In The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Midge convinces a priest to repurpose funeral flowers as wedding flowers the following week. This was done humorously to save money, but it gave the flowers a longer life. Why not?
According to Jess Doyel from Forward Flora, fresh flowers are treated as a “single-use product.” This means florals from large events like weddings, funerals, parties, balls and fundraisers are typically thrown away. Jess and her partner Max aim to change this practice while teaching us how we can respect the entire lifecycle of flowers (and support our community, too).
Both Nashville natives, Jess and Max met while living in New York where Jess worked in the floral industry. “I was able to pull back the curtain and see the waste being produced in botanicals, especially through large events.” As she became more aware, she began repurposing flowers herself—see her exquisite repurposed floral masks at jessikadoyel.com—and was introduced to Liza Lubell of Garbage Goddess, a New York organization focusing on zero-waste floral events. Jess became a breakdown floral manager and learned how to curb large-scale floral waste.
Then she brought the concept to Nashville.