A Ten Hour Day.....

gets looonng! But there were respites and bright spots and some humor - so it was all worth it. I left the house yesterday at 9:15 am and got back home at 9:30 last night. But to be honest, there was at least one hour spent in the car (I drove just over 100 miles) and an hour for dinner and an hour killing time in the choir room of a local church, so we could tear down the decor after the wedding.

The first wedding was at Washington-Duke Inn, a gorgeous place and the setting, outdoors on a terrace over-looking the golf course, was beautiful. The second wedding was at Raleigh Country Club, and the setting was almost identical to the first - but on a putting-green type lawn adjacent to the golf course.

The third wedding was a bit unusual. Mel had been asked to place a chuppah in a Catholic Church! A Jewish man was marrying a Catholic woman, and the ceremony was to be officiated by a Rabbi as well as a Priest. We have done inter-faith weddings before, but they are most often held in hotels, clubs or event sites. We got to the church during 5:30 Mass, so we had to wait to set-up. Then, when we found out the ceremony would only take about 30 minutes, Mel decided to wait and take down the Chuppah so he wouldn't have to go back later. We cooled our heels in the choir room and heard some beautiful music during the wedding.

The humor happened at late-lunch/early-dinner. Mel took us to the Golden Corral.  As we went through the line to pay, the cashier was flirting with our helper, a nice young man, who I will call Bill.  A bit later, when he left the table to get more food, she came up to Mel and asked if Bill was Mel's son. Mel replied no, that he was just working with us. She said she was very interested in him. A few minutes later, when I went back to the buffet, she talked to me about him and said she was really interested. Then she gave Bill a piece of paper with her phone number and told him he could call or text, and that she was getting off work right then. Bill was obviously a bit embarrassed, and said (to us) "It's never this easy." 

She hung around for a while and finally left - or so we thought. As we excited the restaurant, there she was, sitting on a bench with a few other people. When she saw us leave without saying anything to her, she went to her car. We teased Bill for a while, and when we were at the church, taking about her, I said..."Mel, you'll notice that he hasn't thrown her phone number away....lol....he only wants us to think he isn't interested, and he'll call her later." At that point, he dropped it in the nearest trash can (which was actually a recycle can for drink cans).

That girl was not bad-looking at all, so I can't imagine she had that hard a time finding dates. Why she thought it was necessary to come on to him that way is a puzzle. She turned him off with her bold flirting. Take a lesson, girls, most guys don't like it when you are the pursuer - especially if you do it as strongly as this girl did.

At which point are you?

An individual human existence should be like a river: small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being.

Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel laureate (1872-1970)

*******

Yesterday, I was a rushing river and today, I am more like the quiet river merging into the sea. 

Mel and I and the two great guys who helped us, delivered flowers for three weddings and I drove 240 miles in the process.  Sharing my car was a young man (I don't know his age, but I imagine him to be about 22) who allowed me to talk his ears off on the way to Roxboro, NC, Chapel Hill and back to Raleigh. He was very gracious and shared in the conversation - but I can't help but wonder what he thought - LOL!

Leaving my house at 8:15 am, I returned (not too much worse for the wear) at 7:30pm. Yes, I was tired, but it is the nice kind of tired that you get when you know you have accomplished something good and made people happy. I do hope that all our brides made it to their receptions before the skies fell. As I left for work, I made a point to watch the local weather on TV. They assured us that it would be in the 70's as soon as the clouds lifted. Well, the clouds never did lift and we barely made it to 58*. I had dressed in 3/4 sleeves and a lightweight vest, so I was chilly nearly all day except when we were in the car. Rain and thunderstorms were forecast for the evening, and an anxious dad watched the skies as were were setting up for the one outdoor wedding we had in Chapel Hill. The third wedding reception, in downtown Raleigh, was located far from available parking, so those guests were sure to have gotten drenched going from their cars to the reception site.  

On the way from that last wedding back to the shop, I passed a church where a lavishly decorated horse and carriage was waiting out front for another newly married couple.  The carriage driver, dressed all in formal wear, hoisted an umbrella over himself and the horse while he waited. I felt sorry for the poor bride and groom, since the carriage had no top.

I was only able to take a few photos yesterday - we were running too fast for that - and I haven't uploaded them yet. Maybe I can post them later. Until then, enjoy your Sunday!

Golden Oldies

At one of the recent wedding receptions to which Mel I and delivered flowers, these photos were on display. I think it is a nice idea to show the guests and family members how the other couples in the family appeared on their wedding day, and these are lovely examples! Did you display your wedding photos at your child's wedding - or do you plan to?

There should be photos here, but my computer has decided to chew them up and refuses to spit them out again. The handwriting is on the wall, but I'm slow to admit it:  my computer is dying. I took 36 photos today and most of them are stuck in limbo somewhere. I can see them, but I can't load them to the blog or email them.

Mel Day (my employer) had three events today; a wedding, a sweet sixteen party and a birthday party. The temperatures hovered around 100* and at one time, my car thermometer read 106*!!  We had delivered the first two events and had gone to the church to deliver the bouquets, etc., and when we came back out - Mel's van wouldn't start. Luckily, the wedding planner had jumper cables in her car, so we were able to get a jump start. Mel decided to drive around a bit and see if the battery would charge - but it didn't - so he had to buy a new battery. We were grateful that we had some time before we had to deliver the reception flowers, and grateful that we had no flowers in the van when we discovered it had a problem. Can you imagine being stuck somewhere with a van full of flowers in 100+ degrees? What a disaster that would be. It was always my worst nightmare when I was in business, but luckily, it never happened.

When I got home, the pool beckoned. I checked the temp and it was 87*. Oh, how I do LOVE warm pool water!!  The air temperature was still in the mid 90's and the pool felt great! Thank Heaven for simple pleasures.

Photos from Wedding Sites

This is The Greystone Inn and Conference Center in Durham, NC. It is the former home of an important person around these parts, and is now used for weddings, receptions, parties, etc. It's much larger than it looks.

This is the house across the street, which has been bought by the owners of the Greystone Inn, to provide more rooms for guests of the Inn.

The bulls-eye mirror over one of the mantels.




















A terrarium (with interesting reflections).
























The chandelier in the dining room.














The library. The photographer for the wedding had set up in here for formal photos - hence the screen.

At one time, this house was cut-up into apartments, and my employer's cousin lived in this room. I love the built-in bookcases.

The other end of the library. The green marble (I think) is beautiful!

The sun room, where the caterer was setting up a bar.

A closeup of the sun room chandelier. It was very detailed, and beautiful.

Neat curves and dentil moldings.











The staircase in the foyer.

This is Duke Chapel. The priest who performed the ceremony was evidently a special friend of the family. He is holding the bride's bouquet - which I'm sorry I didn't get a closeup of. Mel outdid himself with that one!!

The ceiling of Duke Chapel, at the crossing of the nave and apse.

Weddings on July 17, 2010

My employer (Mel Day of Dogwood Tree Floral) had three weddings last Saturday. Two were in the color scheme of white and green and one was all red. Since Blogger won't let me place copy beside each photo without spacing problems, I'm going to type everything down here at the bottom.

One wedding was in Duke Chapel, one was at the Washington Duke Inn and one was in Raleigh at First Baptist Church and the Cardinal Club. Two of them had either an outdoor wedding or reception and both got rained out before time to begin. We had two gulley-washing rainstorms here on Saturday, with thunder and lightning and high winds. At The Graystone in Durham, where much of the reception was set up outdoors, the rains came during set-up and some of the lovely green table linens were so wet they appeared to have been dipped into a vat of water.

(I just lost 2 whole paragraphs of writing and I'm not one bit happy about it. Maybe I can remember enough of it to recapture all, but I doubt it.)

The mockingbird who had built her next inside the grapevine ball in the crape myrtle tree was not happy that we were hanging kissing balls so near to her babies. She blessed us out royally - although I didn't notice it until my friend Pam pointed out her squawks. My hearing aids weren't set for mockingbird that day, I suppose. We didn't really disturb her babies - not like the storm did - with the high winds playing havoc with the branches. After the storm; the sun came out, the temperatures were lower and there was beautiful watermelon pink flower confetti all over the lawn and porch. It was beautiful!

I loved the tablecloth overlay on the demilune cake table at the Cardinal Club; the appliqued flowers and leafy vines were beautiful atop the sage green underlay. I remarked it would be beautiful over French blue as well, especially if the cake had scroll work or vines in the same color!

The red wedding was at the Washington Duke Inn in Durham. It was originally set for outdoors, but the storms took care of that. They moved into a section of the ballroom. The tables couldn't be set up completely because they had to move them after the ceremony, so we left the centerpieces setting in the floor. The wait staff was going to place them when the time came.

Speaking of storms, we are about to get more of them, so I'll close now and post more tomorrow. I got some good photos of the Greystone Inn that you might want to see.

Repondez s'il vous plait......I trust you know what that phrase means. Apparently, many people do not, and for those who are expecting an answer to the phrase, not getting one can be frustrating or infuriating. So if you are not sure what it means, please click on the links and get educated.

Mr. kenju is in a club, the members of which are mostly males. It was decided recently that they would take a number of their members out to dinner, in order to thank and congratulate them for a job well done, in regards to their recent public expo. A message was sent well in advance, giving the necessary details and asking for prompt responses. It is imperative that he knows the number of people to expect, so that the restaurant can be set up properly for them. Only eight or nine of them have responded (the date is June 1) and mr. kenju is at his wits end because of it. Common courtesy dictates that one responds when asked = when the initials "RSVP" are shown at the end of a letter or an invitation.

With weddings and any special events, it is especially imperative that one responds with a yes or no, unless the phrase "Regrets Only" is appended. With that, you only respond if you cannot attend. The hosts of special events of any type, must give their event sites and caterers a final number of people expected to attend. All preparation is based on that number, and while event sites and caterers are supposed to be able to serve a minimum of 10% more than the guaranteed number - you wouldn't want to take the chance of running out of space or food. If you RSVP in the affirmative to an event and then you don't show up, the hosts are obligated to pay for you anyway. If you don't answer at all, they may expect you anyway, and they pay for you whether you are there or not. How can anyone be so inconsiderate as to not let people know if they will or will not attend?

I know very well how maddening this can be. When my daughter was planning her wedding, the guest list was carefully thought out. Towards the cut-off date for responses, we were pulling our hair out by the roots because so many of her young friends (and a few of their parents) had not responded., even though we included a stamped, self-addressed response card in the invitation. We decided we had to call them, since I was NOT going to guarantee people who weren't planning to come. Time after time, the person said "We thought you KNEW we were going to be there!!" or "Oh, yes, we're coming." I guaranteed 125 people and at the end of the reception, there had been 119. Six people who said they would be there did not show up, and only one of them had a good excuse (his mother was taken to the hospital that day). We paid through the nose for five of those people, who didn't even have the common decency to let us know why they hadn't attended. It really made me mad, and it was completely unnecessary. Because of our diligence in contacting people, we were better off than many people I know, who ended up guaranteeing many more guests than they actually had and spending gobs more money than necessary. Wedding are so stressful and more expensive than they should be and this adds considerably to both.

Do your hosts a favor; the next time you receive an invitation to a wedding, dinner or other special event - let them know immediately whether you will be able to attend!

Details from an Iranian Wedding

This couple had an American-style ceremony outside and then came inside the country club for an Iranian-style ceremony, for which the bride would change out of her traditional white wedding gown and don a red gown for the second ceremony and reception. Their friends and relatives prepared sweets and favorite foods, which you see here. The only things I recognized were nuts and strawberries, but they were all displayed beautifully on beaded and gilt-embroidered table runners.

Some of the nuts were silvered.

Flower garnishes, carved of radish, carrot, onion and turnip(?), with herbs for greenery.

These hard-boiled eggs had been rolled in silver glitter. The photo is out of focus - sorry.

This looked like popcorn growing on stems like grapes; I have NO idea what it is.

The cake utensils were very ornate and jewel-encrusted. Click to enlarge.

The knife was engraved with the couple's names and the server said " Served with love."

One of the goblets - also ornate and jewel-encrusted.

Strawberries, and what looks like small cucumbers. They were served in a lovely silver dish on a very ornate silver filagree pedestal.

Some of these nuts were gilded and the small, dark ones were dipped in something that looked like caramel or a mixture of caramel and chocolate.

I really wanted to steal some! lol

No idea what these are, but it looked good.

These were wonderfully ornate cookies (I presume) and all of them were perfect. I wonder how many rejects there were before she got this perfect batch!

After the Iranian ceremony and cocktail hour, the wedding party and guests adjourned to the ballroom, where 28 tables of 11 people each awaited them for a seated dinner. I wish I had found out the menu. It smelled divine in there.

Flower photos coming soon.

This is the sight that greets me when I go to get a haircut. I took the photo standing just outside the doorway of my hair salon.

This croton plant is directly opposite the salon door, and it reminds me of the ones I saw growing in Mexico. They are so colorful; it's a party in a plant!

The newer leaves are usually green and yellow, and after they have been on the plant a while, they turn all shades of red and orange. They make wonderful houseplants, and you'll have color all year long.

I worked with Mel today; we delivered and set-up a Persian wedding for people from Iran. Unfortunately, the staff at the reception site was inexperienced, and the banquet manager was quite possibly doing his first event. That would be a good explanation for his confusion. I have never seen a more FUBAR site preparation in my 28+ years in the business. He spent more time correcting the mistakes of his staff because he didn't spell out what he wanted in the first place. It was a classic case of a man being passive-aggressive, and his staff being inexperienced (or perhaps not caring). The wedding was to start at 5pm, and when we arrived there (about 1pm) the ballroom had not been set up for the reception yet; in fact, it was still set up with the tables from the previous night's event.
After we did all we could in advance of the tables being set-up with linen, we waited. They had to send someone out to buy more table mirrors, after it was discovered at the last minute that they didn't have enough. Folks, I submit that should never happen!

Because there were three different types of centerpieces for the 28 tables, we couldn't just leave them for the staff to put in place. So, we had to wait until all the tables were ready and in position before we could complete our set-up. A classic case of hurry-up-and-wait! One thing made it be not so boring, however, and that was watching the family and guests arrive. What a handsome group of people!! The swarthy, well-dressed men and the women, each one more gorgeous than the last. Many of the women had lustrous black hair flowing down their back, and it seemed that each one was determined to outdo the others in dress and jewelry. I know they must have had a contest to see which one could wear the highest heels! Those shoes made my feet hurt just looking at them!

I am exhausted, but I knew you'd be expecting a post today so I dragged myself out of my recliner and stopped here at the computer before going to bed. Photos of today's wedding will come soon, but I make no promises.....LOL