When you think of the wedding bouquet you’ll carry down the aisle, do you envision something loose and wild and free? Modern? Lush garden florals tied in draping silk ribbon?
I also see these things when I envision your bouquet, but I see other things that have possibly never occurred to you:
The hands that tucked those plants into the earth and harvested those blooms.
The farmer who fretted over changing weather patterns and major storms.
The chemicals and organic products sprayed on the flowers to protect them or treat them for pest and disease.
The workers who harvested armloads of those stems to get them to a florist.
The florist who worked into the wee hours prepping your arrangements for your big day.
Easily the most unique feature of booking a wedding in Charleston with me is that we are a flower farm growing much of our own product. To help you fully understand why that is so unique, you must first know that approximately 80% of the flowers purchased in the US are imported from other countries. The how’s and why’s of that is another post all on its own (and one I’ll likely tackle eventually), but just know that most flowers you see available for purchase come from areas with questionable labor practices and chemical usage. More practically, your flowers are traveling a LONG way to get to you, typically dry in a cardboard box. That’s a massive amount of resources to get flowers that, more often than you’d think, show up looking half-dead and gross. It’s basically a florist’s worst nightmare when that happens.
I know all this because even I have to buy in floral product for events. Some of the most coveted blooms and foliages don’t grow here, at least not year-round. I LOVE buying from other local farms, but when I can’t purchase in South Carolina, we’re fortunate to be able to source most of our product from within the US.
Farming is incredibly hard work, but I am SO fortunate to be able to offer my clients our local blooms, grown using organic methods by workers paid a living wage. But beyond the social and environmental impact, I can also grow flowers that cannot be purchased ANYWHERE, even the biggest wholesalers. This is because the horticultural world is vast, and there are so many more blooms to use than what the typical wholesaler generally offers. There are also a number of flowers that simply do not ship well. Summer stems suffer particularly, in part because of high temps during shipping. We harvest even on the hottest days because our flowers go straight into water and never leave it outside of the time spent designing.
Beyond that, your experience in planning wedding florals with me is much the same as any other Charleston wedding florist, and that’s whether you need a Charleston wedding elopement bouquet or full service wedding design. I’m trained both as a farmer and designer. The pricing is in line with the Charleston market, so for design, you won’t find much difference in pricing either. But I am very passionate about my farm and the flowers, and designing pieces that really take into account the seasons, nature as a whole, and the humans who work so hard to grow such beautiful stems.
