As many of you know, I do not often complain about vendors. In fact I would recommend and praise almost all of my vendors however I had a problem with my florist and after 3 weeks of trying to rectify the situation and I've gotten NO RESPONSE from them! I feel it is only right I pass on what happend to me as to make sure another bride doesn't have the same problem.
Back in 2009 I booked with Rich from Flower Michele. I absolutely adored him. My mother and I felt the most comfortable with him and I can assure you they were not the cheapest or the most expensive but we felt he 'got it'. I knew I wanted a monochromatic look to my CP's so they had to be SPOT ON or they would look out of place. After seeing about 4 different florists I booked with FM.
After Rich left I met with John to go over things. He lied to me about where Rich went and his reasoning for leaving but that's a whole other issue. I didn't feel as confident in them. However, I had no basis for cancelling my contract. Although something inside told me I should. We went over everything and it seemed alright.... just alright. Then 2 months before my wedding I had my CP sample. Let me tell you it was WRONG..... dead wrong in color. It was a maroon color when I asked for HOT PINK. We played with it a little while there and I was still concerned. What I did like is that John had these new LED bases that he had the sample on so it GLOWED! That was my favorite part. The crystals he strung on the sample were a mess and dirty looking so I quickly took those off. Overall, he said after the fact he 'got it' and we were good to go. This wasn't sitting well with me so a week later my father called him and asked that we see another sample. I told him it didn't have to be to scale to save him money I was just mostly concerned with color. We set an appointment for about 2 weeks later and we were all set. The week of that appointment I called John to confirm and he told me he couldn't get the pink carnations... he could only get white and he would dye/spray them. I told him no I wanted to see the real thing, exactly what I would see when I walked into my RH. He said fine and give him another week. (this would be about 3 weeks before my wedding now)
My mother MADE these gorgeous crystal strands to hang from them and when we went back the color was correct, the strands looked beautiful the LED base made them all shine. I was THRILLED! They were exactly what I asked for.
Now, the day of the wedding.. when my personals were dropped off I was IMMEDIATELY disappointed. My bouquet seemed much smaller than John had promised, it was all pink roses I wanted something full and this was not. The delivery guy said it was because he used larger roses. BS it was small for a bridal bouquet. My BM's bo'ks were ever smaller. The roses weren't open and they looked like the size of a flower girls bo'k. I was very upset. AND they forgot my petals for my petal cones which my BM's were going to fill up. The delivery guy said he would bring them to the church for the girls to fll there. My mom said no you can take the cones fill them and drop them off. We have enough to do once we get to the church. They did that.. fine... Still my bo'k huge dissapointment. He told me I would have upwards of 30 roses I had about 18 :sad:
Then when I get to JT and everything has been wonderful... I go see my room and there they are my CP's... let me tell you the matre'd was able to see the look of digust on my face. The color was correct but the orchid in the center vase was about 6 inches tall when my sample was the full length of it. The vases weren't even filled completely with water so the inside filled with condensation and they looked dirty... the size was somewhere in between the 1st and 2nd sample I saw. John had promised me somethingon the sweetheart table. An arrangement bc we had one less table than we thought, and allI got was a few small vases with submerged flowers. OH the tree in my CH which he promised would have white orchids and crystals everywhere.. was plain other than the white hydrangea base and the hanging candles we supplied... It was a nightmare... OH and there were NO LED BASES UNDER THE CP'S!!! The thing JOhn sold me on most was those bases and they didn't even bring/use them....
Thankfully Jose (my Matrie'd) asked what he could do to fix it. I said the vases should be filled. He IMMEDIATELY had the staff at JT drop what they were doing get buckets of water and began filling my vases so they would atleast look clean. There was nothing he could do about the short orchids but the water was atleast something.
While I was on my HM my mom tried to contact John many times... he finally reached her once after I had returned and he said he was going to check my contract and see what went wrong. That was over 3 weeks ago. I called him myself this past Wednesday and I have still yet to get a call returned. He is terrible at communication which is what made me nervous about him from day one. I really wish I had gone with my gut and switched florists when Rich left.
I also realize these are all things only myself and my parents would know. My guests all said they were beautiful however they are not what I paid for and what I expected. It is actually sad for me to write this rant since I feel my day was so wonderful yet I wanted everyone to know what happend so as I said it doesn't happen to them.
Sorry this was so long and I am going to try and find pics to add to this now so you can have a better idea of what I am saying....
ETA:PIcs
pic 1 1st sample... um no where near hot pink.. don't mind the white hydrangea and 1 silver branch we were playing around with things. However please notice the TALL ORCHID in the center. These were taken with a camera phone so I couldn't get the whole thing. Including the LED base
2nd pic... second sample color is correct, my moms hand strung crystals and all silver branches... again notice the height of the orchid
day of... as you can see the orchid FLOATING to the top... the size is much much smaller than the original sample (which we were told we were getting) and clearly no LED base
while I'm at it... the teeny tiny BM Bo'ks
