nutty + ironic.

Laurie the NUTcase florist [AKA Trainwreck!]

Tuesday we had a phone appt with Laurie the florist and it was a total nightmare. she went thru everything all over again and we both had to take turns putting our ear near the phone as she wanted to talk to both of us and we do not have a speaker phone so it was annoying and she was very stressful. we felt like we wished we had used her coworker instead of her cos she is a MESS.

It's too complicated to go into everything all over again but she makes things as confusing as it can possibly be, when it should be very cut and dry, simple. but not with Laurie, nothing is simple when it comes to working with her! HA!

So, we couldnt really get anything accomplished and she decided after we'd wasted our time on the phone, at least half an hour or more, that we need one more meeting in person with her to finalize the final ideas - it just seems she is unable to finalize with what we've already given her. I felt pretty sure it was obvious we were final with all we'd discussed in person with her but she makes it where it's never final and you have to have more appts with her. I get the feeling that her core personality is compromised of self-doubt, second guessing everything, taking the most simple things and making it complicated, indecisiveness, inability to make final decisions, and fear of failure.

This is certainly NOT a good mix for someone who is in charge of something that is a big part of someone's wedding day and it is making us increasingly nervous that she is going to screw up and the more we interact with her, the more we are convinced that we made the wrong choice when we chose her to handle our floral affairs. I mean for god's sake, choosing flowers and nailing down the proposed plan for our wedding day shouldn't be this hard or stressful and it certainly shouldn't be us that is feeling the brunt of this stress.

We are paying her and her function in this is to arrange everything and organize it in a fashion that is clear, concise and without confusion. In my first wedding, we hired a florist by the same company [publix floral dept] and after our first meeting, the lady had a package of what would be included in our wedding and what we could expect and after that we never had to meet with her again or make any elaborate decisions. She did her job. We simply told her what we wanted and made the payment. I cannot understand why this woman is making everything so complicated. It is driving us insane.

Jimmy was rolling his eyes thru the whole phonecall and we both felt headachey after talking to her and drained! She really is something else. During this phonecall, I couldn't resist the urge to jump up and get Laurie's florist card off the dining room table and promptly shoving it to Jimmy's face while silently laughing. This is an inside joke that I made up with Jimmy. I find it SO hilarious that what is advertised on her business card is the complete opposite of what we are getting out of her services, in a sarcastic way.

*Every time I see this, I want to die laughing. It couldn't be further from the truth. The irony in this is laughable.



So...Laurie also threw out two new ideas she saw with some other wedding they did recently and wanted to know if we wanted it for our wedding party table as the special arrangement but I had not one clue what she was talking about and so she said she'd send us a picture via email.

When searching for floating candles on the web, I came across this picture which sort of sounded like what she was trying to illustrate to us in words, imagine something like this, narrow and thin cylindrical vase with orchids instead of what is actually pictured:



We heard from her a few days ago and are SO frustrated, not only did she not send the picture and tell us she is waiting for the bride from a recent wedding to send a picture to her email at work, BUT she also sent us with a new quote with a higher price. Several hundreds of dollars higher than her initial quote a few months back!!!

Apparently Laurie said she had been mistaken about the altar decorations she had quoted when we made our decision with her on the phone this past Tues. The two floral arrangements with a mix of gladiolas and same orchids with possibly pieces of bamboo and other greenery as well as the butterfly arrangement that would be used at the reception as a centerpiece on the guestbook table.

We have decided that we will need to bring my mom with to our next appt with her which will have to be in the next few wks if not next wkend because we need to get it straightened out so we can know what is going to be used in the wedding altar arrangements and reception centerpieces and have a REAL price quote that is set in stone and my mom knows more about flowers/arrangements and the like than the two of us do put together. Plus she is such a trainwreck, neither of us can seem to handle her exhaustive meetings. I've never met someone so scattered and disorganized in my life, especially when her job specializes in putting together wedding floral and cakes and the like. She is titled as an Event Organizer for god's sake!

Laurie is so all over the place, that it is nerve wracking. I am surprised she hasn't been fired yet. It seems like she is consistently indecisive and doubtful of herself/abilities and that she cannot handle the job. Its almost as if she gets consumed by details and loses focus. Kind of manic. Like me.

I am hoping that maybe my mom can think of an arrangement that fits our theme/style and find a way to make it cheaper [she is quoting the altar arrangements at 150 bucks, and the bows on aisles with floral as 150 bucks, we may change the aisle bows to just a few roses at the start of the pews in front if that saves everyone more money]

The total quote at this point is OVER 800 dollars for fucking flowers and we strived for a minimalist design. [the original quote was around 400-500 dollars a few months ago, I do not get how the price could have raised that much higher.]

We are now thinking that there will only be two arrangements at altar, a scatter of tulle or ribbon with a few flowers [roses], some loose orchid petals floating in eight floating candle dishes. These are not even arrangements or large reception pieces, just the bloom of the flower. In addition there will only be one average sized arrangement at wedding head table which is not a huge table, it is a round table that seats approximately eight people around it. Then of course there will be one final arrangement at the guest book/gift table.

The standard bouquets/buoutonnaires are far from the most expensive flowers and are also smaller than what the average wedding uses nowadays. I don't get it!! This Laurie is so frustrating and stressful. We feel frazzled with her.

After that phone call, all we felt like doing was relaxing and watching tv because we felt exhausted from talking with her and unmotivated to do anything that would resemble work or chores or doing more wedding goals on our list. sigh...

Floating Unscented Ivory Candles:

Michael's does NOT carry any ivory UNscented floating candles so we may be forced to buy it online at some unknown candle website because I don't know where else to look. Target didn't have any and so that is something I am still searching for.

But we did end up getting this- to cross of containters for candy favors at reception, off our wedding to do list-

(we will probably use this ribbon i placed on top of favors to embellish the candy favors)

Finalizing Party Favors for Reception at Wedding:

Also we ordered these silver or pewter style butterfly bookmarks as a thank you party favor to guests last nite. It will be shipped to my parents house, as mail is not safe or reliable in our opinion in this crappy apt complex. Its by a website called Serendipity:

floral madness: we do the work, you have the fun, NOT!

Florist-

we've met with the florist, Laurie, a second time, she kept us there over an hr and the first time it was two hrs. she is something of a nitemare in that she rambles and just when you make a decision, she throws out a whole bunch of new options and knit-picks the tiniest details leaving you feeling stressed, frustrated, and overwhelmed.

we had made the decisions for the most part in the first meeting, a TWO HOUR long meeting, and when we went back this past wkend, for a second meeting...she decided she wanted to go over every single idea that i had pointed out as "pretty" from our first meeting a few mos ago!!! unf***ing believable!! both jimmy and i just looked at each other, almost laughing knowing we were trapped.

laurie would not hear of the fact that we knew what we wanted NOW and went thru every single thing we had said we liked as a possibility from that first meeting. we made headway but we felt she made everything more complicated and decided that we need yet another meeting with her. she is stretching out her time with us for as long as she can and decided to save the 3rd meeting to draw up a new contract for us.

btw, we've stuck with the same bouquets for the wedding party and boutonnieres for all, like i had expressed in an entry a while back.

we experimented with the bowls jenni let us use, with stones and water and floating candle and just added an order of three different colored orchid blooms to have float over each floating candle bowl. there should be approx. 8 bowls to 8 tables.

we decided on a floral arrangement of different orchids for the head table of wedding party. possibly an autumn inspired centerpiece for reception table like pic i shared previously in od. or something with butterfly on it as display

quick picture of experimental clear bowl where u put rocks, petals and floating candles in with water. in my pix below there is no water in bowl, and orchid blooms are MISSING, so just imagine what it might look like, pretend there's water and petals floating on top LOL





...and for the altar we are leaning towards a mix of gladiolas in a coral color, orchids and other misc floral as filler, but it's not definite yet.

along the aisles there may be bows of ivory tulle or satin to decorate every few rows with a small 3-rose arrangement with ivy in the chapel where our marriage ceremony will take place with pastor.

ps

here were some ideas i brought to florist this past wkend, printed off weddingchannel.com just for ideas of style and color in flowers + wedding trends. this seemed to make her more frenzied and more scattered. it was her who told me to bring even the vaguest ideas in, via picture to give her a better hold on my personality and style except that caused her to go into overkill mode and lose focus. jimmy said i ought to have not brought any of it in because it only seemed to add to her hyperactivity and her odd ability to keep us there for an incredibly lengthy period of time over something that seems like it should be so simple LOL


Altar Ideas:

Centerpiece Fall Idea:



Some Bouquets:

btw, this is her card, note the motto. it's so NOT true. the reverse is true- we do all the work and she has all the fun LOL

its sooo hilarious in a sarcastic way. heh

our wedding floral plan of action!

we had a meeting with florist at publix also. it was overwhelming and a few hr appt as everything had to be picked from scratch. we're thinking of going with [for bouquets] roses with hyperium berries with hand tied cut off stem bouquets [dont know correct wording] its still a roughdraft idea. but i think the bridesmaids will have lollipop colored roses which are similar to coral color..and mine will be ivory/creme. its just an idea that we're playing with currently.

[jimmy called the chapel/reception coordinator and we will be able to use those floating candle dishes jenni let us borrow for the reception tables in lieu of florist centerpieces for each tabletop. ]

we were thinking of going with orchid arrangements [in lt yellow, lt green and melon-reddish variations for the majority of tables/reception area but thats up in the air still.] and looking at an asian looking style plant or orchid with butterflies for main altar display or something like this. again, those are rough ideas we need to still think over before making a final decision. the florist hasnt been reserved yet but doubt we will find another place more reasonable in price. the charge isn't much to have it delivered so we may opt for that as they bring everything to the place and help set up, possibly. im not sure- so much info was thrown out that we both walked out of there stressed and exhausted!!

without the pricing of the petals used in floating dishes, the wedding table floral centerpiece, cake table or guest table floral arrangement, altar arrangements and roses along church aisles, the price is estimated at 379.00 only including bouquets, boutoinneires and corsages. it doesn't get any cheaper than that. that was close to what my first wedding cost for florals in the mid 90's and my ex and i went thru the same company twelve years ago. so you aren't going to find any cheaper than 300.

i expect it to be under or close to five hundred maybe in the four hundred range when all is said and done. ive purposely chosen cheaper flowers. lilies and stefanolis [unsure of correct name/spelling] that i was often drawn to wanting to choose go up into the hundreds and thousands for just bouquets. you'd have to be rich so i've settled for roses/orchids which are way cheaper.

below is a roughdraft of the itinerary plan we mapped out together on a computer screen with our appointed florist:

after hours of catalogue browsing and speaking with florist at citrus park publix which specializes in wedding florals, we came away with these highly possible ideas:

bridal bouquet: 9 vendella creme/ivory roses with green Hypericum berries hand tied with creme ribbon 3/4 down

matron of honor & bridesmaid bouquet: 5 lollipop roses with peach Hypericum berries

boutonnieres: groom: vendella ivory/creme rose & green Hypericum

best man, groomsmen & ushers: lollipop rose with peach Hypericum

mother of bride & groom + grandmother: cream spray roses [can choose either corsage for wrist or corsage to pin to dress]

church altar for ceremony: two potted arrangements, altar arrangement plant- asian style or orchid with butterflies in design/plant, possible unity candle flower arrangement; pew arrangements with a few roses along aisles

reception: 8 centerpieces [if 8 tables- dependent upon number of guest b/t 50 and 75 people but won't know til rsvps are received later down road: possibly floating clear glass dishes with stones, orchid petals and votive candles for each table.