BLO OM WH ER E YOU A RE PLA N T ED WHAT DO UNUSUAL HOUSEPLANTS, SNARKY GIFTWARE, ARTISTIC CHAIRS AND A WEDDING EXPO HAVE IN COMMON? ASHLEY GREEN.
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BY EMILY BERTRAM // PHOTOGRAPHY BY SWITCHBOARD
few years into owning her business, Ashley Green was having coffee with a colleague who remarked, “I think some small businesses are hobbies that got out of control,” followed by a pointed look around Green’s shop. She laughs about it now, acknowledging that, “Yeah, I do kind of feel that way. But I actually do good business!” Hobbies or not, Ashley Green, owner of Green Thumb Etc. and The Love Story Wedding Show, has made a name for herself in the floral, furniture, gift shop and wedding businesses. While she admits that she wasn’t always sure where her path would take her, she’s pretty happy with where she has ended up. “I love doing floral, I love doing furniture, and I absolutely love shopping for ridiculous, crazy stuff,” Green said.
BUDDING CURIOSITY The oldest of three sisters, Green grew up in Duluth, Minn. “My grandma had a bait shop, and my mom had a daycare, so running a business has always been in my life,” Green said. They relocated to St. Cloud the summer after her sophomore year of high school, when her mom fell in love with an inmate at the Correctional Facility in St. Cloud. They moved in with his family at first, and then in with him when he got out of prison. “It was kind of chaotic and all over the place,” Green said. When she found out she was pregnant the summer following her junior year of high school, Green was able to condense her senior year down to two trimesters and graduate in March of 2006. “There was no expectation of, ‘you better graduate or else,’ so I kind of thought I never would,” Green said. She gave birth to her son Jakob two-and-a-half weeks later. “I also never really thought I would be a mom,” Green said. “But I had to