Wedding Flowers: A Calculated Reduction of Stress
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Wedding Flowers: A Calculated Reduction of Stress

Wedding flowers are tricky things because they have so many variables to them. For example, they must be in season, delivered on the correct date, stored at the proper temperature with a good amount of water, and they must be tended a certain number of hours in advance so that they bloom at the optimal time for the ceremony.

To summarize, they were a portion of my wedding that I was not looking forward to and I kept procrastinating on the decision. Finally, I decided to do something non-traditional.

A bride living with Adrenal Insufficiency smiles as she looks down at her wedding flowers.

Photo by Rebekah Sampson Photography.

The Use of Paper Wedding Flowers

I found paper origami flowers on Etsy.

Paper wedding flowers were used to reduce stress for a bride living with adrenal insufficiency.

Photo by Rebekah Sampson Photography.

In searching for something low-stress and practical, I stumbled upon something absolutely beautiful and better than any of my dreams.

Paper wedding flowers were also used as the centerpiece for table decorations.

Photo by Rebekah Sampson Photography.

My wedding bouquet contained pages from Sherlock Holmes. My father gifted me this book as a young child and I have been told that my brain works frighteningly similar to Sherlock’s mind. Even the small detail of the print on the paper, a detail I didn’t even know to ask about, was perfect.

Three beautiful paper wedding flower bouquets on display.

Photo by Rebekah Sampson Photography.

Because I had a destination wedding, I did not see the flowers until the day before the wedding. My flowers arrived in the desert before I did! Yet they looked exactly the same the day they arrived, the day before the wedding, the day of the wedding, and the day after the wedding. This worked to my advantage considering the amount of rain we had on our wedding day! All of our formal couple pictures were taken the next day with my bridal bouquet showing no signs of wilting.

It is Impossible to Eliminate all Stress from Life.

Frankly, I wouldn’t want to. That is not truly living. Life is all about experiencing both the happy stress and the not so happy stress. Cortisol is the buffer that allows people to handle all types of stress. Because I have Adrenal Insufficiency, I produce no cortisol. This leaves me two options: I can either surrender my life to my disease or I can fight it.

A bride living with Adrenal Insufficiency smiles as she is surrounded by five beautiful bridesmaids all holding their wedding flowers.

Photo by Rebekah Sampson Photograph.

Paper origami wedding flowers in lieu of live flowers allowed me to save spoons for my wedding day.

I choose to fight to be Clearly Alive. I choose to LIVE with my Adrenal Insufficiency. I choose to reduce unnecessary stress so that I can focus on good stress and live my life to the fullest.

I am Clearly Alive.

Amber Nicole is Clearly Alive