Second Time Around

Yesterday, my mom and I set out to craft a bridal bouquet, in a farmer's market style, if you will, 16 table arrangements, and  one floor arrangement in an antique galvanized watering can.

The jars waiting patiently to be filled with blooms.

The first flowers arrive from the North Forty gardens.

The next flowers arrive from the roadsides surrounding this little town.  Better Half and I set out early Sunday morning to do a little trespassing on railroad property to gather blooms.  Actually I gathered blooms while he played with his Iphone, but it never hurts to have your attorney close by when committing a tiny crime. 

The next flowers arrive from Fuhrmann Orchards.

The next flowers arrive from the bridegroom's parents farm.

Soon the kitchen is filled to overflowing to with an almost staggering number of blooms. I remarked to Better Half that the beauty in the kitchen was about to make me cry.  He mumbled something about understanding and returned to the golf game he was watching on TV. 

Mom and I began to audition blooms for the bridal bouquet by placing them in a large glass of water.  When we were satisfied with the color and number, I began to weave the blooms into a loose arrangement.  This was the result, held by my able assistant, Mom.

The bouquet consisted of daisies, black eyed susans, butterfly weed, wild sweet peas, golden rod, bachelor's buttons, cosmos, straw flowers, cosmos, daylily, gomphrena, queen anne's lace, angelonia, Japanese fountain grass, echinacea, zinnia, snapdragon, celosia, and nasturtium. Whew!

Posing for a formal portrait, the bouquet shows off the green grosgrain ribbon which covered the base.

Ready to be delivered to the bride. 

About this time the skies began to darken.  Lightning streaked around the North Forty and the thunder became deafenning.  One particularly fierce bolt struck the neighborhood transformer and the kitchen where we were working was plunged into semi-darkness, not very conducive to crafting wedding flowers.  So the whole show moved to the back porch, bucket by bucket, jar by jar, where work began again.

Once the flowers were finished, they were delivered to the dinner site.   Here, they sit quite comfortably in the formal setting.

When the dinner was finished rather late last evening, I collected the arrangements, and returned them to my back porch, too tired to dispose of them.  This morning, the brightness on the porch made me smile as I walked through the house.  And, tonight, when I returned home from work, the slightly wilted arrangements still managed to bring a smile to my face. 

As I set about making a typical Monday dinner of grilled chicken and salad, I glanced up to see Better Half, on the back porch, peering down at the arrangements which dotted the concrete floor of the porch.  He then gently chose one of them, lifted it up, and placed it on the dining table. His simple, sweet act stopped me in my tracks. 

This was his choice.  As we sat down to dinner, I looked at the rest of the jars sitting on the floor, and one by one, more of the leftovers began to make their way to the table.

Soon the table top was filled with five slightly decrepit, yet colorful, leftover flower arrangements.  Leftovers never looked so good.

Thank you to my friend and the newly married couple for affording me the opportunity to create beauty, to my mom for the light-hearted spirit she brought to the arrangements, and to Better Half for letting me enjoy them a "Second Time Around".