Let’s talk wedding flower sourcing! Sometimes people assume that we grow all of our own flowers use 100% locally grown. While this would be amazing if it were true, we’re not there yet. In the interest of transparency and avoiding greenwashing our brand, we’d love to dive into this a bit and help demystify the juggling act of flower sourcing. Our wedding flowers come from three general sources: national wholesale floral distributors, local farmers, and our garden. When we create a floral palette for a wedding, we work to prioritize locally available materials and educate our clients on how their vision most beautifully intersects with seasonality.
Still, the sheer quantity of blooms needed for larger weddings typically necessitates ordering many blooms from a national wholesaler, which purchases and distributes flowers grown all over the globe. So in most cases, we supplement the shipped-in materials with flowers from local farmers and our garden (during the growing season) because we love the way fresh, local flora elevate our designs through the unparalleled sensory experience they offer. We also believe strongly that the kinds of farming systems our work supports really matters, and that we have a responsibility to reduce the carbon footprint of this industry, one small step at a time. We aim to use our garden and design process to educate and push our clients in the direction of letting seasonal and local availability really drive their wedding designs. But, we also feel it’s important to serve our clients’ visions with joy when they involve shipping in flowers, and make recommendations for local supplementation where we can (because local materials really bring the magic!). Simply put, no perfect solution yet exists (where we live and grow) for meeting current wedding demand and client preferences with exclusively local supply throughout the year. We hope there comes a day when all florists dedicate themselves to prioritizing local purchasing so that we can support even more flower farmers to earn sustainable livings from cut flower production, and that we can drive consumer demand in this direction through inspiring design and education. For now, we meet clients wherever they are and show them how seasonality can enhance their vision. We believe our sources for incredible local materials, friendships with local farmers, and willingness to dance with the nuances of sustainability make us a unique asset in the creation of thoughtful events. We also get excited about creating products specifically designed to center on local, seasonal materials, like our weekly garden bouquets during the growing season, and our A La Carte packages for intimate weddings. We are always happy to answer your questions about local flower sourcing and seasonality! Moving any business towards deeper sustainability is inherently imperfect and ongoing work, but we believe every little bit matters.
Wondering where to start shopping local for flowers? Check out your farmers’ market and get to know flower growers. The Carrboro and Durham farmers’ markets are especially vibrant places to purchase locally grown goods of all kinds. Research cut flower CSA’s available in your area. If you’re a florist in the Triangle, we are very lucky to have Piedmont Wholesale Flowers as a resource for purchasing blooms from a collective of incredible growers. Specific farms we recommend include Happy as a Coneflower Farm, Sassafras Fork Farm, Orlaya Flora, Fern Rock Farm, Wild Hare Farm, Peregrine Farm, Parker Farm and Vineyard, and Bluebird Meadows.
