You Call That Sustainable?

Ok - so, this *might* be controversial ...

Our best selling sustainable Wedding Masterclass uses mostly imported flowers.  Are we misrepresenting it? Using a buzz word to drive sales? Hoping to appeal to the audience and be seen as a brand fighting the good fight? ... Or are we doing the best we can and proffering a path forward that holds both sustainability and accessibility hand in hand?

Recently, our Creative Director, Joseph Massie, posted on Instagram that the turn towards flower provenance and home grown, local blooms, went beyond the genuine desire to do better by the planet and was instead driven by a force so deeply ingrained in our society that some members of the flower industry themselves had not even paused to assess the appropriateness of a different approach - we are of course talking about classism.

"On particular occasions over the years, I've come across subtle smugness from some that grow their own flowers, and whom simply cannot believe that others do not.  One prolific yet dim-witted gardener at Chelsea was aghast I hadn't used my own home-grown blooms in one of my displays.  I've found the distaste in floral designers too, who prize home grown blooms, and demonise anything else not grown in the rich fields surrounding their ivory towers.  Some people have forgotten how the vast majority of us live." - JM

PICTURED: The Ceremony Arbour from The Wedding Masterclass

We call our Wedding Masterclass sustainable, yet import a portion of our fresh materials - so what's going on?

Our vision has always been to empower ANYBODY who wants to dive into the world of floral design to be able to do so. It has historically been a past time of the elite, a luxury beyond the necessity of daily living and reserved for those occasions that warranted special attention.  We view it differently though.  Flowers and floral design our our livelihood, a simple and accessible pleasure upon which we built our business entirely from the ground up and cultivated through dedication, hard work and smart choices.

We prioritise teaching sustainable methods. In The Wedding Masterclass we are proud to say we use no floral foam, and instead we re-use all our willow mechanics, every water spike, every tray and utilise innovation to develop techniques that require zero single use plastics and are multi use many times over.

We ask the questions who is floral design for?  And, what does sustainability look like in reality?

To anyone who wants to learn.  To anyone who wants to begin.  To anyone who can't afford.  To anyone who wants to build and grow a business to sustain themselves, their families, their community.  We invite you into ours and offer you the tools, teachings and resources to do the best you can, starting from exactly where you are at.

The Wedding Masterclass featuring 18 design projects with sustainable techniques can be found HERE.

Our monthly membership Flower Class, featuring sustainable techniques can be discovered HERE.

Our Free Resources featuring full length tutorials and business support can be explored HERE.

"It's a big topic, but here's my thoughts - we'll teach provenance and sustainable practices, yes - but let us be pragmatic, and kinder to those who are doing the best they can with what they've got." - J.M

Join in the conversation with us over on Instagram.

Team Joseph Massie