{Why Royal Weddings Matter} No. 2: The Scent of Love

Continuing our celebration of this spring's royal wedding.... the second post for my "Why Royal Weddings Matter" Confluence Daily column, "The Scent of Love" reprinted below:

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The Scent of Love

It’s only natural that flowers are in the news surrounding this spring’s royal wedding and the love story of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle—those two deeply soulful romantics! The prince has been open about the memory of his late mother having “an important role in their relationship,” even requesting that their wedding florist (London-based decorative designer Philippa Craddock) include white garden roses in their ceremony, a particular favorite of Princess Diana.

According to goddess legends, the beautiful and resilient rose, with its intoxicating fragrance, is celebrated as the flower of Venus, the Goddess of love in Greek mythology. (“In her love nest,” historian Marina Heilmeyer writes, “Cleopatra had pillows filled with rose petals.”) Affectionately called “the queen of flowers,” inspiring sensuous poetry and close admiration, no other bloom in nature has such a histoire as the rose.

In turn, the rose is most treasured by brides—especially for the intimacy of their bouquet—its scent seems to tap into the memory of the heart. No wonder, as perfumer Mandy Aftel explained: “Scents come in without language and go directly to the emotional center of the brain. That’s why scent is so connected to memory.”

Aromatherapy connoisseur and writer Christopher Bamford reveals that smell is the “most ancient and magical sense, acting as a sort of sensual medium between heaven and earth. A scent or perfume was thought to express the ‘inner essence’ or spiritual nature of a thing.” Therefore, when we smell a rose, it’s the scent of something truly divine.

Princess Diana was known to keep fragrant, fresh-cut garden flowers in her Kensington Palace apartments. Perhaps the remembered scent of roses is such a beloved memory for Harry that having white roses at his wedding is a naturally intimate way to connect the two women closest to his heart.

In early Christian lore, the “mysterious” rose was so cherished (despite its sensual past) that it came to be dedicated to the Virgin Mary; red roses symbolized her suffering, white roses her joy. Did Diana intuitively know this?  According to the former head gardener at Kensington Palace, the princess always favored white flowers over red ones. Unfulfilled in her own search for love, yet Diana found joy in the love of her sons and encouraged them to be true to their heart’s desire. As though she was leaving them with an inner directive to move thoughtfully through the ‘suffering’, then live gratefully inside the ‘joy’.

The memory of love, indeed—with the lingering scent of roses.~

[Bits of this column excerpted from The End of the Fairy-Tale Bride: For Better or Worse, How Princess Diana Rescued the Great White Wedding, available on Amazon.]

{Flowers and Their Meanings}

Dear Bride-to-Be: 
Brides and the language of flowers have a romantic and mystical heritage. Through the ages, sentimental folks assigned meanings to flowers and herbs according to their innate nature—and a language was created.

Bridal folklore throughout history, inspired by goddess mythology, tells of maidens entwining creamy white, aromatic orange blossoms into a bridal wreath for their hair, to ensure fertility; or carrying a bunch of sweet smelling white lilacs, representing innocence; or tucking fragrant herbs into their bouquets, rosemary for remembrance and dill, believed to provoke lust. Both herbs were also eaten for their supposed powers!

So whatever flowers you are carrying or wearing or displaying at your wedding, consider their folklore and mystery and romance (like from Kate Greenaway’s Language of Flowers)—because sometimes knowing the ancient story of something, especially flowers, opens up some “fragrant” yummy-ness in the present...perhaps even opening your heart to give and receive more tenderness!

Love. Listen. Let go.

.....with love from Cornelia

ps: This is an excerpt from my latest book, The End of the Fairy-Tale Bride {Volume One} For Better or Worse, How Princess Diana Rescued the Great White Wedding. Enjoy....

{Aromatherapy-Wise Bride}

Dear Bride-to-Be:
Your time of being a bride should be a dreamy time filled with love! However, if you're doing most of the wedding planning and organizing yourself, it can get a bit stressful, yes? So how can you have the best of all worlds: Stay “full of love, ease and creativity” while planning a wedding from your heart....?

Here are bits of aromatherapy wisdom to get your creative juices flowing:

•     “Lightly spritz wedding invitations and love letters with tea rose or jasmine scents…it helps send love around the world.”

•     “Put a few drops of essential oil on an unscented dryer sheet with your bed linens…lavender pillowcases call sweet dreams close….love follows the scent of rose. Choose either fragrance for a dreamy rest.”

•     “Add a couple of drops of relaxing lavender essential oil onto a practical (washable) white linen handkerchief to carry on your wedding day. Then as you dab at tears (his or yours), the scent brings sweet calm.”

Be an “aromatherapy-wise” bride and enjoy your fragrantly-creative-planning-time and a love-scented wedding day!

Love. Listen. Let go.
...with love from Cornelia

[Photograph: Ian Grant]

{Truly Divine}

Dear Bride-to-Be:
As you are choosing flowers for your wedding, remember that the sense of smell is considered “the most ancient and magical sense, acting as a sort of sensual medium between heaven and earth,” according to author Christopher Bamford. “A scent or perfume was thought to express the inner essence or spiritual nature of a thing,” he added. Therefore using fragrant flowers for your wedding is like sharing something truly divine!

Use your wedding planning time to express your inner essence. When you feel yourself getting stressed or when your “to do” list keeps getting longer, pause…take a quiet moment for yourself and do this little exercise:

• Close your eyes and take several slow, deep breaths ... putting your attention within, gently and slowly breathe in and out until you find your center.
• Once feeling more centered, now imagine roots from the bottoms of your feet sinking deep into the Earth, grounding you.
• With this sense of feeling more centered and grounded, imagine your heart opening ... and opening even wider with each easy, deep breath.

Now in every gesture and expression you offer to others, give the most generous and grateful version of you—that’s your inner essence! Follow the lead of those fragrant flowers: Don't be stingy with your essence...spritz everyone you meet today with something divine! A heartfelt bit of you....

Love. Listen. Let go...
...with love from Cornelia

[Photography: Daniel Sheenan]

{A Handkerchief for Your Wedding} Part Two: "Lavender Tinged"

Dear Bride-to-Be:
A pretty vintage handkerchief (white-on-white or perhaps with a smidgen of pastel color) is my favorite bridal present to give—something personal, feminine and intimate, yet immensely practical. Sometimes I’ll slip back to the bride’s dressing area the day of the wedding and give her a hanky gift, ensuring she doesn’t go down the aisle without it. (I’ve also been known to whip out my own vintage hanky from my handbag and give it to the bride or groom when no other is available!)

Of course handkerchiefs for brides or grooms are more than just useful for tears and sniffles. They can be a handy way to bring a bit of ease into your bustling wedding day with an old-fashioned yet clever use of aromatherapy. For instance, lavender is very calming. (And did you know that when you’re calm and more relaxed, you’re more present to love?)

You can lavender-scent your wedding day handkerchief by placing it (or them) in a box or wrapped in tissue with some sprigs of dried lavender a few days before the wedding. Or as you’re leaving for your ceremony, dab a tiny drop of lavender essential oil on a corner of your handkerchief so you’ll get a soothing whiff each time you pat your nose. (Even keep a small vial of lavender oil in your bridal purse or pocket for a little calming “hanky refresher” during your wedding festivities.)

So instead of being distracted by nerves or “drippy” moments on your wedding day, be “hanky prepared” and you’ll be able to keep your attention on love...on what’s in your heart...on each other!

Love. Listen. Let go.
...with love from Cornelia

[Photograph: David Willems]

{Fragrance of the Heart} Redux

[In honor my bridal guide book signing at the Joy Garden Tour this month in the beautiful mountain village of Cashiers, NC, I'm re-posting this "flowery" message....enjoy!]

 

Dear Bride-to-Be:
Planning a wedding is more than just organizing people, places and things! It's a life changing rite-of-passage of your deeper self, an opportunity to discover something of your inner most essence and share that with your beloved.

No wonder that through the ages, fragrance and essential oils—the extracted essence of aromatic plants—were part of a bride's wedding preparations. Using aromatherapy was a way to assist the bride to tap into her own inner essence and bring the magic of nature into the celebration! A bride would be “anointed” with fragrant, soothing essential oils—so she was then wearing the heart of a flower.

Aromatherapists tell us that the inherent beauty and harmony of nature is exemplified in essential oils. They say that using natural fragrance encourages the link between the right and left sides of the brain, connecting how we feel to how we think.

Aromatherapy consultants Joan Clark and Michael Scholes teach that this is the first step to linking the body and mind, the heart and brain, even creating a balance between the female and male energies.

“It is through these realizations,” the experts explain, “that we start to heal our hearts, learn how to communicate our innermost feelings and to express compassion and the ultimate lesson—the ability to forgive.”    

Ahhh. Discovering the fragrance of the heart through essential oils.What a wonderful way to plan a wedding....a perfect way to be the bride you want to be....a loving way to begin a spiritual partnership!

Love. Listen. Let go.
...with love from Cornelia

[Photographs: Courtesy of Little Winter Bride and Drew Newman]

{The Language of Flowers}

Dear Bride-to-Be:

I thought you'd enjoy this reprint of my article, The Language of Flowers, published in the summer issue of SEASON magazine.

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Bridal folklore throughout history, inspired by goddess mythology, tells of maidens entwining creamy white, aromatic orange blossoms into a bridal wreath for their hair, to ensure fertility; or carrying a bunch of sweet smelling white lilacs, representing innocence; or tucking fragrant herbs into their bouquets, rosemary for remembrance and dill, believed to provoke lust. (Both herbs were also eaten for their supposed powers!)

 

Along came the French, picking up where the ancient Persians left off by assigning meanings to flowers and herbs, and in 1819 published Le Langage des Fleurs. The etiquette-driven Victorians, as passionate as they were sentimental about flowers, followed suit. With so many rules and restrictions about what was proper to say to whom—and outright flirtations certainly prohibited—they adopted the romance-filled language of flowers, creating their own dictionary-like books, lyrically illustrated, to help sort it all out.

 

This romantic language was perfect for weddings. Many brides, including royal ones, get a bit sentimental when it comes to their wedding bouquet. Queen Victoria carried a nosegay of snowdrops, representing friendship (they were her beloved Albert’s favorite flower); and Grace Kelly, after much thought, selected lilies of the valley as her simple wedding bouquet, meaning return of happiness. And of course Kate Middleton included blooms of Sweet William, signifying gallantry.

 

During the golden-age of movies, whatever the royalty-like brides of old Hollywood loved, the rest of America did as well—and they loved orchids! Especially huge, lush cattleya varieties that, if truth be told, were overtly sexual. Although a “language of flowers” book might say the orchid represents beauty and refinement, Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief, called it “the sexiest flower on the planet.” So no matter what some whimsical Victorian floriography says (or what post-war brides and their mothers pretended), an orchid’s real language was passionate, sensual, even erotic.

Yet, ironically, as was the fashion, a large opulent orchid sat on top of a bride’s small, white bible; or was attached innocently to her fur or satin muff; or worn as an oversized wedding corsage. Orchids were also popular in the center of big, boisterous bridal bouquets, like eighteen-year-old Elizabeth Taylor carried for her first wedding in 1950, right before the premiere of Father of the Bride with Spencer Tracey. (She didn’t carry orchids in all of her eight weddings, but Goddess Liz knew her way ‘round passion so she included them often!)                        

 

Needless to say, the language of flowers could be confusing: their “meanings” changed because of fashion or locale or color; or with what other blossom it was combined. No wonder tussie-mussies and nosegays—a style of mixing specific herbs and flowers—became so popular in the Victorian era (and were forerunners of the modern bridal bouquet.) Since these “talking bouquets” said the sweet-nothings for you, gentlemen suitors carefully chose their flower combinations, assuring the appropriate message be delivered to their sweetheart. (Plus one did not want the nosegay intended for tonight’s dinner hostess mixed up with last night’s paramour, etcetera.)

 

However, if your flower choices for a wedding bouquet don’t match up as you’d like with the messages in a Language of Flowers book, then just assign them your own romantic meanings and I’m certain the flower goddesses will bless you! ~

 

 

 
[This is a reprint of my article published in the summer issue of SEASON magazine. See page 74.]

{Natural & Tender Does It}

Dear Bride-to-Be: 
Don’t be a “stinky” bride! Many people are sensitive to strong scents and commercial perfumes made with solvents and petroleum products. So during this blog series, “brides, weddings & aromatherapy,” when I’ve been talking about fragrances and scents, I am not suggesting the use of those types of artificial products.

But most people are not allergic to “natural aromas.” So be thoughtful, light and natural in your fragrance choices used for your wedding celebration....from the perfume that you wear to the candles used at the reception.   

Aromatherapy—the use of essences of aromatic plants and flowers—is an art that puts us in touch with the subtle and delicate aspects of Mother Nature and in so doing, teaches us to be tender with each other. What a beautiful wedding gift to offer the world in need of a little more tenderness. In fact, your wedding is a gift to all the guests present...allow its essence to be a naturally fragrant way to share the love!

Love. Listen. Let go.
...with love from  Cornelia

ps: This completes the series “brides, weddings & aromatherapy” ... (It began with the post on November 3, 2010 if you want to check the archives for fragrant and relaxing tips and inspirations.) Stay tuned for an exciting announcement in the post next Wednesday!

[Photograph: Kristin Spencer]

{Refresh Head & Toes!}

Dear Bride-to-Be:
Every bride wants to be beautiful "from her head to her toes" on her wedding day, yes? And a more relaxed bride is a more beautiful bride! So how about adding ways to be relaxed and refreshed "all over" to your beauty regimen?

One/Head: Create a facial sauna—an easy fragrant beauty treatment to do at home. Aromatherapy consultant Valerie Ann Worwood instructs:

•    All you need is a bowl of very hot water and a towel. Put two drops of an essential oil blend—like lemon and fennel or lavender and neroli—onto the surface of the hot water and cover your head and the bowl with the towel for a couple of minutes at a time and let the scented steam do its magic!
•    Repeat the process as long as the water stays steamy to deeply cleanse and improve the texture of your skin.

Two/Toes: What a difference a refreshing foot-soak can make to ease a tired day. Aromatherapy consultant and massage therapist Joanne Falke offers this suggestion:

•    Dissolve 1/2 cup of Epsom Salt in a pan of cool water (enough to cover your feet completely); add two drops of peppermint essential oil and swish around. Pop those feet in and take at least 15-20 minutes to soak and relax…..and be energized!

Taking care of YOU all over—from your head to your toes—is taking care of your mind, body and spirit. Don't leave anything out...take care of your body during your busy schedule and your spirit will be refreshed as well. Then go be a beautiful bride!

Love. Listen. Let go.

...with love from Cornelia

ps: this post is part of the "aromatherapy, brides & weddings" series...enjoy!

[Photograph: Little Winter Bride]

{Aromatherapy Wisdom}

Dear Bride-to-Be:
Your time of being a bride should be a dreamy time filled with love! However, if you're doing most of the wedding planning and organizing yourself, it can get a bit stressful, yes? So how can you have the best of all worlds: Stay “full of love, ease and creativity” while planning a wedding from your heart....?

Here are bits of aromatherapy wisdom to get your creative juices flowing:

•     “Lightly spritz wedding invitations and love letters with tea rose or jasmine…it helps send love around the world.”

•     “Put a few drops of essential oil on an unscented dryer sheet with your bed linens…lavender pillowcases call sweet dreams close….love follows the scent of rose. Choose either fragrance for a dreamy rest.”

•     “Add a couple of drops of relaxing lavender essential oil onto a practical (washable) white linen handkerchief to carry on your wedding day. Then as you dab at tears (his or yours), the scent brings sweet calm.”

Be an “aromatherapy-wise” bride and enjoy your fragrantly creative planning time and wedding day! (Check here for more aromatic ideas....)

Love. Listen. Let go.
...with love from Cornelia

ps: the “aromatherapy, weddings & brides” series continues through February...enjoy!

[Photograph: Ian Grant]

{Loving Attention}

Dear Bride-to-Be:
In preparation for a bride’s wedding—and in honor of her rite-of-passage—women in cultures throughout antiquity gave the bride a ritual bath in water mixed with fragrant, essential oils. The custom of  “perfuming the bride with the essence of flowers” continues in parts of the world today.

Be a “goddess bride”—create a pre-nuptial ritual bath for yourself. On your own, or—for a deeply nurturing experience—invite girlfriends to bath you in aromatic herbs, candlelight, and sisterly love...tenderly caring for and attending you.
    
Allowing yourself such loving attention can be an inner and outer “cleansing”—sloughing off hurt feelings and old notions that don’t serve your best self. This kind of meditative sweetness could set the pace for a lifetime of deeply supportive and nurturing relationships.

Love. Listen. Let go.
...with love from Cornelia

[Photograph: Marla Aufmuth]

[This series on “aromatherapy, weddings & brides” continues through the month of February...new post each Wednesday.]

{Ease the Stress}

Dear Bride-to-Be:
Getting a headache from stress or tiredness during your busy wedding planning time? Aromatherapy consultants suggest that you place a few drops of peppermint essential oil on your fingertips and gently massage it in at the base of your neck for a bit of relief.

Here are a few other exercise suggestions...establish little practices during the day to assist the body in “letting go.” Perhaps you can indeed be tension and headache free!

•     Do gentle neck rolls throughout the day.

•     Roll your shoulders back three times, then forward three times.

•     Close your eyes and slowly rotate your eyeballs 360 degrees to the right, then to the left, relieving the eyes from that hard focus most of us do when we’re concentrating.

•     Practice soft focus whenever you can. It’s like looking at the world with “dreamy eyes”… your eyes will feel more rested, your face looks softer, and you’ll start seeing things from a broader perspective.

•     Relax the muscles in your face; stretch and rotate your jaw three times to the right, then three times to the left. (We hold lots of tension in our jaws!)

•     Go for a walk out in nature—snow flakes, green grass, misty rain, warm sun—whatever nature is offering, stretch the body and breathe it in!

Love. Listen. Let go.
...with love from Cornelia

[Photograph: Sarah Merians]

{Fragrance of the Heart}

Dear Bride-to-Be:
Planning a wedding is more than just organizing people, places and things! It's a life changing rite-of-passage of your deeper self, an opportunity to discover something of your inner most essence and share that with your beloved.

No wonder that through the ages, fragrance and essential oils—the extracted essence of aromatic plants—were part of a bride's wedding preparations. Using aromatherapy was a way to assist the bride to tap into her own inner essence and bring the magic of nature into the celebration! A bride would be “anointed” with fragrant, soothing essential oils—so she was then wearing the heart of a flower.

Aromatherapists tell us that the inherent beauty and harmony of nature is exemplified in essential oils. They say that using natural fragrance encourages the link between the right and left sides of the brain, connecting how we feel to how we think.

Aromatherapy consultants Joan Clark and Michael Scholes teach that this is the first step to linking the body and mind, the heart and brain, even creating a balance between the female and male energies.

“It is through these realizations,” the experts explain, “that we start to heal our hearts, learn how to communicate our innermost feelings and to express compassion and the ultimate lesson—the ability to forgive.”    

Ahhh. Discovering the fragrance of the heart through essential oils.What a wonderful way to plan a wedding....a perfect way to be the bride you want to be....a loving way to begin a spiritual partnership!

Love. Listen. Let go.
...with love from Cornelia

ps: The aromatherapy series continues next week...keep sending your ideas and “fragrant” suggestions!

[Photograph: Courtesy of Little Winter Bride]

{Dreamy Lavender Bride}

Dear Bride-to-Be:
You know that getting rest -- like a good night's sleep -- is important during the busy time of wedding planning, yes? Here are some "dreamy suggestions" for using lavender essential oil from aromatherapy consultant friends of mine:

•    To support a restful sleep, put some flower petals in a pretty dish on your night table and sprinkle a few drops of lavender essential oil on the petals for a soothing way to enter your dreams. (Perhaps use petals that are fading from a special bouquet of flowers you received!)

•    Scent your bed linens with lavender for a relaxing sleep.

•    Do you use an eye mask for sleeping? Put a few drops of lavender essential oil on the mask (on the side away from your eyes) to support a peaceful night’s rest.

Taking care of yourself is the most important item to have on your "wedding planning to-do list" -- don't leave yourself out!! Have various relaxation practices (light exercise; meditative breaks; walks in nature; burn lavender scented candles while reading; breathe deeply and slowly) be part of your daily routine. Be creative, be gentle, be natural (use aromatherapy fragrances, not artificial stuff*), be aware that real beauty comes from the inside, and be a dreamy bride....

Love. Listen. Let go.
...with love from Cornelia

ps:*Mountain Rose Herbs is one of my favorite essential oil sources because of their commitment to quality certified organic products!
pps: More from the series of "aromatherapy, brides and weddings" continues next Wednesday! Tune in...

[Photograph: Kristin Spencer]

{The Language of Flowers}

Dear Bride-to-Be:
Brides and the language of flowers have a romantic and mystical history. Through the ages, romantics assigned meaning to flowers and herbs according to their innate nature—and a language was created!

Bridal folklore tells of maidens entwining creamy white, aromatic orange blossoms into a bridal wreath for their hair, to ensure fertility; or carrying a bunch of sweet smelling white lilacs, representing innocence; or tucking fragrant herbs into their bouquets, rosemary for remembrance and dill, believed to provoke lust. (And both herbs were often eaten for their supposed powers!)

Queen Victoria carried a nosegay of snowdrops, representing friendship (they were her beloved Albert’s favorite flower); and Princess Grace, after much thought, selected lilies-of-the-valley for her wedding bouquet, one of the many delicate flowers meaning purity.

Former Brides magazine editor-in-chief, Barbara Tober, tells us that the sentimental Victorians of the 19th century had a custom of arranging a bouquet of flowers and herbs “to spell out the groom’s name (baby’s breath, irises, limonium, and lilies for B-I-L-L.”) The little book, The Language of Flowers, is a reproduction of a Victorian’s floral inspiration that will help you create your own romantic language in flowers!

However, don’t wait for your wedding day. Be inspired, with or without flowers, to speak a language of love and tenderness right this very moment!

Love. Listen. Let go.
...with love from Cornelia

ps: To continue enjoying this series of "brides, weddings, aromatherapy" posts, join us here next Wednesday! (And by-the-way, if you’ve missed any posts, the series began on November 3, 2010.)

[Photograph: Matt Hakola]

{Tune Into Your Body}

Dear Bride-to-Be:
Do you want to know a great way to let go of the tensions that build up while juggling your life during your busy wedding planning time?  Dance! Just get up and move your body...

When you have a little alone time, turn down the lights, light aromatherapy candles or burn incense, and get your kundalini energy flowing!

Play lush, sensual music that you can feel in your body. (Here's a tip to start: With your eyes open or closed, and without moving your head, look down to the right...that will get you tuned into your body...then begin moving your hips…)


Feel the music in your body? Allow yourself to let go into the kinesthetic experience of it all! Breathe in the natural fragrances of your aromatherapy candles .... and let their scents delight! Create a sensuous, moving meditation—in sweet surrender, finding the pleasure of your own company. (Other times, invite your partner to join you!)

This will relax and invigorate....refresh and stimulate! It will cook up your creative and intuitive energies....plus it's just fun. Keep the love flowing....

Love. Listen. Let go.
...with love from Cornelia

ps: Since you're enjoying this "aromatherapy, brides, and weddings" series...it will continue in the NEW YEAR! See you then....

[Photograph: Marianne Taylor, London]

{Truly Divine!}

Dear Bride-to-Be:
As you are choosing flowers for your wedding, remember that the sense of smell is considered “the most ancient and magical sense, acting as a sort of sensual medium between heaven and earth,” according to author Christopher Bamford. “A scent or perfume was thought to express the inner essence or spiritual nature of a thing.”  Therefore using fragrant flowers for your wedding is like sharing something truly divine!

Use your wedding planning time to express your inner essence. When you feel yourself getting stressed or when your “to do” list keeps getting longer, pause…

• Now take several slow, deep breaths ... easy, slowly breathe until you find your center.
• Imagine roots from the bottoms of your feet sinking deep into the Earth, grounding you.
• And now in every gesture and expression you offer to others, give the most generous and grateful version of you. 

That’s your inner essence! Don't be stingy with it...spritz everyone you meet today with something divine! A little bit of you....

Love. Listen. Let go...
...with love from Cornelia

ps: This series of "aromatherapy, brides, and weddings" continues next week...it'll be divine!

[Photography: Daniel Sheenan]

{Unpetaling Poetry}

Dear Bride-to-Be:
Reading poetry can be relaxing and romantic and sensory. For your own private, quiet time: cozy in with a cup of hot tea and comfy pjs...light some aromatherapy candles and breathe deeply...and as you're feeling your body slow down and relax, read something from The Love Poems of Rumi or Gift from the Sea...and allow the words to sink deeply into your soul. Breathe that feeling in....

Sometimes invite your partner into this relaxing reverie for an intimate moment. Taking slow, deep, soothing breaths together, imagine the breath filling your heart...and when you feel your heart expanding full of love, read this poem by Juan Ramon Jimenez:

I unpetalled you, like a rose,
to see your soul,
and I didn’t see it.
But everything around
—horizons of land and seas—,
everything, out to the infinite,
was filled with a fragrance,
enormous and alive.

Enough said....

Love. Listen. Let go.
...with love from Cornelia

ps: Next Wednesday the "aromatherapy, brides, and weddings" series continues....see you there!

[Photograph: Marla Aufmuth]

{Goddess of Love}

Dear Bride-to-Be:
According to goddess legends, the rose is the flower of Venus, known as the Goddess of Love in Greek mythology. No wonder roses are a wedding favorite. But don’t wait for your wedding day to surround yourself with flowers ... treat yourself now! Aromatherapy experts remind us that the scent of the rose is relaxing—a perfect choice as a fragrant bouquet or single bloom to keep at your desk or in your bedroom. Enjoy and breathe deeply....

 As a bride, you step into your own goddess legend—so start practicing how to keep your heart open and full of love. Try this "rose relaxation" now:
As you take three deep, slow breaths—allowing your breath to gently move your chest up and down, following its flow in and out—relax your shoulders...soften your eyes...let go of where you're holding any tension...continue to breathe deeply...and imagine your heart opening...opening. Then inhale the scent of roses (even it’s only in your imagination) and breathe in the soothing, heart-full fragrance of the love goddess....

Of course you can share your love goddess ways with your wedding guests and have roses all around...or use fresh rose petals lining the aisle or for your guests to toss as happy wishes. I love this "wedding rose" story from Barbara Tober, former editor-in-chief of Bride’s magazine: “One couple left their ceremony under a shower of petals from all the roses he had sent her during their courtship, lovingly saved.”  (If you save rose petals for tossing, you could spritz them the day of your wedding with rosewater and re-live the love all over again!)

But just remember...the beauty secret of the Goddess of Love is that she keeps her heart open....

Love. Listen. Let go.
...with love from Cornelia  

ps: stay in touch for more in this special series on "aromatherapy, brides, and weddings"....

[Photograph: Marianne Taylor, UK]

{The Fragrance of Love}

Dear Bride-to-Be:
Aromatherapy experts tell us there is a keen relationship between memory and the sense of smell. So thoughtfully choose the fragrance that you wear on your wedding day as well as the scent of flowers in your bouquet. This could be the scent that always brings back your remembrance of this special day.

And here's an idea for your wedding...set-in a wonderful memory: Before you begin to walk down the aisle, pause. And the moment you see your husband-to-be standing at the other end waiting for you, breathe in a slow, easy breath and let the scent of your bouquet flowers take you deep into your heart...anchoring in the fragrance of love.

Practice now: Take several deeeep, slow inhales with long, relaxing exhales until you feel your heart open. Don't rush....enjoy breathing in and out of your heart and find the sweetness there. Okay, you're ready!

Love. Listen. Let go.
...with love from Cornelia

ps: One of my favorite books about flowers continues to be the little Kate Greenaway version of Language of Flowers ...sharing the meaning of hundreds of blossoms. And to learn more about aromatherapy and how to use essential oils and fragrance, The Art of Aromatherapy is full of great ideas. Enjoy.

[Photograph: Marla Aufmuth]