Wedding Flowers: A Calculated Reduction of Stress

Wedding flowers are tricky things because they have so many variables to them. They must be in season. They must be delivered on the correct date. They must be kept at the correct temperature. They must have the correct amount of water. They must be tended to the correct number of hours in advance so that they bloom at the correct time for the ceremony. To summarize, they were a portion of my wedding that I was not particularly looking forward to and I kept procrastinating on the decision. Finally, I decided to do something non-traditional.

Photo by Rebekah Sampson Photography.
Flowers by Posh Studios.
I found paper origami flowers on Etsy.

Photo by Rebekah Sampson Photography.
Flowers by Posh Studios.
In searching for something low-stress and practical, I stumbled upon something absolutely beautiful and better than any of my dreams.

Photo by Rebekah Sampson Photography.
Flowers by Posh Studios.
My wedding bouquet contained pages from Sherlock Holmes. My father gifted me this book as a young child and my husband likes to claim that my brain works frighteningly similar to Sherlock's mind. Even the small detail of the print on the paper, a detail I didn't even know to ask about, was perfect.

Photo by Rebekah Sampson Photography.
Flowers by Posh Studios.
Because I had a destination wedding, I did not see the flowers until the day before the wedding. My flowers arrived in the desert before I did! Yet they looked exactly the same the day they arrived, the day before the wedding, the day of the wedding, and the day after the wedding. This worked to my advantage considering the amount of rain we had on our wedding day! All of our formal couple pictures were taken the next day with my bridal bouquet showing no signs of wilting.

Photo by Rebekah Sampson Photography.
Flowers by Posh Studios.
It is impossible to eliminate all stress from life. And frankly, I wouldn't want to. That's not truly living. Life is all about experiencing both the happy stress and the not so happy stress. Cortisol is the buffer that allows people to handle all types of stress. Because I have Adrenal Insufficiency, I produce no cortisol. This leaves me two options: I can either surrender my life to my disease or I can fight it.

Photo by Rebekah Sampson Photography.
Flowers by Posh Studios.
Paper origami wedding flowers in lieu of live flowers allowed me to save spoons for my wedding day. As I think back to how I found the perfect wedding dress, I also smile as I realize I found the perfect wedding flowers as well.

Photo by Rebekah Sampson Photography.
Flowers by Posh Studios.
I choose to fight to be Clearly Alive. I choose to LIVE with my Adrenal Insufficiency. I choose to reduce unnecessary stress so that I can focus on good stress and live my life to the fullest.

Photo by Rebekah Sampson Photography.
Flowers by Posh Studios.

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