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Thursday, December 1, 2011

Floral Selections: A frustrating but simple decision

I may have mentioned a time or two my love of yellow roses and how they influenced my color selections. With a more concrete vision of where I saw my wedding going, I contacted two florists to chat about my ideas and receive quotes. Both florists came highly recommended and had plenty of experience working at Wren.

I met with the first florist after seeing some of her handiwork on display at the Open House Mr. Hawk and I attended. I loved being able to see table arrangements and bouquets in person. She was enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and clearly knew the setup of both Wren and Legacy Hall. Less than a week after our meeting, she sent me a detailed outline of all of the main flowers, colors, and arrangements. She even wrote out in paragraph form the setup and details. (She was a Type-A girl's dream.)

The second florist and I just couldn't seem to get our schedules aligned. (Not being in the city of your wedding can be kinda stinky even if when you're only an hour away.) Instead we decided to correspond over email and agreed to have a phone consultation. With the first floral meeting under my belt, I felt like I had a better idea of what I was going for. I wrote a detailed email full of images and descriptions including flowers, colors, chapel arrangements, and reception arrangements. I was a little disappointed when it took almost two weeks before I had my outline. Quotes were included, but she failed to include chapel arrangements at all even though I requested them. (Additionally she included a lot of the same pictures I had sent her to help describe the style I was envisioning. When she offered to include pictures, I assumed it would be of her work that fit our wedding style. I guess I should have clarified.) All in all I felt like I probably spent more time drafting my email than she did filling in average prices for bouquets and arrangements and sending it back.

Perhaps if I had met with the second company in person, she might have won me over with her enthusiasm, but I certainly didn't feel it in our correspondence. I was pretty much felt like I wasn't a priority. In fact the whole experience left such a bad taste in my mouth that I opted out of even having the phone consultation. Luckily, I had such a good experience with the first florist, that I knew my decision was made. (It was even more solidified when I emailed her back asking for ways to trim the budget and she gave me FOUR suggestions that wouldn't sacrifice my style or vision.) Needless to say, selecting my florist was one of my easiest decisions to date. (But I must admit that I was still pretty annoyed.)

Have any of y'all experienced something similar when booking vendors? Would you consider lack of enthusiasm a deal-breaker?


1 comment:

  1. A lot of our decisions on vendors were based off of how quickly and effectively they responded to our requests. Plus the more enthusiastic they were and made me feel like I was their #1 priority, the more likely they were to win our business. Can't wait to see how your flowers turn out!

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