Tying the Knot!

Usually on this blog I stick to herbal-related topics, but due to a recent momentous occasion I want to share something very personal to me. So, here goes...

Just a few weeks ago, on a beautiful October day, my long-time love, Henry and I got married! After knowing each other for 8 years, we decided to finally make things official. We had a short engagement -- two months long -- and planned a very simple ceremony with just our immediate families present. It was incredibly lovely and just what we wished for.

Appropriately, our relationship all started because of plants... We met one fateful day when I first started working at the Harvard Herbarium, where the university's collection of preserved plant specimens are housed. Henry and I worked on the same project together and he soon became one of my closest friends. After he moved on to another job, our friendship evolved into love.

(Well, truth be told, it wasn't nearly as simple and smooth as that, but we'll save that story for another day!...)

Although neither of us are no longer at the herbarium, plants are still of course a big part of our everyday life... And with the line of work that I am in, herbs have literally taken over our whole household! But Henry is good-natured about the herbs (dried, tinctured and otherwise) that take up every free nook and cranny, and he has certainly earned the title of "honorary herbalist." As my Herbstalk co-founder, he is just as passionate about connecting people with herbs as I am.

For our wedding we made sure to incorporate meaningful plants into the day. Part of our ceremony involved drinking from a shared cup of wine, which we infused with hawthorn berries we had gathered together. And I made my bouquet and hair piece with plants from our garden, including rosemary, queen anne's lace, holy basil, mugwort and rosehips. Henry's boutineer included an unusual, but important touch --  a beech nut from the tree under which he proposed.

So, here are a few photos from our happy day, made lovelier by the autumn trees, the dusk light, a spell of misting rain, and the warmth of our nearest and dearest.