The next guest blog is from Emma, the Urban Flower Farmer. I adore her style which is ‘seasonal, garden style flowers, a little bit wild but always beautiful’. I’m really enjoying getting to know all the wonderful wedding suppliers in London. I hope you are too!
Andrea
Here’s Emma’s story:
I have been a Wedding & Events florist for over ten years now and over the past few years I have seen a growing trend for Eco Weddings and in particular Urban City Eco Weddings. We have a great mix of cool and quirky venues in our cities which make fantastic backdrops for your big day, from cool city pubs to warehouse spaces to semi derelict buildings that are licensed to hold events.
Flowers are an important part of any wedding, giving you that wow factor and ensuring your photos that will last a lifetime and look good to boot. In particular in the world of floristry there has been a resurgence in British Flowers and the loose and natural style that has been a favorite of mine for some time now. Last years pantone colour for 2017 was green and thankfully the trend for foliage looks set to continue during 2018 along with a penchant for all things wild, natural and if at all possible eco friendly. Did you know that around 90% of our flowers sold here in the UK are flown from all over the world from Kenya to Columbia and of course the worlds biggest hub for flowers, Holland. A few years back I started to think more about where my flowers came from and I embarked on a new venture of growing sustainable flowers for my Wedding & Events business.
Entering my third year as a flower farmer, I supplement my business with eco flowers for my Brides & Grooms from April to October, growing in an urban space in NW London, just 5 miles from my flower studio where I create flowers for Weddings & Events all over the UK.
I always try to encourage my Brides in the use of seasonal flowers for their big day. I love foraging for branches, using local foliage to supplement the flowers that I grow, bringing nature to the city and encouraging nature into my growing space by growing without the use of pesticides and working with nature rather than against it. Sure we have problems from time to time (my biggest problem at the moment is the weather……snow followed by rain, rain and more rain has meant we are around three weeks behind where we were last year) but we are working with mother nature and my Brides embrace seasonality, they trust me to create their vision and really get the best from their flowers by working with the best available at the time…….a florist is a bit like a good chef……they create things from the best, seasonal produce and that is what floristry should be…unfortunately it has in recent years become something different, with demands for flowers that simply should not be used all year round, Brides and even some florists have no idea of seasonality and there is a demand for flowers whatever the time of year at whatever the cost….but there are a growing number of florist who are changing that…working in ways that don’t impact on the environment, growers who are making small but important changes to the flowers we use and grow….. as a florist farmer I am trying to be as eco friendly as possible despite living and working in a big city. We are working towards a foam free business, we have cut down our use of plastics massively and use recyclable materials where possible. So far this year, where once we would have used floral foam to create flowers we have gone the traditional, eco friendly route….no floral foam, mostly recyclable materials and where we have used plastics these have been collected and will be re-used for later events.
So if you are getting married this year then why not look into ways to make your day more eco friendly….. no matter how big or small your budget there are lots of things you can do, from using recycled jam jars for your table flowers to asking your vendors what they are doing for the environment. Ask for local produce or at least produce sourced from the UK, use local vendors and suppliers. Everything helps……and it’s all about thinking about what you can do to bring your big day into 2018……
For more information on local growers all over the UK visit https://www.
You can read more about what we do at www.urbanflowerfarmer.com
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Any questions please email me at hello@urbanflowerfarmer.com
Florist
