Friday Tip - Florals

This week's Friday Tip is about Sustainable Floral Decor

Atmosphere is what all the little bits and pieces and event elements are all about. Lights, decor, music, guests, food, beverages, venue - all come together to create a certain kind of atmosphere. So firstly you want to figure out what kind of atmosphere you are going for - once you've decided that the rest of your choices will be far easier if you keep it uppermost in your mind.

A solid sustainable choice for the 'look and feel' of your event starts with your venue. The more interesting the venue, the less decor you will need to truck in to create an atmosphere. If you are lucky enough to live in or near Toronto, there is a plethora of interesting venues that require little or no decor beyond some mood lighting.

If you are stuck with an empty box, because of location or numbers, you need to look at adding some decor and for most wedding events one starts with the flowers. Or not, lots can be achieved with LED room lighting, candles and mirrors and flowers can be ignored entirely! Or opt for an edible centerpiece - yummm

DIY
If you have any wild spots near you or on your way somewhere, why not pick your own flowers? At least for a wedding bouquet, you can collect flowers the day before. You know they'll be in season, local, fair trade and likely pesticide-free. This works just as wonderfully for dressing a seasonal table or for small arrangements on cocktail tables.


Sustainable Florist
The next step up the event chain is to hire a professional. You'd think most flowers are eco-friendly because they are organic matter and can be composted - but you'd be wrong. The flower business is a cut-throat nasty business that can, and often does, employ people at below live-able wages, raids the land within an inch of it's life and exotic flowers are flown and trucked many un-sustainable miles to get to your local florist.

Welcome the eco-friendly florist - not an easy line to be in. If people are counting on red roses for Mother's Day or the rare purple orchid for their bouquet, it's hard to say no to a client if there was a blight in your local crop or if the only orchids available are not sustainable. This is where some fabulous intrepid people have taken the extra step and chosen to provide the public with both a sustainable model and an education. In Toronto you'll find Eco Stems and EcoFlora (links below). They've put sustainability above giving their clients the moon and maintained offering stylish possibilities.


Asking for local flora
If you don't have one of these fantastic types of people in your neighbourhood you can ask your lovely local florist to provide you with only locally available flora and to please hold the pesticides. Most don't like using stuff that has come into contact with poisons either so it's not a terrible hardship. Some don't  have the connections to local growers, so it can be a challenge finding the variety you might otherwise prefer.

Fair Trade and Organic
Next down the list is fair trade and organic and, thankfully, most florists have some sources for these kinds of stems - yay green marketing trends. Not quite as green as going whole hog local but definitely worth the extra penny IF you can verify that the flowers are fair trade and organic. This is where a little bit of research can help you out.

Silk or Edible
Not the bad thing that 'fake flowers' implies - there may be local artists who make stunning creations out of sugar paste, marzipan or silk. If you think you might use the flowers again, tasteful fabric arrangements made by a local person might be just the ticket (depending on where the fabric came from - yeah I know, I'm tired now too!). See my previous Friday Tip on edible arrangements - way happy with those!

Video on How to Select Sustainable Florals. (Thanks Scott from EcoFlora for sending it around!)

Here are some useful resources and check out the Canadian Seasonal Flower Guide at the end courtesy of Flowers Canada.

Articles

Article from Garden Design Magazine - Identifying Sustainable Flowers
Article about flowers from Tree Hugger
The Footprint of Flowers - Tree Hugger
The Beyond Organic Show
Many articles on sustainable growing from Planet Green

Florists in Toronto

Eco Stems

Eco Flora

Ontario
Pick Ontario

British Columbia
In Bloom
 
US Florist
Organic Bouquet

Seasonal Guide to Flowers:

Available All Year:
Baby's Breath (white)
Bachelor's Button (white, pink, red, or blue)
Carnation (available in any color)
Gardenia (white)
Gladiolus (countless colors)
Lily of the Valley (white and pink)
Orchid (pink, purple, and white)
Rose (available in any color)
Stephanotis (white)

Winter Flowers:
Calla Lily (white)
Camellia (pink and white)
Forget-Me-Not (blue)
Holly (green with red berries)
Ivy (various greens in color)
Orchid (pink, white, and purple)
Poinsettia (red, white, and pink)
Tulip (available in many colors) 

Spring Flowers:
Anemone (available in many colors)
Apple Blossom (white)
Calla Lily (usually white but available in a few other colors)
Daffodil (yellow)
Forsythia (yellow)
Geranium (red and pink)
Hyacinth (white, purple, or pink)
Iris (many colors available)
Jonquil (pale yellow)
Lilac (violet or white)
Larkspur (blue)
Magnolia (white)
Narcissus (white)
Orange Blossom (white)
Tulip (available in any color)
Violetrichly (purple)

Summer Flowers:
Aster (available in white, pink, and rose)
Calla Lily (available in several colors)
Daisy (white with a tiny bit of yellow)
Hydrangea (purple)
Forget-Me-Not (blue)
Peony (available in pink, magenta, or white)
Sweet Pea (available in many colors)
Zinnia (red, orange, or pink)

Fall Flowers:
Aster (white, pink, or rose)
Chrysanthemum (red, gold, or white)
Dahlia (available in many colors)
Marigold (gold and red)
Zinnia (red, orange, or pink)

Friday Tip - Guests

This week's Friday Tip is about the number one thing you can do to have a sustainable wedding - keep the numbers down!

You may find yourself in a family situation that insists on inviting every relative on the planet and you just may not have a choice, there will be more tips later on how to be sustainable with those crazy 400-guest parties, don't fret!

Every guest incurs a portion of food, a place setting, a chair, a napkin, a place card, a favor (more on those later), an invitation, a thank you note, hors d'oeuvres, a beverage or two, travel to and from, possibly a hotel room, a fancy outfit, a gift...it all adds up - alarmingly! If you drop only 10 people from your list, that's an entire table of all the above listed bits and pieces.

This is the area of most impact on both budget and sustainability so consider carefully who really needs to be a witness to one of the most spiritually intimate moments of your life with your partner. Ask yourselves some tough questions: Who is this person? Why are we being asked to invite them? Is it for my mother's business relationships or because it's my Mum's best friend? Am I really angling for a lot of money or gifts? (be honest!) What is this person's relationship to our relationship? Who's wedding is this anyway? Will my Father never speak to me again if we don't invite his dentist (this is important too!)? Remember also that you won't be able to see and chat to everyone if you have a wedding of more than 150 people, and even that's a stretch.

Ultimately what really matters is that you and your beloved show up and some official type person to perform the legal part of the ceremony (you could even grab a witness off the street if you had to). Everything else - the guests, the ribbon colours, the shape of the napkin art, the canapes - all just added gravy to the special moment between you. At the very moment of you two making your commitment - you will not see, hear or care about anything else. Embrace the singleness of that moment and don't sweat the rest.