LAKEWOOD, Ohio — Clippers in one hand and bucket in another, Grace Bader peeked her head over a mound of shrubbery lining a waterfront home in Lakewood. A warm summer evening, Bader was on a mission in the waning daylight. When the front door of the house swung open, Bader introduced herself from the sidewalk.
“Hi! I’m Grace, I’m supposed to cut some of your hydrangeas,” she called out.
Without hesitation, Bader was welcomed onto the property, homeowner Suzanne Bednarchik leading her to a bush of green and pink hydrangeas in the front yard.
Immediately, Bader got to work, selecting the best blooms, carefully snipping flowers and collecting them in her bucket.
“These are beautiful, I love the variation,” she told Bednarchik, her bouquet of stems growing.
This is the second evening Bader has gone from home to home in Lakewood, trimming hydrangeas from the yards of generous neighbors. The floral expedition is part of her wedding vision, with the goal of incorporating the hydrangeas that played such a key part in the backdrop of her childhood.
“I really started thinking about them when wedding planning was coming and I was kind of envisioning what I wanted my wedding to be like,” she said of the hydrangeas. “I realized that these have been a really big part of my scenery growing up and I really wanted to incorporate them in my wedding day.”
But like many brides-to-be, Bader quickly learned just how expensive it can be to plan a wedding, especially when it comes to flowers.
“We were getting floral quotes back that were completely astronomical.” she said. “It was a lot of people planning weddings upwards of a $10,000 minimum, which for us was just not realistic.”
Knowing she wanted that special piece of home represented during her celebrations, Bader harnessed the power of social media, taking to Facebook and asking the Lakewood community if “a few generous neighbors will allow me to trim some of their beautiful blooms.” Alongside her request, she attached a few photos of hydrangeas for inspiration.
Soon, she received dozens of responses, neighbors welcoming her to trim their flowers.
“I was really heartwarmed that these plant parents were willing to part with them for me because I know that it's really a labor of love to keep them looking so beautiful,” Bader said of the plants.
As Bader trimmed, she not only collected the flowers she needed to make her wedding wishes come true, but she also met the people who wanted to help make her dream a reality.
“I just thought what a great idea this was, and we have plenty of flowers here in this yard, and I thought it would be a fun thing to kind of be at her wedding with having my flowers at the celebration,” Bednarchik said.
Linda Rocchi also wanted in on the fun, walking up to neighbor Bednarchik’s home with a bouquet in hand for Bader, plus a set of salt and pepper shakers as a wedding gift.
“I just wanted to be part of it,” Rocchi said. “It’s just a wonderful community. Everybody’s giving and sharing and kind. It’s just a fun place to live. Something like this is very special. Everybody’s involved and included, I really liked that a lot about this whole thing.”
After waving goodbye to Bednarchik and Rocchi, Bader was onto the next house, pulling into Grace Laubach’s driveway just a few minutes away.
“Hi, come in! Congratulations,” exclaimed Laubach as she opened her back gate to Bader, steering her towards a clump of hydrangeas near her back door.
As Bader began trimming, the women continued chatting, realizing that they had gone to high school together. Laubach also shared that this particular hydrangea bush had supplied flowers for her wedding bouquet, too.
“I just saw the post and I saw the pictures, it looked exactly like what I had in my backyard,” Laubach said of Bader's social media post. “So I was just really excited to be able to share those with her and give her some flowers for her wedding day.”
After filling more buckets with hydrangea stems, Bader was off to her last stop of the evening, the sun already setting.
“It really is just representative of the community and just a little piece of it that we get to have with us on the day of,” Bader said of the generosity of her Lakewood neighbors.
Finally, lit only by a spotlight on the side of someone's house and battling mosquitoes, Bader called it a night, returning home to begin assembling her flowers ahead of her wedding just two days later.
In addition to pre-wedding day, 3News caught up with Bader after her celebration to hear about how her vision came to life.
“They were the talk of the town and a complete hit,” Bader said of the hydrangeas, explaining she used the flowers to make arrangements for a pre-wedding family gathering at her parents’ home, in addition to during her cocktail hour, near her seating charts, and in bud vases on tables throughout the venue.
Bader supplemented her arrangements by working with a professional florist, Zoe Haigler at A New Bloom, who was able to provide extra arrangements, like her bridal bouquet and installments for her ceremony.
“It’s incredibly special,” Bader said through tears as she recalled having the hydrangeas at her wedding. “Just getting to experience all of this and have this as memories to get to share with our kids, I couldn’t ask for more.”
Bader said that even though her wedding went by “in the blink of an eye,” she’ll treasure the day, and the kindness of her hometown, forever.
“From the bottom of my heart, thank you for all of your generosity and your enthusiasm and for your excitement,” she said in a message to the neighbors who helped her. “All of it was so genuine and so special, and the connections I formed I know will last a lifetime. So I was just so thankful everyone brought me into the fold and was just so kind.”