Thoughts of Valentine's Day

With Valentine’s Day coming up, I wonder if R will get me flowers again this year. He usually does, but I told him we could keep things low-key this year to save money. He’s always pretty good about buying flowers for special occasions, though. He bought me white roses on my birthday, and every once in a while, he’ll pick up some flowers when he is at the grocery store, for no real reason. A few weeks ago he brought home a single coral-colored rose that was really beautiful. Usually for Valentine’s Day, he gets me red roses. I also suggested that we make each other gifts this year, but he wasn’t too sure about that idea, so I told him dinner counts. He’s a great cook and I’m always asking him to make the stuffed chicken that he made the first time he cooked for me. Even if we keep things low-key this year, it will be a special Valentine’s Day because it will be our first one as a married couple!

The cost of wedding flowers

I'm happy to report that R & I kept the entire budget for our recent wedding under $3000. Considering that anything under $10,000 is a "budget" wedding, I think we did pretty well ... and we didn’t even really have to sacrifice anything we wanted.

One of the biggest expenses was actually the flowers. I went with a small local florist and I paid over $90 just for my bouquet, which was orange lilies with some roses and crocosmia mixed in. It was gorgeous, and I loved the colors, but I think I could have found something cheaper and just as pretty if I had ordered off a web site like 1800flowers.com. They have beautiful bouquets of lilies for a fraction of what I paid, plus they can do corsages and boutonnieres also.

I'm very happy with the way everything turned out, but I think I could have saved some money on the flowers if I had shopped around a little more!

Mother's Day

I realized yesterday that Mother's Day is just around the corner. I haven't even started to think of gift ideas. If I can't think of anything else, I suppose you really can't go wrong with flowers.

My mom lives out of state, so I probably won't see her on Mothers Day. I could always have some flowers delivered, though. I bet places like 1-800-flowers have some great Mother's Day arrangements.

My New Favorite Holiday

The other day as R and I were cooking dinner, the subject of Valentine's Day came up. I asked him what we were going to to for the holiday and he told me not to worry about it.

"That's my job," he said.

It's kind of strange to think that this will be our second Valentine's Day together. I've never spent two Valentine's Days with anyone before, so that in itself is exciting. And I know whatever we do, it will be great. Last year he bought me a dozen roses and took me out for sushi. (Yeah, he's good.)

A couple of days later, I noticed that he had written down some of his recent credit card purchases on the white board in his kitchen. One of them "Roses - $60." I couldn't believe it. I told him, seriously, that he shouldn't have spent the money. Of course, I appreciated the gesture (and I still have the dried flowers), but I told him that was just too much money. He wouldn't hear of it.

"It was Valentine's Day. You have to have red roses on Valentine's Day."

Later, he admitted that he had waited until the last minute and bought them at a pricey flower shop. I hope this year he plans ahead and does some comparison shopping. I'm sure online retailers like 1-800-flowers are already running specials. I love that he was thoughtful enough to buy me flowers, but I don't want him spending a lot of money needlessly.