booked my florist
I finally booked and I just wanted to share my experience.
T Designs- Teresa was so great to work with and had a lot of great ideas. She was pretty competetive with her prices. The only thing I didn't like was that she didn't have any pictures for me to look at of her previous work and because she's technically not a florist, I had no idea of what some of the flowers she was talking about even looked like.
Flower Michelle- First I met with Michelle and she was awesome. SHe had this laptop, which had hundreds of pictures of centerpieces and bk's. That was great because it helped us to both be on the same page about what I wanted. SHe was so supportive about my ideas and really stayed within my budget. SHe even advised against certain flowers or certain centerpieces because they were just too expensive for me, if I wanted to stay in the 3,000 range. (I have 20 tables and 8 rooms to decorate at The Bourne Mansion so I was really trying to cut corners.) Plus, they do the Bourne all the time, so she really knew what works best in those rooms.
James Cress- I thought I would give them a shot. I liked them because they have books with pictures of every single hall on LOng Island, which was helpful in determining what would go in what room of the mansion. However, Mr. CRess has a tendency to say 'You can do whatever you like, but this is what would work best.' I felt a little cornered with him, but he did give me the idea to use lavendar roses with green BM dresses. He had a whole book of fabric swatches so he kept holding up different flowers to the celadon color which I thought was helpful. Turns out, he is way overpriced and came in at 5,000. Next....
NAtional Flower Wholesaler- I had an appointment at 6pm. WHen I walked in at exactly 6pm, the woman was working with another bride. SHe didn't look up once to say she would be right with me or that I could take a seat and look through pictures, nothing. My mother and I took it upon ourselves to take a look around. Ten minutes later a worker from the back came out and when I told tham i had an appointment at 6, he put on some video for us on the big screen tv. After another 1/2 hour went by, I interrupted the woman and the other bride to ask how much longer they were going to be, mind you it was almost 45 minutes past my appointment and no one had even bothered to tell me what the story was. The woman said she was going to be another 10-15 minutes. WHen I told her I had a 6 appointment, she said 'Yeah, he overbooked, sorry.' COuldn't someone have called me? Told me that as soon as I walked in? SHe asked me if I wanted to wait or if I wanted to make another appointment. Needless to say, I said 'No, I will not be coming back here.'
Flower By Designs- Met with the nicest woman who was so helpful and had such great ideas. They're an actual florist so everytime we talked about a flower, she would go in the fridge to pull it out to give me an idea of what it would look like. However, that was over 2 weeks ago and I have to receive a price quote. SHe said she would mail it or email me , but I never got anything.
Burton's- very pleasant to work with and it seems like they really know what they're doing. However, everyone says they have such rock bottom prices so that's what I was expecting. They actually came in at $3600 when everyone else was around 3,000. I did get some good ideas from them though.
Flower Michelle (the winner) - I felt the most at ease with them. Their new show room is stunning and it really represents the kind of beautiful work they do. I met with John at the second meeting and he is everything that everyone says he is. He's fun and really gets excited about your ideas. He's open to anything and really tries to work within your budget. I brought my mother to this meeting and she was really impressed with how professional he was. He knows the Bourne Mansion inside and out and knows all of the staff there already so I knew he was the one to book with. I feel so confident in their work that I can't wait to see how beautiful their going to make the mansion.
My advice: definitely meet with several florists. Even though I knew FLower Michelle was probably going to be the one, I kept meeting with other fLorists to get their ideas too. I kept cutting out pictures in magazines and by the time I met with Flower Michelle again, I knew exactly what I wanted. (I ended up changing part of my color scheme but John made it work for the same exact price that they initially quoted me.)
Good luck girls!!!!
T Designs- Teresa was so great to work with and had a lot of great ideas. She was pretty competetive with her prices. The only thing I didn't like was that she didn't have any pictures for me to look at of her previous work and because she's technically not a florist, I had no idea of what some of the flowers she was talking about even looked like.
Flower Michelle- First I met with Michelle and she was awesome. SHe had this laptop, which had hundreds of pictures of centerpieces and bk's. That was great because it helped us to both be on the same page about what I wanted. SHe was so supportive about my ideas and really stayed within my budget. SHe even advised against certain flowers or certain centerpieces because they were just too expensive for me, if I wanted to stay in the 3,000 range. (I have 20 tables and 8 rooms to decorate at The Bourne Mansion so I was really trying to cut corners.) Plus, they do the Bourne all the time, so she really knew what works best in those rooms.
James Cress- I thought I would give them a shot. I liked them because they have books with pictures of every single hall on LOng Island, which was helpful in determining what would go in what room of the mansion. However, Mr. CRess has a tendency to say 'You can do whatever you like, but this is what would work best.' I felt a little cornered with him, but he did give me the idea to use lavendar roses with green BM dresses. He had a whole book of fabric swatches so he kept holding up different flowers to the celadon color which I thought was helpful. Turns out, he is way overpriced and came in at 5,000. Next....
NAtional Flower Wholesaler- I had an appointment at 6pm. WHen I walked in at exactly 6pm, the woman was working with another bride. SHe didn't look up once to say she would be right with me or that I could take a seat and look through pictures, nothing. My mother and I took it upon ourselves to take a look around. Ten minutes later a worker from the back came out and when I told tham i had an appointment at 6, he put on some video for us on the big screen tv. After another 1/2 hour went by, I interrupted the woman and the other bride to ask how much longer they were going to be, mind you it was almost 45 minutes past my appointment and no one had even bothered to tell me what the story was. The woman said she was going to be another 10-15 minutes. WHen I told her I had a 6 appointment, she said 'Yeah, he overbooked, sorry.' COuldn't someone have called me? Told me that as soon as I walked in? SHe asked me if I wanted to wait or if I wanted to make another appointment. Needless to say, I said 'No, I will not be coming back here.'
Flower By Designs- Met with the nicest woman who was so helpful and had such great ideas. They're an actual florist so everytime we talked about a flower, she would go in the fridge to pull it out to give me an idea of what it would look like. However, that was over 2 weeks ago and I have to receive a price quote. SHe said she would mail it or email me , but I never got anything.
Burton's- very pleasant to work with and it seems like they really know what they're doing. However, everyone says they have such rock bottom prices so that's what I was expecting. They actually came in at $3600 when everyone else was around 3,000. I did get some good ideas from them though.
Flower Michelle (the winner) - I felt the most at ease with them. Their new show room is stunning and it really represents the kind of beautiful work they do. I met with John at the second meeting and he is everything that everyone says he is. He's fun and really gets excited about your ideas. He's open to anything and really tries to work within your budget. I brought my mother to this meeting and she was really impressed with how professional he was. He knows the Bourne Mansion inside and out and knows all of the staff there already so I knew he was the one to book with. I feel so confident in their work that I can't wait to see how beautiful their going to make the mansion.
My advice: definitely meet with several florists. Even though I knew FLower Michelle was probably going to be the one, I kept meeting with other fLorists to get their ideas too. I kept cutting out pictures in magazines and by the time I met with Flower Michelle again, I knew exactly what I wanted. (I ended up changing part of my color scheme but John made it work for the same exact price that they initially quoted me.)
Good luck girls!!!!
