Alaska Elopement Flowers: What Works, What Travels, & What to Know

Intro: Meet Natasha of Paper Peony Alaska

Kate Okenatez-Mahoney

Good morning, good afternoon, or wherever you’re joining from, hello, and welcome to Soul & Sky Field Notes, the Alaska Tapes. My name is Kate Okenatez-Mahoney, and I’m the owner of Soul & Sky Weddings. I am super excited because today we are talking about all the beautiful things with Natasha Price, the owner of Paper Peony a floral designer specializing in elopements based in Anchorage.

Natasha is one of the expert voices that this series features because we are bringing information and inspiration to couples just like you about how to create a magical, unforgettable elopement or romantic travel across this amazing place of Alaska. So without further ado, let’s hop in and meet Natasha.

Natasha, I am so excited to have you here. Natasha from Paper Peony who is a floral expert here in Alaska. Natasha, you are an interesting friend because you do florals, but you specialize in elopements, which as you can appreciate is near and dear to my heart. So why don’t you take a quick second, introduce yourself and tell us about your passion.

Natasha Price

Well, I am a lifelong Alaskan. I was born in here and have never left. So I know this place really, really well. And I’ve been in the floral industry since I was 14 years old. So I have a lot of floral experience and know what works and what doesn’t in Alaska. And it’s important to know those things because especially if you’re getting married on top of a glacier, and we could talk about more in a little bit. I started my business probably

Kate

Yes.

Natasha

Well, I don’t know. It’s been more than 10 years. I’ve kind of lost count. I think officially since 2014, but I’ve always had floristry as like a back pocket business and I developed my LLC in 2014 and then I did primarily weddings, like full weddings by myself, which was a lot of work. It’s a lot of energy that I don’t currently have anymore.

Natasha

But one of the silver linings about COVID times is, you know, during COVID, like every vendor in this industry, we had to pivot because people could not gather. And that meant all weddings were canceled for the most part.

Natasha

There was a moment of reflection and change. And one of the things that the silver linings that came from that is this elopement concept, which existed for COVID times, but it really, really came, got accentuated during this time because people still needed to get married and they still wanted to honor that and have that special ceremony, but couldn’t necessarily gather with a large group of people.

Natasha

Going up to Alaska and getting married on the top of a glacier with just a couple of people, like that’s what people started doing. And I really fully embraced that because it worked so well with who I am and how my business runs, because I’m just a business of me. It’s usually, an elopement is usually just a bridal bouquet and a boutonniere. And I just really love making them.

Kate

Yeah, that’s amazing. And I think too, it’s kind of rare because I know that, and I love all my floral friends, but I know that the margin is not there on a bridal bouquet and a boutonniere, right? And so one of the things that I treasure about being able to work with you is it is a labor of love. Like you put your signature and a little bit of the Natasha soul into each piece and you feel that and I love it. And so I think for couples who are looking for elopement florals, like it is a pretty cool gift to have somebody like you in a place as magical as Alaska.

So actually that is a really interesting segue because I’ve had some controversial conversations about florals and elopements and I will say there seem to be two schools of thought. One is that you’re eloping. A, why are doing all that? Right? And then B is the other school of thought, which is you’re going all the way to Alaska. You’re choosing to have this adventurous elopement. Obviously you should have beautiful florals. So help me settle this conflict. Like, is it doing too much or is it a necessity?

Full Weddings to Elopements: How COVID Changed Floral Design in Alaska

Natasha

Well, to each their own. If you’re not into flowers, you don’t have to have flowers at your elopement. But I’m a florist, so of course I’m going to emphasize like flowers enhance the experience. It’s a little bit of bringing tradition into the modern concept of the elopement by having a bridal and a boutonniere, but also it brings some contrast to the photos. So yes, you have this majestic landscape behind you of Alaska, of glaciers, of waterfalls, wherever you’re headed on your adventures. But having this, whether it’s an all white bouquet or a colorful bouquet, it brings some focus to your photos and the photos are part of the reason, I mean, like if you’re going to elope on the top of a glacier, yes, you’re going to remember it forever, but you want to be able to see that memory. And I think that accompanying the photos it’s really special to have fresh flowers if you can.

Kate

Yeah, I’m partial, I agree. And also too, just from a practical aspect, people always feel awkward in photos, like, okay, well, what am I doing? They don’t know what to do with their hands. So spoiler alert, pro tip, having a bouquet allows you to have something to hold, something to swing, something to, right? Something to interact with so you have a very natural anchor point for your hands.

Natasha

They don’t know what to do with their hands.

Kate

If for that reason alone.

Natasha

It’s also a great transition of bringing something natural into the natural background. It’s bring some continuity into it.

Kate

Yeah, yeah, absolutely agree.

Do Elopements Really Need Flowers? (+ What to Do With Your Hands)

Kate

So as far as elopement flowers go, you said you typically do a bouquet and a boutonniere. What are other floral options for couples who are eloping? How other ways have you seen it done?

Natasha

We could do a flower crown for the bride. That’s always really fun because they, I use really long lasting flowers for all my floral pieces because you are going on these adventures and you’re going into the elements. You don’t know what Alaska weather is going to bring you. So I try to prepare by incorporating long lasting flowers. So a flower crown is always a great choice.

Also, like instead of having an arch, I can, I’ve done like almost, I call it a sweetheart table garland. Like it’s just a short, three foot long garland made primarily of greens and fillers that are filler flowers that are really long lasting with with pops of fresh flowers. And that’s really versatile because it can be put on. You can be put on a yurt as an arch. It could be put on the cake. If you have a cake, you could put a round of the cake and have it be a little centerpiece. So that’s always a really great thing to add if you’re into adding a little bit more floral.

Cake flowers are also great if you’re going to have a small cake at your elopement. You can adorn them with just a little cake topper. I recommend having a cake topper rather than putting flowers directly onto a cake, only in that you don’t know how those flowers commercially have been treated. It’s safer if it’s on a little piece of cardboard and you can just set it on and take it off.

Also, I love making floral hair pieces. So I call it, I have hair flare. Hair flare is my really corny name for little pieces of floral. I make 6 of them and they’re all a little different. The hairstylist can put them in however and bend them every which way. Or I can do a traditional flower comb as well if you’re not into a flower crown and that just gets tucked right in.

There’s just small accoutrements that are really good. I say small because there are weight limitations on helicopter rides. It’s not necessarily realistic to pack a lot of flowers into an elopement because you may not be able to take them.

Kate

Yeah, well, weight limit or weight limitations and space, right? And fresh flowers, obviously you want to treat them a bit with a delicate hand. So the space constriction is definitely real. I am a huge fan of flowers. Actually, fun fact, you and I were published in Junebug Weddings for a vow renewal that had really cool flowers.

So we’ll link that in the show notes so people can go check it out. We did use that garland that you were kind of talking about, the table garland, but we used it like 50 different ways.

Natasha

Thank you. I loved seeing that, how you used it so many different ways. It’s so versatile.

Kate

Yeah, and I think that just goes to show like how far your investment can go, right? It’s not just a flower that you’re going to look at one time. One day, you know, one moment is draped above your, you know, the arch of your doorway on your tent or your yurt, you know, the next it’s decorating your ceremony space. The next it’s a portable cake meadow, right? To create a beautiful nest for that little cake that flew in so carefully on the helicopter.

You know, the next moment it is a garland on a dinner table. The next it’s decorating the edge of your bed, right? The headboard of your bed and the tent. Like that is one piece, like five or six different ways.

Although we didn’t zip tie it to anything the whole time I used it. We just draped it and then kind of like braced it and it was perfect. It wasn’t windy though, which sometimes not always true in Alaska, like, you know, so we got lucky.

Elopement Floral Options Beyond the Bouquet

Kate

Flower crowns. Let’s talk a little bit about that. So those are beautiful. Do you see couples choosing a flower crown instead of a bouquet or is it a flower crown with a bouquet? Do you see a typical use?

Natasha

Usually it’s added on to the bouquet and boutonniere as just like an added piece. I like flower crowns because you don’t have to work hard to get them to look good with your hair. If you’re going to wear your hair long, if you’re having your hair up, then I wouldn’t necessarily recommend a crown unless it was maybe a partial crown where the flowers are off to the side.

If you’re wearing your hair down, you just plunk it on. And those things, you can just carry them anywhere. It’s gonna last.

I made a flower crown for a fellow florist for her fifth year anniversary, wedding anniversary this year and she was going to take photos with her husband. I made a full flower crown for her. So it was really, really big. It’s super colorful.

Then I went to the state fair a week later and I spotted her wearing the crown and she’s like, I have been wearing this nonstop everywhere. Like she just took care of it really well, you know, between when she used, she stored it in the fridge overnight and stuff, but it kept for like over a week. And it was just like the best part of my day was seeing this crown getting worn to its full potential. It’s really great for elopements cause you can just carry it wherever.

Kate

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I think flower crowns are great because there’s a lot of times when you’re doing an adventurous type of elopement in Alaska, where you kind of need your hands for things. You know, maybe you’re driving a UTV and you’re obviously not going to be holding your bouquet. But if you’re wearing a flower crown, it’s really or even just a hair comb or a little piece, right? You’re still adorned while you’re in practical movement.

Or when you’re hiking and need your hands a little bit more, that’s a huge opportunity to still feel and look beautiful with that little bit of adornment, but practically have your hands free.

Natasha

And I’ve also seen it used in like flat lays. Where photographers do like a bird’s eye view of different little elements, like the ribbon and like her shoes or you know, whatever, the vow books, right? So you can take your comb and put your crown and add some extra floral elements into that. And that’s again, just another way to like getting the most out of your florals when you are limited, because you are limited in space.

Kate

Pro tip, you can also do that with boutonnieres. And so that’s why like don’t skimp on boutonnieres. Like the element of your couple that needs to, you know, also feel flair should have a boutonniere if that’s what they want.

Natasha

I love men with flowers. I love when the groom holds the bridal bouquet. I love it.

Kate

I’m such a sucker for it. It’s so cute.

Designing for Helicopters, Glaciers & Easy Movement

Kate

So we’ve seen the rise of things like lapel flare and, you know, things like that. Is that something that you’ve done? Is that something you’re excited to try? Is it hard for elopements? It’s a very specialty piece. So I want to talk a little bit about that.

Natasha

Yeah, so I haven’t had an opportunity to make the lapel flowers. It’s basically like, it’s the entire lapel of the suit has been, like, the industry tends to use KT tape, athletic tape to glue the flowers to it so that it just sticks right on there. But I’ve not had an opportunity to make one yet. It seems like it would be really fun.

I don’t know how practical it would be for an elopement, especially if you’re taking the suit off at any point. You have to think about that with wearables is like how much transition is happening, like the wrist corsage, are you putting a jacket on, on taking it off?

So I wonder how much wear and tear it would be on an adventure elopement if it was like something where you’re not going to be taking off the suit and wearing it the whole time, think it would be fine.

But I also love the pocket square, the floral pocket square. That’s another one where it’s just a little more florals for the men, which I think is really lovely than just a boutonniere. For a boutonniere, I usually am just using two to three very small flowers with some greenery. But a floral boutonniere, goes into the whole pocket. It’s like a pocket square. And so there’s like, you know, this much room to get creative and have that extra bit of florals.

Kate

Yeah. And they hold up better because you can attach it to like a sturdier backing.

Natasha

I’ve made quite a few. Actually, my son is a Pokemon card collector, so he lets me use his stiff sleeves for those. It is really sturdy. Yeah, it just slips right in. It’s really convenient.

Wearable Florals, Lapel Pieces & Pocket Squares: What Holds Up on an Adventure

Kate

Yeah, I like that. I would say too, one of the things that I have learned out in the field with adventure elopements is I almost always, so all of my elopements are a day and a half or longer because we’re really like out experiencing. And so I always have my couples order a second boutonniere because without fail, right, you’re wearing a backpack or taking the jacket on and off or whatever happens, right? Life happens to the flowers too.

And so having that second boutonniere is a huge safety thing so that on day two, you’re not, you know, trying to pin it back together or fix a broken stem or you just have a fresh piece ready to go. And if you don’t need it, well, then you have extra detail florals.

Natasha

And also, I wire my boutonnieres and that’s like an old school technique that I don’t know if all florists still do this because I learned this technique when I was a teenager. You actually wire through all of the main stems like the roses and if I’m using mini carnations, for example, or anything that’s going to snap and tape those so they are sturdier.

But they can, that’s the first to go. Like if I see wedding florals where I can tell when the photos were taken like at the end of the day because my boutonnieres are sometimes ragged because they’ve hugged so many people that it’s like okay yeah they’re not meant to last forever so it is really good advice to have more than one if you’re going on a multi-day adventure.

Kate

I hadn’t thought about the hugging. That makes a ton of sense.

Why Multi-Day Elopements Need Backup Boutonnieres

Kate

So let’s talk about varieties of flowers, because Alaska is beautiful in how remote it is, but it is also challenging and how remote it is. Pinterest is a beautiful thing and you talk about actually the let’s pause there you talk about this in the first or second episode of your podcast, which is Alaska flower talk. Is that what it’s called?

Natasha

Flower Talk Alaska, you were close.

Kate

Flower Talk Alaska, which listener friends go check that out because it is so insightful. It’s Natasha, Kasara, and who’s the third? Talene. Three floral friends who all create absolute magic in Alaska. Sitting and talking about all things florals and it’s so educational, insightful, and funny.

It’s obvious that you guys are besties and it’s just a really natural ebb and flow of conversation and so educational. So definitely we’ll drop a link in the show notes so people can go check it out.

But to that, you guys did do a segment on AI and Pinterest and some of the challenges. And I personally have experienced that with couples looking for things in Alaska or expectations. So let’s set the record straight about what are florals like in Alaska? What should you expect?

Natasha

Well, it is a lot about managing expectations. We have to educate our clients a lot and we don’t do it to make them feel bad or put them down. It’s truly that we want to provide them with the best possible products based on their desires and on limitations. So we have a really great resource of commercial flowers. We can get flowers from all over the world, but there is that extra leg of travel getting up here.

So the floral industry is really interesting. Flowers get shipped primarily up to Miami for the most part from all over the world. And then they get dispersed all over the country. So they’re coming up to probably Seattle and then they’re getting flown up to Alaska. So it is a long journey and flowers have to be in out of water in boxes going all over the country for long periods of time. Like think somewhere upwards of two weeks, they’re without water. It just depends.

Yeah, and so the floral industry, I believe over time, has bred flowers to last longer for that reason, because they’re getting shipped all over the country. Like fun fact, the stargazer lily was developed because most other lilies, the way they grow, when you pack them in boxes, the heads would snap. So they made them so that they would lie vertically in boxes so that they wouldn’t break in shipment.

It’s really, really interesting. Anyway, all that being said, getting things up to Alaska, it can happen, but you have to kind of reformat it a little bit. We don’t always have what you see on Pinterest.

And Pinterest can be really deceiving for a lot of reasons and a lot of what you’re seeing now, especially with AI. But let’s put AI aside. What you see on the algorithm, what the algorithm is serving you on Pinterest a lot of times, you don’t know when those flowers, when this photo was taken or where in the world these flowers were. Like Australia has completely different supply. We can’t get all the flowers from Australia. You know, South Africa and Russia, like there’s flowers that go all over the world that we don’t always have access to. So what you’re seeing is sometimes there’s designer blooms, kind of like designer clothing.

There are designer blooms and we can sometimes get them here, but it’s really expensive. Like, and the shipping is so expensive because it has to get overnighted direct to Alaska Air Cargo. I have to drive to the airport to go get that. And it’s like it’s a lot and it’s it’s a risk too.

Yes, especially if you’re just going for an elopement. So my limitation is that if you’re just purchasing a bridal bouquet and a boutonniere from me, I’m not able to special order a specific bloom because I have to order 10 bunches of something for my wholesaler to order it.

So I have, I am reliant on the variety that my wholesalers bring in. So that is one limitation that I’ve brought on it myself. I could go with an outside wholesaler supplier, but it means that it would be much more expensive to buy one bunch of designer roses and have them shipped up here for one event. It’s not realistic.

If you were having like a luxe wedding here where you were getting bridesmaids bouquets and centerpieces and an archway and all that, then it would be totally different story. I could special order these specialty blooms, but because it’s a small order, I am sort of beholden to what my wholesalers carry, which they have a great variety. And if you know what to work with, then I can make something very beautiful for you.

Pinterest vs Reality: How Wedding Flowers Actually Get to Alaska (and Why That Matters)

Natasha

I was just going to continue with the flower varieties that I use. So on top of having some limitations, there’s farm fresh flowers. That’s something you often see in photos nowadays online, which is like dahlias and cosmos. These are like floaty flowers that are delicate and kind of ethereal. They’re really beautiful, but those came from a farm and they were grown fresh picked most likely purchased in the same place that they were grown or they haven’t gone very far in other words.

So we don’t have that availability throughout most of the year unless there are farms in Alaska growing them. So we do have that availability for just this tiny, tiny window in the late summer.

So that is one another limitation because I know this wildflower look is really popular and I get it a lot of requests from out of state clients saying, want a bouquet that features Alaska wildflowers. Well, the one thing you have to think about is who’s getting the wildflower, right? Like, it’s not like I can go to a store and buy a wildflower. It means I have to go out to the wild and pick these wildflowers.

Yes, and so that’s also my time, but also most of these wildflowers, as soon as you cut them, they’re not going to survive. They don’t hold up.

There’s only a couple of varieties that I use that can hold up out of water. That’s a huge factor for an elopement bouquet. And it is a deciding factor of what product I’m going to use.

I’m not necessarily going to use a garden rose for a bridal bouquet because garden roses are sensitive. They don’t do well when they’re being treated aggressively. And sometimes you just have to be aggressive with an elopement bouquet. So I’m going to use a standard rose.

Glacier & Adventure Elopement Flowers: What to Know Before You Choose

Kate

You do. Being shoved in a backpack, the outside of a backpack for hiking, like the struggle is real.

Natasha

I often have bouquets just like crammed in the backpack and that’s fine. That information is helpful to me when I’m figuring out what, what to put in a bridal bouquet.

So, I don’t put delicate flowers into my elopement bouquets. I want to be sure that this is going to be durable. And so that’s another element – is like, yes, we may get, some of these beautiful flowers you see online, but I’m not going to want to use them for your elopement bouquet because they’re not going to look good. They’re just going to be sad.

Kate

Kasara will probably kick me in the shins for this, but her favorite flower… What’s her favorite flower?

Natasha

Renunculus. She loves the renunculus, which it’s a tricky flower for, I don’t want to speak ill of her favorite flower, but I have a hard time. I most likely would not include it.

It’s a lot of labor if you want to make a ranunculus survive. They are hardy flowers if you keep them in a vase of water and they’re very fresh. They can last a really really long time but if you put it in a bridal bouquet you have to wire every single one and the petals themselves can be delicate. So if it’s on a cold glacier it is always a little bit too much of a risk for me.

I know that Kasara has incorporated them and her designs are beautiful and I know it’s a risk when you get it because they can be kind of wilty and sad if they’re out of water for a little bit. Or they even come that way. Sometimes the stems are broken and there’s nothing I can do. And it’s like, I need a reliable product because I am only ordering, I’m only getting one bunch of each, you know, one or two bunches of each floral. I want them to look as good as possible. So it is a risk with ranunculus.

Kate

The other one that I found too is really difficult for me personally. Again, I know everybody has their favorites and there are ways that you can certainly try and do this. I love dahlias. I love how beautiful they are, but maybe it’s just me, but I have found them to be finicky friends. Like they are so thirsty. It’s like, even if you, you can’t mist them and make them happy. You can’t like being in the cool doesn’t necessarily make them happy. It’s like, I don’t know what makes them happy. Is that just me?

Natasha

It’s not just you. Well, it depends. It’s another flower where if they are being shipped up here from the lower 48, they’re just not usually going to last as long. But if you purchase them from a flower farmer during the season of the dahlia season and they’re cut like a day before you use them, they’re going to last. It’s just they are a little bit more sensitive. That’s true.

They also are they’re kind of tricky to design with sometimes because they are, the way the heads grow, they’re like this, right? So they don’t want to splay out vertically. So you have to kind of put them on the sides of the bouquets. It’s hard to get them in the middle. These are like the little things in my head. So it can be a tricky flower to design with.

And I really only recommend using them if it’s dahlia season, which is usually like late August to mid September.

Natasha

But I will tell you my dahlia nightmare story, is I, the biggest wedding I ever did, I got flown down to Northern California to do a wedding for a New York Times journalist. It was really scary. She wanted, it was back when Cafe Olay dahlia’s were super popular. And these are like a dinner plate dahlia. They’re really big and they’re just this perfect blush color and they’re gorgeous.

And I didn’t have much experience with dahlia’s because the dahlia industry hadn’t really taken off here yet. And so I knew that it was a fickle flower, so I actually purchased one third more than I needed and built that into my pricing.

And lo and behold, I picked up all the flowers from the San Francisco flower market, drove back to Larkspur where I was designing, and a third of them died along the way. And I had them in water the entire time, driving an Escalade like across the Golden Gate Bridge. Like it was terrifying. And a third of them died. I couldn’t use them. And so it was they are a sensitive flower. That’s for sure.

Kate

They’re beautiful. I think that’s a thing with flowers too, is like you have to realize that, I mean, you buy it alive, but it’s in its natural like decline stage. And so it’s going to get bruised, you’re going to lose petals, and that’s just the nature, especially with how we treat our bouquets, which is why I’m so appreciative of like how you build for length and sturdiness and like durability, because we are abusive to our flower friend, right? I mean, they see a lot. And so being okay with it being disheveled, things happening, it’s just part of the story of your elopement experience.

Natasha

Well, sure. It’s part of like the personality of your clients too. The ones who are taking a leap to get married in this remote setting, they’re the type of folks that generally aren’t expecting absolute perfection necessarily. I mean, you are giving yourself up to the elements of Alaska.

You don’t know what adventure may come based on the weather, based on, like, you just don’t know. So if you’re willing to come up here and get married in this remote, splendid place, then, yeah, usually we get clients that are willing to let the artist do her work and pick the flowers that we can pick.

Kate

Yeah, I think that flexibility is so important what you just said there, to share the vision and then let the artist create from that. You can have preferences and wishes, but understanding that that will be applied in a way that’s going to produce the best possible outcome for you as a client.

Natasha

Yes.

Kate

Trust your artist.

Natasha

Yeah, for instance, if you know, I try to, not all florists operate the same way, but I like to provide like a roadmap saying, you know, this is the time of year you’re getting married. This is, these are the colors and maybe flower types you’re looking for. This is what I would plan to put into your bouquet. Like the primary flowers, secondary flowers, greenery, but you know, I might have to make substitutions.

So if somebody’s looking for quicksand roses, right? This is a very popular rose. It’s a very, very blush, almost beige. It’s so beautiful. I don’t put them in elopement bouquets very often because they are more sensitive but if somebody’s asking me for a quicksand rose sometimes my wholesalers can’t get them in or sometimes they’re not looking happy when I pick them up from the wholesaler, so I’m gonna make a substitution. I’m gonna use pink mondial and pink mondial has a more brighter. It’s like a pale pink like not so much blushy beige.

But these are like, can’t control the shades necessarily. Like we have to be flexible in that case. So I like when clients are flexible because then I don’t have that nervous feeling of, no, they wanted quicksand roses and my wholesaler doesn’t have them. I don’t have that feeling anymore. I’m like, this is, we have this plan, right? And sometimes the plan doesn’t go exactly the way it’s supposed to, but that’s okay. And I’m still going to make you something absolutely beautiful.

Kate

Yep, yes, that ability to be nimble pays absolute dividends in all things Alaska elopements. Just roll with the punches.

Can You Use Alaska Wildflowers in an Elopement? (Seasonality & Reality)

Kate

Let’s talk about wildflowers. I know we talked about picking wildflowers for bouquet is not a sustainable option and it’s logistically very, very challenging. But if you want to put yourself in a place where you can have nature provide you the wildflowers, are there really good spots in Alaska to go to and is there a special time of year where that’s more likely to happen?

Natasha

Yeah, I mean, early summer, you’re not going to find a lot of wildflowers. It’s too cold still. So I would say probably late June to like the third week of July, honestly. Like that’s when you’re gonna find the lupine is still looking good and you can get in certain parts of South Central Alaska. You can find fields of lupine.

But then if you go in the late summer, if you want fireweed, that’s when you want to go looking for that. And that it’s, I mean, it’s called fireweed for a couple of reasons. It grows like wildfire, but also it’s the first thing to usually comes up after a wildfire. Fireweed comes out of the soil.

You can find that usually like August is when the fireweed, that’s how you know summer’s coming to an end is like the fireweed stalk is like a timeline. So if you start seeing the fluff at the top, you know summer’s coming to an end because it’s like second week of August. And then by the end of August, all the flowers have gone and it’s all there.

Fluff, usually like late July to August, middle of August is when you’re going to find fields of fireweed. And that’s like in Homer, some parts of Homer and that part of Alaska, Kenai area, there’s just, it’s like the hillside is magenta. It’s incredible.

So yeah, you can make the wildflowers be part of your floral experience, right? You just have to know where to.

Kate

Right, yes, you just go and put yourself in the place where the flowers are. And again, roll with the punches, because who knows, it may be a late bloom, it may be got warm really early and things bloom faster and they’re gone by the time you get there.

Natasha

Or there was a windstorm and like lupine can get destroyed in a windstorm, you know, so you just don’t know. But it’s like added bonus if you find a wildflower field.

Keeping Elopement Flowers Fresh in Alaska: Storage, Travel & Weather Tips

Natasha

I think the biggest challenge is when a couple gets weathered out for several days. And that can be a real challenge because they’ve paid a great deal for these florals but that’s out of my hands. So now they have flowers and they can’t use them. So there have been a few times where I do my best to try to help them.

Here’s how to care for your flowers overnight or for several days. I made sure to incorporate flowers that last long on purpose to help with that. Sometimes it really, I mean, it really is out of my hands and there’s not a lot I can do.

I did have a client once that got weathered out for five days. There’s a special technique you can use for wearable flowers where it’s called the hydration chamber. And it is a way of storing flowers so that they stay hydrated out of water and I took such good care of this crown that you could not even tell five days later it looked just as fresh but it’s also not something that I can guarantee.

Sometimes I make the stems a little bit longer on a bridal bouquet going out for an elopement because then you can keep cutting them shorter because when you cut the stems, having a fresh cut makes water draw up more easily. So if you’ve taken a bouquet out of water for a long time, those stems have closed up on the bottom. So you need to get a fresh cut before putting them back in the water. That way they can get hydrated again and last longer.

I sometimes, so for like the one that Junebug Weddings published, I made the stems of that longer on purpose so that you could keep cutting.

Kate

And fun fact, that elopement bouquet, that bridal bouquet, actually our vase was a meltwater stream on the glacier. There was like this little tiny hole. And so I have a picture of this bouquet just like blooming out of the glacier because that’s where it lived overnight in the natural outside refrigerator drinking this fresh glacier water.

Natasha

That’s awesome. I love it.

I always tell my clients my flowers have seen more of Alaska than I ever have in my entire life here. I would someday love to drink from a glacier.

Kate

We’ll bring you along Natasha.

Flower Pickup, Distance & Arrival Logistics: How to Make Your Elopement Prep Smooth

Kate

You’re based just outside of Anchorage, correct?

Natasha

I am in Anchorage. I think this is a common misconception or misunderstanding about Alaska is how far apart things really are. So I am located in the city of Anchorage. It’s the biggest city. I’m located on the south side of Anchorage, which means I am technically closer to Girdwood, Beluga Point where a lot of people get married, but it is still going to a different city. It’s driving to a different city.

So I think what is complicated sometimes is people don’t really, maybe they put it into a map and it says the drive is 40 minutes to Palmer. Okay, like maybe in the lower 48, that’s like five miles of traffic. I don’t know. Right? It’s not long, but in Alaska, that’s an entirely different city.

Palmer, Hatcher Pass, Wasilla, even Eagle River, those are really, really long drives for me. Because I’m a part-time florist, I have another job. I am a mom. I don’t have the capacity to deliver to these remote places. To me, they’re remote.

So a lot of these elopements are going out of Palmer or Talkeetna, and Talkeetna is two-hour drive for me.

So I’ve had to, like, I feel terrible on my website. Like you go to my website and like you go to fill out the elopement form and it’s like, stop before you fill out my form, check this box that you understand that I am located in Anchorage, which is a different city from these other places. These are not the same places. Cause I can’t deliver, I’m not able to deliver to those places.

Kate

Yeah, and to further support you in that, the distance is one of the things that people mis-underestimate all the time.

Natasha

Yeah, it’s different from like, it’s like someone in LA asking me to deliver to Santa Barbara, right? I’m trying to think of like an example. Like it’s just like really, really far. It doesn’t seem like it is, it is.

Kate

And the drive down to Seward is beautiful, but it’s a drive. You’re gonna go and you need to just go to Seward and stay in Seward for a few days. Don’t go and then try and come back for after a night. Like you’re gonna spend your whole trip driving.

Natasha

Or don’t go and then think that you can, don’t think you can drive back to pick up the flowers, right?

And you know, I am kind of like in a hub area, right? Like you land at the airport and I’m only like 10 minutes from the airport. So it is convenient. I often, more often than not, I have clients pick up a day in advance, which is totally fine.

If you have a fridge at home, or at the place you’re staying, you can keep your wearables, boutonnieres, crowns in a fridge and then your flowers, you just keep them in the vase I provide in a cool, shady spot.

Thankfully Alaska is full of cool, shady spots. So like we have the opposite problem as the rest of the country. Like we don’t, we have to worry about flowers freezing in the winter, but we don’t have to worry about flowers overheating too often. So it’s very fine to just keep them like if you got flowers delivered to you and you kept them on your kitchen table in the vase that that came in, they would be fine the next day. A bridal bouquet is treated the same way.

So I often have clients pick up the day in advance so that they can just continue their drive to Seward and not have to come back.

Kate

Right. And I think that is important is you can pick up and then go onward to your destination. But planning for that, make that part of your provisioning when you’re in Anchorage. You’re gonna go to the Fred Meyers and you’re gonna buy snacks and drinks and pick up your flowers from Natasha and then you can get on the road.

Natasha

And this is something that I’ve learned over the years. Like it took me time to figure out that I need to put that on my elopement form.

What day are you wanting to pick up? Is it the day of your event or the day before? Because so many times it’s happened where the bride thinks, I can just, it turns out that we’re driving a long way, so I can just come by today, right? And it’s like, no, I’m picking up your product today. I haven’t even picked up your product. That’s how fresh you want your flowers to be is that I pick them up as close as possible to your event date.

So I haven’t designed your flowers yet. It’s not like I’m keeping them in my cooler for, you know, a couple of days. Like I’m designing right before you pick up essentially. And so I am not always capable, like sometimes I can scramble and make it happen, but there’s some times where it’s like, no, I don’t have this. I work my other job.

Kate

Do not give them your wedding day. Give them your pick up day. It may very well be the day before and if you give them your wedding day, it can be a challenge because if you’ve booked other floral bookings that have now filled the day before, it can get a little tricky.

So pro tip, if you’re eloping and you have travel, give your florist, your cake baker, your anybody that you have to do a pickup for, give them your pickup date, which may very well be different than your actual wedding day.

If you’re used to filling out forms where it’s asking you your wedding day, shove that aside, pick up date.

Natasha

That’s why I’ve added now, wedding day, what day are you picking up? If it’s different from this day, you need to let me know. And that’s totally fine. I have so many people pick up the day before, so it works out.

What People Underestimate About Alaska Elopements (and the Mindset That Helps)

Kate

Okay, thinking about Alaska, you’ve lived in Alaska for a long time, your lifetime. What is the one thing that people always like underestimate when they think about Alaska? We talked about travel and distance.

Natasha

Maybe about how expensive things can be, just in general. So an elopement bouquet, what I charge is typically $275 to $400 for an elopement bouquet with a boutonniere. And I think that’s sticker shock for some people, although not necessarily. If you’re getting married in New York City, flowers can be more expensive.

Yeah, it is sometimes a sticker shock. But in order for me to make a profit, I have to charge that amount. I’m not adding like a special fee because it’s a wedding. It’s that I have to buy wholesale bunches of every single element in a bouquet. So that adds up.

So I think the cost of just the cost of living is a lot here and the cost of groceries and cost of staying in an Airbnb like all those things are probably more expensive than some other places so I think that’s probably something that people misunderstand.

But I think another misunderstanding is the weather like it can get real crummy out you can’t control that and it makes me sad when people are so disappointed that it’s raining and it’s like okay it rains a lot here like a lot and also, your photos are gonna look amazing in the rain, even if you’re sopping wet and your hair is wet, like, they’re gonna look cool.

Cloudy, even better. You got more even light for photos, right? So it’s like, roll with the punches is kind of like embrace those imperfections because you can’t control the weather here and to have this sort of naivete that it’s going to be beautiful. Yes, Alaska is beautiful no matter how you look at it.

But you sometimes you’re socked in and you don’t get that epic view of Denali behind you, but that’s okay. You find your other nooks and crannies that you can get photos of and it’s gonna be beautiful.

Kate

Denali is only visible like 23 % of the time. So if you see Denali, go buy a lotto ticket because you just hit the jackpot.

Natasha

I saw Denali today on my drive home from the delivery and it was really wonderful. My husband is up in Fairbanks right now and he sent me a video from the plane. I’m like, great. Yeah, you saw it from the plane.

So then I’m driving home today. I’m like, I got to see it. It was so gorgeous. Like it takes my breath away and I have grown up here.

Kate

I have been weathered out so many times. I have never seen Denali. Never. I keep trying every time. Almost every time I come to Alaska, I will tack on three days and try and go back up to Denali and I’ll just sit and wait.

But it’s beautiful. You can’t go wrong. And to your point, it doesn’t matter what happens because everything around you is beautiful. Sure, you can’t see the summit of Denali, but the hanging clouds, gorgeous. The texture of the trees in the valley, stunning, right? The river, amazing.

There were just so many things that I think that’s the magic of Alaska. You just really have to be open to putting yourself in a place where magical things can happen and then just being grateful for all the things that unfold before you.

Natasha

Yeah, there’s so much nature here. And it’s even in Anchorage. It’s something I really love about this city is I can drive three minutes and be in nature. It’s really amazing. And I try not to take it for granted. And I have a couple of spots here in Alaska that I just love.

Kate

Well, we’re jealous of your home. I know it comes with, you know, challenges and other things, but it is a truly beautiful place. Anything else that you would want couples who are considering eloping in Alaska to know?

Natasha

Just that, just being able to alter your expectations, I guess, like we’ve already stated that just be flexible. That’s just really a good mantra to have that that’s your biggest path to success.

Rapid Fire: Natasha’s Alaska Favorites & Travel Must-Haves

Kate

Okay, so we’re gonna close and a bit of rapid fire here, because we wanna know a little bit more about you. So describe your Alaska in three words.

Natasha

Wild, breathtaking, remote.

Kate

Love it, love it, love it, love it. So I know you said your florals have seen quite a bit of a state. Do you have a favorite hidden gem spot in the state that you feel like revealing? If you don’t want to, that’s okay.

Natasha

So my favorite spot is also my husband’s favorite place in Alaska, and it’s in Seward. It’s Lowell Point. So you like basically take the main drag down Seward, then you take a right and you just at the end of the street and you just drive until you’re at the end. And it’s just this tucked away beach. It’s so beautiful. And if you go there, like the fall, September, October, there’s jellyfish everywhere on the beach and it’s like just so incredible. That’s so beautiful.

Also, if you have the chance to go to Kodiak Island, that is the most spectacular part of Alaska. It’s so beautiful. So that’s like, it’s like the biggest island and it’s kind of like southwest of Anchorage and it’s breathtaking. It’s like a rainforest there. It’s the greenest green and it’s you do get a lot of bad weather but on the good weather days it’s just unbelievable.

Kate

Okay, Kodiak Island noted and Alaska actually has temperate rainforest, which is another thing that a lot of people don’t think about. The southeast coming up the band coming up through Juneau along the coast out to Seward. And there is that one little pocket hidden in Girdwood.

Natasha

It’s southeast, right? Oh yeah. Yeah. If you go to, what is it? Virgin Creek Falls, which is the best hike you can ever go on. They call it a hike. And I actually never went out there until this summer. I’d never even thought to venture out. Like, well, I guess we’ll check it out. It’s like a two minute walk. You’re at this spectacular waterfall. And my florals have been there many times. And I’m just so glad I finally just, I happen to be in Girdwood. I’m like, okay, I’ll just check it out. And I’m like, okay. Why haven’t I been here before?

Kate

I had a couple who did, they did a destination wedding type of experience with their treasured few and they did their family ceremony at the falls. But we actually ended up going further back and maybe I’m giving away secrets, but I’m here to spread the love. There is a heart shaped boulder if you go back further along the creek and Virgin Creek. It’s huge and it literally is a heart shape.

So if you’re looking for Virgin Creek Falls, go and then keep going and you’ll find the heart boulder. And that’s where, yeah, Kym and Ash were married there and it was beautiful.

Okay, let’s see. What’s a moment in nature that lives rent free in your brain?

Natasha

Well, I grew up here in my backyard playground was Glen Alps, which people know as Flat Top Mountain. We never went to Flat Top. My family and I would go to a different part of the park, of Chugach State Park, that nobody ever goes to.

And we forage mushrooms. We forage wild mushrooms that are edible, which I don’t recommend anybody do. So you just, don’t just go out there and look for mushroom. Like really go with somebody who’s an expert.

That’s the moment in nature that lives rent-free in my head all the time is if I’m ever feeling anxious or unsettled, I close my eyes and I think about the walk from the parking lot of the park and how all the, I know every twist and turn to this hike because I’ve gone on it since I was a baby.

It’s about a 45-minute walk. It’s in a loop. There’s these magical special spots along that trail.

And you end up going down this steep hill to get back down to the main trail where there’s this valley where there’s usually always snow. I mean, even well into August, there’s still a little bit of snow and that’s always the best. It’s like, okay, is there gonna be snow still?

And then as you’re coming down the hill, you look to the left and there’s this little valley where there must be more, like some kind of nutrient trail there where there’s more nutrients or different nutrients in the soil because it’s this trail of wild flowers that don’t grow anywhere else on the trail and they’re all mountain asters like these little purple flowers and it looks like a fairy trail like a fairy flew up and like fern gully planted flowers as it flew.

Then you keep walking you keep walking and on the right you go off to the special little trail on the right and it’s like the avenue of monk’s hood and wild delphinium and it’s all dark purple and blue, don’t touch them, it’s toxic. But you just, go, I mean, these are the memories in my head that I think of when I’m trying to be calm. It’s like my moment of zen.

Kate

I love it. All right. And last question. A lot of folks who might be listening to this are travelers or thinking about traveling. So is there one thing that you never travel without?

Natasha

I guess it depends. Are you talking about like as a just a traveler in general or as a florist?

Kate

Can I get a two-fer?

Natasha

Sure. As a florist, it’s definitely zip ties. They just come in handy for everything. But as a regular traveler, I bring a floppy drain plug with me. So like the rubbery drain plug, because a lot of hotels and places I’ve stayed, they like, can’t plug the sink very well. And sometimes I want to wash something. So I put the floppy drain plug in the sink and can make it into a basin to wash my clothes.

It saved me in Europe because all the hostels I stayed at in Europe, they just had a hole in the bottom of the sink. Right. So and like I’m living on the cheap in my mid 20s and I’m like, I can’t afford a laundromat. I got to wash my own clothes.

Kate

And then once you wash your clothes in the sink, my tip, if I can add onto that, is if you have extra towels or you carry a quick dry towel specifically for this, lay the towel out, lay the clothes once you’ve wrung them out as best you can, lay them in the towel and then roll the towel up with the clothes in it and then wring the towel like this as much as you can. And then the towel will help pull even more moisture out of the clothes so they’re more likely to dry when you hang them in the hotel room.

Natasha

That’s great advice. I’m a knitter and that’s what I do to block my sweaters. That’s the same exact thing I do. Good advice!

Kate

See? Many, many purposes. You are super creative because you’re also, you’re a copywriter as well.

Natasha

Yeah, so I went to school for journalism and so that’s like the other part of my brain as I do copywriting, copyediting, social media management. So that’s like the first half of my day and then the second half of my day is the different creative part of my brain. So it’s a really good balance.

Thank You + Where to Find Natasha

Kate

I love that. Natasha, this has been amazing. Thank you so, so much for sharing your gifts with all of our eloping couples and sharing so many insights here today. Y’all go watch, listen to the podcast. It is so fun. You’ll learn a lot, I promise. But thank you so much. And I cannot wait to see you the next time because I know you’ll be holding beautiful gifts for me. And I love that.

Natasha

Well, it’s been a pleasure. Thank you for this opportunity.