In March my nephew Jack and his then fiancée Ellen called me and asked if I could do the flowers for their upcoming May wedding, and of course I was thrilled and said yes. And as I talked to them I was already doing the math in my head, counting down the weeks until I might have flowers blooming. Because nothing could be more special than growing flowers of my own to bring down to South Carolina for my nephew’s wedding. The sweet peas had already been sowed—can you imagine bringing a bucket of sweet peas to arrange into bouquets?
But then I realized that the sweet peas probably wouldn’t be in bloom by May 11th (though they were only late by a week or so) and that it was still too early for much of anything else. In South Carolina, my parents’ garden still hadn’t taken off, either, though the dahlias were just about to. I was able to pick some cerinthe from a rogue plant that had grown from a dropped seed in one of the flower beds, so at least the arrangements would have at least one kind of flower grown in a family garden.
We decided to do a mix of Trader Joe’s and local flower farm flowers. Mostly Trader Joe’s, since they’re inexpensive and because we needed lots of volume for bouquets and centerpieces. But I did want something special and local—flowers that you couldn’t find every day, something more along the lines of what I would have brought if I could have grown them myself, only better, of course. I had already found Pug Patch Flower Farm on the GVL GARDENING substack, and loved the varieties and colors of flowers she grows.
So on the morning before the wedding my mom and I headed over to Trader Joe’s in Greenville. I honestly didn’t know what to expect. I think I initially was nervous about buying so many flowers and looking greedy, but all those thoughts went away the moment we pulled up and saw lots of people with carts and carts of flowers. We’d tried to get there the moment it opened—it was Mother’s Day weekend after all, so we wanted to make sure we could get there before the peonies sold out. I needed some kind of focal flower, and the roses there weren’t great, and we still hadn’t picked up the Pug Patch order so we weren’t sure what flowers we’d have.
We arrived maybe five minutes after opening time, and the peonies were already gone. Fortunately there were lots of other flowers still. We loaded up the cart with whites and pastels and anything that would go with the decor for a spring wedding: lots of tulips, some pale chrysanthemums, lavender stock, and white hydrangea, along with various filler—though not foliage, because I was planning on pillaging my sisters’ yards for that. I ended up filling up a whole bucket at Lauren’s house. She has a big yard with a lot of shrubs and also plants that self-seed every year, the very best of them all being lunaria (or honesty, or the money plant). I was hoping it would be at the right stage, and it was: the seed pods had already formed, but were still very green and fresh-looking.
We took everything back to my parents’ house, and I was already overwhelmed. And honestly I’d been wondering if I could handle the job from the start. During early planning stages the wedding sounded smallish and informal, but then a wedding planner came in and all of a sudden it was going to be a proper wedding with a non-florist doing the flowers. Could I manage it? I decided someone else might be better off doing the boutonnieres and corsages, and same with the arbor. I’d be flying in and was low on time and even lower on experience, so I was scared to even attempt that one.
But the bouquets and table arrangements seemed doable. Basically just more fancy versions of what I make a few times a week for our table during the summer when I’m constantly cutting and dead-heading flowers. The night before the ceremony I got a cider out of the fridge and went to work in my parents’ kitchen, gathering the very best of the flowers for the bride’s and bridesmaid’s bouquets. Maybe it was the cider, but it was . . . fun? I’d been watching Common Farm Flowers Youtube videos all afternoon to prepare, and I tried to take as much inspiration as I could from Georgie Newbery and her very natural-looking bouquets, put together with all British-grown flowers. Georgie’s not afraid to use a pretty weed or an interesting tree branch in her arrangements. And she uses a lot of lunaria, which I had quite a bit of, too, thanks to Lauren.
The cider helped make the bouquet-making fun, but so did the flowers—especially the ones from Pug Patch Farm. There were pale pink snapdragons, feverfew, chocolate lace flower (the same that I’m growing this year!), lots of ranunculus, poppies. But best of all were the peonies, which I was shocked to find since I thought that peony season had already ended in South Carolina. There were just enough of them for the bride and bridesmaids, and they ended up being the focal flower that I built the entire bouquets around. It’s a bit tricky planning out a bouquet. I wanted them to have the very best of the flowers (especially for the bride) but I also had to make sure that the flowers weren’t too delicate to get knocked around a bit in the sun. The Trader Joe’s tulips did well—they were very long and looked nice kind of dangling out, as did the lace flower. The snapdragons paired well with the other flowers, and the feverfew was a must, as was the lunaria, which funnily enough ended up being a big favorite.
We went early the next day to my sister and brother-in-law’s house, where the wedding was taking place. Their yard is big, and the tables were already set up and topped with tablecloths and these wonderful vintage glass bowls my sister Ashley had picked up at a thrift store. I had around three hours to make seven arrangements and a bunch of tiny bud vase posies. So I stuffed the bowls with some chickenwire, filled them up with water, and got going. There might have been another cider involved.
It was fun, but I was nervous and a bit of a mess; I’d thought three hours would be more than enough time, but it really wasn’t. Eventually I got a sort of one-woman assembly line working, setting out the bowls on any available surface and making all the arrangements simultaneously. It was easier that way—somehow less daunting. “Foliage,” I’d say outloud (I do talk to myself), and I’d take some lunaria or some shrub cuttings, or I’d go outside and pick random bits of greenery in the yard, and then I’d stick a few stems of each variety into each bowl. I kept going, flower by flower, until almost all the buckets were empty, and then I took the remaining lonely flowers and stuck them quickly into bud vases. It ended up taking a lot more time than you’d think. The arrangements weren’t as artful as I’d like, so every free moment afterwards before the ceremony started I’d run out to the tables and switch out a flower here or there.
When Ellen and Jack were having their photos taken, a Luna moth flew out and landed on Ellen’s bouquet and hung around for a while. I couldn’t believe it when I heard it later. Luna moths are rare to see since they only live around a week, and weirdly enough I’d seen one the year before on what turned out to be a significant day. It was a bit eerie and symbolic, and it also made the bouquet look better!
The ceremony was lovely. South Carolina is usually already too hot in May, at least for my taste, but somehow it was around 70 degrees, with the most romantic hazy light and and an ambient hum of cicadas. Jack and Ellen made a lovely couple, the bridesmaids (including my niece Stella) looked very elegant, and flower girl Ada made sure she emptied her basket of every single petal (from dead-headed pink roses from my parents’ neighbor) while she was up in front. My family got to spend some time together and also to take long overdue group photos (though sadly missing Drew, who had to work).
And even though I’d been stressed and worried, the flowers turned out just fine. People kept saying that they looked like they came from the farm, which I chose to take as a compliment, because I think it is? I hope so at least. When I got back home to Brooklyn I went ahead and sowed some lunaria seeds I’d collected from Lauren’s plants last year, because having some lunaria in my own little arrangements is a must now.
Garden Notes:
So much is happening in the garden now that I’m having a hard time keeping track of what I’ve talked about here versus what I’m posting on Instagram, where I’m posting a lot now that I have actual flowers to show. The nicotiana are out now (though only in the evening), lots of nasturtiums and cosmos are blooming, and the dahlias and zinnias are oh-so-close.
I’ll be doing a June update later in the month, but I’m posting all the time on Instagram, so do check out my account at
if you’re interested!
Bowls are such an ambitious vessel for flowers! Your arrangements are so beautiful -- such a lovely shape to them. How magical that the bride's bouquet got a visit from a luna moth!
What lovely bouquets and arrangements you created for this very special day. It was magical!