The Enchantment of Flowers

1:33 PM

Bring on the Flowers! Tomorrow morning at 5:00 am (the time I get up anyway). I will be up in my flannel p.j.s and hoodie and watching television to see the coverage of the Royal Wedding.
Warning: Sloppy Romanticism Alert!
Actually I am going to be watching for a couple of reasons. Number One. I have always enjoyed learning, studying and reading about the history of Britain’s Royal family…and number two- I want to see the flowers!

Oh I am sure Kate’s dress will be stunning, and it will set the tone and standard for bridal fashion for years. Super. But honestly?  I want to see what sorts of flowers they will be carrying. Will they be the classic bridal round nosegays, big trailing bouquets, little Tussie-Mussies, or elegant soft and romantic, hand tied arrangements? Like the one just above. 

For me, it’s all about the flowers…. Well honestly did you expect anything else? I think part of this comes from my years as a floral designer. Wedding bouquets are fun to make but they are also stressful as hell. Because every stem you place you know the bride is going to flutter and coo over and that her mother will look at hyper-critically for something she does not like.

I recall many an afternoon delivering flowers to a wedding. It’s not always a drop and dash thing either. You pass out the bouquets and typically end up pinning the guys Boutonnières on. The Groom’s mother can usually help out in these situations but more often than not you find yourself surrounded by terrified or hung over groomsman who need help pinning that flower on straight.

Over the years, my family realized that I was the one to go to if there was a problem with any flowers. I am trying to remember the last wedding I attended where I was not pounced upon to fix some horrible (they thought) floral crisis. Which usually involves me looking at the bouquet and pushing stems back in. The biggest one I ever “rescued” was at a cousin’s wedding- seems a slightly inebriated groomsman knocked over one of two large church displays on a stand and the flowers were mashed, and tall gladiolas in the back were broken off and hanging .

Thanks to my husband’s pocket knife I had that all fixed in about 5 minutes flat. I just re-cut the stems, re-inserted them in the oasis foam and moved a few things around. I “fluffed” the arrangement, and when I was done,  it looked better than the other one did.

The Bride’s mother then asked me to “fix” that other arrangement too. So they would match. Well hell…. How I managed not to trash my clothes I’ll never know. So I tackled the other arrangement. The groom was so relived that his bride would not find about his friend’s drunken flower arrangement smashing--- that he kissed me dead on the mouth.

Well okay, weddings bring out lots of heightened emotions. Also before someone is too scandalized or worrying what my husband thought... He was laughing his ass off. At me- as the groom was a cousin of mine. 

So, looking forward to seeing the wedding flowers tomorrow. Wonder if they’ll go sleek and modern or soft, romantic and English country garden? I hope it’s the later. I love soft open roses in multi colors and casual arrangements... But we’ll have to wait and see.
Blessed be, Ellen


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2 comments

  1. Hi Ellen, well I watched the wedding and was surprised to see, that the bouquet wasn't that big. Most of the time they have large hanging bouquets. Maybe that isn't in fashion anymore. It was a simple bouquet and the dress wasn't over the top too. I believe they didn't want to repeat the wedding of his father and mother, which was a bit over the top. I watched it when I was 16 and I thought it was a living fairytale. The dark end came later and then I realized that it hadn't been a fairytale at all. For neither of the parents.
    I think Kate and William are very smart, trying not to make the same mistakes. I hope for them they will have a long and happy marriage.
    I hope your Beltane celebration was great ? Have a fantastic day and Happy Beltane !!

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