inspiring other young girls that are listening to our podcast today to join, that, you know, are in Maldives thinking, what should I do? There's so many opportunities for ladies in Maldives to join our industry.

Hawwa Ajfan: 11:13

There is actually there's a lot, and I'm happy to see that we are giving Maldivians the ladies a lot more chance to be out here and experience. Yeah.

Mark Hehir: 11:25

Yeah. I think probably also what was most encouraging for me with our development of Fari islands was that this island that we live in the campus, um, is a great community in itself that can grow and nurture and be a safe place for ladies to live, you know, in a more, I guess, more, conducive environment. And we hope that that will continue to grow as well. So that's kind of a key focus for ownership and for management. So yeah, of course. Thank you for your time today.

Hawwa Ajfan: 12:00

Thank you for having me. It was lovely.

Mark Hehir: 12:02

And we'll, uh, yeah, we'll speak to you soon as we learn and grow more beautiful plants and flowers and uh, oh, one more thing. I know that Ony, who works with us in our works and handles all of the plants and landscaping around the island. Uh, we like to inspire her at the moment to build her nursery. And I think that nursery will be located in the middle of the island. That can then start another story for you to work with her about orchids and other plants that we would enjoy to have around the island. So I think watch this space. We might have a podcast in the nursery one day,

Hawwa Ajfan: 12:39

I am very excited for this, a ctually me and Ony we had a conversation about it. I'm very excited to see the orchid nursery coming up.

Mark Hehir: 12:46

Good. All right. Thank you. Welcome. Well, I hope you enjoyed today's podcast. Join me next time when we discover more about The Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari islands