6 Wedding Planning Tips from an Eco-Friendly Florist
Happy Earth Day! Here at Romee Willow Florals, we are passionate about not only creating artful florals for your event, but also ones that are sustainable and eco-friendly. It’s no secret that hosting a wedding can be super wasteful: between the mass amounts of paper, food, and flowers that go into these big shebangs, so much of it ends up in the landfill after only a brief lifespan. Luckily, more people are becoming aware of this tragic truth and are going out of their way to plan greener weddings. When Jori started Romee Willow Florals, she knew she wanted to do her part in making the wedding industry just a little bit more green. Over the years, we’ve learned a few easy ways to incorporate green practices into the wedding planning process. Here are six easy ways you can make your wedding even a little more Earth-friendly:
Photo by Ed and Aileen Photography
1) Prioritize using seasonal, local flowers. During the Midwest growing season, we love recommending seasonal flowers that are sourced from local farms. We love working with local farms like Gold Fern Farm (West Dundee, IL) and The Roof Crop (Chicago, IL). This not only supports local businesses that we love, but also reduces our carbon footprint. The shorter the flowers have to travel, the better for the environment! So keep in mind that if you are having a winter wedding, the peonies you’re dead set on incorporating into your wedding florals will have to come from somewhere like South America (if you can even source it from there). Weddings during the summer and fall months bode the best for local florals in the midwest. Flowers we love sourcing locally during growing season are dahlias, sunflowers, yarrow, cone flowers, zinnias, poppies, peonies, and more.
2) Rent, don’t buy. Remember the phrase reduce, reuse, recycle?! Add “rent” to that magical set of eco-friendly r-words. Renting decor items is much easier on the wallet and so much more sustainable than purchasing. When working with Romee Willow Florals, our clients have the option to rent from our vast array of vases, lanterns, terrariums, candle holders, and other decor items so that they don’t have to purchase their own. Renting wedding decor is an easy way to cut down on unnecessary and cumbersome waste. Plus, renting from us eliminates the extra step of having to source your own items!
Photo by Wes Craft Phototography
3) Use wedding vendors that compost! Especially when sourcing florists and caterers, make sure to find ones that dispose of waste in an eco-friendly manner. Instead of food, flowers, and other natural materials ending up in the landfill, it’s best to dispose of them using a commercial composting service. This way, the waste will turn into healthy dirt and fertilizer, to be used in growing fresh new food and flowers! Romee Willow Florals works with an organization called Block Bins to compost our organic scraps. There’s no need for flowers and greenery to end up in a landfill when they can be usefully broken down into organic matter. This organic matter may help to grow the next generation of flowers we use! Ah, the circle of life.
4) Donate your flowers at the end of the night. One of the biggest bummers about weddings is that they can be super wasteful. At the end of the night, typically the leftover food and flowers end up in the trash. What a shame! We found a way around the floral waste: we offer a donation service to relocate your wedding flowers so that they get a second life. For a small fee, we will pair up with an organization like Journey Care, who will relocate your flowers to places like nursing homes and hospitals. Instead of your gorgeous wedding flowers ending up in a dumpster at the end of the night, they could help make another person’s day a little bit brighter. It’s such an easy way to make your event less wasteful but also an awesome way to give back to the community. Ask about this optional add-on at your floral consultation.
5) Skip the wedding favors, or make them eco-friendly. Let’s be real, when’s the last time you actually used an item you received as a wedding favor? Many times, couples will make custom items with their names or initials printed on them, and set them out for guests to take. But honestly, many times these items end up in the landfill - whether at the end of the wedding night or a few weeks down the line. Spend less money by skipping the wedding favors altogether. Or, if you REALLY want to include them, make sure they are edible (and delicious!) or are something like a potted plant that will last months or even years. And on that note…(see the next item):
6) Use potted plants in your wedding decor. As an eco-friendly event florist, we are always looking for creative ways to provide sustainable event decor. Using potted plants as wedding decor is one of our favorite green wedding decor methods, because these plants will last so much longer than cut flowers and stems. One of the best parts of this idea is that couples can encourage their guests to take them home - serving as a beautiful and eco-friendly wedding favor that will last months and maybe even years. We’ve used plants like orchids, monsteras, and pony tail palms in gold or terracotta pots as ceremony and reception decor. If you’re looking for more unique sustainable wedding ideas, we got you!
We feel so lucky to be based in Chicago, because there are many wedding vendors who feel the same as we do. We love working with other eco-friendly businesses to create a stunning event that is also environmentally responsible.
If you’re someone who feels passionately about protecting the environment and hosting a green wedding, we want to get to know you! We’d love to bring your dream wedding flowers to life while being environmentally responsible. Fill out our form to get the conversation started about your eco-friendly wedding flowers!