Weddingbee Blog

This morning I thought about how I was painfully thrust back into my wedding-planning process, and that we might play a guessing game in the style of Family Feud to make the memory fun for all of us.

Name five things you expect to see at a wedding ceremony:

1. Bride, check.

2. Groom, check. (I told you he loves beagles, didn’t I?)

3. Rings, check.

4. Flowers, ch—?

(Sound of record needle scratching across the album for effect)

Oh, yeah. Flowers.

See, we have a florist for personal and reception flowers. And we wanted to investigate whether our parish’s altar society could source and decorate the church in a more *ahem* cost-effective manner for the ceremony. So my future-mother-in-law set up the meeting on that fateful Saturday morning.

And who better to extend a warm and friendly welcome to us than this?

No joke. He was not happy to see us. And with that, I can’t even bear to know what awaits us in the number-five spot on the survey.

At least some “one” was there to greet us. Upon calling and finding our church contact was at a barbecue, we waited for the grower to come in from the fields to meet us. For our 10 AM appointment. * SIGH * Our flower idea was quickly costing me more in time and sanity that I cared to invest to get blooms done well at minimum cost.

AHA! I recalled a customer-service lesson learned as an intelligence officer at the Pentagon:

Image via Joel Caruso: Graphic Designer / Illustration by Joel Caruso

The philosophy succinctly captures the interaction of cost, quality, and speed. The challenge is that you can only have two aspects, not all three. By applying this “rule of two” to wedding planning, I can decide what a task or project is worth. Here’s how it works:

If it’s GOOD and FAST, it can’t be CHEAP.

If it’s CHEAP and GOOD, you won’t get it FAST.

If it’s FAST and CHEAP, it won’t be GOOD.

I wasn’t getting anywhere close to two of these elements with the current approach to sourcing our ceremony flowers. What a headache! So I did what any naturally introverted analytical would—spend two hours scouring Google images for floral inspiration.

Here’s some of the loveliness I found:

Image via The Knot / Bridal bouquet: In Full Bloom Floral Studio / Photo by Patrick Grimes Photography

Image via Allegro Photography / Floral by Nellie’s Wild Flowers, Somerville, MA

Image via The Petal Patch

Image via The Knot / Bridal Bouquet by Megan Fickling, La Partie Events / Photo by Erin Hearts Court

Pretty, but not perfect. My tragic flaw is that my mind’s eye has blurry vision. I have a fuzzy idea in my head like a Magic Eye 3-D picture. Remember those? You simultaneously squint and de-focus while holding it close to your face to make the image pop like a turkey thermometer. In my world, I am unable to articulate what I want and can’t figure it out without a lot of stress and strain. Sounds fun, huh? Unfortunately for those who love me, this trait is a maddening to experience until I finally “get” it. Like this:

Image via Flixster

Do you see what I see? Welcome to my world!

Can you relate to my struggle or are you able to easily translate your ideas into reality?! Bonus points if you can tell me what “pops” out of the 3-D image…