flowers

Steal This Idea: Replantable Wedding Bouquet

ckane — Mon, 26 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

With flowers, all the green talk has centered around local, sustainably grown, and fair trade, but there's still another aspect for consideration. Can your bouquet keep living beyond the day? The Los Angeles Times Magazine's wedding issue just featured a floral designer who makes a wedding bouquet you can replant after the wedding. Krislyn Komarov of Krislyn Designs chose cyclamen with succulents that were cut to keep the plants alive, then she wrapped the stems of the creation with antique ribbon. What a great idea!

That particular creation is $250 and may not be convenient to your own wedding's location, but there should be no reason you can't work with your own florist to plan something similar, or try a little DIY bouquet-making. There's plenty of info online about growing your own bouquet, but I couldn't find any other examples online of replantable ones. However, it seems doable for anyone with a green thumb if the event is local: even if you needed to keep the stems in a slender container of soil, that whole kaboodle could still be disguised by ribbons.

Organic Flower Power

ckane — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 01:00:00 -0400

There's more than one way to have an Earth-friendly flower display at your wedding. One, of course, would be no flowers at all, but that's no fun. Another minimal option, for the low-maintenance couples, would be picking your own flowers and/or having friends grow them for you.

But just because you're planning a lower-impact wedding doesn't mean you're getting married barefoot in a mountaintop meadow. Eco-chic Weddings recently linked to one resource for dramatic, classy arrangements, Faxon Green.

Faxon's studio is all eco--they only use sustainable materials (no foam blocks) cycled glassware, and they have their own compost pile out back for fertilizer. After the event, they bring any "used" flowers and arrangements to local shelters and hospitals.

Or if you just want to make a simple bouquet of organic calla lillies to steady your hands as you walk down the aisle, check out Beyond Bouquets on eBay. A dozen certified-organic callas are $65 with free shipping. Many other Veriflora-certified varieties are available, and they're having a sale for Earth Day (Aril 22), so check out their online store.

Image: Faxon Green

The Day After: Thoughts on Fair Trade Coffee, Flowers, Organic Lingerie?

salbert — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0500

If a look is worth a thousand words, then the kiss from Architect Dave was the Encyclopedia Britannica. I was rendered speechless; and that, my friends, isn’t an easy thing to do.

The next day I went shopping in a very different way. I was inspired.

First things first; coffee. I admit that I’m an addict. So I decided as one of my first steps in going more ‘green’ was to change my morning cup o’ Joe into a statement. A statement I was hoping Architect Dave would share with me on, oh say, a Sunday morning? I found Green Mountain Coffee, where all their java is not only organic and fair trade, but they deliver! I love that.

I was also going to need some sassy new lingerie. I don’t even know if it’s possible to get sexy eco-friendly lingerie? Turns out the internet is a marvelous thing, in case you haven’t heard. I found this website, The Natural Store. It’s in the UK, but they deliver anywhere and it has the largest selection of “Eco Boudoir” goodies that I’ve seen anywhere. These are not your Granny’s panties. They’re truly sexy and fun! I order the Eco Boudoir 'Cheeky French Knicker’s' and the ‘Star Top’. Tres chic.

I think that I hope I’m not getting ahead of myself when the doorbell rings. On the other side of the door was the person every girl wants to see after a great first date, her mother. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. It was not my mother, thank God. On the other side of my door, ladies and gentlemen, take a recycled note, is a flower-delivery man. He was bearing a large and colorful bouquet of Winter Anemones and Calla Lilies.

Of course they come from an organic flower shop. I thought all flowers were organic. Turns out, that’s not the case. These flowers have never seen a pesticide or chemical in their fresh cut little lives.

Yay! There’s a note attached. I rip it open with the fervor of a PETA activist at a fur coat fashion show and it says, “Thanks for a lovely evening. If you like these flowers, I want to show you something even more beautiful. How’s Sunday? Bring your hiking shoes.”

Hiking shoes? My stomach sank into my feet. Feet that, mind you, have never seen hiking shoes. A hike to me is from my house to Barney’s Wearhouse Sale. In a car. With the air on.

Dave calls and I confirm our ‘hiking’ date for Sunday. While I am looking forward to seeing him, I have no idea how I’ll be on a hike. I might cry. If I do I hope he has recycled tissues.

Hey--did you miss the beginning of RiverWired's new Green Reality Series: Girls Gone Green? Come on, catch up. Check out Shari’s previous posts here.