Carly + Brian

Creating a Hyper-local Wedding

Carly + Brian

or Carly King, “summer” and “Fish Creek” are synonymous.

“I grew up boating the peninsula with my whole family and extended family,” she said. “Fish Creek has always held my heart as one of my favorite places.” Though King hails from southeastern Wisconsin, Door County is her second home – a place filled with just as many childhood memories.

“One tradition my family has held on to, no matter how far or where we all moved, is [spending] Fourth of July in Fish Creek,” she said.

Every year, the holiday becomes a family reunion as family members travel to the area from near and far to experience Door County and all their

favorite places, among them Sunset Beach Park in Fish Creek.

Most popular for its – you guessed it – sunsets, the small park on the western edge of town overlooks the water, and its wooded, winding path transports guests to a simpler, more relaxed time. When Brian Bortmess proposed, King needed no time to decide where she wanted them to say, “I do.”

“I have not experienced a better sunset in such a calming environment,” she said. “It was a no-brainer that this was exactly where I was going to exchange vows with my husband.”

But as the couple began to plan the wedding ceremony, they realized that Fish Creek could also provide the perfect environment for the entire wedding day.

For the reception, King and Bortmess wanted to do something traditional to Door County. A sh boil at Pelletier’s, located within walking distance from the ceremony site, not only lled that bill, but alleviated any transportation issues.

A er the dinner, some of the 65 guests meandered to Fish Creek Beach to continue the festivities in a relaxed and casual setting. The entire celebration was kept within a half-mile radius and less than a 10-minute walk. “We wanted to keep everything personal and focused on small business to support the local community we have enjoyed for years,” King said.

In addition to venues, the couple used all Door County vendors, from dinner and cake to owers and photos. The result was an intimate, small-town celebration lled with a palpable Door County vibe.

“We knew we wanted an intimate wedding with our closest friends and family and [to be able] to spend quality time with everyone throughout the weekend,” King said. “But mostly, we wanted to share this little piece of our hearts with them.”

Vendors

Ceremony venue: Sunset Beach Park Reception venue: Pelletier’s Catering/Dinner: Pelletier’s Cake/Dessert: Blackbird Bake Shop Photographer: Jason Mann Photography Florist: OneEighty Petals Tent Rental/Additional Décor: Shore to Shore Rental Rehearsal Dinner Venue/Catering: Lo Bartenders/Bar Service: Pelletier’s

From Seed to Bouquet

by Sara Rae Lancaster

I remember sitting across a table from the florist, inspiration photos in hand. My wedding was in July, and I had my heart set on the gorgeous bouquet I’d found in a magazine: a lush, loosely held bunch of greenery and white-petaled flowers with black centers.

“Those are anemones, and they aren’t in season in July,” the florist informed me gently, pointing to the flowers.

Anemones? In season? But didn’t people just buy flowers year-round? As I learned, the answer was yes … and no. Although it is possible to order a wide variety of flowers at almost any time of year, not all flowers are grown equally.

Through an unintended consequence of the Andean Trade Preference Agreement (ATPA) of 1991, the United States lost many local flower farms, which were replaced by an influx of readily available, cheap and duty-free cut flowers. More than 80% of flowers purchased in the United States today are imported – most commonly from Colombia and Ecuador – and are often grown in greenhouses that use harsh chemicals and pesticides. And although these readily available flowers may cost less, there’s a good chance their quality and vase life will be, too.

Enter field-to-event wedding florals. Part of the “slow flower” movement – a term coined by Seattle-based writer and American Grown Flowers advocate Debra Prinzing – this niche market of wedding florals focuses on blooms grown using sustainable growing practices, harvested during their natural bloom time and sourced as close to your wedding location as possible.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but my wedding florist’s suggestion to consider working with seasonal flowers would come full circle a decade later when my husband and I – now equipped with more knowledge of flowers than that earlier version of me ever would have imagined – planted the first seeds of our specialty cut flower farm, OneEighty Petals in Fish Creek.

“Specialty Cut Flowers,” by definition, are almost any variety that can be cut and placed in a vase or used in a floral arrangement outside of the three most common florist crops: carnations, roses and chrysanthemums. Specialty cut flowers tend to not ship well, but are popular in design work and thrive

Photo by Andrea Naylor Photography

Photo by OneEighty Petals

Photo by Lo McCarville Photography

In-Season Alternatives

Peonies

Peonies are one of the most requested owers for weddings, and who can blame couples? Peonies’ so and romantic petal structure and romantic array of colors make them irresistible. However, if you’re getting married outside of their May-to-June harvesting window, they may be a struggle – and more expensive – to nd.

Consider instead:

ranunculus and dahlias

Roses

There’s no denying the beauty of a rose, but why not consider something a little less, well, obvious? For owers that look like roses but add a more unusual element to your bouquet, think about some elegant alternatives.

Consider instead:

lisianthus, ranunculus, double tulips

Baby’s Breath

Thanks to its versatility, baby’s breath is one of the most common llers. But this ower is also packed with plenty of allergy-inducing pollen. Using a seasonal alternative can add that light and airy texture to arrangements with a pop of panache.

Consider instead:

yarrow, statice, feverfew, dara in the ower eld – dahlias, peonies, lisianthus, sun owers and zinnias among them. This mix also includes specialty cut grasses, foliage, and woody sticks and branches, including willow.

Each spring, we carefully plan and plant a quarter acre of these blooms to be used in wedding design, sold by direct retail from our farm as well as supply a number of weekly wholesale orders to other local orists. The process runs from mid-May through September, and we tend to harvest and design from what we have planted in the eld.

Though time and labor intensive, this hyper-local approach to wedding owers comes with a variety of perks for both the local oral industry and couples. Part of the job of a eld-to-event grower and designer is to educate couples about their owers and the bene ts of choosing local.

Because we design using what we grow, we like to tell our customers that they get the bonus of being able to follow the journey of their wedding owers from seed to bouquet. If they’re in the area, they can even visit the farm to see the owers we’ll be harvesting for them growing in the eld.

But there’s more to it than that. Whether you decide to work directly with a eld-to-event designer or a traditional orist who purchases owers from nearby growers, here are ve reasons to consider locally grown, seasonal owers for your wedding.

They are unique.

When you choose local owers, you’ll be using owers that are representative of that speci c locale and time in the season, which gives your wedding a customized and distinctive look. Because these varieties tend to not ship well, they are typically not as available to the general consumer and are o en available only locally, giving them a sense of exclusive air.

They are fresh.

When working with a local grower or eld-to-event designer, blooms are harvested within days (generally two or three) before your event. Imported blooms may be harvested a week – or

even more – before they make their way into your hands.

They are responsibly grown.

From natural weed management, to integrated pest-management systems, to the use of cover crops for better soil, most ower farms employ sustainable growing techniques that give back to the land in positive ways.

They help stimulate the local economy.

Just like choosing local for your other wedding needs, purchasing owers from your local grower or a orist who supports local growers keeps money in the local economy.

They are better for the environment.

Local owers require less transport, reducing the overall carbon footprint. They also likely contain few, if any, harmful chemicals. In order to travel thousands of miles, conventionally sourced owers are preserved with harsh chemicals (o en banned in the United States) to prolong their life out of water during shipment.

Knowing where your blooms come from and choosing local for some or all of your wedding- ower needs can help your special day stand out from the crowd – and do good, too.

Photos by OneEighty Petals