I do! Butterflies and all.

Originally I had a side-kick who was coming along for the wedding weekend bliss but since that didn’t work out so well, I was left with two choices - Go by myself or not go at all - well actually I didn’t have a choice and I’m damn glad - Never would I ever have imagined my responsibility in my friend Kelly’s wedding to be – are you ready for this? – The Butterfly Handler. Yep that’s right; of all people she could have picked I was the one she chose to be responsible for these precious little four-winged creatures. I was honored in a way but I also felt slightly hesitant in the beginning to take on such a unfamiliar assignment because I had so many questions and the bride-to-be was so busy with all the wedding planning it was hard to get butterfly details from her (I think part of it was that Kelly didn’t really know much about the little beings either) BUT as you all should gather, I, being the newly carefree broad that I am was ready for the challenge and so I awaited the details, which never really came and so onward I went. With little to go on, and being the only one ready, willing and able to take care of the butterflies I headed to the farm (which by the way I was slightly skeptical even about where this place was considering when I MapQuested it there was no “exact” match) but in any case unknowingly I set out.

After pulling into the wrong driveway I was quickly redirected by the guy at the storage place to take an immediate right out of his driveway onto the dirt road. I can see how I missed it, the dirt road was fully lined with tall magnificent Leyland Cyprus and there was a small white sign that said “farm” with a red arrow on it – yep that’s it, and you wonder there was no match on MapQuest?


As I’m driving along the approximate 2 mile stretch of dirt road and dirt dips at oooh about 5 miles an hour in my 2-door sports coupe I couldn’t help but wonder what I was about to pull up to and what my duties would entail once I had the butterflies in hand. While the road was pretty rugged the view was beautiful and the weather was healing up nicely after a short hard rain and I was starting to get excited about this butterfly handling gig. So I pull into a large field that reads “Parking here” and I park and at this point I’m starting to gather that details and butterflies obviously don’t go together. So I stood in the field for a little bit then headed towards what looked like a greenhouse, took some pictures, waited for someone to appear, walked a little further over a wooden plank to a nice-sized house (didn’t look like a butterfly pick-up spot to me) and well, I knocked on the door. Much to my dismay I was at the right place indeed and was greeted by a young woman whom without even questioning who I was or what I was there for she proceeded to give me butterfly handling directions. The butterflies were packed in a cooler on ice, could stay there for 48 hours and were to be taken out and hour and fifteen minutes before the wedding to sit at room temperature and wake up, as she put it. Then they would be let off, the Monarchs individually and the Painted Lady’s as a mass. So she handed me the tightly sealed cooler along with an instruction sheet and sent me on my way. So as things became clearer to me...or not really any clearer at all...I sloshed back across the field and over to my car.


I set off for Asheville and I made sure I guarded the butterflies with my life; after all they were a pretty important part of the wedding. I kept them in a cool dark place over night and just like the lady instructed and hour before the wedding I took all of the butterflies out of the cooler and set them out at room temperature. Two nieces of the groom were to help let off the butterflies and I managed to snag them beforehand to let them see the butterflies and hold the little packages in their tiny hands. I told the little girls – Staley Rose & Isabelle, the little bit I knew about the butterflies and I wanted to make sure they were comfortable with what they were doing and continued by letting them know if they opened up one of the envelopes and the butterfly did not fly off, not to worry, it wasn’t ready to fly just yet, but that eventually it would…and the girls looked at me with depth and took my words. I even managed to get a basket to place the butterflies in then took the butterflies and placed them by the small table and awning where the “I do’s” would take place. Who knew there was so much that goes into this???

The mountain top wedding was absolutely beautiful. We sat there in awe overtop the landscape that Asheville offers in the springtime after an afternoon rain while Kelly & Scott exchanged vows. The butterflies were amazing and went off without a hitch.


The day after the wedding we all gathered at neighbors of the bride & groom to watch a slideshow/video of the wedding and drink margaritas. While watching the video Kelly noticed that after the wedding was over and the camera was still rolling that I went over to the table, gathered up the butterfly garb and made sure the remaining few butterflies who hadn’t yet taken off did. She looked over at me slightly teary eyed and said “Wow Ashley, when I asked you to be the butterfly handler you really took that to heart, you handled those things from the very beginning to the very end, thank you.” – And those words made the experience worth every bit.

It’s nice to be noticed. I’ve always tried to be the type of person that if I say I’m going to do something, I do it and when I do it I try my hardest to do my best at it.Even though the details were lacking I think it made the experience all the better. I took something that was just a task and turned it into something that ended up meaning a lot to me and hopefully meaning the same to many others.

Every bit of this wedding was truly sensational, but in the end it was the butterflies that carried me along. They made me realize I am a good person and not because of what I do or how I do it but just because with each day I live I strive to be a better person and that's all that really matters.


So thank you Kelly for letting me be a part of your dream come true and thank you butterflies for just being you.