The Week Behind

I got a lot of visiting in this week, logging about a million luxurious, sleepy, pop-music-filled hours in my little Ranger (now with handy ((filthy, craigslisted)) cap!)

Words cannot express the way I feel about this vehicle.

I went to Portland, Maine, where with a small pack of dear friends I laid on the beach, ate a fantastic meal in the middle of a farm field, tapped my foot to some old-time music, rode for hours on a ferry, collected rocks, slept like a rock, counseled and was counseled.

And then, as soon as I got home, I began getting ready for Flower Scout's largest job of this inaugural year: A WEDDING.

 

I sourced flowers from my own garden, from my friend Barbara at Native Farm Flowers, and from the Menands wholesale farmers' market. I brought 28 tiny kalanchoe seedlings and grabbed five hanging plants at a roadside stand. And I trucked it out to Livonia in the early morning, so so so thankful that the heatwave had broken.

 

The bride-to-be (who has since become the actual bride and now the actual wife, in the two days since this adventure) is the college-best-friend of my high school-best-friend, Jessica. Here's Jessi, below, posing as a bride-stand-in so I could get an idea of how the bridal bouquet was looking. 

Andrea is probably the calmest and most gracious about-to-wed person I could have worked with. As soon as I got there, she and her bridesmaids all picked up scissors and promptly ordered a pizza. Quickly leaves and stems were flying, tiny bouquets were filling the room, and we were all cracking up and talking in funny voices. 

She's a lover of color, which was incredibly fun and challenging for me (sometimes I think I'd make green-grey and white bouquets all day, if it were up to me) and texture, and when we called it quits I couldn't believe how much we'd done. Andrea exclaimed that all the stuff she'd been carrying around in her brain for months and months had suddenly become real - and in that moment I felt particularly blessed to be a part of this thing. I want to do it again and again, though I'm sure it's not always quite that easy. 

Jessi and I, exhausted and finished. 

I now have one wedding under my belt, people! This is serious!

P.S. When the professional photos roll out, I'll share them too. For now I'm gonna nap.