Hold a date

Wedding flowers · Minneapolis

Only what
the season
gives.

Birch, branches and whatever is blooming that week, grown within a day’s drive of the Twin Cities. Weddings by Ingrid, every month of the year.

In bloom in May

Lilac, apple blossom, tulips, bleeding heart, birch in new leaf

Weddings from $2,600
$350 holds the dateHold a date

What a winter arrangement looks likeA tall arrangement of white ranunculus, hellebores, pussy willow and birch twigs in a stoneware vaseWhat a summer arrangement looks likeWhat a autumn arrangement looks like

The year

Four seasons, and every one is a good one.

We don’t fly flowers in. So your wedding looks like the month it happens in, and in Minnesota that means four very different weddings.

  • A spring arrangement: lilac, apple blossom, tulips, hellebores

    SpringMarch to May

    Branches before leaves. Pussy willow and cherry in March, then lilac and apple blossom, white and the palest green.

    Lilac, apple blossom, tulips, hellebores

  • A summer arrangement: peonies, delphinium, lupine, cosmos

    SummerJune to August

    The farm at full tilt. Peonies for two weeks in June, then delphinium and sweet pea, cut at dawn and on your table by noon.

    Peonies, delphinium, lupine, cosmos

  • A autumn arrangement: dahlias, asters, oak, grasses

    AutumnSeptember to November

    Our favorite. Pale dahlias, grasses gone to seed and oak branches turning, all of it warm and quiet.

    Dahlias, asters, oak, grasses

  • A winter arrangement: birch, amaryllis, pine, paperwhites

    WinterDecember to February

    Birch, pine and cedar from the woods, amaryllis from a greenhouse an hour north. Candlelight does the rest.

    Birch, amaryllis, pine, paperwhites

Weddings

Three sizes, priced plainly.

Every wedding includes a walk through your season with Ingrid a month before, all the stoneware, setup, and clearing it all away at the end of the night.

  • HearthUp to 60 guests

    $2,600

    • Her bouquet and four for the wedding party
    • Six boutonnieres
    • Eight table pieces in stoneware
    • Branches for the ceremony

  • Long tableUp to 120 guests

    $4,400

    • Everything in Hearth, for every table
    • A branch canopy over the head table
    • Flowers for the cake and the bar
    • Candles and linen runners

  • GroveThe whole day

    From $7,000

    • Everything in Long table
    • A birch arch or a ceremony grove
    • A hanging installation over the room
    • Ingrid on site from noon to the first dance

Twin Cities and the St. Croix Valley included. The North Shore and Duluth, $300 travel. Hold a date

How we work

Four rules, kept every week.

  1. iOnly what’s in season

    If it isn’t growing here that month, it isn’t in your wedding. We will always tell you honestly what your month can give.

  2. iiWithin a day’s drive

    Our own half acre in Afton, six growers in Minnesota and western Wisconsin, and the woods, with permission. Most stems travel under two hundred miles.

  3. iiiNo foam, ever

    Floral foam is plastic that never leaves. We build on moss, chicken wire and old pin frogs, and everything comes apart again.

  4. ivNothing wasted

    Stems go to the compost at the farm, branches go back to the woods, and the stoneware comes home to be used again.

Ingrid, the florist behind Ostara, in her whitewashed studio holding an armful of birch branches

Ingrid

Hello, I’m Ingrid.

I grew up in Lindstrom, where my grandmother Britt kept a cutting garden behind the house and, every March, brought birch twigs inside to put in a jar and wait for. By Easter they were green. That jar is still the whole idea.

I studied landscape architecture, then spent two winters working in a flower shop in Uppsala, where in February they sold branches and tulips and nothing else, and nobody minded. I came home in 2017 and started Ostara the next spring, in a whitewashed room in an old brick building in Northeast Minneapolis.

Ostara is an old name for the spring that comes back. In Minnesota you learn to wait for it, and to love what each month gives while you do. My partner Jonas grows our half acre in Afton, and Bea helps me on every wedding day.

Ingrid

  • 180weddings since 2018
  • 0blocks of floral foam
  • 12months a year
  • Jonas carrying a bucket of cut stems between rows of white flowers at dawn, birches at the edge of the fieldThe half acre in Afton, July, 5:40 am
  • Hands tying a bouquet of white flowers and birch twigs with undyed linenTied with undyed linen
  • The studio in Northeast Minneapolis: buckets of branches and white flowers under tall factory windowsThe studio, Northeast Minneapolis

Weddings

A few weddings, by the month they were in.

  • A birch arch, apple blossom and white tulips, A birch grove near Afton, May

    MayA birch grove near AftonA birch arch, apple blossom and white tulips

  • Pine, birch twigs and white amaryllis, held under a wool cape, A frozen lake, Minneapolis, January

    JanuaryA frozen lake, MinneapolisPine, birch twigs and white amaryllis, held under a wool cape

  • Crabapple branches hung over the long table, candles, pale linen, A timber hall near Stillwater, May

    MayA timber hall near StillwaterCrabapple branches hung over the long table, candles, pale linen

  • An elopement bouquet: white dahlias, cosmos and grasses, The North Shore, September

    SeptemberThe North ShoreAn elopement bouquet: white dahlias, cosmos and grasses

  • Peonies, delphinium and lupine in low stoneware bowls, A farm near Northfield, June

    JuneA farm near NorthfieldPeonies, delphinium and lupine in low stoneware bowls

5.0 from 71 couples on Google.

  • “We got married in February and I was afraid it would feel bare. It felt like walking into a Swedish painting.”

    Annika and Joel · February

  • “Ingrid talked me out of peonies in October. I am so glad. The dahlias were better than anything I’d pinned.”

    Maya · October

  • “The branches over our table had buds on them, and by the end of the night some had opened.”

    Sam and Rhea · May

“Ingrid makes a Minnesota February look like a choice.” Northern Table Quarterly, Winter issue

Where

The Twin Cities, and a day’s drive around.

The studio is in Northeast Minneapolis, open by appointment on Thursdays. We do weddings across the Twin Cities and down the St. Croix Valley, and go up to the North Shore and Duluth for a $300 travel fee.

© OpenStreetMap contributors
Minneapolis, St. Paul and the St. Croix Valley Studio in Northeast Minneapolis · the North Shore for $300 Open the map

Questions

Before you write.

Can I have peonies in October?

Not from us. Peonies grow here for about two weeks in June, and the rest of the year they fly in from the other side of the world. For an October wedding we’ll show you the pale dahlias, and most people stop asking.

What does a winter wedding look like?

Birch, pine, cedar and white amaryllis, forced branches that bud in the warm room, and a lot of candlelight. Winter is when the work looks the most like us.

Where do the flowers come from?

Our half acre in Afton, six small growers in Minnesota and western Wisconsin, a greenhouse an hour north for winter bulbs, and branches from the woods and from a tree crew we trust.

Do you use floral foam?

Never. Everything is built on moss, chicken wire and pin frogs, so it all comes apart and goes back to the farm.

Can we choose our colors?

Within the season, yes. Everything we do leans pale: white, cream, soft green, a little blush or rust. If you love deep jewel tones, we’ll happily send you to a friend.

How far ahead should we book?

June and September Saturdays go a year ahead. Winter dates and Fridays often open up two or three months out.

How does the deposit work?

$350 holds your date and comes off the total. The rest is due a month before the wedding, after we walk your season together.

Hold a date

$350 holds your date.

Pick the size and the day. Ingrid writes back within a day, and a month before the wedding you walk your season together in the studio.

  1. 1Service
  2. 2Date
  3. 3Details
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