old married lady

We just had our second wedding anniversary! I alternate between incredulity that we've been married for that long already and amazement that we haven't been together for twenty...or is it thirty?...years somehow. Either way, my sweet husband sent me a bouquet of calla lilies - my very favorite flower - and I have been swooning over them (the husband and the flowers) all week.



I come by my interest/obsession in flowers naturally. My mother is a woman who has in her yard a rose bush that belonged to her great aunt, not to mention hundreds, literally hundreds, of lilies that were originally in her mother's yard. I feel like all those women are looking over my shoulder every time I admire a flower.





Incidentally, these are amazing flowers. By the time calla lilies make it to market, much less your door, that little piece at the top of the spathe is almost always gone. And every one of these flowers is still wholly intact! I wish I knew the name for that little squiggle...anyone?

Huge thank-yous to B and C for, respectively, lending me the camera and recommending your wedding florist!

Also, please note the dining room walls! Though we might have a few touch-ups in our future, I think it's FINALLY done! For the record, the paint is C-2, which is lovely to work with, and the color is "Lavish" (of course).

While I'm at it with reminiscing and what an old friend used to call "shouts-out":



That lovely gathering of blossoms is my bridal bouquet. Of course I'd met with the florist several times, discussed specifics, brought in pictures, everything you do...but every bride wants something different and it can be incredibly difficult to voice your "floral vision," even if you have my botanical genetics. When Jo, the florist, handed me this bouquet on my wedding day, I said, sincerely, "It is perfect." And she said, in the voice of a fairy godmother, "Of course it is darling, it is supposed to be."

Also, I hadn't wanted to be terribly obsessive with planning, so I didn't mention that I really wanted the groom's boutonniere to be made in the traditional way, which is to say with a flower removed from the bride's bouquet. (I mean, no one would even know.) But I noticed later that day as I kept adoring the flowers that that was exactly what Jo had done. Of course. Please note that this website does not fully showcase her talent.

The photograph was taken by Diane Hughes, whose brilliant work is overshadowed only by her entirely wonderful personality. I will always be grateful to her for being the person who gracefully and skillfully captured our wedding day. I'm not going to post more pictures of the wedding here, because, well, as one of my friends noted when she got her proofs, "Now I have 200 pictures of myself!" But trust me, Diane is magical. And an extra little dose of magic is always a good thing!