By Francesca Olsen
Photographs by Stephanie Zollshan

When I was planning my 2019 wedding, I tapped my local CSA (community-supported agriculture) farmer to help me with growing flowers for centerpieces. I worked with them almost a year in advance of my mid-September wedding, and my mom, a horticulturist, helped fill in any gaps. I had my favorite local florist create some bouquets, and the combination was exactly what I wanted: casual, bohemian, lovely.

There are lots of farms in the Berkshires who will work with couples, either providing buckets of blooms (for you to arrange yourself) or designing and creating the arrangements and look for an event, matching color palettes, making bouquets, and more—at lots of different price points. Some more traditional florists also source local flowers.

If you’re looking for a bespoke experience, talk to Tu Le of 328 North Farm, a half-acre spot in Williamstown that has been gaining a reputation for both its food and its flowers. Le, whose background is in fashion and industrial design, works with couples looking for a way to tell their story in the details.

“It’s a really collaborative effort. I give couples deadlines and homework, and I dig deep. What scent, what song, what little things invoke the feeling of when they first met?” he said. “My job is to translate their celebration of joy in an aesthetic way. It’s not just doing flowers for a wedding.”

On the farm, Le grows throughout the year, with a greenhouse, bulbs, and many perennials. For an August wedding in North Adams, he grew tomatoes and bougainvillea; in the spring, there are peonies, hyacinths, and more. He works with other farms on sourcing interesting floral types that add to the variety available. “I look at what other people are doing and we fill in the gaps,” Le said. “We walk our clients to things—they want roses and carnations and we say, ‘but have you seen these?’ We want to show them something they have never seen before.”

At Full Well Farm in Adams, couples can work with Meg Bantle to pick flowers by the bucketful. “It’s a DIY model, where clients reach out to us about buying wholesale quantities of flowers for weddings or other events,” they said. “It’s flexible, and people use flowers for more than just weddings. It’s also a little more affordable—you’re not actually paying for the florist part, you’re paying for the flowers.”

Bantle will also help with color palette coordination and help estimate how many buckets you’ll need for your event space. Depending on the time of year (growing season is generally June–October) you’ll find zinnias, ranunculus, dahlias, lisianthus, sunflowers, rudbeckia, nigella, lots of ornamental grasses, foxglove, and snapdragons, among other varieties.

Bantle started Full Well Farm on land their grandparents once ran as a dairy farm. “I definitely think there are more farmer-florists than there were even five years ago,” they said. “It’s a continuation of the local agriculture movement in general. Flowers you’re getting at a grocery store are often imported, grown by underpaid workers, flown in from an ocean away—all the impacts that drive people to buy local food also apply to flowers.”

Planning in advance is your best bet for local flowers. Le usually works with couples 12 to 18 months in advance. For a July 2023 wedding at 328 North, “I planted in October,” Le said. Full Well has a shorter lead time since their operation is more DIY.

Bantle said they always find it moving to grow flowers for people who are celebrating here. “It has always felt special,” they said. “Integrating as much of the Berkshires into your event as you can feels resonant.”