NY Wedding in the Park in June!

Getting the chance to create flowers for a wedding in New York City recently, made me realize something. The work that I’ve been creating for myself over the last six years really is magical. I was contacted by a bride and her mother several months before the event about needing just a small amount of personal flowers for a wedding that was gonna be held in New York’s Central Park. I have been waiting to book an out of town client for a while, and was so excited to get to work with them.

Some people may only think about the difficulty of the logistics for a project like this however, I always see it as an opportunity for adventure. Originally, I had planned to stay in the lower East side, where my daughter had lived during a gap year. But the New York flower District is uptown a little bit further than that, so I ended up staying at a really great boutique spot two blocks from the flower district. My hotel room was a very small, but it had all the room I needed to be able to work on Putting the bouquet together. After exploring the neighborhood when I first arrived and getting some delicious Chinese food, I went to bed early so that I could make sure to get to the flower markets before all the best stuff was gone the next morning.

I will say that logistically speaking, I should have brought a rolling cart or something like that to bring back the flowers from the fire district but, it wasn’t so far that I couldn’t carry everything. I went in about four different shops before I started to go back into the ones that were had been my favorite buying stuff. There were color varieties of florals that I’ve never seen before, they were alliums tall up to my shoulders, they were walls and walls of peonies, and every one looked perfect. I bought it what I needed, and after it was all wrapped up for me I walked back to the hotel, got the flowers into water buckets (that I had bought there in the market), And then rested for a while. After I grabbed lunch, someone delicious, I walked back over to the flower district again this time looking for the wire tape, pedal baskets, ribbon, etc., as well as scissors, few knives, and other things I couldn’t bring on the plane with me.

It’s not that Nashville doesn’t have some good flower market. They’re just kind of small, the variety of florals is often pretty much the same every week and it’s just what I’m used to. I thrive on change and find a lot of excitement and inspiration from discovery new things. So getting to wander around our markets in a city as big as New York was really magical. In my mind, I was on a mission from Eloise at the Plaza Hotel, getting flowers that she needed for her apartment on the top floor. But I digress.

The bride was staying at Plaza hotel, so the next morning, the day of the wedding, I grabbed a cab early, but most of the day was seem to still be sleeping, and drove with the flowers to the hotel. Now for those of you that don’t know the Plaza hotel is directly across the street from Central Park. The plan was that I would drop the flowers off in the morning and the wedding party would walk across the street and do an impromptu exchanging vowels in the park. I must’ve looked a tiny bit shoveled when I walked into the lobby of one of the most famous in the world, but who cares. It was absolutely stunning, the air smell like gardenia I was delivering wedding flowers, and the concierge was looking at me with a confused face. I called up to my clients and they ran down to get the flowers, and like it as many times, we were meeting in person the first time! They were thrilled when they saw the flowers, which is always a relief, no matter how long you’ve been doing Flowers, I wish them a wonderful day took a few pictures in the lobby before I left and hopped back in the cab to go towards my hotel.

it seemed like the journey was ending pretty much as soon as it started, but I’ll never forget my first New York wedding. A few weeks later pictures came in and it was so fun to see my work In the photos with the newly married couple as they stood Together in front of a hotdog stand, grabbing a bite To eat in their wedding attire. Then, I went back to the hotel, packed my bags and went to the airport to come back to Nashville. It is a brief but magical work journey, and I can’t wait to do it again! If you are having an event of any size in New York, London, or pretty much anywhere else for that matter, get in touch with me to see if I travel there to do floral work. 

Until next time, I’ll sign off for now.

XXOO

Meg, The Traveling Florist