Funky Florals
How Fireside Farm is bringing our love of greenery & wildflowers into our wedding florals!
When I was in elementary school, I used to ride my bike down the street to Willowbrook Creek, down the sledding hill, and drop my bike at the foot of a giant magnolia tree. I spent hours climbing in this fortress. It was gigantic, peaceful, hidden, and one of the best memories I have.
I always loved magnolia flowers and the best of all – the leaves with fuzzy brown backs that kept them from wilting. I remember wondering why some girls wanted roses when they could have the magnolia tree in whatever season – with the fuzzy pods, leaves, or the beautiful flowers.
My love for greenery has not changed. In fact, it’s the only part of the childhood to college to adulthood wedding dream that has stuck. (Okay, and the fact that I’ll be groovin’ to some classic ‘60s tunes on the dance floor).
I never really loved flowers until I met Ivy. (Cue the “awws”) For Ivy, her love of wildflowers & luscious green herbs comes from her mom & aunt. There was always a bountiful lavender bush outside of her home in Maine, and a vase of wildflowers on the table. Ivy carried this tradition with her, and we try to keep the vases in our house full of sunflowers, celosias, daisies, and more whenever we can.
Anyway – enough with the sappiness and onto the point! Our tables will obviously be covered in greenery! This greenery will include Italian ruscus on the table, and bud vases filled with herbs, funky summertime flowers, and general floral texture.
For such a specific vision, I knew I wanted to speak with a farmer – someone who would use seasonal flowers and someone who appreciated playing in the dirt maybe even more than I did (and still do).
After talking to a trusted flower farmer pal & some slight instagram sleuthing I knew exactly who we needed to bring our floral vision to life: Fireside Farm!
“Brought together by their shared love for swimming in the Eno River and reading Adrienne Rich, Randall and Lisa fell in love in 2004 while teaching at Duke Young Writers Camp. Three years later, they took John Prine’s advice, smashed their TV, and moved to the country. It was a drought year in 2007, so they sought land with a deep well. They found nine remote acres with a spring on it near the Cane Creek Reservoir.”
Photo Credit: Fireside Farm
Photo Credit: May Caudillo Photography
Photo Credit: Fireside Farm
Y’all – I cannot rave enough about my experience. Lisa Joyner, farm co-owner and our wedding floral visionary is really just so great.
Fireside Farm works with high-end seasonal flowers they grow themselves or source from a local distributor. They have a large range of design, but veer toward playful and organic, highlighting the natural texture of the flowers and greenery – with some fun surprise elements – meaning no two bouquets are ever the same. I seriously love that so much!
They offer everything from full service floral to DIY, and a custom mix of both. We opted for that combination of the two – Lisa will be designing and assembling boutonnieres for us and our immediate family, as well as our arbor. We will get a few bulk flower buckets to fill 60 small bud vases that will be set up on the tables in the ballroom and throughout the venue – our DIY portion!
I love funky flowers, but I certainly do not know the names of them all! I’m so happy to have Lisa and her team take our rambling love for greenery and wildflowers and turn it into something stunning.
Here’s what she came up with – I can’t even wait to see what she creates! (I mean she did tell me the lush amaranth on the farm has our name written allllll over it….!)
Design Style:
Funky, whimsical, vintage, & non-traditional
Color Palette:
Neutral tones; light blue, light pink, white, yellow, peach, dusty rose with accents of burnt orange – no bright primary colors!
Possible Varieties:
Celosia (flamingo feather), lavender, rosemary, lots of greenery and grasses, lisianthus, blue thistle, feathertop grass, amaranth, eucalyptus, zinnia, gomphrena, dahlia, cosmos, billy balls, muhli grass