I nodded.
‘Arses.’ She stomped off to sort it out.
I let out a breath. Today was turning out to be a good deal more nerve-racking than planned, I thought, heading back to the car to release Scamp. I was well and truly out of my comfort zone, and, amazingly, I was enjoying every second of it.
Chapter Ten
Kelly wasn’t the most delicate of florists, plus she was accident prone and potty-mouthed. In the first five minutes she managed to knock a full watering-can over her shoes, stab herself with secateurs and snap the heads of several precious peonies, while supplying everyone with an expletive-heavy running commentary on her woes.
In spite of that, I don’t know what I’d have done without her. Within minutes, she’d purloined a trestle table for us to work on which we set up behind the marquee just out of sight of any early guests. She cajoled several of the waiting staff to bring water for us to fill all my hotch-potch collection of vessels (I hadn’t even considered where I’d be getting water from) and she even had a glass of lemonade and a sandwich plus doggy snacks for Scamp sent out after declaring that my rumbling stomach sounded like someone had pulled the plug out of a full bath and she was sick of listening to it.
We tackled the easiest job first: displays for each of the round tables. With Scamp sprawled out on his back in a patch of sunshine, I filled an assortment of jugs, bottles and old jam jars with water. The marquee was very white and I had a vague notion of softening the space with relaxed, fun and casual flowers in quirky containers. I gathered bunch after bunch of blowsy peonies, feathery gypsophilia, fragrant stocks and plump hyacinths and popped them into water, while Kelly finished them off, tying lace ribbon and twine around the containers and setting them straight onto tables. We couldn’t achieve perfection, working at this speed and I had to resist the urge to fiddle with the stems. Kelly felt no such urge.
‘I might have stayed with Nina if I’d known you could take short cuts like this,’ she said, impressed when we’d provided three vases of flowers for every table. ‘What next?’
‘On to the top table,’ I said, gazing worriedly at the half-finished garland which Nina had been working on when I’d found her. Between us we carried it through the marquee and set it in the centre of the long rectangular table in front of where the bride and groom would preside over the room. But no matter how much we fiddled with it, it didn’t quite work.
Kelly wrinkled her nose. ‘Looks shite. Not long enough and you’ll never have time to finish it.’
Annoyingly she was right.
‘Arses,’ I said flatly.
Kelly’s lips twitched into a smile.
I carefully lifted it out of the way and set it to one side under the arch on the wedding cake table.
Kelly opened her mouth to impart more wisdom.
‘It’s just temporary,’ I said curtly. ‘While I, er …’
I was about to say ‘while I decide what to do with it’ but thought better of it.
But Kelly had clocked my hesitation. She gave me a sharp look. ‘You do know what you’re doing, don’t you?’
‘Of course,’ I said, willing my face not to blush. ‘I’m going to make a table runner of flowers which looks like a spring meadow: natural, pretty and unfussy. Masses of foliage peppered with flowers.’
‘Right.’ Kelly lifted one slender eyebrow. ‘And the arch?’
‘One thing at a time,’ I said, my mind whirling with Fiona’s advice. The arch was over to one side and wouldn’t be in people’s eyeline. The top table, on the other hand, would feature in everyone’s wedding photos so that was the priority.
‘You’re the boss,’ she muttered dubiously.
‘You grab as much greenery as you can and arrange it in a wide stripe along the entire length of the table. And I’ll poke loads of flowers into it.’
Kelly did as she was told and even managed to get two waiters to help cart the foliage inside for us. We started at one end and while she made a deep foresty bed of ivy, ruskus, eucalyptus and fern, I selected a hundred or so flowers and tucked them into the foliage. Roses in shades of white, pink and creamy peach, blue lisianthus and cornflowers, trumpeting narcissi and frilly-edged tulips … the beauty of the flowers was making my heart soar. Although thinking about it, that might have been nerves.
‘Nina normally makes me wire every stem,’ said Kelly, marvelling at how fast the display was coming together. ‘Most mind-numbing job on the planet.’
‘The theme is more rustic for this wedding though,’ I said, brushing aside my pang of doubt.
There was no time for wire and besides, Fiona had drummed into me that these flowers only had to look good for a few hours. ‘And just think, at the end of the night, the bride can give bunches of flowers away to her guests.’
‘At the end of the night, this bride will only have one thing on her mind,’ Kelly smirked. ‘And that’s bed.’
‘Let’s stay professional about our clients, shall we?’ I said primly, noticing that two of the younger lads had overheard and were now elbowing each other.
‘You and your dirty mind.’ She hooted with laughter. ‘I meant she’ll be knackered. She’s five months pregnant. Mind you, the groom is well fit.’
We reached the end of the table and walked round to the centre to survey our work. My heart was definitely soaring with happiness this time.
‘Wow,’ I said, feeling a lump in my throat. ‘It looks incredible.’
I knew my hours of scrolling through Pinterest would pay off one day.
‘Not bad,’ she said, with a sniff. She took her phone out of her pocket and took a few pictures. For the hotel website, she told me. I took some for Nina. I had no idea whether she had a website or not, but I felt I should.
‘Wedding cars are here,’ announced a breathless waitress from the marquee’s entrance. Behind her a line of staff appeared carrying silver serving dishes.
‘Shit the bed!’ Kelly yelled.
‘Stay calm,’ I said, feeling very proud of myself. ‘All we need to do is tidy up around the top table and –’
‘I’m supposed to be out there, greeting them.’ Kelly flapped about trying to find her jacket. ‘Doing my actual job, not yours.’
Not my job either, I thought, but didn’t say anything. Instead I held out Kelly’s jacket for her and she slid her arms in.
‘Thanks for your help,’ I said. ‘I couldn’t have finished in time without you.’
‘You haven’t finished.’ Kelly nodded to where I’d left Nina’s abandoned garland. ‘You haven’t done the arch.’
I blinked. ‘The arch is supposed to have flowers on it?’
She gave me a quizzical look. ‘Duh. Yes. It’s one of Nina’s wedding props. Major focal point for photos.’
‘You’re kidding me.’ I groaned.
That had been one of Fiona’s top three rules: prioritise the focal areas. Now what was I going to do? I’d got plenty of flowers to spare but no time.
‘Tut, tut. Call yourself a professional florist?’ Kelly teased.
‘No, I don’t actually,’ I said flatly. ‘This time yesterday I was still in flower school. I’ve only done a five-day course.’