Wedded Bliss

Last weekend I had the immense privilege to help my Aunt Christy with the flowers for the wedding of my sweet friend, Maryanna Strautmann nee Thompson.

We have done the flowers for weddings and graduations before, and I always forget how much I enjoy it until I'm back in the thick! We always joke around that we should start a business, she and I, since we do it as a ministry and have never made money ...maybe we should....at any rate, I so much enjoyed myself, even with the crazy-long days, and I don't think I've ever seen a prettier wedding when all is said and done. Along with the wedding flowers themselves, we were in charge of assembling a team and prepping the reception: cake tables, food tables, guest tables, and head tables. I don't have many pictures of that part yet, but my cousin Matthew took some stunners of the flower-work! We used all fresh flowers except for a couple blossoms at the tippy-top of the arch. I despise fake flowers with a passion so I was excited that the bride and her family had a budget for fresh blooms! :) I'm rather pleased with how everything turned out:

Hey look! That's me holding the bouquet!

I love weddings, and being able to help make them beautiful is such a privilege! After all - is there such a thing as too many flowers? I am inclined to say nay. My favorite part of my responsibilities? Pinning the boutonnieres on the groomsmen...I get to see them all up close. ;) Actually, I loved teaching the bridesmaids how to hold their bouquets nearly as much. That, and chasing the ring-bearer every few minutes to fix his flower.  That child... :D

A beautiful wedding for a beautiful couple! L'Chaim!

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

I know I promised that I would post pictures from our garden once it started growing. Well, it's growing now, but the camera's battery-charger won't charge so we're back to square one. Daniel willingly let me borrow his iPhone [again] to take these pictures. Thanks, ducky-luv. I can't imagine what in tarnation I'll do when he gets married and goes off! :D Hopefully I'll have a working camera by then.

So today we went out to pound in pea-stakes [lah-dee-dah...can't stand that job :P] but lo and behold the awesomeness of the Perennial! ;) The mint that had done absolutely nothing last year was apparently stimulated by Dad's tilling it up and strewing it every which-way. It has taken residence across several beds of peas. I couldn't bear to just pull it up like weeds, so Abby and I set ourselves the task of rummaging it all out and potting it. Oh Happy Day! I love distracting-and-entirely-worthwhile jobs! :D We filled up the empty spots in our herb bed, planted a ring of it around a tree in the woods, (woodland garden, anyone? I'll let you know how it grows) and put the rest of it in little pots. We'll end up selling it, I'm sure. Entrepreneurial endeavors you know. We were already planning on selling our extras of other herbs. 

These were such a great blessing! I had given up all hope of mint and now (after the woodland garden and the herb bed) we have 40-some plants each of spearmint and peppermint! Sing ho for the life-cycle of a perennial plant! What a lot of joy it is to find something that doesn't need coaxing along! :D 

Not only that, but in the midst of all our rummaging, Aunt Christy brought Mama a Bunch of Happiness from her garden--all the perennial cutting-flowers she planted over there last year have bloomed and flourished! 

At the very base of the vase, see the claret-colored snapdragons? Those smell exactly like cranberry juice. No kidding. And I was bemoaning the fact that we hadn't planted any this year! I forgot they were perennials and that Aunt Christy probably had some over at her house. Thank you, Jesus! My nose was longing for a great snuff of it and I really felt slightly panicked that I wasn't going to get my fill of that regal fragrance.

The Pomegranate Yarrow--the most gorgeous stuff! And though ours hasn't bloomed fully yet, it's growing swimmingly at the bottom of the herb-garden. It gets to be 3 feet round and ours are already about a foot-and-a-half across. I also transplanted some misplaced yarrow into its proper arena so we'll have a fresh bed of it next year! Aren't country flower bouquets the best? I'm also loving that campulana (bellflower) up at the top of the picture. At least that's what I think it is. Not certain on that point. I love dark red flowers...not roses, necessarily, but other dark red flowers. There is something so mysterious and regal and...lasting about them. They give me delighted little shivers. :)

My lovely, wind-blown assistant, Abby, preparing to feed the baby goats. :)

So what about you? What's blooming/growing/budding/harvesting over in your plots?