Who knew flowers were life-changing?

Growing up in Peachtree, a very isolated corner of Murphy, NC, my love of flowers was cultivated from a very early age. My mother, grandmother, sisters, and I would spend what seemed like every weekend of the spring and summer months hunting through the woods for various wildflowers and plants as they each bloomed in their turn, including Trout Lily, Foam Flower, Trillium, Pink Lady's Slipper, Showy Orchis (my personal favorite), Bloodroot, Solomon's Seal and False Solomon's Seal, Maidenhair Fern, Wild Azalea, and whatever else we could find. I remember kissing the Showy Orchises goodnight as we left them to flourish in peace.

Fast-forwarding to early 2019, I was in the throes of wedding planning in Asheville, NC, two hours away from my hometown and the location of the venue. The wedding was coming up very, very soon in May, and loose ends were needing to be tied up. One of those was the florist. I had originally planned to use the same florist that both my mother and older sister used, despite the shop having recently changed ownership. To my dismay, the quote I received for 3 bouquets, 3 centerpieces, and a few boutonnieres and corsages was over $800. I nearly had a heart attack, as that was going to cost almost as much as the venue, double the cost of the photography, and triple the cost of the dress! I knew there was no way we could afford it (since the splurging in our budget was reserved for our honeymoon in Paris, France), so I sat down and toyed with the idea of DIY wedding flowers. I had read on many a post-wedding blog, "Don't DIY your flowers! It's too much work and it will cause too much stress for you!" But considering the alternative $800 price tag, I decided to give it a try.

I gave myself a YouTube and Blooms by the Box crash course on flower arranging, and the ensuing spreadsheet breakdown of how many stems per arrangement I would need of which focal flower, filler, and greenery that I calculated and organized was rather impressive. Blooms by the Box was absolutely amazing, and I spent untold hours browsing just for fun.

My then-fiancé kept asking, "Aren't you done with that yet? How many times are you going to change it?"

And I replied, "I'm just making sure it's perfect. I'm actually having a lot of fun."

To which he replied, "Well you're making me nervous!"

I uploaded my extremely detailed spreadsheet to Google so that my sisters and mom could see what my plan was, and sent them the Blooms by the Box crash course on how to care for freshly cut flowers before arranging. I ordered my flowers and waited in anticipation for them to arrive at my mom's house two days before the wedding.

When the flowers arrived on Thursday, my sisters and mom separated the flowers according to my spreadsheet so that they were all ready for me to whip together once I arrived on Friday. The plan was for us to leave Asheville early Friday morning, finish up last-minute tasks once we got to Murphy, eat lunch, and have plenty of time to arrange flowers before the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Of course, the entire day was chaos. I got the bridal bouquet arranged and had barely started on the other two bouquets before it was time to start getting ready for the rehearsal and dinner. Thank goodness my mom is also a flower lover, as she roped my dad into helping her make the boutonnieres and corsages, while I was flinging stems like a madwoman. That left my two sisters' bouquets and eight centerpieces to arrange after dinner, which we returned home from at about 11:00 pm.

My parents and sisters finished up their last minute food preparations while I rolled up my proverbial sleeves and dove headfirst into flower arranging mode. One by one they eventually went to sleep, saying that they felt very odd about leaving the bride to work late into the night before the wedding. But to me, the peace and serenity I felt while arranging centerpieces in a silent house, with my dog asleep on the floor next to me, was completely perfect. Of course, when my older sister remembered that she had left the oven on and sprinted into the kitchen at top speed, it scared both me and Heidi half to death. Heidi, being the protective German Shepherd that she is, barked until she figured out that it was just her Auntie, and then promptly went back to sleep at my feet. Hours slipped by unnoticed and uninterrupted after that, and I finally finished all eight centerpieces. Everything was completely gorgeous, and though it kept me up until 2:00 am, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The post-wedding blogs were wrong after all (at least for me)!

Fast-forwarding again to the month of June, we had returned from the honeymoon and received our long awaited wedding photographs. Everything looked absolutely stunning, and I was extremely relieved to see that the flowers looked as good in the photos as they did in real life! I was showing the photos to one of the sweet ladies who works in Event Planning at Publix in Waynesville (where I work in the pharmacy), and she exclaimed over how beautiful everything was. She ooh'd and ah'd at every photo, asking questions here and there and gushing about how lovely everything was. She knew I had a Publix cake, as she put in the order for it. But when she asked, "Who did your flowers?" in a tone implying that they were the most gorgeous flowers she had ever seen, I felt a swell of happiness as I answered that I had done them myself. She couldn't believe it, and immediately told me that I should be the designated florist for our Publix. Unfortunately, there isn't an actual position entailing event floristry, but the seed was planted in my mind nonetheless. The wheels in my head started turning as I replayed her reaction to my flowers over and over in my mind. I thought, If someone who is constantly involved in wedding planning liked my flowers, why couldn't I keep doing it? And I decided then and there that I wanted to become a florist.

Since that decision, the wheels in my head have been spinning faster and faster, coming up with so many ideas for my future flower shop that I am near to bursting with excitement. Of course, my husband still has a year of college to finish before we can even think about buying a home, and after that we will need to find somewhere to rent or build our shop. We have a long way to go, but I decided that I couldn't wait until we have a shop to begin my career. Thus, my plan is to primarily do freelance work as I have time and as interest arises, and when we are ready to open our actual storefront, I will be incandescently happy to dedicate all of my time to spreading love, joy, and beauty with flowers!

Here's to many years of peaceful flower arranging in the wee hours of the morning!

P.S. - A note on the name

I chose the name Wildwood Flower Shop for several reasons. Wildwood Flower was the first thing that came to my mind when I thought, What would appeal to people in Western NC in relation to flowers? The song, made famous by the Carter Family, Johnny Cash, and most recently by Reese Witherspoon in Walk the Line in 2005, is a Bluegrass/Folk classic that is well known by many in this area. It was also one of the first songs I learned to play on the guitar that wasn't strumming of chords - in other words, pickin'. My favorite rendition of the song by far, however, is by my grandfather, great uncle, and second cousin (Doyle, Paul, and Del Barker, respectively). My grandfather is a magnificent guitarist, and I inherited any talent I have from him. Please enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im91J_V7oF4