Searching for Flowers and Spinning Plates

Wedding planning is going swimmingly well. Everything is in place with the exception of the flowers. All of our "glitches" have been in the floral department. I say we should just go grab some at a farmer's market or store the day of, but my mom is committed to beautiful arrangements all-around. I am committed to it, too, but not with such a headache.

We have had quite a time of it finding a florist. It seems there is a floral convention taking place the weekend of the wedding. I am not sure what one does at a floral convention. Sniff flowers? Arrangement races? It must be riveting because just about everyone in the LR Metro area and beyond is going. Needless to say, this has presented a problem for our camp. Well, mostly my amazing mom who has happily done the bulk of the work for the big day. She's awesome, but she's stressed about these flowers. At one point she called me very frustrated (ok, that has happened more than once...). She was lamenting the lack of flowers. I tried to tell her it would be ok and she said, "But it might not be ok, Julie." This made me laugh (after I got off the phone, of course!), as I am sure that I will still be married whether we have exceptional flowers or not. No one is going to be horrified if there aren't arrangements everywhere. Anyone who is should be ashamed. That's not what a wedding ceremony is about anyway.

Don't get me wrong. I would really like to have a great florist and beautiful flowers. My mom met with some guy today at a fantastic shop in Little Rock (they have chosen not to attend the riveting flower convention) that will remain nameless until a later date. I feel sure it is going to work out and this part of the wedding will be as great as the cake, dresses, and everything else. My mom is still a little unconvinced/nervous.

I share all of this as a little window into my life right now. It is a little insane trying to plan a wedding, prepare to move, work, and meet a publication deadline (another post about that last item later...). It is like spinning plates. Sometimes it is thrilling, at other times overwhelming. At all times it is entertaining to the people around me. :)

[The top picture is one of the pictures snapped while we were taking engagement pictures at the beach. We love this one! The picture below it is a random arrangement I found on the web. Mine will likely have a little more color in it, but I like this one for some reason. It is a little large and greenish, but lovely.]