It’s Not About the Flowers – Chapter 7 of It’s Not About the Wedding
Flowers often served one of two purposes in ancient wedding ceremonies: They were either combined with pungent herbs such as rosemary and garlic to drive away evil spirits, or their own pungent aromas were intended to mask the bride’s own body odor. If neither of these scenarios applies to you, you’re not alone. These days, flowers serve a mostly decorative purpose, and are frequently chosen simply on the basis of color coordination with the overall theme of the wedding.
There are those, however, who select specific flowers for their symbolic meaning. Orange blossoms, for example, are an emblem of fruitfulness because the orange tree flowers and bears fruit at the same time. Baby’s breath represents fertility. Ivy is a symbol of everlasting and unbreakable love. Roses also stand for love, lilies for virtue, and so on.
Regardless of why you wish to include flowers in your wedding, the goal is to not allow them to become yet another stressful detail. Aside from any intended symbolism, as mentioned above, they have nothing to do with the joining of the bride and groom in matrimony. There are brides-to-be who have fallen to pieces when the wrong flowers arrived for their wedding, the right flowers arrived late, or perhaps flowers didn’t arrive at all. While that would be understandably frustrating, don’t become so attached to every little detail of your wedding that if something doesn’t go as planned, you lose sight of the big picture. At the end of the day, you and your best friend will be married, and that – not the things that went wrong – is the only thing you will care about by then.
Additionally, in this age of “going green”, you might consider choosing some kind of potted plants or flowers that could be taken home by your guests or donated to a nearby nursing home. Otherwise, all of those beautiful symbols of your love will simply wither and die in a day or two. Perhaps those symbols of your love could spread some joy to others for days, weeks, or even months after the wedding.
This is the 7th in a series of 16 chapters from a new manuscript I am working on called It’s Not About the Wedding: A Common Sense Guide to Getting it Right the First Time, or Any Time. I would love to receive any and all positive or negative feedback on this topic, particularly from those of you who are perhaps currently engaged to be married! Stay tuned for subsequent chapters to follow…
Little Drops of Nectar 