aaron vanderyacht

Big Flower Fight Judge Kristen Griffith-VanderYacht Wants to Get Back to the Dome

"It feels like you're stepping into the Secret Garden, " he says.

• On the show, teams of floral designers are challenged to create elaborate structures made of plants.
• In an interview with OprahMag.com, Griffith-VanderYacht opened up his career, the show, and what he really thinks of the contestants stealing flowers.

Mary Berry. Ru Paul . Simon Cowell. When it comes to reality competition shows, the judges, with their idiosyncratic personalities and catch-phrases, are as important as the talent. As judge of The Big Flower Figh t on Netflix, acclaimed florist Kristen Griffith-VanderYacht, 36, joins that lauded set—but only he knows how to construct a giant recreation of a miniature Schnauzer, made entirely of long grasses (watch the episode "Huge Hairy Beasts " to see the installation in all its glory).

"It's more than just shoving flowers into a vase," Griffith-VanderYacht, the owner of Seattle's Wild Bloom Florals , whose arrangements have been featured in celebrity weddings and on magazine covers, tells OprahMag.com of The Big Flower Fight .

That's an understatement. On The Big Flower Fight , 10 teams of two are challenged to create elaborate floral installations, ranging from life-size couture dresses made of cut flowers to super-sized insects crafted with living plants. Along with a guest judge, Griffith-VanderYacht crowns one winning team, and eliminates another.

Griffith-VanderYacht's involvement with The Big Flower Fight started with an Instagram DM. "It was probably the most nontraditional route a person could take to getting on television," Griffith-VanderYacht jokes.

The Seattle native was dropping his baby son off at daycare when he got a message on Instagram about a mysterious TV project. Griffith-Vanderyacht pulled into a Starbucks parking lot, "because they have that good WiFi, and you can't mess around with WiFi," and had a 10-minute video call with strangers.

"I didn't even know what I was auditioning for. Then I heard back maybe two weeks later, they're like, 'Okay, we would like you for this project.' And I was like, "Well, what's the project?" And they're like, 'It's for Netflix.' And then my wig blew off," Griffith-VanderYacht says.

While The Big Flower Fight came out of nowhere, Griffith-VanderYacht has been "planting the seeds" (sorry!) for a similar opportunity for years, thanks to his illustrious career in the floral industry.

According to Wild Bloom Floral's website , Griffth-VanderYacht's flowers have been in major publications across the US, including Martha Stewart Weddings , Traditional Home Magazine , and The Knot , and seen on Good Morning America and E! . His flowers for actress Julianne Hough's wedding were featured on the front cover of People .

Wild Bloom Floral is the culmination of Griffith-VanderYacht's lifelong love of flowers. Growing up in Detroit, he spent summers tending to his mother's garden in their large backyard. "I was like, yes, this is amazing! I get to play in the dirt, and pull stuff out. Little did I know it was manual labor," he says with a laugh.

While gardening, Griffith-VanderYacht says he feels "rooted in something very true to [himself]." In 2011, Griffith-VanderYacht took steps to turn his lifelong hobby into a career. "I had never really known anything about the professional side of floristry. So, I allowed myself to really just get into it and observe and read and research and play. That was probably the biggest gift I could have given myself... the opportunity to play with flowers, because through that, I discovered my own voice," he says.

As a judge, Griffith-VanderYacht hopes to be an example for other aspiring florists, especially those of color.

"I want it to be a really good representation, not just on the show, but in my everyday life, of Black excellence, and what it means to be a person of color that other little kids can look up to and say, 'Wow, I didn't know that it could be cool to be a florist!' I didn't get to have that as a little kid. It was something that I had to discover," he says.

There's one child that Griffith-VanderYacht thinks of, especially: His son Hugo, whom Griffith-VanderYacht and his husband, Aaron, adopted back in June 2019 .

"I take that role incredibly seriously, not only for myself, but also for my son. He has the rare and very singular opportunity to grow up having two parents of very different races and very different cultural backgrounds. And so I want him to experience and understand the richness and the dichotomy of both of those worlds," Griffith-VanderYacht says.

In addition to raising his son, Griffith-VanderYacht hopes to have more "flower babies" in the future, too. When asked about challenges that didn't make the season, he's reluctant to give them away.

"I'm not going to tell you because I'm hoping they'll be in season 2, if we get one," he says.

For now, The Big Flower Fight 's eight-episode first season is worth watching for Griffith-VanderYacht's jewel-toned suits, coordinated especially for the challenges, and for his commentary, which is as colorful as the flowers themselves. One particularly memorable zinger? Griffith-VanderYacht staring at the droopy face of a lion statue, and saying: "I asked for character . I did not ask for sloppy ."

While always honest, he tempers his pronouncements with kindness and genuine awe. Even now, he speaks of the contestants' accomplishments with pride. "I feel like those teams are all my babies. They're my flower children," he says.

With that sentiment in mind, he's a mentor first, and a judge second. As the teams build their structures, Griffith-VanderYacht gives restrained pointers (and occasional side-eye).

"When it was appropriate, I would give them advice. Other times, like any parent, you have to let your kids experience failure in order to learn. But it was tempting to go and help," he says.

From his position on the sidelines, Griffith-VanderYacht also bears witness to the small spats that put the "fight" in The Big Flower Fight , like when Irish team Eoghan and Declan stockpile all the tall grasses to prevent others from using it, or when Yan and Henck steal mirrors.

"Even the stealing is a little tongue in cheek. It doesn't even feel like, Ooh, I'm out to get you . It's more like, I'm just being competitive. It's all in good fun," he says.

Being an observer, not a participant, had another perk: While the participants sweated in the humid dome, where the installations were constructed, Griffith-VanderYacht could appreciate its beauty—then get fresh air.

"You can get transported walking into the dome. It feels like you're stepping into the Secret Garden. It's like you're going from black-and-white into Technicolor. You are Dorothy coming out of her house and walking into Oz," he says. He can't wait to get back to the dome—and neither can we.

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Elena Nicolaou is the former culture editor at Oprah Daily. 

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New York's first gay wedding expo: 'an event that recognises us as equal'

S eth Slade and Marc Peloquim are feeling slightly overwhelmed. The two men are at Brooklyn’s Borough Hall for New York’s first gay wedding expo and have discovered, like many an expectant couple before them, that being surrounded by a surfeit of cakes, table decorations and flowers can make even the most hardened of heads start to spin.

“There’s a lot to take in,” said Slade, 47, who has been engaged to his 48-year-old partner of 14 years since the summer. “But it is very exciting to be planning a wedding – our daughter is 17 and too old to be a flower girl, but she’s a writer, so we’re going to ask her to write something for the ceremony.”

Nor are Slade and Peloquim alone in their enthusiasm. It might not be the most obvious of venues for a wedding fair – Borough president Marty Markowitz quipped: “Imagine what the people who built this building in 1846 would think if they could see us now” – but on this cold January day Borough Hall is strung with rainbow-coloured ribbons and packed with gay couples of all ages and ethnicities.

There are men in their late 70s who never thought they’d see gay marriage legalised and who are now spending the morning pouring over pictures of venues and sampling canapés; a smartly dressed older couple here to plan their daughter’s upcoming weddin; and gaggles of young women, newly engaged and keen to sample everything from dresses to champagne – one exuberant party contains no fewer than three prospective brides.

“I thought it would be fun to come and see what sort of thing was on offer, I’ve heard it’s the first event like this in New York,” said Kimberley Jones, a 25-year-old artist’s model from Atlanta who is due to marry her partner Kris later this year. “The day that they announced gay marriage was legal in New York I was at the YMCA at a Spice Girls singalong and the whole place went crazy. It was incredible. We came today because we’re still getting ideas for the wedding.” She paused to laugh. “To be honest, we’re not even sure which state we’ll be holding it in yet.”

For 28-year-old Kristen-Alexzander Griffith and his partner Aaron VanderYacht, 25, getting engaged generated more questions than answers. “We got engaged in November, and the first thing we did was put gay wedding through Google, because we realised that we didn’t have a clue what to do,” said Griffith. “And all that would come up was a bunch of heterosexual businesses with a rainbow flag, which was fine, but really we had so many questions. I mean, do both of you have a bachelor night? Or does one of you have a bridal shower? We have engagement rings – do we both need to also get wedding bands? What about groomsmen?”

The realisation that there was little information for gay couples out there led the two men to set up their own blog .

“It just seemed to me that there was no real information out there about planning a gay wedding, so we thought we’d blog about our experiences and try and help other people,” said Griffith.

And top of those experiences was that bastion of wedding planning, the expo. “When we heard this was happening we knew that we had to come along,” added Griffith. “And it’s been fun. There’s lots of businesses here and it gives you a real idea of what’s out there. We’re having a great time.”

For Melissa Toro, a 37-year-old medical sales employee and her partner of two years, 42-year-old, Claudia Pignatelli, the event has had a practical benefit. “We’ve found a minister here,” said Toro. “Which was great, because that’s the sort of thing that can be really hard to track down. And what’s wonderful is that she also does baptisms because we plan to have children. We got engaged this summer and it’s really exciting to be at an event that recognises us as equal.”

The minister, the Rev Dianne Kraus, has been performing inter-faith ceremonies for 24 years, and said she’s delighted to offer her services for gay weddings. “I think marriage should be open to everyone, and whatever I can do to help people on their journey through life is my pleasure,” she said.

At the table next to her, Rabbi Bill Kurry took the same attitude. “Actually, most non-orthodox rabbis have no problem conducting same sex ceremonies: it’s marrying into a different faith that can cause a problem,” he said. “Most of the questions I’ve had today have been from couples where one is Jewish and the other isn’t, and they’re just glad that I’ll marry them despite that.”

For other vendors there’s the chance to tap into the much written about ‘Dorothy Dollar’. Estimates of the US LGBT market put its value at over $650bn in 2006, and as Markovitz joked, “Love is love, green is green – and Brooklyn has always been happy to make money’.

They gay wedding expo featured more than 70 vendors, from local wine and patisserie shops to wedding photographers and jewellery designers. The expo also offered specialist services such as legal advice and honeymoon planning.

For Crystal Gonzalez, creator of the Marimacho clothes line for women who identify as masculine, it was an opportunity to promote her Steampunk-influenced line of tweed suits and bow ties. “We’ve had quite a bit of interest in wedding suits already,” she said.

Kimberlea Jaffe-Kressal is showcasing her newly formed gay wedding planning business – Love, Honor and Be Gay – which designs ‘unique, personal and beautiful weddings for queer couples in New York City and The Hudson Valley’.

Even those who don’t buy into the American wedding industry admit that the event is a little bit special. “To be honest, I find the whole wedding industry a bit gross,” said Mark Thornton, a 32-year-old producer who works for a non-profit theatre group and who is set to marry his partner Travis McHale later this year. “But that said I think an event like this is important. It was great that governor Cuomo passed gay marriage in his first year of office, and events like this continue to push the point that this is a normal thing to do. We want a small event in Vermont, which is where we met, but it’s nice to look around and see what’s on offer.”

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Flower power.

A conversation with Interlochen alumnus and “The Big Flower Fight” judge Kristen Griffith-VanderYacht.

Image courtesy Kristen Griffith-VanderYacht

As new fathers, alumnus Kristen Griffith-VanderYacht (IAA 00-01) and husband Aaron can’t help but share their love for the arts with their son, Hugo.

“Growing up in a house where everyone sings to you, it’s going to be a part of his identity,” Griffith-VanderYacht told Interlochen Center for the Arts during a recent interview.

“But we’re not actively pushing it on him,” Griffith-VanderYacht said, before adding with a laugh, “As soon as your parents tell you something is cool, you’re like, ‘Forget that.’”

As owner and creative director of  Wild Bloom —an internationally recognized Seattle-based floral design company—the arts are and continue to be an integral part of Griffith-VanderYacht’s life and career.

Known as a florist to the stars, his floral creations have been featured in People Magazine, Martha Stewart Weddings, and The Knot, and have been shown on E! Network and ABC’s  Good Morning America .

Those of us who have spent the past few months binge watching shows on our favorite streaming service might recognize Griffith-VanderYacht from his latest artistic endeavour: serving as the main judge on Netflix’s hit reality competition,  The Big Flower Fight .

Akin to the acclaimed cooking series  The Great British Bake Off ,  The Big Flower Fight  swaps flour for flowers as 10 teams are tasked with creating large, intricate, and impeccably designed floral installations.

Griffith-VanderYacht, with his bright smile and colorful suits, mentors each team and critiques their floral creations alongside series presenters Natasia Demetriou and Vic Reeves—until just one team remains.

As a lifelong performer, being in front of the camera came easy to Griffith-VanderYacht.

During his youth, he sang, danced, and acted around southeast Michigan as a member of the Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit. Griffith-VanderYacht always felt like an outsider, but in the arts he found a place to fit in.

“Art is supposed to give you opportunities. To either get you out of your current situation, or to enlighten you in that space,” Griffith-VanderYacht said. “It’s supposed to be transformational, regardless of the circumstances around it. What’s important is the spiritual and transformational impact while you’re in it.”

It was fellow Detroit Mosaic Youth Theatre member Dane Joseph (IAA 99-02, IAC 98-99) who introduced Griffith-VanderYacht to Interlochen Center for the Arts. At the time, Griffith-VanderYacht was looking for more, and when he heard that Joseph was heading up north, he began to research Interlochen Arts Academy.

“I was convinced that going to Interlochen was the ticket. This was the pathway to get me into really great colleges. Beyond colleges, this was a stepping stone to open new doors,” Griffith-VanderYacht said.

At Interlochen, Griffith-VanderYacht found kindred spirits in his classmates: Fellow outcasts, unicorns, and big-fish-in-small-ponds that made their way to northern Michigan.

Griffith-VanderYacht took full advantage of his time at Interlochen both on and off the stage. He performed or worked on nearly a dozen performances, including: stage crew for  As You Like It , starring in the One-Act Festival, dancing in drag in Aristophanes’  Lysistrata , and working alongside friend Dane Joseph to coordinate a Black History Month Presentation.

“Interlochen wasn’t just about the arts. It was about finding myself, and there’s power in that,” Griffith-VanderYacht said. “Sure, I wasn’t the lead, but everything I did was so enriching. Not feeling like an outcast was more important than anything else.”

Following Interlochen, Griffith-VanderYacht studied at the Boston Conservatory. Eventually, he relocated to New York to continue his acting career after being cast as the understudy/swing for Angel in the national tour of Jonathan Larson’s  RENT .

While with  RENT , Griffith-VanderYacht began taking online graduate courses in Psychology through Columbia University. This move was inspired by his interest in the healing power of the arts, and to him, felt like a natural transition into the next part of his life.

“I was reexamining what I wanted the rest of my life to look like,” Griffith-VanderYacht said. “In many ways when you’re on stage, you hold up a mirror for the audience. The same sort of process applies in therapy. I knew that whatever I ended up doing—I had to find a way to connect and inspire growth in people.”

After the tours, he split his days between his coursework and interning with the Brooklyn-based floral shop Sprout Home.

“That internship opened my eyes,” Griffith-VanderYacht said. “It solidified where I had to be. I can still do what I want. Inspire people, and help people through my art. If you’re lucky, someone else will see themselves in your art.”

Griffith-VanderYacht fell into flowers, and by 2011 the budding psychologist had bloomed into a world-class florist.

In 2016, he and husband Aaron relocated to Seattle, Washington, where they fostered and adopted son Hugo. Then one afternoon an Instagram DM (Direct Message) invited him to audition for  The Big Flower Fight , and the rest, as they say, is history.

But Griffith-VanderYacht doesn’t take any of it for granted. He knows how rare it is to see a Black, gay father and florist on television.

“There are so many opportunities out there, and I want little Black and Brown kids who see me on TV to know that those opportunities are out there for them, too,” Griffith-VanderYacht said.

But for all young artists struggling to find their way, he urges them to embrace their uniqueness.

“Magical unicorns are always going to stand out, and everyone is going to love a magical unicorn in a stable full of horses.”

The Big Flower Fight  is now streaming on Netflix. You can follow Kristen on Instagram at  @kristengvy .

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