How To Build A Fully Sustainable Design For Your Wedding Florals
Did you know that the average wedding produces 400-600 pounds of waste? We know florals can unfortunately play a role in this waste, but we care about our impact on the world and feel it’s our responsibility to do what we can to decrease our carbon footprint. That’s why sustainability is at the forefront of our minds when designing wedding florals at Fleuressence. We use the following eco-friendly practices and encourage those arranging flowers at home or selecting a florist to consider doing the same.
Use floral foam alternatives
We love the look of structural arrangements, but we don’t love the floral foam that’s often used to create them. While it’s great at keeping flowers hydrated and supported, this product is made from carbon, formaldehyde, and phenolic foam, making it toxic and non-biodegradable.
There are a few eco-friendly versions of floral foam on the market that are made from plant-based materials like coir that can be composted in the garden, but we still prefer to eliminate single-use products.
Instead, we reach for products like floral frogs, glass, and wire that we can reuse time and time again to cut down on waste.
Source local blooms
In addition to protecting the Earth, we’re passionate about supporting local agriculture. Sourcing our blooms locally, whether that’s local to our studio in the greater Richmond area or local to you in the Central Virginia area, gives us the opportunity to support local farmers and cut down on emissions from shipping flowers.
By doing this, we’re also able to collaborate with the farmers to find one-of-a-kind flowers and greenery to create truly unique arrangements for our clients based on what is currently in bloom. This often requires flexibility as we aren’t exactly sure what will be available until the week of a wedding, but we pride ourselves on interpreting our couples’ visions with the flowers available to us.
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Order only what’s needed
At Fleuressence, we’ve made the conscious choice to not maintain inventory in our studio. This helps us cut back on waste from any flowers we’re not able to use in our designs. Instead, we order every stem specifically for each event and do not order more than what is needed.
Not only is this a more sustainable practice, but it also ensures that the flowers in our designs are fresh and fully bloomed to create the most beautiful arrangements possible.
Donate or compost any leftover arrangements
People often toss their flowers out after their big day, further adding to the overall waste produced, but we encourage our couples to donate any unused arrangements to get more use out of them. Most rehab centers, retirement communities, and hospitals will gladly accept arrangements, and there are even companies throughout Central Virginia that can facilitate the pickup and delivery of them for you. If donating isn’t an option or you’ve kept your flowers as long as possible, the next step is to compost them in your yard or local composting facility so that they can naturally decompose and be turned into nutrient-rich soil.
We’re proud of our sustainable practices at Fleuressence and love working with clients who value these practices too. If you haven’t delved into sustainable arrangements before, it’s important to know that there are no visible differences in sustainable designs compared to traditional ones,
but the difference it makes on our environment is invaluable.
