Sunday, September 20, 2009

A Special Occasion

We recently attended the wedding reception of our friends Emilie and Matt at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Even though I lived thirty minutes from this gem the three years I was in Alabama for law school, I didn't know it existed! Such a shame, because it is a huge, beautiful place, and we didn't get much time to explore since I wanted to catch up with my law school friends! We'll just have to go back!
Here is one of the beds near the entrance:
There are numerous large greenhouses. One was filled with camellias, one with cacti, and one with tropical plants. Here are some bananas growing in the latter greenhouse:
Scott is 6'3" or 6'4". This was a tall cactus:
A view of the cactus greenhouse:
The rose garden is huge and smells wonderful. Here is about a quarter of it:

Here are just a few roses of the hundreds they grow:

Look at this thick trunk:


I love this reflection pool. There were a few different types of lilies in it, and this grassy plant I suspect is papyrus but might be umbrella plant.

Since we didn't have much time, we elected to spend it running around looking at a few more things rather than taking pictures. My favorite part of the Gardens was the large vegetable garden. It was really hard to avoid the temptation to pick some of the plentiful ripe veggies! Turns out they donate the produce to a food bank.
Anyway, since we were dressed up, I had my friend Jenny take pictures of us for a possible Christmas card photo. What do y'all think?
I am horrible at fake smiles, so Scott is tickling me in the picture below to try to coax a real smile:
Not exactly Christmas card material, but hilarious!


Anyway, the BBG was a cool place and I would definitely recommend it if you're in the area. It's free. Have a great week!

8 comments:

Janet, The Queen of Seaford said...

What a grand place for a wedding. I think you should use the second picture for your Christmas card...more fun!

Susie said...

Wow! What a beautiful place and you certainly can't beat the price.

Cute pics of you two. Looks like you were definitely having a good time.

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

Beautiful place for a wedding! The roses are so pretty, it would be fun to have that much space to grow them in. Cute pictures, and your dress is really pretty.

Ginger said...

Janet: See what I mean? The fake smile in the first picture is awful! Wish I could manage a REAL big smile and still keep my eyes open!

Susie: Y'all have been going on so many trips... Maybe B'ham is next? This place is really worth the visit.

Catherine: You would love it there. Thanks about the dress! I got it just for this occasion (from Anthropologie).

Cindy/Mom said...

Hi - Ginger

Loved the pics of the gardens, but loved the ones of you and Scott more. What a great dress to wear to a garden wedding!!

I agree with Janet --I think you should use the tickle pic for the xmas card!!

Lisa Blair said...

LOVE the dress! The botanical garden looks wonderful. The reflection pool is really cool!

So glad you had a good time!

Dirt Princess said...

Do you remember seeing my post on the botanical gardens? I went last October, and there was nothing blooming! But it was still beautiful! I enjoyed getting to see some of it in bloom

Nicole Bradshaw said...

You are precious, precious!