Wedding Flowers

This is my first time participating in Let's Blog Off!  The current topic is "Flowers". 

What a lovely topic.  I love flowers!  Who doesn't?  Okay, perhaps those with allergies might not be so fond.  But what could be wrong with beautiful, lovely, colorful, fragrant flowers?

I'll tell you what.  When the florist for your wedding messes them up.

My favorite flowers are daffodils and tulips.  Those gorgeous harbingers of spring, that peep their little shoots out from their bulbs just when you think that winter is never going to end and the rains are never going to let up!  I probably prefer daffodils just slightly more than tulips, but it's a pretty close contest.  Since red is my favorite color and, naturally, the wedding color, daffodils weren't really going to work as a decorative flower for the wedding.  No worries, tulips would save the day!  Gorgeous, red tulips.  Heaps of them.

I met with the florist that I had picked from the ones recommended by our wedding venue.  I had loved the online pictures of her work, and was excited to discuss my tulip mania!  I didn't want them everywhere, not even in my bouquet, but I did envision the centerpieces for all of the tables as bowls of rich, lush red tulips.  The tablecloths were to be black, and the glass vases were to sit on a mirrored panel, so I know that the lovely red would pop, and the beautiful flowers would be a show-stopper!  On the advice of the florist, we decided to incorporate a little bit of white hydrangea, to have some contrast between the red flowers.  I trusted her - flower arrangement is her job, after all.  I would have my bowls of red tulips with little bits of white in between to set them off to best advantage.

The day of the wedding came.  My bouquet was delivered - gorgeous!  I absolutely loved it!  I wasn't as crazy about how the bridesmaids' bouquets turned out, but I could live with that.  My flowers were stunning - just what I wanted!  See here:

Tons of red, lots of texture, with hints of white and green to break things up a little. 

Then I walked out to see the centerpieces...  What's this?  All I see are white blobs on the tables.  Where are the real centerpieces? 

Honey, those are the real centerpieces.  See your tulips?  I saw them, all right.  A few tiny little shrimpy red tulips, poking their feeble heads out of a sea of white hydrangeas.  Straggly and sparse, not at all the overflowing bouquets I had envisioned, and thought I had asked for.

To her credit, the florist was quick on her feet.  There was no way to get more tulips, but she could tone down the overwhelming white-ness of the blobby centerpieces by airbrushing them.  This pink was the closest we could get to red, but believe me, it looks way better than the way they started!

So, that is my flower story.  Is it a huge catastrophe?  No, just a disappointment.  I was a little embarassed that our wedding guests might think I had picked pink hydrangeas and straggly tulips on purpose, but really... who actually pays close attention to the flowers at a wedding.  The important thing is that I got to marry my beloved on that day, not that my centerpieces were masterworks of tulip gorgeousness.  But it would have been nice...  Maybe for our anniversary I'll buy some tulips - and arrange them myself!!!