A Nice Day For A Green Wedding

Is this the future of wedding florals?

As I explore the indoor plant gardens at this year’s RHS Malvern Spring Festival I turn the corner and am met with a glorious sight. According to the signage, it’s a ‘Nice Day for a Green Wedding’ and I couldn’t agree more. This is a wedding breakfast, but not as you know it. In place of the frothy gypsophila and the plump peonies are Birds of Paradise, Aloe Vera, and a whole host of ferns. Instead of sugared almonds, the fictional guests at The Green’s wedding will be taking home a Chinese Money Plant (pilea peperomioides) in a ceramic pot bearing their name. 

The mastermind behind this display is designer and houseplant enthusiast Emma Angold, better known as @goodgrowing to her 47,000+ instagram followers. According to Emma’s website, it was her own big day that opened her eyes to the sustainability challenges facing the wedding industry, something she refers to as “epitomising single-use living and over-consumption”. Wanting to challenge this, Emma put indoor plants at the heart of the design, replacing disposable floral arrangements and decorations for plants rented from a local plant shop that were rented again or sold on after the event. 

Emma’s show garden design really shows off how you can still have an elegant and formal wedding whilst keeping it sustainable and beautiful. To quote the designer herself, “it champions the idea of ‘using what we already have’, bringing houseplants - that often sit in the background of our homes - squarely into the foreground.”

If you’re interested in renting houseplants for an upcoming event, Emma and team are waiting to turn your sustainable dreams into reality!