When Colorado legalised cannabis for recreational use in January, enterprising Denver florist Bec Koop launched a business called Buds and Blossoms, which incorporates cannabis into wedding floral displays.

I used to work at a medicinal cannabis dispensary, and I have a floral business, so I thought Buds and Blossoms would be a fun way to bring cannabis into the wedding scene. Guests could take the bud from their bouquet or boutonniere and enjoy their wedding weed on the wedding night.

I'd recommend different strains for different times of the wedding. Sativa is like a cup of coffee – it picks you up and makes you feel euphoric – so I'd give that at the beginning. Indica helps you relax, so I'd put a little indica chocolate in your party favour bag for afterwards.

It can be difficult finding venues that are OK with having marijuana on their property. Some are on state land where it's not legal, and some private venues have anti-cannabis policies. In certain circumstances I can rent a limo for guests that serves as a private smoking lounge.

A lot of ingenuity is required in this business, in spite of legalisation. There's still a lot of stigma – you never know how people are going to react. Once the regulations relax a bit more, I can see a huge influx in these kinds of weddings coming through.

Personally, I enjoy the plant. It's something I started enjoying in college. I use it for medicinal as well as recreational reasons.

I can take two puffs of a certain strain and a really bad migraine will be reduced to a headache in 10 minutes. Sometimes it'll even stop muscle spasms. It's like taking an Advil, but I'd rather take something natural than a bunch of chemicals in a pill.

This is an amazing up-and-coming industry. I've been involved for five years now and have watched it expand and change. But my motivations are not really financial at all. I'm trying to make more people comfortable with cannabis and aware of its benefits.

The industry is very tightly regulated at the moment and I like that fact. Not just anybody can come in and start a business – you have to be a true entrepreneur who understands the law and takes the time to do everything in the right way. It keeps out people who might not have the right mindset for this.

Pot politics, as we call it, changes on a weekly basis. Staying on top of everything is really quite challenging for all of us. I am involved in a networking group for women in the cannabis industry called Women Grow. We bat some ideas back and forth between us and share legal advice. It is really wonderful to see so many incredible women coming together to support each other on this issue.

My clients come from all walks of life. You get the old hippies from the 70s having their second or third weddings, then you get the younger generation who are very accepting. The exception are the people who came right after the hippy era and had the war on drugs stomped into their brains – they tend to be a bit more conservative.

Tourism has been a really huge factor since legalisation – it's bringing a lot of additional money into Colorado. My last wedding party came up from Florida to have their wedding here.

You can spot the tourists a mile away – it's so funny. You'll see them taking pictures outside the dispensaries, then they walk right in and their eyeballs just pop out of their heads. It is such a foreign factor for many of them. They think it is just amazing.

Visitors think it's going to be really in-your-face, that you'd smell cannabis on every corner, but it's not like that at all. It isn't legal to smoke in public. There are more dispensaries, but it's not much different from seeing a few new liquor store signs popping up.

Every dispensary is different. Some have big comfy couches in the lounge, then you go into the back and have a private session with your bud tender, who asks you what you're looking for. Others just run you through in a line, like they would at Walmart.

I think the need for education is huge in this industry. People need to talk about it and ask questions, even if it seems embarrassing.

It's all about moderation and responsibility. The time when marijuana can get out of control is when people are ingesting it in the form of edibles. If you buy a bottle of whisky, are you going to go home and drink the whole bottle? No, so don't eat the whole cookie.

I believe cannabis will soon be legal across the whole US in some shape or form. A lot of states might accept it for medicinal use only, but I can see places like California, Florida and even New York making it legal for recreational use.