A few weeks ago, I volunteered to do the flowers for the wedding of some people in my branch. It started when they volunteered to participate in some research I was doing. They mentioned they were trying to figure out how to do flowers cheaply, and I said, "I took a floral design class at BYU. I'd love to help."
The funny thing about that is that, when Ami and I took the class two years ago during the last semester of our master's degrees, we joked about being able to integrate floral design and therapy successfully. I think this may be as close as I will ever come. What was even more incredible was that they walked out of the clinic that day with a florist, $30 for participating in the research, and an appointment for a free premarital class that would waive the fee for their marriage license, courtesy of my friend Jeremy. I still think a marriage mini-mall would be a good business venture.
To do this post justice, I need to set the stage on this wedding:
The bride and groom are both recent converts to the church. The groom grew up in Lubbock, and the bride is from a town close to Houston. The wedding was a civil service in the cultural hall of the stake center with the branch president officiating. They had five groomsmen, five bridesmaids, three flower girls, a ring bearer, and a lot of help. The bridesmaids' dresses and the groomsmen's ties were made by one of the bridesmaids, who is a clothing design major; I did the flowers; Ashley made their cake; and some kind ward members took their pictures.
I had a concept meeting with the bride and her future mother-in-law a week before the wedding. The bride was very hesitant at that point to make any kind of concrete decisions. She kept saying, "I don't want to be Bridezilla," to which I replied, "Your wedding is a week away. It's okay to make some decisions." She threw out a few ideas, but kept saying that whatever I wanted was okay. At last, I said, "Why don't you just tell me how much you want to spend, and I'll just give you the receipts at the end?" She seemed to think that was a good idea. I took down some notes about colors, numbers of people in the wedding party, cake ideas, and theme ideas. Actually, if I'm being honest, the bride said she wanted daisies, and Ashley and I came up with a theme based on that. It turns out that, in the absence of leadership, I will step up to the plate to create some order. Ashley is very much the same way. Before the wedding started, one of the groomsmen remarked that he wasn't used to a wedding where neither the bride's nor the groom's mother seemed to be taking charge. I remarked aside, "I would prefer it if one of them did." Ashley added, "That's the way it SHOULD be."
Here are some shots of the flowers I made. These are some of the different mock-ups I made two days before the wedding. I ended up using the one with the ribbon loops for the groomsmen.
These are the various kinds of ribbons I used for the bouquet and the other flowers. Ashley borrowed some of the wider turquoise with the stitching for the cake, which turned out to be perfect.
Below are the wristlets I made for the bridesmaids', which were super inexpensive and very easy to make.
And here's a shot of the pretty bouquet (roses, spray roses, daisy mums, hypericum berry, stock, and a few blades of bear grass with turquoise beads, if you're interested):
Below is the bouquet I let the bride actually throw. Still pretty, but not quite the same labor of love. Clearly, I need therapy.
And these are some of my extra corsages.
Some things I expected:
-Needing more corsages and boutonnieres than the bride originally told me. It was a good thing that I made extras.
-Watching someone significantly taller than me come away with the bouquet.
-The wedding reception coming to a standstill for two minutes while the guys in the branch tried (unsuccessfully) to get Layne to participate in the throwing of the garter.
Some things I did not expect:
-Becoming emotionally attached to the bouquet I had made and, at the last minute, offering to make the bride one that she could throw in order to spare the prettier one for herself.
-Arriving at the wedding less that two hours before it started and finding that there were fruit, vegetable, and meat and cheese trays to put together, which I helped with.
-The groom's mother having to leave to go pick up a sheet cake and several trays of cookies and not returning until 10 minutes after the wedding was supposed to have started. As a side note, she also had the rings, so she could rest assured the ceremony would not start without her.
-The maid of honor coming up to me five minutes after the ceremony was supposed to have started and asking me if I had flowers for the flower girls and the ring bearer. My response: "There are flower girls?" Fortunately, I had extra flowers for the throwing bouquet, which I ravaged to come up with three little nosegays and a sad-looking tiny boutonniere before the mother of the groom arrived and the reception could start.
-The stereo belting out "Cotton Eye Joe" just before the processional was supposed to start coming down the aisle.
-The amazing things Ashley was able to do with a few leftover flowers and some greens on the top of the cake (see below).
-How many intimate family moments I would walk awkwardly through looking for my fabric scissors and pearl-headed pins.
-How convinced I would be afterward that elopement is not the worst thing in the world.
2 comments:
Wow, sounds like you pretty much ran the show. Those flowers were gorgeous!
Megan, haven't we discussed this... they don't meet the family until the ring is on the finger and at this point I'm thinking it might even have to seal the deal... which makes eloping ideal.
Do they realize how lucky they were to have you as not only their florist but their wedding coordinator. I'm so impressed!
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