Flowers by Brian

What do you ladies think of Flowers by brian? Any opinion is very helpful.Thanks, and good luck =)

Absolutely loved `em (Long)

We used them for our September wedding, and everything was great. Not only were they nice to work with, but we couldn`t have asked for more beautiful flowers. We sat with Lisa the first couple of times, then one night, when Lisa was stuck in an appointment that ran late, worked with Bobbi. Both were absolutely wonderful to work with, but I felt Bobbi saw my visions a little better than Lisa did. That`s not a knock on Lisa, though. She was so enthusiastic in helping us to get our ideas going, and she gave us some really pretty ideas. Pricewise, they may run more expensive than other places (from what I`ve heard), but in my opinion, they were worth every cent we paid. We never looked at any other florist in our planning, and I have absolutely no regrets about that. The day before the wedding, we went to see the bouquets and drop off the flowergirl basket ... it was a little hectic in there (it was a Saturday afternoon), but our bouquets were perfect. The day of the wedding, the delivery truck came first to my parents` house (where I got done) .. and he was very early despite the lousy, rainy weather. When it was time to figure out who got what boutineer, my mind slipped and I thought something was wrong in the number we got of each color. Anyway, I called the shop, and without hesitation, the man quickly told me it was the dads who were to get red, not the ushers .. and bingo! I felt like a fool for not realizing something so obvious .. and totally forgetting that that was what we had chosen! (DUH!) My point being, when I called, they knew EXACTLY who I was, and knew a very small detail of our big order without a moment`s pause. I mean, we had 13 centerpieces, 3 bouquets, pew bows, alter arrangements, a place card arrangement, etc .. and this guy (I guess Brian) knew the exact breakdown of the boutineers without looking it up. I was impressed. Anyway, when the delivery guy came so early, I worried that he might not be able to get into the church, since it was to be locked after morning services up to 1 hour prior to our wedding. Well, the guy said to me, if he had to, he would sit out in the truck until someone came and opened the church. I was happy about that. Our centerpieces were fall colored roses (4 1/2 dozen). My bouquet was black magic roses, and the girls` were harmony roses mixed with some berries. The coursages and boutineers were roses, and we presented long-stemmed roses to the parents during the ceremony. My husband`s boutineer was a double-rosebud. Keeping with the fall theme, the alter arrangements were a beautiful mix, with big, vibrant sunflowers (the best I`ve ever seen). Our place card arrangement was just sunflowers. (I love sunflowers). Because of a lot of last minute changes which happened after we had already called Flowers by Brian with a final table count, we ended up needing to drop one table (we had a lot of last minute drop-outs). But, since the order had already been placed, the flowers were technically ours. So, Bobbi and I came up with the idea of adding a bundle of roses to each pew bow, and using the rest in a vase that would be sent to my parents` house. I know people tend to be polite, and will give compliments .. but of the compliments we received, I`d say we got the most for the flowers and for John Anthony`s. What surprised me, was how many men complimented the flowers. Men! When do you ever hear men complimenting on flowers?! :) We even had a guy jumping up and down in excitement when he turned out to be the winner of his table`s centerpiece. (That was funny .. especially when Eddie, our DJ, jumped right in and got the room to share in this guy`s excitement.) The last thing I`ll ramble about is how long the flowers lasted .. a long time. I can`t remember exactly how long, but people who won the centerpieces were amazed at how long they stayed fresh and made a point of sharing that with me.

Absolutely loved `em (Long)

I booked with them and I am so happy to see Kel's response. I picked them because they were professional and flexible. They let us tell them what ideas we wanted and then gave us a price and later down the road can we get specific about exactly what we want... flexible. I was very comfortable with them. They were also highly recommended by a friend of mine whose family has or is using them for 4 family weddings. They worked with us to get to the price we wanted to pay. They wound up being less than some other places we looked at and we are getting more.

Kel-How did you give the centerpieces away?

I have been hearing many different ways to give them away...at our family weddings it usually went to the person with the next birthday.

DianaL & more on 'Brian'

That`s so funny you ask .. would you believe we almost forgot about giving them away! I mean, I had thought about it, and even mentioned it early on to Eddie, our DJ, that we would have to come up with something, but that was probably 9 months prior to the date. Anyway, at some point very early on in the reception when Eddie came over to check and make sure everything was okay, after we said yes, he was about to walk away, then I remembered! I just said have people pass a spoon around kind of like hot potato, stop the music, then they have to pass off to the person on the right, and that`s the winner. Early on in our planning process, I had been trying to think of tricky ways to fool my mom and her friends. One of the first things they would always do when getting to their tables would be to check all the chairs for ribbon or something that might indicate that chair was the winning chair! But, the way it turned out was fun .. it got everyone involved. The birthday thing is a nice idea .. it gets people who don`t know each other talking. (I know it`s a longshot .. but what would happen if you had people with the same birthday? Just something to think about.) As if I haven`t already said enough on Flowers by Brian, after reading bridetobe`s post, I just wanted to add to her positive feedback of how flexible and easy they are to work with. I loved that we just kicked around ideas early on, but didn`t have to make any concrete decisions until within about 2 months prior to the wedding. Maybe it was even less than that .. I can`t remember. I guess we finalized our decisions on the centerpieces about 3 weeks prior. Initially, I had wanted to do a fall mix of different flowers, but my husband was really set on having roses. That`s how we ended up with the weird 4 1/2 dozen .. since that amount ended up being the trade off from the mix to roses keeping the same price. My husband compromised by letting me keep the variety of fall colors instead of going with all red roses, which would have looked beautiful. But, I was a little worried having all red in a dark room, thinking the centerpieces would sort of disappear and be lost .. and the lighter colors would help to brighten the centerpieces and make them more 'there,' plus they would also tie in beautifully with the alter arrangements, which ended up being the sunflower mix and came with us to the reception. Those were placed on the floor in front of our table (they were tall .. about as high as the table). Anyway, Flowers by Brian really had great ideas, but never tried to force those ideas on us.

DianaL & more on 'Brian'

Thanks Kel :-) A friend told me they passed a napkin at a wedding she went to. I also thought of the penny on the bottom of the chair, maybe a plate of fortune cookies with one that says 'You are the winner!'