A few weeks ago Kristina met up with our friend Danielle of Brown Paper Design at the Silverlake Farmer’s Market for a super cute (and earth-loving) project. Danielle’s idea was to take her love of local living and eating and apply it to her business as a (very talented) floral designer. Danielle’s friend Tara owns Silverlake Farms, an organic farm that grows and sells flowers right in the same zipcode. We love the idea that your wedding flowers could come straight from a grower in your neighborhood, especially when you integrate pretty pieces of seasonal produce for bits of color and texture. No one says that your “flowers” have to be 100% petals and stems, right?
One of the great things about shopping for your decor at a market (or hiring a florist who’s willing to do the same) is that you’re guaranteed fresh, inspired design as opposed to something expected like vases full of pink roses. We like roses, but it can be hard to justify their long trip from the green houses of Equador when there are so many other options… say, spring onions, pea tendrils, chinese broccoli, baby beets, and mini eggplant?
Purples and greens were dominating the market palette on Saturday, so Danielle went with it and supplemented her market finds with a few bunches of daffodils from Trader Joes. (Side note, Traders is an excellent place to find inexpensive seasonal flowers).
We’re so into using little, colorful veggies to brighten up your table in a sustainable, inexpensive way. Plus your guests can always fill up their handbags with fresh produce at the end of the night. Which thinking about it, could be a nice way to integrate favors into your decor.
And you can of course extend the organic vegetable theme into your bouquets and bouts. Remember seeing that cute lapel piece Prince Charles wore in honor of St. David’s day? (we couldn’t find the link anywhere, but some of you must have seen it) We love the idea of using a mini veggie as a farm fresh boutonniere.
And the same spring onions make beautiful feathery additions to a bouquet, as do sweet curly pea tendrils. Really you can use anything piled on a market table that adds insteresting texture and color. So many options at the market.
In parting, Danielle has these words of wisdom to share:
“I love to use Tara’s flowers as they are hand grown, hand picked, pesticide free and filled with love.
For this particular look, we combined Tara’s flowers, other local growers as well as a few daffodils from Trader Joe’s.
If you want to go the local route, don’t expect small growers to be able to give you 200 stems of the same flower, or be able to guarantee a flower choice at all. I suggest asking for a prominent color and choosing a palate. You will have much better results with your farmer and you’ll be guaranteed fresh blooms. Most likely it will be several shades and varieties of many flowers, which makes the look really natural. Do a little research and see what crops you can get in your area during each season. The farmer will appreciate your interest and it will be much easier job to visualize your end result. But keep in mind that because of changing weather patterns, you might be wanting pink ranunculus and instead end up with pink snapdragons (this happened to us last week).”
Thanks so much Danielle! You can see lots of her beautiful work on brownpaperdesign.com.
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