I am in the car headed to North Carolina for Pete and Rebekah’s Knot Dream Wedding. Pete and Rebekah were both injured last year in the Boston Marathon, after a year of recovery there is going to be a wedding. The van is packed with floral supplies, ladders, altar structures, and my beautiful willow and moss stands that Evan made for me. We also have bundles of blooming peach branches from our mini orchard. I am traveling today with Peter. He is the man at our studio that keeps us going. Well the other man besides Evan. Evan is home taking care of our tribe of children. Peter and I are headed to Bervard NC, where designer Eatherley Schultz of Floressence Flowers will be hosting me and the Chapel Designers. Her studio is becoming the floral command center for the Knot Dream Wedding, which is happening at the Biltmore Hotel. Rebekah and Pete will be marrying in just a few days. We will be gathering at Floressence with Holly Rutt of Sweet Pea Floral, Peggy and Hunter Sherwood of Sherwood Events, Janna Avery, Callista Designs, Trish Van De Merkt, Kristi Turbyfill, Amy Dunlap, Amy Lynne Originals, Anna Stouffer, Urban Petals, and Sherry Donnelly, Gertie Maes Floral Studio.These designers are all members of the Chapel Designer wedding and event design group I started four years ago. This adventure, this amazing opportunity to design as a team of Chapel Designers is truly exciting. I know we will have a blast together and I am feeling thrilled about the whole event. We are going to have an inspiring and creative week, but what do floral designers need most? That’s right flowers, thankfully farmers all over this country have been gathering up their precious blooms and sending their stems to North Carolina. Rebekah and Pete will have all American grown wedding flowers and this is a very exciting thing. Many people do not know or think about where their flowers are coming from. Quite frankly just like everything else in this country, they are typically coming from somewhere else, as in another country. Which means the farmers in this country are suffering. Since I am a farmers daughter this is something I am very sympathetic about.

Several weeks ago Kasey Cronquist CEO and Ambassador to the California Cut Flowers Commission and I began speaking concerning my event for the Chapel Designers in NYC. During those conversations I shared with him Rebekah and Petes wedding story via the Knot Dream Wedding. Kasey immediately jumped on the band wagon and assured me he could and would source the flowers we needed for this wedding. Honestly I was in shock and also a little overwhelmed. How could all of these farmers and designers from as many as 10 different states come together to bring this wedding to life. Well it’s happening, it’s just one amazing miracle after the next, one incredible act of kindness after the next. The kindness of the people in this country is often not highlighted we tend to focus on the negativity or the tragedy. Tragedies like the Boston Marathon. I will confess one thing further. I don’t watch the news. I can’t, I simply and totally can’t. I did not see one speck of the footage from the Boston Marathon bombing. On Sept. 11th 2001, I quit watching the news. It’s not that I am unconcerned for others, it’s that I physically and emotionally can’t handle that kind of grief, and senseless loss. I can truly feel other peoples pain and loss, just hearing the stories through other people is as much as I can bare. I am just to fragile or sensitive. Yep that is right, tough girl Holly can’t watch the news.

I choose to focus on taking care of my family, others in my craft and community, and I would rather try and make a difference where I can. I choose to believe in goodness and kindness, I believe in Spring, and I believe in new beginnings, I believe in hope, and I believe in family. That is why I love my job as a wedding and event floral designer.

A million thanks to Butch. Butch owns B&S Cold Storage, he very kindly gave us a cooler. The cooler will protect the harvest of the many cut flower growers in this country. The amount of fear and stress he erased for me is immeasurable. Butch is truly a wonderful man, and he made me believe even more in kindness. His kind words to me yesterday will never be forgotten. It’s interesting how a stranger in your life can have such a profound impact. I told him I would thank him endlessly on social media for his kindness, and he said “that’s okay mam, as long as God knows what I am doing thats just fine with me”. He said he believed in giving and that what you put out there comes back to you. Yes Butch you are one in a million!! Thanks also to Frank Arnosky who is sending Texas bluebells and ranunculus to NC, our bride Rebekah is from Texas. I have never seen a Texas Bluebell, I have to admit I am super excited about this. Here is a list of the farms that donated to the American Grown Knot Dream Wedding, without their support we would not have the precious blooms I love so much!!

CaliforniaGrownFlowers
California Pajarosa
California Floral Greens 
CamFlor
Cuts of Color
Dramm & Echter 
Eufloria Flowers
Green Valley Floral
Joseph & Sons
Kitayama Brothers
Mellano & Co 
Myriad Flowers International
Ocean View Flowers
Oregon Coastal
Rose Lane Farms
Roseville Farms
Seattle Growers Wholesale Market Cooperative
The Sun Valley Group
Texas Specialty Cut Flowers

A special thanks goes to the truly incredible Marcy Blum who suggested that I be the floral designer for this wonderful wedding. Many thanks to The Knot for believing in me and the Chapel Designers. We also are very grateful for the supplies and terrariums that were sponsored by Syndicate Sales. We are all dream makers!!