FLOWERS! Lovely To Look At, But…

A-choo.

You’ve paid a florist a small fortune to cover your wedding with flowers. Garlands line the aisles, petals float along the walkway, and centerpieces are crammed full of lilies. Their sublime fragrance effectively masks the aroma of over-Axed groomsmen and the mothballed suit your favorite uncle pulled out of the closet just for the occasion.

The scene is exactly as you had imagined it: perfect. Surrounded by ginormous arrangements, the wedding party is smiling, you’re beaming and the groom is tearing up. But what’s this?  Your man never cries, not even when his team blows a 21-point lead in the fourth quarter of a playoff game.  At first you are so touched by his display of emotion you start to lose your own composure.  But then the source of those tears becomes clear.  The more he sniffs, the more he sniffles.  As his eyes turn red and watery, the sneezing fit starts and the sweet emotion drains just like his sinuses as you realize those aren’t tears of joy but a reaction to the cloud of allergens clogging the air.

I wish I were making this one up, but I’ve seen it happen.  I was more than a little surprised that after a year of planning, the crucial detail of the groom’s allergy got ignored in the drive for The Perfect Wedding.  The poor guy had a lily attached to his lapel like an inhaler designed to incapacitate him before he got to the “I Do” stage.  They had to ditch all the boutonnieres and go flowerless for the ceremony.

Now don’t get me wrong.  As a photographer I LOVE flowers, and what would a wedding be without them?  What could a bride do with her hands as she comes down the aisle if not for the bouquet (balloons? pinwheels? squirt guns?)  They can be used not only to mask the aforementioned odors, but also to disguise unsightly items (holes in the carpet?  tangles of wires?) that might otherwise interfere with the image you have in mind.  And of course they look great in the pictures.

Flowers, Flowers Everywhere!

But as with so many other components of a wedding, it’s important to keep some perspective.  If it turns out your maid of honor is allergic, wouldn’t it be better to minimize the flowers in order to keep her from looking like the world’s biggest drama queen, stealing the spotlight from you as she sniffles, gags, and wheezes through your ceremony?  And do you want her sneezing all over you when you’re getting into your dress?  We’re assuming she’s your BFF and you want to keep it that way.   And bear in mind that everyone will think the flowers are gorgeous even if the shade of magenta in the napkins doesn’t quite match the pink in your bouquet.  I’ve seen brides weep over details like that, forgetting in their bridal haze that flowers are beautiful no matter what.  I’ve stood by as one heroic mother of the bride got the florist to come back and remove some small items from the bouquets after her daughter threw a screaming fit about HATING!!! a particular color (green? who hates green?), a mission critical detail that hadn’t been conveyed to the harried florist.

There’s probably no reason to see if any of your guests has a sensitivity (please check this box for beef, chicken, or allergy?), but it’s not a bad idea to make sure no one in the wedding party is going to be blubbering through your ceremony for all the wrong reasons.  And most of all you want your groom to be able to enjoy that champagne toast without a Benadryl chaser.

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