The Essential Guide to Gay and Lesbian Weddings (90 page)

Pansy.
When Puck gathers pansies in
A Midsummer Night's Dream,
they are said to have the power to “make man or woman madly dote / Upon the next live creature that it sees”—man or woman.

Calamus.
The title that Walt Whitman chose for the most homoerotic part of
Leaves of Grass,
this flower's name comes from Greek mythology: Calamus was the lover of Carpus, and was changed into a reed after Carpus drowned.

Ladslove.
Need we say more than the name itself?

Hyacinth.
Another origin in mythology: although Apollo loved Hyacinthus passionately, that didn't stop him from accidentally killing him with a discus, so Apollo turned the body into a purple flower.

Orchid.
Our local gay printer tells us: “Lesbians love orchids—they're all over their wedding invitations.” Hmmm… we wonder if they know that the name comes from a Greek word meaning “testicles.” (No, the flower doesn't look like them—the bulbs do.) The term
orchid-eater
was used in nineteenth-century erotica as a euphemism for “gay man.”

Rose Is a Rose Is a Rose Is a Rose

Gertrude Stein once wrote, “Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose,” which means something to the effect of a rose by any other name is still a rose. (At least we think that's what it means—or maybe she had just eaten some of Alice's brownies and was only rambling.) Oh, if it were only true when it comes to quality control and prices. Roses fall into three categories:

Select:
the crème de la crème

Extra Fancy:
middle grade

Fancy:
sounds great, but indicates the lowest quality of graded roses

When you see advertisements for one hundred roses for $22.50, they're probably fancy and a few days old to boot.

If you want to be assured of quality, be sure to ask the florist about the grade of roses available—and think about how your choice will affect your checkbook.

If you chose to design the flowers yourself, be sure to coordinate all of your activities so that you don't end up spending the morning of an afternoon wedding up to your elbows in potting soil. Here are some ideas that came from do-it-yourselfers:

Take a trip to your local crafts store, or, better yet, to a wholesale house in the flower district. Some wholesalers are entirely closed to the public, but within the district you'll find a few shops that deal in both retail and wholesale. You might have to buy in bulk, like getting a case of five-inch bud vases, but the savings will be unbelievable.

Go to your local farmers market and get bunches and bunches of cut flowers. (A large quantity of one or two varieties is more effective than a few each of lots of different kinds.)

Don't worry about all of the vases matching: use any kind of container you can dig up that you like. Eclectic never goes out of style, you know.