I don't really enjoy summer as much as the general population seems to. I really, really love fall, so I look at summer as sort of a fall prep-time. The hotter it gets I think, "Oh, this is going to make those cool fall nights feel so refreshing!" The blue skies and white puffy clouds and green trees are beautiful but they make me think, "How great are grey skies and orange leaves going to look in a few months?!" But the one thing I unabashedly love about this time of year are peonies. There are some planted on campus by where I park my car and my coworker usually brings some in for our service desk and my neighbor has some in her yard. And every time I walk by a peony I sniff it and tell it it's beautiful. Because it is! Peonies are beautiful!
They are also perfect wedding flowers. I have always imagined my perfect wedding as a Tuesday afternoon at the courthouse just me, my fiance, our parents, siblings, and 1-2 best friends each. I think that sounds lovely. But the weather has been so beautiful and so June-y and the peonies are so pretty that I've come up with a new dream wedding. It's actually based on a night I had last summer where I went to hear a friend's band play. We were outside, under the night sky, crickets were chirping, the band was playing under a little tent with twinkle lights hanging up. I was walking around barefoot through the grass in a sundress with a cup of keg beer in my hand and I remember thinking, "This is summer. This is as good as summer gets." So if I ever get married (dudes, I'm not even dating anybody right now) and if my fiance objects to my Tuesday courthouse plan (for the record, my mother definitely objects to that plan) this is my backup plan: Summer evening in a big field of grass under a white tent with twinkle lights, crickets chirping, a bluegrass band, kegs of beer, bottles of wine, and loads of peonies everywhere. I'll be barefoot in a white sundress and I'll be thinking, "This is my summer wedding. How much fun is it going to be thinking back on this while I'm wearing a sweater in the fall!"
Just a happy little daydream for a Friday.
