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Okay, so I loved EVERYTHING about our wedding. Well, just about everything except for our darn Florist. He was ’the suck.’
Poor Happy Bridesmaid had to carry such an offending bouquet.
photo by Starks Photography
I don’t understand how a florist can get my bride’s bouquet mostly right but completely mess up the bridesmaid bouquets. Yes, those are rogue daisy leaves left by our florist. You can see more pictures of these bouquets in my beautiful bridesmaids post.
Every time I think back to our wedding, I think about all the beautiful people and details… then I get to those dang bridesmaid bouquets and I just about want to cry.
Here was our plan: Mr. Dolphin and I would order/put together all the flowers for the reception (with the help from my AMAZING bridesmaids and day-of-coordinator) and the only things we were going to order were the bouquets, bouts and corsages from a florist. This would save us some much needed $$$, since Mr. Dolphin and I were footing the bill for many of these wedding accessory items.
A few months before the wedding we dropped by a florist in Ormond Beach near our wedding location. We only had time to visit one location since we lived out of town (2 hours away from our wedding location). We met with the owner, checked out all the beautiful pictures of flowers he had done and then showed him our inspiration (below).
collage made from: Mtux, David’s Bridal, OnceWed, Project Wedding
Sweet, romantic and whimsical. Those were our 3 words. What did we get? I cringe every time I think about our bouquets—cringe with embarrassment and cringe at their heinous weed/store bought/5-year-old craft/ugliness.
He said that he loved my daisy look and thought I should make a big statement by having just daisies. I agreed with him and then we moved forward to bridesmaids’ bouquets and my bouquet. I was overall happy with our consultation and couldn’t wait to see how all the bouquets looked the night before the wedding.
Fast forward to May 14—the Friday before our wedding. I showed up at our florist’s, with my bridesmaids in tow, to check out our bouquets.
What did I see? Utter heinousness. From the gold ribbon he wrapped my bouquet with, to the lackluster bridesmaids’ bouquets that looked like a package of Winn-Dixie $3 daises that were just wrapped in ribbon. Just awful. I was immediately let down. I didn’t really know what to do. I critiqued him, told him what to fix and to add tons more white daisies to my bouquet and my bridesmaids’ bouquets. But those bridesmaids’ bouquets were just awful and I didn’t know what to do… and what is even worse is that the florist didn’t even recognize how bad they looked. I mean… I was basically paying $45 a bouquet for him to drive to Winn-Dixie, purchase a $3 bunch of white daisies and wrap a ribbon around them.
Don’t they look like they just picked those daisies out of a random pasture of weeds, and then they were juts bunched up to make a bouquet? Ahh… this is such a sore point for me.
Picture taken by one of our wedding guests
I was so busy the day before the wedding, so frazzled, so OVER IT, that I just let the bouquets go. I was just like, ’whatever I can’t handle this right now’ and we left the florist. I’m NEVER like this. I’m that person that has to critique something to the Nth degree. I believe I had just reached a breaking point and I decided, F it… I don’t care (please excuse my profanity!). My bridesmaids were pretty silent as they looked at the bouquets in horror. Looking back, I wish they had spoken up to help me (sometimes I try to be ’nice’ and not tell vendors how I REALLY feel). But if I were my bridesmaids I probably wouldn’t have said anything, either.
Did I mention the florist forgot to leave me a ’toss’ bouquet, as outlined in our contract? Details, details. I ended up throwing my ACTUAL bouquet for the toss. One of my bridesmaids offered to give me her bouquet to toss, but I felt bad tossing a bouquet of weeds to our wedding guests.
On a happier note, the reception flowers were AMAZING. I couldn’t have asked for them to be any better! I remember walking into the reception, right before our ceremony, and upon seeing all the flowers, I just wanted to cry, they were so beautiful. They were what I wanted in every way.
Hello GORGEOUS, cheerful, bright and happy. I loved these arrangements our day-of coordinator put together with the flowers we bought.
photo by Starks Photography
Our Guestbook table with the cutest IKEA bud vases.
photo by Starks Photography
Baby arrangement on the bistro tables during the cocktail hour
photo by Starks Photography; you can see what our table centerpieces looked like at the beginning of our wedding video.
We ordered white daisies from Fifty Flowers, fuchsia gerbera daisies from Sam’s Club, and placed cut up lemons in all the vases. They showed up the Thursday before the wedding, and two of my amazing bridesmaids, Sunny MOH and Seminole Bridesmaid, helped me to cut/hydrate and transport them to our reception site.
3 of the 5 buckets of flowers we had. They were sooo gorgeous. And those fuchsia gerbera daisies were beautiful!
photo taken on Mrs Dolphin’s iPhone
Loading the flowers into Mr. Dolphin’s truck. The truck was a recent purchase on our part and we are so thankful that we took the plunge and got a new vehicle a few weeks before the wedding. We wouldn’t have been able to transport all our wedding goodies/our honeymoon goodies/gifts/and Dolphin Kitty without this truck (and my little car).
photo taken on Mrs Dolphin’s iPhone by Dolphin Momma
Looking back on our wedding I know, without a doubt, that I could have made our bouquets everything I ever wanted, if I had done them myself. My stomach churns just thinking about how much we paid for those terribly sad looking bouquets. I look back at all my friends’ weddings that I was a bridesmaid in and remember how beautiful my bridesmaid’s bouquets were. I expected something amazing and I was let down by our florist. If you are looking for a florist in the Ormond Beach, FL/Daytona Beach area, contact me first so I can tell you who NOT to go to. Let me save you the embarrassment!
Our total on reception flowers (not even going to talk about wedding flowers because I despise our florist):
Total for Reception Flowers: $387.77
16 centerpieces and 2 large arrangements; $21.54/per arrangement
Amazingly the price per arrangement above doesn’t even include the many bud vases all over our reception. So technically, the per-arrangement cost is even lower then I calculated! It certainly pays to do your own flowers! We paid more on our ceremony flowers from the florist ’who should not be named’ than for our beautiful reception flowers. 
Phew… it feels so good to get this all out. I’ve had all this pent up anger towards our florist, but I feel so much better now!
Did you have any wedding day regrets? Did you wish you had gone with a different vendor or spoken up about something you didn’t like?
I love the guestbook table with the tiny vases! What did you guys do for your guestbook, it looks interesting? Also, what are those cards sitting next to the guestbook??
oh no, more fuel for my pre-wedding nightmares! hehe. You handled it well Mrs. Dolphin- your anger towards your girls’ flowers doesn’t show in your pictures. And at least you can help future brides! I bet your guests A) Don’t remember bad bouquets, or B) think you made a classic, simple chic choice with loose bunches of daisies. Just don’t tell them how much they cost… 
Oh! I’m so sorry that your bridesmaid’s bouquets were not all that you imagined. That’s terrible that you were charged so high a price for a simple basic daisy… I have been in a similar situation as a bridesmaid carrying a bouquet made of the filler lilies found in grocery store bundles. It actually was probably one single stem of the paper thin lilies with a tiny amount of airy greenery. I’d say that they were worth less than a dollar in total value of flowers. The bride involved had picked a grocery store vendor and the sample bouquet was bigger than the one we got… it was pathetic. However knowing the bride, she hadn’t given them a visual example of what she wanted… so I think this is worse!
My daughter’s bridemaid & reception flowers, while absolutely gorgeous, were not the ‘right’ colors…we pulled up to the venue right as the florist was unloading–and I guess we realized at that point that there was nothing we could do about it and had to let it go 
Looking back I wish we had– and now HIGHLY recommend to future brides–to have your florist do a mock-up for you just to confirm you both are on the ’same page’
Your wedding looked fresh and fun, reception flowers looked amazing, I agree, and I LOVE your dresses (are they J Crew Juliette!!) The bouquets didn’t look completely sad, but I see what you mean … I think you should Yelp your florist or rate them on Weddingbee so others will know the kind of experience you had!!!
Our was the pictures! We had a “friendor” do our pictures and I got 3 dvd’s and wanted to cry! There was not one picture of us posed facing the camera and he took photos of us from behind when we were cutting the cake, nice butt shots if I do say so!! We also had a TON of pictures of his son, more than of us the bride and groom!! I still can’t think about it without being upset.
I am sorry that the BMs bouquets turned out so weedy. Luckily your bouquet looked great and so did your centerpieces. You should do some brides a favor and leave that florist on honest review on the bridal sites.
@BabaAndBaba101010: I wrote about our guestbook here:
http://gatorbride.com/1-part-blurb-2-parts-guestbook-and-a-whole-lotta-love/
and the cards are Photo Sharing Cards ala Mrs Cupcake
@Miss Thimble: awee thanks for the sweet words!
@bridesmomma: I think my ‘mock up’ was too close to the wedding because that night was just the last straw. I was soo over it.
@futuremrskelsey: Those dresses are actually by David’s Bridal and are almost 1/2 the price of the J Crew ones!! We were so happy to find them!
@jordynrose: I’m working on that review. Just trying to figure out where and how I’m going to write it. I’ve never been good with confrontation. Even if it is through the internets.
No matter how hard someone plans their wedding, it seems like there always is a “suck” somewhere. For me, it was our DJ who did not stick to our playlist. But at least your wedding and mine only had one “wuck” and everything else worked out perfectly!
That really stinks about your florist, but your DIY reception flowers look so awesome!
I’m still very early in the wedding process but just feel awful that such a thing happened to you! Shame on the florist for taking advantage & not delivering as contracted & more importantly, promised!
For what it’s worth, I think the bouquets look very nice, still. Not worth the amount of money you paid, of course… but still nice and simple, and sweet.
I have the same exact feeling when I think about our invitations - what a nightmare. They were late, there were tons of typos, the woman who made them basically lied and said she’d sent them on a particular date but then didn’t send them for another 2 weeks. Night. Mare. I can’t even think about them, it is SO aggravating. I have posted reviews of her everywhere I possibly can (along with lots of GLOWING reviews of our other vendors) and I am really hopeful that no one else has the same experience we did.
Just wanted you to know - I feel for ya!!!
Ugh, I cried when I saw my bouquet and I HATED my bridesmaid’s bouquets as well, so I totally feel your pain, its the worst and I get soooo angry whenever i think about it!
Oh my, that’s terrible! It’s really good that you were able to just let it go, though. Honestly they don’t look that bad expect for the fact that you paid for someone else to do them when you totally could’ve done THAT yourselves. Anyway it is good that you vented 
We are here to listen!
I looooooooove all your reception flowers. So pretty! And the little vases, adorable!
All I could think of when I read the title of your post was: “Her florist was Voldemort?” Silly, I know.
But seriously, I can tell from your pictures that your wedding was beautiful, thoughtful and memorable. No one will remember something like the bridesmaid bouquets. Of all the things to go wrong, that has less impact than others might have had.
I feel for you. For me it was my wedding planner. I didn’t really like her when I first met her (ding-dong) but thought I could work with her. All I cred about was the lanterns in the tent and she just sucked with that and her personality irritated me all day ANS she.broke.my.guestbook.platter!!!!!!!!
grrr!
I’m sorry your bridesmaid bouquets didn’t turn out the way you’d hoped. But I love what you did with the reception flowers!
Honestly, the bridesmaid’s flowers look very casual and sweet. They don’t look bad, but for what you paid for them…..yikes……
They do not look anything like your inspiration pics. Perhaps if you tell the florist you will post bad Yelp reviews, they will give your a partial refund??? I know that doesn’t help with your memories….. Your wedding is gorgeous.
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Mrs. Dolphin, Gainesville, FL Age and Occupation: 24, Graduate Architecture Student Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Interactive Interface Developer Engagement Date: February 14, 2008 Wedding Date: May 2010 Venue: Plantation Bay Country Club About Me: I’m currently a Graduate Student at the University of Florida studying Architecture. I enjoy playing Scrabble with my Fiance, rooting for the Florida Gators, making any drink that involves a blender, cleaning (yes... I’m crazy), design... GOOD design that is, the new Pepsi with natural sugar, taking pictures, discovering new places in the U.S., and obsessing over doing (and designing) everything myself for our upcoming wedding!
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