Locally Grown Flowers for Weddings, Events + Businesses in Northeast Ohio
What does it look like when flowers grown right here in Northeast Ohio become part of a wedding, dinner, event, restaurant, shop, or summer gathering?
This August, we decided to show you.
The Flower Guild brought together flowers grown by our local flower farmers, floral artist Kate Rutter, photographer and creative director Steph Sheldon, and a few of our favorite people and places along Lake Erie for an afternoon celebrating the abundance of locally grown flowers in Northeast Ohio.
The result was more beautiful than we could have imagined.
Local flowers, straight from Northeast Ohio farms
We began in the flower field, where our friend Marla welcomed us for the afternoon.
Sue, Kay, and Alex gathered around a table overflowing with seasonal flowers grown by farmers throughout The Flower Guild. Kate took what our growers had available that week and turned it into something spectacular.
That's part of the magic of designing with locally grown flowers: the season gets to participate.
Instead of deciding months ahead of time that every arrangement must contain one particular flower shipped from thousands of miles away, local flowers invite you to begin with what's at its most beautiful right now.
In August, that means buckets of zinnias, dahlias, lisianthus, celosia, hydrangeas, sunflowers, scabiosa, mountain mint, and so much more.
For weddings and events, that seasonality can create flowers that feel completely connected to the time and place where you're celebrating.
And for florists, it means access to flowers with color, movement, fragrance, and varieties that can be difficult to find through traditional wholesale sources.
Northeast Ohio flowers, at home on Lake Erie
For our second shoot, we headed to The Cottages at the Water's Edge- owned by our friends and guild members The Hoffman’s.
Lake Erie gave us the most perfect August afternoon: bright sunshine, blue water, and a clear horizon where the lake and sky seemed to meet.
Kate brought hydrangeas down to the beach, where they floated against all that blue. Inside, we filled the cottages with arrangements of seasonal flowers grown nearby.
A vase on a table.
Flowers beside the bed.
A handful of stems catching the afternoon light.
It was a beautiful reminder that locally grown flowers aren't only for weddings.
They can transform the tables at a restaurant, welcome guests into a hotel or vacation rental, bring life to a shop or office, fill a dinner party with color, or make an ordinary Tuesday at home feel like August in Northeast Ohio.
We added eggs from our friend Dena and market goodies from Krieg's and sat together enjoying all of it.
Flowers. Food. Friends. Lake Erie. Late-summer sunshine.
Everything came from this place and this season, and that was exactly the point.
This is what we're building
These photographs are beautiful, of course.
But they're also about something bigger we're trying to create with The Flower Guild.
We want florists to know the people growing their flowers.
We want farmers to know the people turning those flowers into art.
We want to make it easier for those people to find one another, work together, text each other, ask questions, share ideas, and build relationships that last longer than a single order.
And we want more people to see what's possible when we choose flowers grown right here, in the season we're actually living in.
These photographs capture one August day.
But when we look at them, we see our farmers. We see our florists. We see Northeast Ohio. We see the incredible abundance of our growing season.
Mostly, we see what can happen when we bring it all together.
Take a look around. We're so happy to share it with you.
Looking for local flowers for your Northeast Ohio wedding or event?
The Flower Guild exists to make it easier for Northeast Ohio florists to source beautiful, seasonal flowers directly from local flower farmers.
Our growers offer flowers throughout the growing season for florists and floral designers creating weddings, celebrations, corporate events, restaurants, installations, and everyday arrangements.
Rather than replacing the relationship between a client and their florist, we want to strengthen what local florists are able to create by connecting them with exceptional flowers being grown close to home.
So if you're planning a wedding or event and local flowers matter to you, ask your florist about sourcing from Northeast Ohio flower farms.
And if you're a florist or floral designer, we'd love to welcome you into The Flower Guild. Registration is free, and our wholesale marketplace makes it simple to see what's blooming across our member farms and shop the flowers you need each week.
Grown here. Designed here. Enjoyed here.
That's really what these photographs are about.
We want more people to know that extraordinary flowers are being grown right here in Northeast Ohio.
We want brides and couples to know they can ask for locally grown, seasonal flowers for their weddings.
We want businesses, restaurants, event planners, and venues to see what's possible with flowers grown nearby.
And most of all, we want florists to know the farmers behind the stems they use to make their work.
Because The Flower Guild isn't simply a place to buy flowers.
It's a community of real people growing, designing, creating, and building relationships with one another—one season, one conversation, and one very beautiful bucket of flowers at a time.
Welcome to August in Northeast Ohio.
Flowers: Grown by flower farmers throughout The Great Lakes Flower Guild
Floral Design: Kate Rutter
Photography + Creative Direction: Steph Sheldon
Location: Great Lakes Flower Guild, Cottages at The Water’s Edge
