Save the date (and the environment): Eco-conscious Wedding Flowers
Ever since starting out with Wilderness I have always been conscious of the potentially damaging effects that floristry can have on the environment, and so have always embraced environmentally friendly methods where I can regardless of the occasion. This can often present challenges when coming up with ideas for most briefs, least of all my bread and butter – weddings!
We all love a good wedding, but it is no secret that weddings can often end up being pretty wasteful events. In fact, a report by SkyOcean in 2018 highlighted that UK weddings alone produce over 4,000 tonnes of non-recyclable plastic every year. Yikes!
During an age in which we are all becoming more aware of the impacts that our lifestyles and consumption habits place upon the environment, there has become a growing demand for businesses offering more eco-conscious wedding services which are less wasteful & limit damage to the environment.
We’ve seen plenty of ways in which you can improve the eco-friendliness of your wedding across all aspects, and a few considerations when choosing your flowers can go a long way towards this. So, in this blog I have compiled a few key things to think about to keep your blooms sustainable on your big day. And disclaimer, while I am always searching for ways to educate myself on this & reduce my carbon footprint, I am by no means perfect, and you don’t need to be too! Even if you consider just a couple of the tips included below and make some small changes, it will go a long way…
Support Local!
One of the biggest impacts that flowers have on the environment today derives from the carbon footprint created by importation. Those flowers you pick up on your weekly shop in Aldi, Tesco or Sainsbury's have often been imported thousands of miles to get into your trolley.
Even flowers that us florists source from wholesalers have, for the most part, been imported from big flower farms in places like Netherlands, Colombia & Kenya; a large portion of which heavily treat the flowers and plants with unnatural chemicals and pesticides. It has been estimated that an imported mixed bouquet produces ten times more emissions than a British grown equivalent, with most of this created by transport and energy demands involved in farming processes.
Over the past few years, a lot of florists (myself included) have started to explore and promote the use of locally grown wedding flowers and, in line with the demand, a vast network of flower growers has sprung up all over the UK. I use a fantastic online platform called 'Flowers From The Farm' where I can find amazing flower growers local to me, some of which I developed great friendships with and have been working with for over a year now. When you’re planning your wedding flowers, be sure to speak to your florist about incorporating British grown flowers where possible.
Using local produce is a great way to support independent growers and ensure that they can keep providing sustainable flowers to brides for years to come! That being said, it isn’t always possible to source everything locally and there will still be a need for global imports, but it’s all about balance. I would say I currently use a 50/50 split between British & Imported, however I always try to source locally before heading for the international wholesalers.
Embrace the Season
Choosing to use locally grown flowers often also means opting to choose seasonal flowers. Realistically we know that this is not always possible if you have a particular theme in mind (tropical for example), but if sustainability is a big thing for you then it is always worth researching the flowers that are in-season around your date.
When I’m working with couples to plan their big day, I am forever championing seasonal varieties and taking inspiration from the time of year. Letting the seasonality of botanicals guide the way can also often lead to some surprising arrangements!
Getting married in Spring? You have at your fingertips the most gorgeous array of blooms including daffodils, anemones and ranunculus to name but a few.
Summer wedding? Roses, sweet peas, delphiniums, foxgloves... the choices are endless!
Autumn weddings are set to be a dahlia dream, and winter weddings can incorporate a selection of festive berries and foliage, as well as dried flowers & hellebores.
Your florist will be able work with you on the finding the best seasonal combinations available, but there are also ways in which you can find out for yourself. For any flower nerds like ourselves, books such as 'The British Flower Book' and 'Flower Colour Guide' make great reading to determine which blooms best go together.
Also, pro tip: everyone LOVES a peony, but if you really have your heart set on having these blooms on your big day, you’ll need to have your wedding from mid-April to the beginning of June. They don’t stick around for long and there is no way of getting them at any other time of year!
Keep it Natural
Although using independent British growers can usually provide a confident guarantee that your blooms will be organically produced without use of pesticides or growth enhancing chemicals, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t ways that pesky pollutants can work their way into your beloved blooms.
One of the latest big flower trends is dried flowers which I myself am pretty obsessed with. However, dried flowers lately often involve the uses of bleaches and dyes to produce an alternative colour, which has become extremely prevalent over the past twelve months. Whilst the bleaching of flowers can sometimes achieve a pretty dreamy aesthetic, the process compromises the plant material and eliminates the biodegradable properties. Coatings of chemicals and plastic mean it can no longer be included in green waste, and in fact moves us away from what floristry actually should be about – celebrating the natural beauty of flowers.
If you’ve been lusting over the dried flowers popular on Pinterest or are desperate for pink pampas, speak to your florist about how this look could be created using only dried, natural stems and bio-degradable alternatives. One area I am currently researching is how to create natural dyes from other botanicals, fruits and food waste to treat plant material with.
Natural dyes are also an important consideration to make when choosing embellishments for your bouquets such as ribbons, raffia and yarns. We work closely with some amazing people who are experts in the field of creating beautiful textiles with all natural dyes. Links to a couple of their lovely websites are here:
Go foam free
Although it has long been a staple in floristry arrangements, oasis foam is unfortunately not a very sustainable element within the florists' box of tricks. Being non-biodegradable and essentially a single use plastic, many florists will tend to opt for more eco-friendly methods of holding together floral displays. Items such as chicken wire, pin frogs and moss all present more ethically viable options as they be more easily reused or recycled. A lot of the sustainable techniques florists are now embracing are in fact older methods, which were used before the introduction of floral foam.
The true damage of floral foam to the environment is now widely acknowledged among the flower industry, so much so that RHS has completely banned all floral form from its events from 2021. A huge step in the right direction and we have come such a long way in just a couple of years! When I first went to flower school, to think I was only taught methods which used floral foam is just crazy to me. I’ve continuously been learning and educating myself on foam-free methods, and I know there isn’t anything floral foam can do that re-usable moss & chicken wire cannot - in fact, I don’t even have any foam stored away in my shed/studio anymore!
No throwaway plastics
When planning a wedding on a very tight budget, some brides tend to opt for the use of faux flowers within bouquets and decoration. While this is sustainable on the wallet, it won’t necessarily achieve the same look and impact as using fresh flowers. However, if you are set on these then it’s really important to make sure that these aren’t a throwaway item after the big day.
Have a think about what you will do with all of the faux flowers after the wedding to ensure that they don’t end up in landfill for decades to come. You could use them as décor in your home following the big day, or you could sell/give them away to any brides sourcing them for their upcoming weddings.
Flowers are for life, not just for the wedding day
A common myth attached to wedding flowers is that when all the fun is over, in the cold light of day the vast majority of florals end up going into the bin. This really doesn’t have to be the case, and there are plenty of ways in which you can keep your flowers long after the wedding blues have subsided.
Dried flowers lend themselves perfectly to post-wedding use as the flowers are already preserved, allowing them to easily be kept as a keepsake, or separated out as gifts for your friends and family. Under the right conditions and treated well, dried flowers should last for at least two years, and more often than not will last well into your ten year anniversary (unless jeopardised by a mischievous pet of course).
Fresh bouquets can also be equally well preserved, though with a little more TLC. You can dry out your bouquet by hanging the stems upside down in a dark, well ventilated area for at least three weeks – hanging the stems on a little bit of string from a coat hanger in the wardrobe is always a good trick!
Alternatively you could press your flowers, either by way of a purpose-built flower press or by placing them inside a book within some tissue paper to protect the blooms, and to limit any staining from the petals. You would need to press them for at least six weeks before they are ready to be placed in a frame to keep forever. This is what I did with my wedding flowers, and they are now a lovely piece of décor within my home!
As much as we would like to disagree, we do realise that it isn’t always possible to keep all of your flowers after the wedding. But worry not - any unfortunate surplus stems can simply be placed into the compost (as long as no unnatural chemicals are used) to return to Mother Earth, and help to germinate the next generation of baby blooms!