We’ve been enjoying the fall flowers brightening up our apartment these last few weeks. When we planned our wedding, I had the delusion that maybe, if we had a very nice, mild fall, I could carry a homegrown (or at least locally grown) bouquet down the aisle in mid-November. Turns out, not so much.
My MIL made some beautiful dried flower (and other natural product) arrangements to decorate the altar and pews, but for the bouquets and boutonnieres, I reluctantly resorted to conventionally grown flowers (with all the chemical nastiness and poor working conditions for people in other countries 😦 ), but in an unconventional way.
See, just like many grocery stores and restaurants throw away unconscionable amounts of food every day, large florists do the same thing — but with flowers. Dumpsters full of perfectly good flowers! Or almost perfect flowers that just need a little TLC.
With a little A LOT of help from our personal floral guru, we created some beautiful arrangements from flowers (including lots of roses) that would have otherwise taken up space in a landfill. Not a bad compromise!
Still, I would have preferred to walk down the aisle with flowers (and greens — like basil!) from my own garden, and if this is a priority for you or anyone you know who will be planning a wedding soon, I encourage you to consider local flower availability when setting your wedding date.
Her Green Life 