Meet the women behind Gift Rebellion and wave goodbye to boring gift giving forever

We all know flowers are a thoughtful present for anyone, especially when you get the person’s favourite colour and type bang on - I am a cliché red rose person, how about you?

But for those of you who want to crank the flower-giving up a notch, let me point you in the direction of not only nice to look at, but edible bouquets. Which means, yes, they do not need watering, and all they do require is to be eaten. I mean, if that hasn’t sold you…

The ‘flowers’ are the brainchild of two founders behind Edible Blooms - bouquets that can be purchased on their site, Gift Rebellion.

Abbey Baker, 38, and Kelly Jamieson, 40, are sisters that began their business venture in Australia in August 2005. This year - November 13 to be exact - the duo launched in London.

Speaking to Kelly and Abbey, they say the idea came from the lack of unique bouquets on the market: “We have always loved sending gifts. Growing up in Australia and spending time working interstate and overseas, we found ourselves early adopters of online flower companies.

“But we were often disappointed at what was delivered because it was not the same beautiful bouquet we thought we’d purchased online.”

One saddening bouquet after another led the sisters to make a stand and challenge the norm, and I know a lot of you will be thinking: “Surely they must have found one good bouquet in their life, right?”

Well, yes, I would like to think so! But by combining “the beauty of a bouquet of flowers with the practical element [of eating] chocolate when it arrives”, Kelly and Abbey have brought traditional flowers into the 21st century.

Gift Rebellion’s bouquets feature foil wrapped chocolates ranging in different sizes for several occasions including Christmas, birthdays or a simple message of ‘thank you’. The chocolate is made in Switzerland - the sisters are big fans of Lindt and Ferrero Rocher.

So it’s pretty easy to understand why they’ve had people hooked on Edible Blooms ever since, right? “When people see our gift range for the first time, they often say: ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’”

But of course, their 12 years in business has had hiccups, like every entrepreneur and business person will tell you. On their first ever Valentine’s Day as a business, their website crashed due to an incredible wave of traffic… If you can’t win a woman or man over with flowers, say it with sugary goodness instead.

However, the pair managed to grow a national footprint across Australia within the first year of founding Gift Rebellion: “Every challenge presented has delivered an opportunity for us and made us stronger as sisters working together each day.”

And 12 years later, the duo are delivering an Edible Bloom every two minutes around Australia and New Zealand, which shows that risks can sometimes pay off tremendously.

A perfect example - I am not saying do this to start a business and I’m sure the sisters don’t endorse this either - was the fact that Kelly sacrificed her first home savings to get the business rolling. It’s a tricky, grey area, but it paid off for Gift Rebellion - with a lot of saving and thoughtful decisions.

“We have bootstrapped our journey from day one. Cash flow is king for any business and we carefully plan our spending for this very reason.

“We are very proud to be building our international expansion as two women with a lot of determination and optimism for the future.”

Launching in London felt like a natural progression for Abbey and Kelly, who both say they love the city and what it offers: “It’s been a long-time dream for us to open a London location. In our 20s, both of us did a working holiday, at separate times, in the UK.

“We know how much the Brits love their chocolate and we are so excited to be introducing our Gift Rebellion brand and gift range here. Our London opening was also made much easier when Abbey put her hand up to relocate for 12 months to support our UK growth.”

And as well as having just opened a Switzerland location partnering with a local business in Geneva, the duo have “big plans” ahead of 2018 on the horizon.

So, will you be purchasing an Edible Bloom this Christmas? It takes the stress out of last-minute festive shopping, that’s for sure… Head to Gift Rebellion and pick your favourite bouquet now.