For those of you that do not know my story, I have had a very difficult situation with a florist that I am still involved in. While reading this, I hope some brides can learn from my mistakes as well as my good fortune in finding JOHN, owner of FLOWER MICHELE.
We booked a florist one year after we got engaged. This was a vendor that was very popular at the time that did 'nice' work and whose prices were extremely affordable. I booked this vendor without going to other possibilities because of this vendor's 'enthusiastic and kind' personality and his 'great' prices. We actually ended up becoming very friendly with the person.
After being booked with this person for a few months short of a year, we started seeing a different side to this vendor. We were brushed off, phone calls were not returned- we no longer saw this kind, enthusiastic FRONT that was being acted out. We saw the quality of work deteriorating, and we saw why we were paying so little- lets just say you get what you pay for (and quite frankly in this case people were getting less than what they paid for- if someone offered some of this stuff for me for free I wouldn't take it.)
I am sure I don't have to say what we did next. Since our contract (or rather 'book' as I like to call it) never stated anything about a non-refundable deposit, we canceled and tried to get our deposit back. With 10 months notice, we felt we were entitled to getting our $800 back, especially since it is not stated in the 'book.' Well, we were denied our money, so we went to small claims and won. We have not seen a dime of this money, due to the games this vendor continues to play, but I am secure in the fact that we will see this $ eventually. (PLEASE CHECK BBB BEFORE BOOKING ANY VENDOR AND PLEASE IF THERE IS EVEN ONE NEGATIVE REVIEW ABOUT ANY VENDOR- PLEASE PROCEED WIDE_EYED AND WITH CAUTION)
We clearly needed a new florist, so I went to the one person that I had wanted to go to, but never made it to because I thought we couldn't afford them. I didn't want to fall in love with work to find out that we couldn't use the vendor anyway. But at this point I basically felt that I had nothing to lose. I had already thrown $800 in the trash due to my carelessness of not looking up my old vendor in BBB and listening to brides that had horrible experiences. Some people are just so good at playing the victim and we fell for it big time . . . what did I have to lose by visiting a vendor who's work was phenominal- if we couldn't afford it, oh well- we'd go elsewhere- a supermarket would have been better than where we were coming from. So we visited John at Flower Michele.
I just have to say that John has been one of the most amazing vendors. He sat with us, listened to our visions and expanded on them by a million. He was so kind to us and really was a genuine man. When he came up with a quote, it was only a few hundred dollars more than we were spending elsewhere, which was bittersweet for me, since if I would have gone there instead of booking with the first person we met with, I would have booked with him in a heartbeat. John has a style and a talent that goes unsurpassed. You can look at his work and know that he did it. He is incredible and I am thankful for the kindness and respect and help he has given to us.
Now I know this sounds extremely out there and like I am too emotionally involved with flowers, they die right? Well I am a flower lover, so much so that I picked the BM dresses based on the flowers I wanted. My flowers mattered to me just as much as my photographer - top priority.
So I received a phone call to schedule my Sample with John. A few days later, he called to cancel because he felt the quality of flowers was awful that he had found (for samples he goes and hand picks his flowers, since to have them shipped from afar they have to be in bulk.) He was not willing to show me a 'would be sample.' If the flowers were crappy and he couldn't get his hands on flowers that met his expectations, he was not willing to put together a sample for me that was mediocre. Let me just say as an aside, not EVERY FLORIST does this. There are some out there that would use the bad quality flowers and just tell you to 'envision what it would look like if the flowers were not dead
![]()
' This impressed me greatly about John. Fortunately, we were able to keep our appt. because at the last minute yesterday, he drove into the city to pick up flowers that were reported to be beautiful.
Well, we walked in to see our sample today and I was in awe. Utter amazement. Not shocked in the sense that I didn't expect the CP to be beautiful, but I never envisioned that it would be as breath taking as it was. John was just so awesome also. We sat talking for like an hour and a half- just chatting, scheduling everything for the wedding day, etc. I have to say that everything we have been through with our ex-vendor really hurt us and I was bitter. After today, seeing my CP and sitting with John, I have come to the fact that if I don't see one dime of that $800 dollar deposit, it was the best $800 dollars I ever spent. I can't put in to words the kindness, respect and decency we have been treated with by John of Flower Michele. I can't put into words how happy I am to have this amazingly talented man doing our wedding flowers, and I can't put into words the beauty he has created for one of the most important days there will be in my life. So without further delay, here are the pics of our CP. The only thing that will be different is there will be 5 votives instead of 3.
Please do not FM me about who the old vendor is, because I have too much class to bash someone on a public forum, even though I would be tempted to do so in a heartbeat. If you do know who this vendor is, please do not post their name on this thread. If you do your own research, and based on the advice I have given, you will be able to figure out for yourself what makes a quality vendor and who seems shady or 'too good to be true.' My true purpose for this post was to publicly thank JOHN of FLOWER MICHELE for all of the reasons I have stated and to explain just why JOHN has made such a difference for our wedding day. John, if you happen to read this, just know how truly thankful we are to have you involved in this special time in our lives!!!!!
Brianne and Brian
