London Wedding Flowers - Five Floral Design Ideas for a More Sustainable Wedding
Let me start by saying I am no expert on this subject! I am far from perfect when it comes to my actions that impact the planet. Though I have long been sustainably minded, more recently the impact I have personally, and more widely speaking the industry that I work in has on the planet, has become a point of focus. I can’t claim to be a total eco warrior but bit by bit I am trying to live and work more sustainably. The irony of working with a natural product for such a special occasion, juxtaposed against the incredible waste the industry creates, is sometimes heart-breaking. Reports suggest that last year in the UK somewhere close to 4,910 tonnes of unrecyclable plastic was used and left behind at weddings. When it comes to tackling such a gigantean issue, the numbers feel overwhelming. I write this as no know-it-all but I believe that small choices made by all will make a difference. I want to walk you through five ways that make for a more sustainable wedding through your flower and design choices.
1. Find a sustainable wedding florist who doesn’t use floral foam
Floral foam bricks soak up water like a sponge, that florists use to keep flowers both fresh and in place in arrangements. In many instances it has previously been a fall back for me. Despite it’s practicality, floral foam is highly toxic and most notably not bio-gradable. To think of how many bricks of floral foam that go to landfill is quite sickening.
Thankfully more and more florists are choosing to go #foamfree – a hashtag as well as #nofloralfoam to look out for when seeking out a more sustainable florist. Floral foam is certainly more reliable and easier to work with but there are many design tricks and mechanics available to us florists to create more sustainable wedding flowers. I now actively don’t use it unless there is no other option.
2. Choose seasonal flowers, and where you can, choose British
The carbon footprint of flowers is just staggering. A lot of flowers are grown in Holland, Italy and France, however flowers are imported from across the world; most roses are grown in Kenya, Ecuador and Columbia.
There are many reasons to go British: most obviously for the sustainability factor, but the quality and charm of British stems is second to none. Rather than being mass farmed under a single light source that create your supermarket super straight stems, British growers put relentless hours into their fields that produce stems with shape and character.
It would be highly misleading for me to not acknowledge that I do use imported flowers. British grown flowers are amazing but the UK is playing catch up in this arena. Unfortunately, varieties grown here are limited and the vase life of these often delicate stems doesn't contend with those grown in Europe and beyond. My clients demands often can’t be fulfilled with British grown, but I think being mindful of where the flowers I choose are grown is a start. I limit purchases that have come from afar and make the more sustainable choice where there is such an option, always preferencing British grown.
3. Consider using dried flowers for your sustainable wedding arrangements
As well as being a fashionable choice, using dried flowers for your wedding is also a sustainable one. Many of the dried flowers I use for sustainable wedding displays have had a previous life which I just love. Collecting, drying out and holding onto certain stems for the right calling, rather than going to waste brings me a lot of joy. Where I have been able to repurpose dried flowers I have also passed on some of the financial saving to the client as well. If dried flowers are on your moodboard, have a conversation with your florist about which pieces you would like to take home and which that youre happy for your florist to reuse for other work.
4. Make your flowers work harder by re-using arrangements
Despite the beauty and romance created with an abundance of beautiful blooms, some floral arrangements (especially those used for your ceremony) may only be seen by you and your guests for a matter of hours, sometimes minutes. You can achieve having the look of more flowers throughout your day by asking your florists’ input on how your displays can either be moved, say from one venue to another, or entirely repurposed to make another arrangement using the same flowers.
Don’t necessarily expect this to save you the equivalent money spent on a second arrangement; the time spent moving or repurposing your flowers will increase your labour costs but will keep waste to a low.
5. Re-use and gift – be prepared to make giving out flowers a smooth process
Following on from point 4, sometimes there aren’t ways to reuse your flowers, perhaps because of the types of flowers being used or the flow of your day means that a conspicuous operation reusing and resetting isn’t possible. Where it is feasible, I have started asking my couples whether they would like their flowers to be made into bunches for guests to take home at the end of the evening. This works particularly well for the ceremony flowers that often are left behind or larger displays that still have long stems suitable for a vase at home. In scenarios where your florist may not be able to facilitate this, it can be a good idea to have twine and scissors to hand so that your guests can help themselves at the end of the night.
Wedding centrepieces, depending on how they have been arranged, are often best not dismantled! We usually arrange our wedding centrepieces in chicken wire held in low bowls. To create our signature dynamic shapes, many stems are cut particularly short to create that in-out effect. I’ve known some couples to assign wedding centrepieces for certain special guests to take home as thank you gifts. The bowls that we use to arrange our flowers in can be reused again at home.
I hope that some of these ideas can make their way into your wedding plans. If you are interested in further advise on how to have a more sustainable wedding beyond just your flowers, have a look at this incredibly in depth resource The Guide to Sustainable, Zero-Waste, Ethical Weddings
For unique and interesting ways to incorporate dried flowers into your wedding centrepieces and bar displays - read our post on Inspiration for Dressing your Dry Hire Wedding Venue We used a mix of fresh flowers with dried; some that were repurposed and a collection that Maya and Stephen could keep forever as a keepsake from the day.
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