FLOWER SCOUT: Baby's Breath and Bleeding Fingers

I met Lauren this winter, when she interviewed me for this sweet story on the All Over Albany blog. We liked each other a lot, right away - I was a mess, in the middle of moving out of my lovely old studio, and I'd set up a false tableau of flowers as though my apartment was consistently full of blooms, when in fact absolutely everything the camera didn't reach was dust bunnies and boxes.

And Lauren was really kind and enthusiastic, allowing the interview to be super-loose. I didn't know what I was selling (I still don't?) or how, and I basically wanted to talk about the evolution and interest behind Flower Scout without committing myself to being any one kind of business. TERROR OF COMMITMENT.

. . . but that's for another post.

So when she asked if I'd help with her upcoming wedding, I was really pleased, in a pay-it-forwardy way. She was so organized - the perfect client - with a list of what was needed and printed photos for inspiration, but an attitude of general acceptance and flexibility. A kind of, "Here's what I love, but I love what you do; let's do this together." Which is perfect for me.

So last Friday she got married to George, who was my CSA member last summer and also so on top of everything on Friday morning, at Indian Ladder Farms in Altamont. It was a mindblowingly gorgeous day, but hot. Really hot. Flower-danger-hot.

The peonies I'd harvested and tucked in a fridge two weeks ago looked really good. But when you blew on them, or even looked at them, they shed their petals in a big dramatic heap. The blueberry branches I frantically harvested the day before the wedding were tough, but politely expressing their discomfort. And the hydrangeas, after a minute, were like NO f*cking way.

Part of Lauren's vision incorporated lots and lots of baby's breath, or gypsophilia. Which I don't grow and can't scavenge, no matter how much I thought about it, trying to approximate its fluffiness with wilder things. So I bought a ton from a distributor in Albany, which meant that it traveled a fairly great distance. Sometimes these things happen. And then, at the very last minute, a local farmer sold me something he didn't know the name of, which turned out to be a beautiful larger-flowered version of gypsophilia. !!! The universe points the way.

I don't have many photos of the set-up, so I'll share more when the professionals roll in. But suffice it to say that it took me a long time to fill these twelve hefty boxes with baby's breath - like hours - and that I learned something from that. And suffice it ALSO to say that I cut my fingers FOUR TIMES while doing so. Scissors, knife, wooden box: many things are sharp.

After the first slice, when I sheepishly asked the ladies at the farm store for a band-aid and they scowlingly shoved a first aid kit at me, I didn't dare ask again. So as I finished, with the wind blowing the tablecloths wildly and the sun threatening the hydrangeas and the clock ticking down on this beautiful wedding, I rotated between carrying boxes full of flowers, sucking my bleeding fingers, sweeping up fallen petals, worrying the peonies meant for the cake, and sucking my fingers again. When it was all over I crawled into bed like a baby. But first I made a list of what I'd learned. A very valuable list!

Thank you, thank you, Lauren & George!