In flower language, peonies mean Happy Marriage and Prosperity. Think of a row of peonies bursting into colorful flower in the summer. They are so cheery and so abundant. (It's not easy for them to be beautiful. Those plague-y ants must eat away the hard covering on the peonies before they can burst into bloom. It's not too dissimilar from the way that Love sometimes has to eat away at our hearts before we allow them to soften and open!)
But once peonies open, they are gorgeous. They are completely uncontained. No prissy furled rose, peonies flop and explode. The colors are rich and varied, from the palest cream to a deep purple/pink. The scent can fill a room with summer and abundance. They're annuals. I think that's an important characteristic. Every summer they bloom and blossom. Every summer there is more color and more scent. Marriage has its seasons. There are times which are more difficult than others and more lean. But marriage is a cycle: the lean times give way to abundance.
And they're so profligate! You can't ever cut all the peonies: so they can riot all over your house and still manage to color and scent the backyard. An important marriage commitment I think is to ride out the lean times having faith that abundance will return. It may seem counter-intuitive to include happiness as part of your wedding vows, but happiness is a promise, not just an experience. Happiness and prosperity are fragile. It's easy to pick away at them and not see just exactly how much happiness there is or how much abundance. It's easy to chase them away because happiness and prosperity don't have to be there. But don't do it. Offer one another peonies and promise one another a happy and prosperous marriage. And then keep that commitment and live happily ever after in marriage.
