Wednesday, June 18, 2008

The First Official Wedding Bouquet & Boutonniere of the Summer 2008 Wedding Season Holds Special Meaning

Today I completed the first official wedding bouquet and boutonniere for the Summer 2008 wedding season. I have been wanting to share this story with everyone, but I wanted to wait until I finished the order. This order came to me via a http://www.weddingbee.com/ reader who saw the post from Miss Pineapple who also contracted me to do her wedding. Her name is Debi and she knew that it was very short notice, but she asked if I could create her dream wedding bouquet. This came during the week that the blog post went up and I got 15 serious inquiries. I told her that I would do it and we worked out the details of what she wanted.

The reason this bouquet order has special meaning to me is because of Debi and Ed's story. Debi and Ed got engaged on July 4th, 2007. Earlier this year, Debi was involved in a serious car accident (she fell out of the back of a pick-up truck at plus 50 miles an hour). She's lucky to be alive. She couldn't walk, stand, drive or put any pressure on her leg. She explained how important this wedding is to her and just hearing her story and reading about it on her wedding webpage (don't worry Debi, I won't give out your link), I felt VERY HONORED to create something for her and Ed!


Debi wanted green cymbidiums with more of a copper bronze mouth and throat instead of pink or burgandy, she requested purple lavender colored hyacinths (more about that later), pink and cream roses and stephanotis flowers. Debi picked the specific flowers because each one has special meaning to her and Ed. Well, the ones I know about are this, the pink roses are the first flowers Ed gave to Debi and she took 20 plus photos of them and even framed one and put it up on her wall. The purple hyacinths... well, long story short, Debi meant to say purple hydrangeas. Purple is Ed's, her daughter Jennifer's and her late Grandma Josie's favorite color. Plus she told me that she and her Grandma Josie used to pick purple hydrangea balls and carry them around like bouquets so she could hold them while wearing her mom's wedding gown. So after I made hyacinths, took pictures and emailed her, she realized after her other daughter Becca told her where are the hydrangeas, that she made a mistake. She called me in a panic. I told her that I would not charge her for the change and to send me pictures of the purple hydrangea she would like. She was so appreciative. I told her I would just use them in an arrangement I could sell on my Etsy.com site. She emailed me back and told me that she wanted some hyacinths because every flower has meaning to them and now the hyacinths would remind her of our friendship and working together. So of course, I agreed.


Debi has gone through a lot. She's had a lot of bad luck over the last several months and I continue to encourage her and remind her that what's important is the love that her and Ed share. Ed took care of Debi at her worst and continues to support her during with his love and support! To me, that's true love... when someone you care about loves you unconditionally even at your worst moments (kind of like my own relationship with Michael - he saw me at my worst and still loved me unconditionally).

Anyway, I know this post is a lengthy one so I'll wrap it up. My agreeing to do Debi's bouquet, boutonniere and hair flowers made her excited to get married (she wasn't sure she'd be able to with the car accident) again. I redid some of her flowers because I wasn't happy with how they were looking so I guess in a way, Debi inspired me to do my utmost best and not settle for just o.k.!

So there you have it, my first official bouquet of the summer 2008 wedding season and it's a great way to kick off the flurry of wedding bouquet orders I have from now until October! Lots of love and best wishes to Debi and Ed for an everlasting, loving marriage! One last note, it just so happens I ironically had 4 hyacinths left which represents the day Ed proposed to Debi and she accepted (4th of July). There also just so happens to be 4 white roses and 4 pink roses and 7 cymbidium orchids. Of the 4 hyacinths, I put one in Ed's and 3 in Debi's to represent that Ed completes Debi... I always loved the line in the Jerry McGuire movie even though it was corny - "You complete me".... Debi and Ed DEFINITELY complete each other! :)

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