Slow Flowers Podcast

Slow Flowers Podcast


Episode 697: Best of 2024 (Encore) Secrets of a Sustainable Wedding Florist with Jessica Stewart of Pittsburgh’s Bramble & Blossom

January 02, 2025

https://youtu.be/yOLV0XJX1ic?si=3ZxsB3shtvPOrquK

Jessica Stewart of Bramble & Blossom

Happy New Year! We’ve pulled one of our most popular episodes of 2024 to share with you today and I know it will inspire you with new sustainability ideas for the coming wedding season! Meet Jessica Stewart, a pioneering Slow Flowers floral designer, and learn how she leads with joy when communicating her values to wedding clients, while also infusing her aesthetic with sustainable values. This episode is called Secrets of a Sustainable Wedding Florist so get ready to be inspired.

New Year, New YOU at the Slow Flowers WORLDWIDE Summit 2025

It’s a busy time over here at the Slow Flowers Society with all of our efforts focused on producing an amazing, first-ever Slow Flowers WORLDWIDE Summit – coming right up next week over three packed days – January 9-11, 2025. This is an all online/virtual conference so you have no excuse to skip it! You’ll be able to log in and watch 15 hours of inspiring floral education and connect with each speaker personally – or, if your schedule doesn’t allow that, you will have access to the replay sessions for three full months that follow. By the way, if you’re listening on January 2nd, we’re still in the midst of our NEW YEAR NEW YOU $50 off flash sale, which continues through midnight PT on Friday, January 3rd. Click below to grab your registration and save! Slow Flowers members receive an additional $50 off as a member benefit!

Join us at the Slow Flowers Summit -- Grab Your Ticket Today and Save $50

Romance in bloom by Bramble & Blossom

We pulled today’s encore Episode from the archives as one of our top shows from 2024. Stay tuned for the wrap up – when I’ll share a business update recorded with Jessica Stewart earlier this week – you’ll love hearing what’s happening with Bramble & Blossom these days!

Replaying this episode seems well timed, because it’s engagement season and many of our wedding and event designers are busy, consulting with prospective couples and pulling together concepts and proposals. For Slow Flowers designers, those who infuse their business values with sourcing and sustainable considerations, there’s an important added layer involved.

Jessica is well aware of the importance of educating clients about having a local and seasonal approach to designing their wedding flowers. We asked Jessica to unpack all the elements involved in running Bramble & Blossom, and to share her approach to communication during the sales process.

Jessica shared an incredibly detailed presentation for the January 2024 Slow Flowers Member (virtual) meetup and we recorded it to share, originally as Episode 646 on January 24, 2024. Whether you caught that episode or this is your first time hearing it, you’ll be treated to Jessica’s approach about how she designs for seasonality and sources from local flower farms to produce gorgeous, romantic, evocative weddings.

Jessica’s presentation includes details on how she prepares contracts + proposals; and how she sources and plans for weddings and installations. Her expertise is priceless and you’ll want to listen in.

Joy and Intentionality come across through florals

Here’s a little bit more about Jessica Stewart of Brambles & Blossom, an Eco-Friendly Pittsburgh Wedding Florist:

The tagline for Bramble & Blossom includes these guiding principles: Ethical. Sustainable. Anti-Racist. Inclusive. Accessible. Intentional. Stunning. You’ll notice these characteristics in each Bramble & Blossom design, and in turn, realize how special and rare these qualities area. As Jessica writes on her website: “This seems like a #HumbleBrag at first glance. But the truth is, we wish there was more competition.”

Here's a fun photo from our NYC-Brooklyn Slowflowers.com gathering. From left: Gloria Battista Collins of GBC Style, me, Jessica Stewart and Justine Lacy of Foxglove Floral Design Studio,