The Excess of the Trend: Rethinking Fruit & Vegetable Florals in Event Design
Why the Dutch-master dream requires honesty, responsibility, and a deeper creative intention.
In the last few years, event floristry has surged with a very specific visual obsession: heaping tablescapes adorned with figs and plums, peaches and pears, grapes spilling over the edges of compotes, artichokes nestled beside ranunculus, quinces perched next to garden roses. The fruit-and-vegetable styling trend—often described as “European,” “old-world,” or “painterly”—has become the hallmark of many high-end events.
But like most trends that suddenly appear everywhere, this one wasn’t born overnight.
And for some of us, it wasn’t a trend at all—it was simply part of our artistic vocabulary.
Before It Was a Trend: Why I Have Used Produce for Years
My roots in still-life design reach back to the Dutch masters—those painters who celebrated abundance, impermanence, and the poetry of everyday objects. Their compositions weren’t just florals; they were studies in light, contrast, seasonality, and symbolism. Produce played an essential role in those paintings: grapes for luxury, peaches for purity, apples for temptation, pomegranates for prosperity.
In my own work, integrating fruit or vegetables has always been a natural extension of that lineage. It adds weight, story, and emotional texture—something far beyond a fleeting trend cycle. When I use produce, it’s intentional, rooted in old-world aesthetics rather than borrowed from whatever the algorithm is pushing that month.
The Beautiful, Messy Truth: Excess Comes at a Cost
But here’s the part that doesn’t get talked about nearly enough:
Adding produce to event florals dramatically increases both cost and waste.
A single table adorned with seasonal fruit can easily add hundreds of dollars in materials alone. And unlike flowers, which we expect to be discarded or composted after an event, edible elements introduce a new conversation—one about ethics, sustainability, and responsibility.
The industry loves the look… but rarely addresses the byproduct.
The Quiet Weight of Excess: The Emotional and Ethical Layer
There’s another piece to this conversation—one that carries its own kind of heaviness:
Using large quantities of food as decor can feel uncomfortable when so many people struggle to put food on the table.
It’s not about shaming beauty or creativity.
It’s about acknowledging the reality:
We are designing in a world where food insecurity exists alongside lavish celebrations. For many of us, that contrast creates an internal tension. As artists, we feel the beauty of the abundance—but we also feel the weight of it. And pretending that weight doesn’t exist doesn’t make it go away.
This doesn’t mean fruit-forward styling is inherently wrong.
It means that part of being a responsible designer—and a conscious human—is holding both truths at once.
The Controversy: Aesthetic vs. Waste
As this trend has grown, so has the criticism:
Is it wasteful to purchase a large volume of food purely as decoration?
Is it ethical to showcase such visible abundance when some of it will inevitably be discarded?
Are clients fully aware of the added cost and environmental footprint?
These are fair questions—and they deserve clear, honest answers from designers.
What Designers Must Do: Transparency Above All
If you’re offering fruit- or vegetable-enhanced designs, it’s our responsibility as professionals to set expectations from the beginning. That means:
1. Tell your clients the truth about cost.
Produce styling isn’t a $30 addition. It can be a significant line item. Clients deserve to know that it elevates the aesthetic—but also the budget.
2. Explain the reality of waste.
Fruit kept at room temperature for 10+ hours under candles, lighting, and handling may not be viable for consumption afterward. Vegetables used as props can bruise or spoil rapidly.
Clients should understand that the aesthetic, while beautiful, is not waste-free.
3. Present solutions, not problems.
There are smart, responsible ways to handle produce after an event, but it's important to be honest about this too—because responsible disposal or donation actually adds cost, not reduces it. Sorting through produce, packaging it properly, transporting it to a donation location, communicating with farms or community programs, and handling food-safety considerations all require labor. It’s far more time-consuming than simply throwing everything away.
Most clients (and honestly, many designers) don’t factor in this additional labor when talking about “sustainable alternatives.”
But if we’re going to do this well, we have to include it.
Responsible options include:
Donation to local farms for animal feed (many accept slightly bruised produce).
Donation to community gardens or compost programs.
Choosing durable, long-lasting fruits (citrus, pomegranates, winter squash) that remain fully edible after an event.
Designing with restraint—fewer, more intentional edible elements rather than overabundance.
Sustainable solutions are possible, but they must be planned for, staffed for, and budgeted for.
Honor the Aesthetic—But Honor the Responsibility Too
The fruit-and-flower trend is beautiful when done well. Authentic when rooted in art history. Captivating when approached with intention.
But as designers, we owe more than beauty.
We owe honesty.
We owe mindfulness.
We owe a commitment to the environment and the resources we consume in the name of art.
The Dutch masters celebrated abundance, yes—but they also painted vanitas themes: reminders that beauty is temporary, excess is fleeting, and everything we create exists within a larger cycle of give and take.
As modern floral artists, we get to decide how we honor that cycle.
When we choose to incorporate edible elements into our designs, let it be with reverence—for the craft, for the client, and for the world we borrow our materials from.