So after a 4th of July event we attended this weekend, I was gifted a centerpiece. It smelled so good and was so beautiful, I couldn't wait to have it sitting on my dining room table, bringing light and joy to us as we dined. The next day, I was so disappointed to discover that the hot sun from the day before had killed said flowers, and I didn't even know it. I came to the breakfast table to this wilted pile of leaves and petals, instead of the fresh, fragrant and elegant design it had only been the day before. And then it dawned on me: it's a blog in the making! A perfect example of why I do what I do. And that reason is, because things don't last. Especially for a wedding. It's one single day in a couples' life and their families' lives that they never get to re-live again. You can't stay in the hotel forever. The bubbly champagne gets drunk, the beautiful food and cake gets eaten, you can't live at the venue. The dress never gets worn again, the hair goes bad, the makeup gets removed, the linens, china, lighting all get returned to the rental company. And what is left of your day? Wilted petals and leaves, and the memories. Heck, memories themselves often don't last, or weren't made in the first place on a high energy day like a wedding. And as time goes on and those flowers have long been put in the trash bin, our own minds' foggy rendering of the day becomes more fuzzy and cloudy with the passing years. But you can't pass them on yourself. No matter how many stories you might tell (which are wonderful, don't get me wrong!), you cannot recapture the scene completely with your words. It's so cliché, but a picture is truly worth a thousand words, and a film...is worth a million. They are both equally important in preserving the day, and the details that the mind slowly lets go of through the years. And until time travel is invented, it's the closest thing we have to re-living the day in better detail than we could ever retain on our own.
I have gone a little deep in this one, and I am not trying to be a downer at ALL! I was simply reminded by these little flowers that what I do matters. It matters to my clients, their family, and to me to help them be able to savor this momentous occasion again and again in a beautiful and well-designed way. To immortalize and retell their own personal story. For them to be able to look back 30 years from now and see loved ones who have gone, move and dance and laugh over and over again. For their children to have an eyepiece into the past to see and hear their parents when they were younger, saying their vows to each other at a time before they came into the world. You can't put a price on that. That is family. That is sacred. And that is legacy.
On a lighter note, check out some titles I considered for this blog for a chuckle!:
- I'm Melting!
- Nice Salad
- Your Flowers Are Going To Die
- Hiring A Cheap Photographer Is Like Hiring A Cheap Florist - Just Don't Do It
- You Wouldn't Hire A Florist Who Produces This
- What's With The Dead Flowers?
If you would like to have your own beautiful story preserved either in photo or motion form (or both!), I would love to chat about making that happen for you! 207-808-2151 or weddings@207weddings.com
-Brittany