The Flower Shop

My house has never been so 'full' (to my knowledge) as it was this past week. Not only was I balancing baking a cake, and all the ingrediants, and pans that go with that....the flowers for the wedding arrived on Thursday. There was one minor (minor only because I fixed it before it became major) problem-they sent the wrong colored roses....I now have 5 bunches of peach spray roses, and I needed hot pink. I called around, and luckily, there was a Sam's nearby that had a few bunches in the back. Truly, I spent a lot of time in prayer because there are just so many things that could go wrong with flowers, and cakes, and everything worked out as it should, including carting them an hour plus away to where the wedding was. It seems sometimes like I'm praying about frivilous things, but I know that God truly works in those moments as well. I filled three long work tables with buckets of flowers. My brother was able to bring the flowers in when Fed Ex brought them, and I ran home at lunch to cut the stems and place them in water. He asked me, as he watched me unpack all the stems if I knew what I was doing....at that point, I wasn't sure IF I knew what I was doing anymore. In the end everything worked out well. I began working on the flowers with the back door wide open (thank goodness for a night in the 40's....I had my own ice box in the house). I had to take a break to go to Kelly's shower, and then I came back home and worked until 5 am! (I took Friday off, so it was OK and I got about four hours worth of sleep before heading out to Commerce to deliver the flowers and help decorate for the reception)....I am a night owl by nature, and it serves me well. I was so completely exhausted, I really didn't get great pictures, but I am hoping someone else did and I can later share those. I snapped some quick shots of most of the flowers in transit. I created...
10 flowers for the guys lapels

4 Courages for Mom's/Grandma's (the Grandmothers got green ribbons, but the same general flowers were in all the coursages, so you get the idea).

Four little mini pins for the house party to wear (I used a lot of polka dots, Kelly wanted hot pink and green, and the black polka dots went well with her flower choices)

This next shot shows some of the arrangements ready to be brought over to the church, which included ten table arrangments (in the back), 8 little bundles for the cones (I used green and pink paper to make cones, but I only snapped this photo of the pink) hanging on the ends of the aisle pews (in the classy cool whip containers in the first picture), and a tossing bouquet (you'll later see on the cake table). I'm including a picture of some of the tables, but I was able to later go around and use the left over flowers to make them even a little fuller.




Two large arrangments (OK, the second one I just threw together to hide the kitchen a little, but it turned out better than I thought it would...all things considered).



We used a lot of green apples, and split peas in the different candle holders, and I had enough extra flowers to scatter them around front of the church as well.

Two bridesmaids bouquets


One Bride's Bouquet


All this to say, there were some flower casualties, but they all happened at my house, once I put the flowers into the arragements, they held together really well and made it through the wedding, which was more than I could ask for. When I've helped with flowers before each arrangment took several attempts, and a lot of time, this time the first time worked, I don't know how-I was sooooo tired, but I could not have asked for this to go any smoother with such a big job, and for that, I am so thankful!