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:
