Many of you know that I love to do flowers for weddings. The florist who taught me years ago how to make bows (update #4), also taught me the basics in floral arranging. That developed into a side hobby of making bouquets, corsages and arrangements. So, I offered to help with the flowers for Florence & Hilary’s wedding. Normally when I do flowers, the bride and groom only pay for the flowers. My labor is part of the wedding gift.
I had been in communication with Godfrey about where we were going to purchase the flowers. I had no idea what kind of flowers would be available. There were discussions as to whether they would be “natural” flowers or artificial. I discovered when I was there that if we used artificial that means we “rent” or “hire” the flowers. He said that he was sure they would want to use natural flowers.
We had to wait until after the Introduction to start the process of finding flowers. Godfrey assured me that he knew where to go and we could get them even up to the day before. Yes, that was as crazy as it sounds!
In Update #13, I mentioned Godfrey & I had gone to Kampala. I need to make a slight correction. It was actually the week in-between the Introduction and the Wedding, not the previous week.
So we didn’t start looking for flowers until Tuesday, August 8th. Godfrey took me to town where he said we should probably order them ahead of time. Ha! I told him I normally order flowers a month in advance. Not even knowing what flowers were available for me to work with five days before the wedding was definitely a huge challenge!
When we went to town, flowers are not sold at a typical “florist” shop like we are use to. We walked up to a small shop where the owner mainly had some supplies for weddings. When we asked about natural flowers, she walked us back to the side of the shop where she had some buckets holding miniature roses and chrysanthemums. That was all she had. But because it was Tuesday, the flowers wouldn’t work for Saturday. She wasn’t sure if they would get more flowers by the weekend even if we ordered.
On Wednesday, Godfrey took me to another shop, but the owner was not there. Another vendor pointed to a phone number that was written by a sharpie onto a part of a door frame! Godfrey called that number and she said she was out of town until Monday! He took me to one more place but they also were not able to help. So it was four days before the wedding and I still had no idea where the flowers were going to come from!
We had to stop the hunt for flowers to meet with Sylvia who was joining us at the market to buy some supplies. While we were there, we ran into Irene, Hope, Trust, Maria and Florence!! I told Florence we were having issues with finding natural flowers. I asked her if it mattered if we used artificial flowers if we were not successful with finding natural flowers. She said, “Whatever you do I know it will be beautiful!” Ha! Pressure was on!
Irene has a beauty salon and was an instrumental part of the Introduction and Wedding for both the girls and boys. So I asked her if she had any ideas about where to find flowers. She said the only other option from the places Godfrey and I went to was to drive to Kampala where they have more variety. We didn’t have another full day to make that drive.
We were running out of options and were seriously considering renting artificial flowers. But I happen to mention the dilemma we were in to someone else at the home. They said, “You should ask Sylvia because she was in charge of the Send-Off decorations. I think she has a contact.” So on Thursday I asked Godfrey to check with Sylvia. She said, “Sure. Let me contact the person we used and see what they have.”
Sylvia went on her own to meet with the person who sells flowers. She began texting me photos of what he had and they were beautiful ! Sylvia said we should buy what we needed now because he wasn’t going to get another order before Friday.
Godfrey wasn’t available to pick me up to bring me to town. So Sylvia came to the hotel on a boda boda (motorbike used for transportation) to bring me to town. I like to ride a boda boda at least once each trip as long as it is just to town. I normally ride side-saddle because of wearing a dress. When you ride on a boda boda the regular way, they called that riding like a man. But try doing that wearing a long dress! Even though I was totally comfortable riding side saddle, Sylvia was very nervous! She has not been with me before when I have used a boda. So she told my driver to drive carefully and her driver to stay close to us in case I fall off. She was going to jump off and rescue me! Ha ha !
But we made it safely to town after a very enjoyable ride! When we got to the man selling the flowers, some of what she showed me by text were already gone. Everything was in a big pile on burlap on the ground. No telling how long they were out of water! But I was able to buy roses and chrysanthemums as well as a few other filler flowers. He wrapped up our order while we went to find a place to buy buckets to put them in.
What I was missing was any type of greenery. So Friday morning, just one day before the wedding, I had flowers but no greenery. Sylvia came to the rescue again! She went back into town and found another contact who said he had an order coming from Kampala. If we ordered the greenery at that moment, he could catch his driver and it would be there by the afternoon. Praise the Lord! So I was able to order two types of greenery that worked perfectly!
By Friday afternoon, less than 24 hours before the wedding, I finally had flowers and greenery! Talk about cutting it close! I gathered all the flowers and supplies and prayed that God would take it all and make beautiful “bloom” from the little I had.
One time on one of my first trips, we actually did have a very simple Christian wedding for a young couple they knew well. I offered to do the bouquet. That one was definitely a challenge because I didn’t have any of my correct supplies. That was over 16 years ago where was even less availability of flowers in town! I remember searching for anything I could use to make a bouquet. The night before the wedding, I laid out all I had on the bed and prayed that God would multiple it like the fish and bread in the story of the feeding of the 5000! It was a miracle that I formed a bouquet out of the little I had! The bigger surprise was when I went to deliver the bouquet, the bride had a dress she rented for me and I suddenly was her matron of honor!
I prayed a similar prayer over the flowers for this wedding. God truly did the miraculous with only hours to spare! I was able to put together four bridesmaids bouquets and one bridal bouquet. The other shock was the total cost for all five bouquets was only about $50 USD! Here at home you wouldn’t be able to get even one bouquet for that price.
Something you get used to when you are here is being flexible. Things can change without notice. Before I came I asked Godfrey what colors the bride was using as a theme so I knew what color ribbon to bring. It took awhile to get the final answer but I finally was told, “royal blue & silver”. So I chose the colors of the flowers to match the royal blue ribbon. Good thing I used silver with just a thin royal blue accent. When the bridesmaids came out of the cars, to my surprise their dresses were maroon!
Plus, I gave Florence her bouquet which she did hold momentarily. But for the main ceremony she had been given an artificial bouquet that came with the rental of the wedding dress! It was perfect and beautiful! So instead of one she had two bouquets!
Waiting until the last minute was definitely a challenge. But the bigger lesson was in trusting God through it all. I had no idea what the bouquets were going to look like because I didn’t know what was available. But putting its in God’s hands first, He gave me all I needed to do my part with my hands.
But the flowers paled in comparison to how beautiful Florence was and how handsome Hilary looked. Together they were a picture of God’s grace and goodness! The most important part of the day was they were becoming man and wife!
The next update will be about the long awaited wedding! After that just one more update as I got ready to head home!
Kale,
Mama Kisakye
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