Sweet Stephonotis

In one of my earlier posts, I talked about a young bride stopping by the flower shop to pick up her bouquet wearing her veil. We came to find out later that her wedding was to take place at one of our local wooded parks. We are lucky to live in area that has a fabulous park system with miles of wooded trails and picturesque meadows, streams, and fields. A week after the "wedding" their was story in the local paper about her wedding. Apparently, the judge who was supposed to marry them never showed up. They had a relative step in so they could go through with the ceremony, and they said that they had a good time but that it really put a damper on the whole day. No kidding! The judge apparently left for Europe the following day and could not be reached. I haven't seen a resolution to this story, but if I do, I will certainly let you know!

We had another bride who came in with some pictures of the bouquet she wanted as well as the corsages and boutonnières. My brother was not in that day so we told her to call back the next day for a price on her bouquet. It was a pretty picture. The bouquet was made up of stephonotis and baby's breath with ribbon throughout. So, she called back the next day to get the price, I answered the phone. I asked my brother for the quote and he told me to tell her $175.00. I think she about hit the floor. She was definitely not expecting it to cost that much, and you know what, neither did I. Stephonotis is also known as Madagascar jasmine. It is extremely popular for wedding bouquets because it is a delicate flower that has a sweet, delicate fragrance. It is also an expensive flower, and each one has to be wired individually to be put into a bouquet which is very time consuming to the designer. So, she said she wanted to call and check other florists' prices and to hold onto the order. I really expected her to call in a few days to cancel, but instead she called back yesterday to say that she got some money to pay for it. My guess is that some nice relative offered to pay for it which is really nice for her! You could hear the excitement in her voice though. Since, the meaning of stephonotis is marital happiness, I guess it really is a nice way to start off her marriage. She was really happy to be able to have the bouquet of her dreams and it made me happy that we are going to be able to do that for her!