images by bethany » vancouver international wedding photographer

there are a couple florists in this city that i absolutely adore and olla urban flower project is one of them! my husband knows of three flower shops that he can walk into and tell them to create anything, and i would love it. he did that for me at christmas. he walked into olla urban flower project and told megan he’d like a terrarium gift for his wife, the budget, and let her do the rest. perfection! megan’s creations at olla are stunning! that’s a word i use a lot but i really do mean it. i’ve had the pleasure or working with olla at a wedding as well and what she created for the couple was beautiful.

i stopped by a couple of weeks ago to buy a little plant for the studio (i do that too frequently… either because i love plants or because i am not great at keeping them alive…). on this particular visit i snapped some photos so that i could share her amazing shop with you.

on the second floor of a heritage building in gastown resides olla urban flower shop. i want to live there. the shop is brimming with locally or ethically source plants and blooms. It is “a unique flower shop inspired to create socially-conscious arrangements and living containers.” They are “building a social enterprise that is accountable to the community in which it is located, the downtown eastside (DTES), and to the environment.” Love it.

here are a couple of their amazing initiatives (taken from their website):

• Buying local, urban and ethically traded flowers. Every stem used in our flower designs (both blooms and foliages) is sourced from an urban farm/garden, a local farm/greenhouse, or else from a Fair Trade/Veriflora certified farm.
• Redirecting corporate event flowers to non-profit organizations operating in the DTES. Event flowers are usually admired for a short time then discarded. We help prolong their life by dropping them off at local charities where they help to beautify and to uplift the spirit.
• Providing positive job opportunities to DTES residents. Job creation plays a pivotal role in any healthy community. As our social enterprise grows, we will be able to offer flexible job opportunities in sales, landscaping, floristry, and delivery.
• Working towards a zero waste mandate by sending our green waste to local composting projects and working with suppliers to decrease packaging.
• Urbanizing flower production through our partnerships with city farms and our own Olla Urban Gardens, a project that grows organic flowers in private urban gardens.
• Hosting monthly workshops on plant and flower design and entertaining events in our beautiful heritage building.

And here are the photos I took.

Next time you are in Gastown, I’d highly recommend paying Olla a visit!