How to Sustainably Source Flowers for Your Wedding

Posted on August 11, 2015 by Mary Hood | 0 Comments

Increasingly, brides are choosing to plan green weddings, i.e. weddings that aim to consciously use sustainable resources (like evites or invites made with recycled paper and soy ink vs. traditional paper invites). Although green weddings take a little extra thought and effort, they are a beautiful way to express your values and respect the earth. In other words, they’re worth it!

Even if you can’t swing a completely green wedding, you can still focus on making some aspects of the ceremony eco-conscious. Your floral arrangements can be one of these areas. The following are a few tips to help you green your wedding-day flora.

• Go local. Support a local floral business or farmer’s market. The flowers won’t have to travel a long way to your ceremony, and it may be easier to inquire about the florist’s growing practices. (If you’re living in an area suffering from drought, ask about the florist’s watering practices.)
• Go organic. Be aware that large, commercial companies may use pesticides with chemicals that can harm the farmer, florist, and customer—as well as the environment. Therefore, always seek organic.
• Go seasonal. When possible, seek a local florist who sources their flowers locally. Keep in mind that some exotic flowers have to travel across the ocean! Using local flora is a fun way to be present in your surroundings.
• Sub in look-alikes. Perhaps you really want peonies in your bouquet, but they aren’t native to your area. Why not sub in cabbage roses or fluffy carnations?
• Waste less. Ask your florist to include any smaller flower clipping that aren’t suitable for a bouquet in a flower arrangement for a table--rather than simply throwing them away.

• Get creative with dried flowers, silk flowers, and live greens. If locally grown fresh flowers are few and far between, flesh out your bouquet with local greens (like ferns, ivy, or eucalyptus). Additionally, you can also supplement your live flowers with silk or dried flowers.
• Choose online floral vendors carefully. If you’re living in an area (or time of year) when there are no pretty fresh flowers to be had, you can create a bouquet with live greens and dried flowers, but if this won’t do, be sure to choose an online florist with sustainable practices like Organic Bouquet.
• Grow your own. If you live in the right climate (and have a green thumb), why not grow some—or all—of your wedding-day flowers? You’ll have complete control over how the flowers are cared for, and they won’t have to be transported very far—assuming you’re not jetting off to a destination wedding!

Photos: Rondal Sarayudej via Flickr, Luke Ma via Flickr

Posted in eco-friendly, flowers, green wedding, sustainability, wedding, wedding bouquet

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