In this Team Flower Seasonal Design Highlight, we're featuring a ceremony design by Honeysuckle Farm, a flower farm whose arrangements feature locally and American-grown blooms. They practice a sustainable, foam-free approach to floral design. Honeysuckle Farm can be found online at www.honeysucklefarmflowers.com or on social media @honeysuckle.farm.flowers.

On a glorious October day in 2020, Lindsay of Honeysuckle Farm had the honor of designing the flowers for Alex and Matt's wedding at Valley Road Vineyard in Albemarle County, Virginia. The bride selected a beautiful color palette that lent itself perfectly to the vibrant autumn colors in the Mid-Atlantic. The ceremony overlooking the Blue Ridge Mountains featured an archway decorated with zinnias, dahlias, celosia, fountain grass, and cosmos, all grown on her small flower farm, as well as a variety of locally sourced foliage: 'burning bush,' elaeagnus, magnolia, forsythia, and nandina. Other blooms included garden roses, stock, scabiosa, and spray roses, and they were also used in the arch and ceremony arrangements.

Process

The first consultation was between the bride and the floral designer about a year before the wedding. This allowed ample time to share ideas and images, which helped immensely in nailing down the bride and groom's dream wedding vision.

A few days before the wedding, the designer harvested any blooms and foliage that complimented the color palette. Roses, scabiosa, eucalyptus, and spray roses were also used in these designs and were sourced from a local wholesale flower company. Centerpieces, bouquets, boutonnières, corsages, and ceremony arrangements were completed the day before, while the arbor and other touches were done onsite.

Honeysuckle Farm takes a sustainable approach to flowers and design, so they do not use flower foam. Still, they do keep plenty of reusable water tubes, cemetery cones, and moss on hand for installation work.

Everything went off without a hitch, and it was a beautiful experience celebrating a sweet couple!

Three Takeaways:

1. Moss is an amazing tool for hiding mechanics and providing a water source/foam alternative for installation work! If you're a big fan of the no-foam movement and enjoy experimenting with new approaches to sustainable floral design, give this mechanic a try.

2. When doing installs (ceiling, arbors, whatever!), zip ties are your best friend! They come in all different lengths and thicknesses, are super tough, and are easy to disguise. They are small but mighty and can hold a lot of weight.

3. Foliage can make as significant an impact as focal blooms, so don't forget the greens (or reds, purples, yellows, etc.)! The burning bush was really showing off in October and complimented the flowers perfectly. It was the star of the show!

Venue: Valley Road Vineyard

Planner: NextAge Events

Photographer: Crystal Reyns Photo with Once Like a Spark

Florist: Honeysuckle Farm