Weddingbee Blog

Our budget for flowers is pretty meager by city standards, but since we knew that we weren’t doing floral centerpieces, I wasn’t worried. I love the look of a cluster of candles and I’m excited that we’ll be honoring my grandmother through a donation, so personal flowers was definitely the route we wanted to go.

The weekend before my first meeting with a florist, I sat down and made three different inspiration boards of flowers that I liked—the first was red for me and the mister, the second was white for all the attendants and the last was anemones because I love them and wish they were in season in September. I had always said that I wanted a round bouquet of deep red roses, then in college, it was edited to specifically American Beauty roses in honor of my sorority’s flower, but when it came time to choose my real flowers for my wedding, I wanted something more lush and texturized with more spunk and whimsy. Suddenly I was adding fiddlehead ferns and lotus pods to the list of “flowers” I loved.

Image via Project Wedding / Photo by Studio Diana

Image via The Knot / Photo by Chrissy Albright Photography

Image via Once Wed / Photography by Allison Garrett

Image via La Bella Bride/ Photo by James Hazelwood / Flowers by FlowerThyme

Image via The Finishing Touch Events / Photo by Ron Holtz Photography / Flowers by The Romantic Garden

Image via The Full Bouquet / Flowers by Holly Chapple Flowers

Image via Botanical Bruhaha / Flowers by Saipua

The first florist I met with was actually referred to us by the venue and I really liked them, but the whole process was very straightforward. The next day, I got her proposal and she gave me exactly what I had asked for and nothing more; no suggestions for ways we could stretch my budget or samples of additional flowers that would give more texture. The proposal was just barely at our budget, so I didn’t want to push my luck (or our dollars) any further by adding more elements and went on to my next meeting the following week.

The second florist was also suggested by the venue and I loved the ladies. They actually don’t have a store front in order to keep costs down, so they came right to our apartment and met with us for two hours. We looked at my inspiration boards and brainstormed from there. We drew up floor plans and plotted out spots to put our big red 36” balloons, flipped through swatch after swatch of potential bouquet flowers and just chatted. The Baconator even sat with us during the process to show that he was going to be an active groom. The ladies would be willing to help our DOC with set up and had no problem coming by the hotel and helping the boys put on boutonnieres: they were perfect! We met at the beginning of November, so we agreed to have the proposal in before Thanksgiving.

On the Monday before Turkey Day (three weeks later), I sent them a reminder that the proposal was due that week and I was eager to see what they put together. I got an email in response telling me not to worry and that I’d have something before I left town on Wednesday. Thanksgiving weekend passed without another peep, so on Cyber Monday (aka the Monday after Thanksgiving), I sent another email nudging them to send me a proposal. I got a quick response asking for an extension to end of day so that they could send over the proposal that got buried in Thanksgiving orders. I sent a note back assuring them that I understood and I’d be waiting for a proposal that night. Again, the proposal was a no show. We were a month out from our two hour meeting at our apartment! So the following Monday (5 weeks later), I sent another email asking for the proposal by noon on Tuesday in order to continue considering them as a florist for our wedding. I got no response…ever. I was so let down and irritated. How did they expect to do business if they never sent proposals to brides? Ugh, I was back to square one.

After the debacle with the florists that the venue recommended, I went back to the Weddingbee boards and scrounged up the name of another florist—this time she was someone in the suburbs. First things first, we set up some time to talk through what I liked on the phone before getting together in person to go over a proposal. We tried set up a call for a few weeks, and once we had a time nailed down she didn’t call because she got the days mixed up. We set up another call for a few days later and again she didn’t call; this time was because she had a walk-in and opted to talk to that woman instead. I figured third time was the charm, so we set up one more call and again she didn’t call; her reason was that she just got too busy with last minute Christmas orders. Really? We have set up three different times to connect and each time you were too busy to talk? Looks like it’s time for Plan D.

Did you have any unresponsive would-be vendors? How did you handle it?