A Floral Education

I recently shared how lack of enthusiasm from one vendor made choosing my florist an easy decision. Then I realized I failed to share my actual floral selections! (I'm sure y'all were on pins and needles! ;) )

When it came time to pick out flowers for my bouquets, I was lost. Besides my unhealthy obsession with yellow roses, I didn't know the difference between ranunculus and lisianthus. (Flower names seemed like a foreign language!) I tried looking up a floral dictionary website, but without any background information, I was completely overwhelmed. I turned to sites like Pinterest and the Knot, searching for inspiration. I saved anything that peaked my interest (and made sure to list the flower names when saving the pictures). I quickly discovered that big bloom flowers were my favorite:

Garden Roses

Image via Flowers by Shirley

Peonies

Image via Flowers by Shirley

Hydrangea (mixed with white roses)

Image by The French Bouquet

I wondered if they would gel together since they are all large blooms, but I found several pictures that eased my fears. Plus I knew I wanted a full, rounded bouquet.

I would love to carry this bouquet with softer, more muted colors. Image via Kelly's Wedding Flowers

After talking to my florist, I decided that in my bouquet, the peonies, hydrangea and garden roses will be in shades of white and cream.

Image via The Flower Lab

The bridesmaids bouquets will be similar but feature a mix of soft pinks and will be tied with a yellow ribbon to match the dresses.

For someone who knew nothing about flowers, I actually found making these decisions to be quite fun!

Will you be carrying a floral bouquet down the aisle or something different? If you are going with a bouquet, what flowers are you using?

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?