My favorite parts of weddings

"These are a few of my favorite things...."

(come on...I had to...remember my card file?)

There are two favorite parts when I'm producing the flowers for a wedding. Because I'll admit, there are a lot of things I DON'T like. hehe. But when it comes to these two aspects...if I can be captivated by them, then I can make it through the whole event.

First, I always love to pick my favorite flower of that specific wedding order. I call it "The Flower of the Day". Because when I put in the big orders to the flower wholesaler, many times you don't really know what they're going to be able to get from the growers, and many times you don't even know what the flowers will actually look like. Will they be big and in bloom? Or will they be closed and tight? So, it's always a surprise to be able to see what flower will be my favorite. And the whole time I use it I become so happy and it just makes my day.

Also, sometimes my favorite flower doesn't come from something I've just ordered. I have a ritual. Everytime I go to pick up the flowers, I always love going into their freezing cold walk-in flower fridge and absorbing the sight of all the beautiful flowers. At those times, I am occasionally surprised with a flower I hadn't remembered was in bloom. Or it could be that the wholesaler just randomly picked something up hoping for it to be sold. At those times, the flower becomes much more than even treasured gold. hahaha. It's a sort of personal triumph and I have to use it very sparingly and in the right places.

For my favorites, most of the time my favorite flower ends up being the hydrangeas because they're always so beautiful to me. Other times it's been Leonidas roses (cream roses with brown tips) or hyacinths or peonies.

For Heather's wedding, I was pleasantly in love with the orange ranunculas they gave us. In the picture above, they are the flowers in the bottom right hand corner of the picture. However, the orange tulips came in a very close second. I love to play this game with Jacque (you'll see her in the next post) because she understands COMPLETELY what I'm talking about with every sentiment I have when it comes to producing weddings. I think her favorite flower would have been the white blue bell-type flowers that both of us have no idea what they were called, nor do I have a picture of them. Am I right, Jacque? These ones I found on my random tour of the walk-in flower fridge and they were used with all the respect they deserved and in just the right places. :)

My second favorite part of a wedding is "bucketing" all the flowers once I get back to where I'm going to arrange them, and grouping them altogether in a big huge display. I love just looking at them. It sort of takes my breath away. And I feel a bit of sadness when I have to break them apart and start arranging them. :)

What are your favorite parts to a wedding? It doesn't have to be the flowers... some would say the ceremony, some would say the food. What's your favorite part?