Flowers

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, Gee Carrie, I know your mom was out there visiting you 2 weeks back with every intention of wedding planning and appointments. Tell us about it! It's true, I know and I'm sorry. But re-introducing wedding planning into my life combined with an uptick in my social life and then a bunch of late nights at work made writing harder than you may expect. So I'll do this in pieces.

My mom and I had an appointment a couple of weekends ago with Elizabeth from Van Nuys Flowers. Elizabeth's shop was recommended to us by some friends so we thought we'd check it out. The claim was that because she had a shop seemingly in the middle of nowhere, the prices were more reasonable.

We got to Elizabeth's minutes before our appointment due to some trouble with my navigator's sense of direction. If it hadn't been for me, I think we may have driven around for ages. At the very least, she was ready to call the flower shop when we were only a block away.

The flower shop is small but filled with pictures of weddings and different ideas all around. While I have always liked flowers, I really know the names of only a handful of them. The night before our visit, my mom and I scoured magazines looking for things I liked. I would say something like, "I really like these white flowers with only 5 petals" and my mom would say something like, "I think those are Sephanotis" amd then I'd put them on my list.

When we got to the florist we did the same kind of game except with colors. We all agreed that because my bridesmaids are wearing the color of grass the flowers could be of any color. Ever since my first wedding decisions I have wanted something that encompasses the beauty that is the earth. I remember a particular drive up to Ojai where the wildflowers were blooming on the hillside, the sky was a shade of blue that doesn't come in any crayon, and the greens where popping up all over the place. That is what I wanted my wedding to portray.

So we went with the beautiful blues and purples of the sky, we decided to create that crayon that Crayola couldn't.