Everyone Has A First
Grace + Grit was just a twinkle in my eye when I took the plunge and took on my first wedding under the name “Brittany Sullivan Flowers”. Like many others getting their start the lovely couple were friends of mine and put their trust in me to not fuck this up! (Spoiler alert: I did not fuck it up!) I still get the night before pre-wedding jitters and from what I hear from other florists this seems to never go away (that is how much we care about your flowers!). But there was one thing that was not just a twinkle in my eye anymore and that was my then 4 month old daughter, Lucy. Juggling my first wedding and a baby was not anything I had experienced before but with a little bit of help from my family I managed to get it done! This photo was taken in the studio we currently are in now. At the time it belonged to my insanely talented event designer bud Michelle Bablo and I was just renting on a day by day basis.
Can we just take a minute and look at this beautiful couple who now have a little baby themselves!
She, a pastry chef and He, a sommelier (a portion of my tip was paid in a magnum of fancy champagne which I was not mad about) met while working at a 2x Michelin Star restaurant in the great isle of Manhattan. They married on a sunny day in September 2017 at The Garrison, a super scenic venue in the Hudson Highlands. They requested we use plants so we went with succulents, airplants and orchids for centerpieces which guests were able to take home at the end of the night!
When I think back to this wedding there are a few things that stand out -
My husband helped me set up and I had to teach him that you can’t load wedding flowers into a car like you would suitcases on a vacation. He was super helpful and we got everything done in time which is always my biggest worry.
I was escorted to a walk in refrigerator to put flowers on the cake and told it was *incredibly* important that I did not get the fridge messy or leave any leaves anywhere cause Chef was anal about his cooler (I have mad respect for that).
My childcare for breakdown the next day fell through so Lucy and my best friend drove back to the venue with me to retrieve all the rentals. I sat outside and fed Lucy while Jenn gathered everything up and put it in my car. I am and always will be eternally grateful for her help. A year or so later she also helped me install a wedding upstate while she was very pregnant (see? The best).
At this time in Lucy’s life I was running on maybe 4 hours of sleep (if I was lucky) and I am still amazed at myself that I was able to do the weddings I did in that 1st year. Thank god that’s over.