second hand news

Last summer, while I was working on a large organic farm in New York, I did some flowers for some weddings in August. I had worked on special orders before but I’d never been in charge, and the learning curve felt steep. Wedding orders in particular are emotionally loaded, and a bridal bouquet can be like a freakin minefield. The lady has got to love it.

Fortunately, this one did, and she sent some pictures to Eve recently, who sent them on to me. It’s so wonderful to see the shots because I worked my butt off for an event I never actually saw. I set everything up in the formal dining room, in the cool of the morning, and picked up empty vases the next day. It was the biggest order I did on Long Island – twenty table arrangements, a couple for the altar, multiple bouquets, the whole nine yards. In August, I just felt strung out, inelegant, and dingy, in the height of the harvest season, and I wondered what I put together was really fancy enough. But in the pictures, I see what I hoped to see – not fancy, maybe, but bright, simple, charming. Enough.