Sometimes it’s just so incredibly easy to get caught up in the details. When Andrew and I got married, gardenia, jasmine and sweet peas were on my must have list for flowers. If I had a “signature scent” gardenia and jasmine would be it. I’ve worn gardenia ever since I bought my first Bath and Body Works lotion and to this day, when Andrew smells gardenia he tells me he thinks of me. When we got married, Andrew and I were young…we are young, but when we said I do, I was 20, he was 22. We tried to keep our wedding under budget {doesn’t everyone!} but my flowers were one thing I wasn’t willing to give up. I had to have gardenias, jasmine and sweet peas had to be there in some way, no matter the budget. It’s funny how when you fixate on one thing, that tends to be the one thing that doesn’t quite meet your expectations. About a month or so before our wedding, my florist called with some good and bad news. Being my pessimistic self, I asked for the bad first. She told me that due to heavy rains, my flowers had been rained out. What I heard coming over the line was “you won’t have gardenia jasmine or sweet pea”. I was devastated but reminded myself that my marriage was more important than the flowers in my bouquet or the flowers in my hair.
Our wedding day came and the bouquet was beautiful. My florist worked her green thumb magic and was able to create a bouquet that looked as close to what I wanted as possible with the flowers available. Peonies instead of gardenias, lisianthus instead of sweet pea and instead of jasmine, she used freesia which was quickly added to my favorite flower list upon inhaling it’s intoxicating scent. And then, my florist in all her awesomenses brought out a small box. “I was able to get one” she said…it was fragile and delicately beautiful and she told me it probably wouldn’t last long out of water. “but I knew how much you wanted one for your hair” and with one gardenia placed delicately in my hair, I felt complete.
Looking back at my wedding, there’s one small detail I get so caught up in. After the photos, all my bridesmaids told me the gardenia had turned yellow. Instead of clinging to the one thing that I had to have, despite it’s yellowed state, I put new flowers in my hair. I’m not gonna lie, they looked awful. I see photos of myself during the ceremony and reception and want to reach back and slap my 20 year old self and ask what she was thinking! Five years after our wedding and I found myself unable to order prints or my album because I was so distracted by the flowers in my hair. Why hadn’t I just kept the gardenia! But, five years later as I begrudgingly decided it was time to suck it up and order an album, I realized just how much I was missing by fixating on that one little detail.
My florist found a gardenia for me. For a brief time on my wedding day, a gardenia was present. The gardenia lasted for all the important photos. AND I MARRIED THE ONE THAT I LOVE MORE THAN LIFE…the flower was insignificant in light of that.
So often, I allow myself to get caught up in the tiniest of details. Label it indecisiveness or procrastination or perfectionism or whatever you would like, but regardless, you lose light of what’s important, you forget the bigger picture.
Don’t get so caught up in the details that you lose sight of what matters. Gardenia or not, life is worth so much more!
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