Wedding Bells in June
Yes, I am a June bride!!
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Hello and welcome to J.Q.’s Substack page!
Do you know June is the traditional month for weddings? According to theknot.com, June, September, and October are the most popular months to get married in the US. I believe it with several June weddings in our family. My mom and dad, GT and I, our daughter, and recently, our grandson.
Our anniversary is June 14. GT knows when it is our wedding anniversary because the flags are flying to celebrate Flag Day in the US. We’ve been married 50+ years. I wonder if I should write an essay about long-lived marriages. I have lots of experience and advice!!
In case you didn’t know, GT and I were in the flower business for nearly twenty years. We had a floral shop, greenhouses, and garden center. Shhhh….don’t tell anyone. But I really, really disliked taking wedding orders, creating the bouquets, corsages, boutonniers, setting up the candelabra, etc, and delivering everything to the wedding location. I must say, through the years, we were fortunate to attract talented designers. Because I wanted the bride to have the perfect wedding, I passed that job to the designers to assemble the bride and bridesmaid bouquets.
When we purchased the shop and greenhouses in 1976, my hubby and I knew nothing about the flower business. We were young and crazy to take such a chance, but being entrepreneurs in the flower business was our dream. I wrote my feel-good memoir, Arranging a Dream: A Memoir, published by BWL Publishing, in 2021 about the first year we were in business to encourage folks to pursue their dreams like we did.
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Are you a June bride? or groom? Do you love arranging flowers? Please leave a comment below.
I thought an excerpt about weddings at the flower shop would be an appropriate Substack article for June, the wedding month. The chapter illustrates how “green” we were in the business.
BACK OF THE BOOK for Arranging a Dream: A Memoir
In 1975, budding entrepreneurs Ted and Janet purchase a floral shop and greenhouses where they plan to grow their dream. Leaving friends and family behind in Illinois and losing the security of two paychecks, they transplant themselves, their one-year-old daughter, and all their belongings to Fremont, Michigan, where they know no one.
Will the retiring business owners nurture Ted and Janet as they struggle to develop a blooming business, or will they desert the young couple to wither and die in their new environment?
Most of all, can Ted and Janet grow together as they cultivate a loving marriage, juggle parenting with work, and root a thriving business?
Follow this couple’s inspiring story, filled with the joy, triumphs, obstacles, and failures Ted and Janet experience as they travel along the turbulent path of turning dreams into reality.
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Extract from Chapter 23: Of Brides and Blooms
One summer morning a shaggy-haired young man built like a wrestler dressed in a ragged shirt and dirty jeans showed up at the front counter to order flowers for a wedding in four days. I looked around the showroom for his bride or mother. But he was alone.
His menacing posture and attitude intimidated me. I was glad Agnese was in the shop only steps away from me, but I knew the leprechaun-sized woman would not be of any help if the guy got unruly. He hadn’t shaved or showered for a while and his size was threatening to me, a 5’5” petite woman. The smell of cigarette smoke, B.O. and bacon grease overpowered my senses. Unfortunately, I had to be near him.
I took him to the end of the counter away from customers hoping they wouldn’t leave the shop because of the odor and because I did not feel comfortable seating him at Agnese’s table in the back where no one could see us.
We started through the order form. “Okay, let’s see now. What’s your name?” “Josh, just Josh.” From the tone in his voice and his glaring at me through defiant eyes, I decided not to ask his last name.
“Your phone number?”
“Ain’t got a phone,” he growled.
“Um, how about your bride and her phone number?”
“Carol and she ain’t got a phone either.”
He told me he was on a limited budget having spent most of his money on the beer and food for the reception. I kind of laughed, the nervous kind, but he was serious.
I showed him pictures of bouquets and corsages and made suggestions for the flowers for the bride and bridesmaids. He wanted to spend the least amount possible. He decided on one white carnation with ribbon and greens for the bridesmaids, but he wanted something very pretty for his bride, so we figured it out together incorporating the matching carnations in the bride’s bouquet. He needed corsages and boutonnieres too.
“Okay. Do you want to pick up the flowers or have them delivered to the church?” I asked after figuring out the total for the wedding flowers.
“You can deliver it to the house. The wedding’s gonna be there.”
“You’re quite a way out in the country. I’ll have to tack on a delivery charge to that address.” Glad I had learned more about the area by the summer, I smiled.
“That’s okay.” He did not return my smile.
I added up the amount he owed for all the flowers with delivery and presented him with the total on the form. He glanced at it and nodded his head in agreement.
Without making a move to reach for his billfold in his pocket, he said, “Okay. I’ll pay you for the flowers when you deliver them.”
I swallowed hard. Should I press him for a down payment of at least something? After looking up into his hard face, I decided to let it go.
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Oh my, taking this wedding order and filling it turned out to be a huge mistake. I learned a good lesson and eventually could laugh about this dangerous wedding.
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YEs, I aRe a WriTeR.
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Happy anniversary, Janet and Ted! 💕