Welcome to our 2025 Celebrations + Ceremonies issue! This is the second time we devoted an entire issue of Slow Flowers Journal to flower-centric weddings (the first such issue was published Spring 2023 and you can see it here).

We wholeheartedly endorse the overall message from Slow Flowers members featured in these pages, flower farmers, farmer florists, and designers who have designed studios and shops that elevate locally-grown flowers and sustainability as core values. We hope it inspires you and gives you a sense of confidence in making similar steps in your enterprise.

This issue is filled with so many gorgeous botanicals, inventive floral design and installations, and practical approaches to sustainability. We love the generous business advice from some of our contributors, too. Alanna Messner-Schott of Waverly Flower Co. shares how her studio engages couples in wedding planning, including hosting customized ribbon-dying sessions with plant-based dyes. And we are grateful to April Vomfell of Flathead Farmworks for sharing her “Seed to Ceremony” approach to wedding florals in the Business of Flowers. You’ll love the tips she offers.

As we have been readying this edition of Slow Flowers Journal to share with you, we are anticipating the long-awaited May 6th publication of The Flower Farmers: Inspiration & Advice from Expert Growers, the book that we’ve spent much of the past 18 months creating. We wanted to share a favorite piece of this project with you, so please check out pages 48-50 to read “Floral Futures,” the fantastic Epilogue that Becky Feasby of Prairie Girl Flowers contributed to its pages. Becky connects the dots between responsible flower farming and fighting climate change – such an important idea!

Congratulations to all this season’s couples, their vows, their ceremonies, their flowers, and their love!