Well this isn't good..

Since the start of all the wedding planning we were sure of two vendors we had to have, our photographer (more on her later) and our florist. Lynn is a close friend and cousin of my FMIL and she just happens to be a wonderful florist as well. I had worked with Lynn previously on some centerpieces for my MOH's shoe themed bridal shower last year.

She took shoes that I found at Goodwill and incorporated them into the centerpieces...

...and I think they turned out great!

Love the little shoe ornaments!

I was so happy with what she did and what I'd seen of her other work that I knew she had to do the flowers for the wedding.

This past weekend I had lunch with FMIL and she told me that with the economy the way it is, Lynn's shop was suffering and there's a chance that they might close! The shop is a real family business, with everyone including her mom working in the shop part or full time; I can't imagine losing something like that and my heart goes out to them. I just hope that they can find a way to ride this out and keep the business going.

Obviously I am most concerned about how they will make it through this, but I did have to think about what this means for the wedding planning and bugdet. Lynn had generiously offered us a sizable discount on the flowers (I think in part because FMIL promised her facials for the rest of her life; FMIL happens to be an anesthitician!). The discount had allowed us to move some of the money we had budgeted for flowers into other projects and details.

Because there is still so much up in the air for Lynn right now, I don't want to hit a sore spot and ask her about an event 10 months away when the next few months aren't even certain. What I am hoping is that she might still be willing to do the flowers if I supply the vases and the flowers. But I have no idea what sort of space she'll have or what her time constranits will be and I don't want to impose so I'm also going to start looking into other options. Unfortunately I've become rather attached to some of the details that we've been able to add with our shifted finances, so I'm thinking the DIY route may be the way to go. Or maybe I can do the centerpieces but have a florist do the boquets. Perhaps its time to look in the floral arranging classes at UWM???