Flower Fix

...& by "fix", I mean predicament, not solution.

I have a lot of other Christmas-related things to write about later, but I figured that the florist appointments deserved a post of their own, since they were so eventful.  First, I have to come clean about my florist appointment with Beyond Details.  I really only scheduled it out of obligation since that company is already doing out catering, & I figured they might have an edge since they own the venue & will have all day to set up as opposed to only a couple of hours.  However, I was less than impressed when we got to their office.  From what I have already seen so far, they are a lot more modern than my tastes, & I didn't feel quite as though my voice was being heard during the appointment.  Maybe I should start from the beginning:

When we arrived, we were greeted by Jakob, who I have no qualms with on a personal level.  That day, he was sick, so maybe that influenced the way the appointment went?  We sat down & started talking about ideas for the flowers.  (I'm not going to discuss the specifics on what we want to have at our wedding on here because I want our guests to have some level of surprise left; rather, I'll just talk about the way we went about deciding.)  A few of the things he said, I liked.  Some, not so much.  When I didn't like the ideas, he kind of...got offended almost but still leaned in the direction of the ideas he talked about.  Sometimes, when he wanted to show us a picture, we had to walk back into his office, sit at the computer, when come back to the meeting room to talk about it.  I wouldn't have had a problem with this if we had looked at a bunch of pictures at one time, but we ended up having to go back and forth several times.  One thing that Jakob suggested that I did agree with was not having a flower girl or ring bearer.  We don't even really have a girl we're close with who would be old enough (the suggestion is 4-8, but you're encouraged to go closer to the 8-end for behavior reasons) & the flower girl seems more important than the ring-bearer. It seems weird to me that people who are not inviting children to their wedding (due to limited seating & budget, not to mention that we want the adults to have fun & enjoy our day with us, instead of having a lot of "distractions" around) would feature kids as two central aspects of it.  Instead, I think I'll opt for petals gracefully placed down the isle by a florist...& the ring-bearer never actually carries the rings anyway :)

I can't quite put my finger on what bothered me most about the appointment, but I think one thing might sum it up perfectly.  He basically said that he would take what I wanted into consideration when doing the styling, but would also be making sure that it looked the way he wanted it to.  Now, call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure that the bride & the people paying are the only people who it should "look the way they want it to."  Am I right?  That would have been enough to leave me dissatisfied, but then Jakob crunched some numbers to see what all of this was going to cost (I had told him the budget up front).  He  had almost doubled the budget.  Then, when he realized this would be too much, instead of offering ways to fix that, he casually did a few things & brought it down to about 1.67% of the budget.  Still too high, especially given the fact that I didn't feel like I was getting what I wanted.

The next day, I received an email from Jakob with an estimate and an offer.  Basically, he was offering to do the entire thing for 1.33% of the budget, but I had to accept by the end of the day.  He is used to me making quick decisions, because I decided to reserve & deposit on the venue in a day (because it was basically at a 30% discount for that day only).  Here, he was doing the same thing, but this time I felt backed into a corner.  I wasn't comfortable with some of the things that he had said & felt like I wasn't going to have control over how the wedding looked & my voice wouldn't be heard, which isn't okay, especially when you have to pay that much money for something. 

Since I  had to make a decision about the offer by the end of the day or it would expire, I decided to call Jeff at The Garden Gate to see if I could move our January 3rd appointment to that day, with just a couple hours of notice.  He readily agreed, so that afternoon I headed over to Monroe for an estimate with him.

Jeff had so many great ideas, & I felt like my voice was heard loud & clear with him.  He would take what I said & give me several different options that would fit when I wanted.  He also got me to open up to a few other things that I had been hesitant about before, but loved after we discussed them.  It was a great meeting, & I couldn't have been more pleased about feeling so reassured about a florist.  When we had finished talking ideas, Jeff crunched the numbers too.  Again, they were about double the budget.  This time, though, he sat with me (instead of disappearing into a back room) figuring out things that we could cut out.  Within about 10 minutes, we had reduced the cost down to what Beyond Details was going to charge me & I feel like we didn't have to sacrifice any quality at all for the reductions in price.  He was more than willing to tell me where we could cut corners, & where I could make the things that we would be using, to save money; Jakob had not been quite as "for" this idea.  Jeff was also enthusiastic about using the glass pieces that I have been collecting as part of the wedding, another thing that did not seem to sit well with Beyond Details.  Overall, I felt like Jeff had a better idea of what I wanted & was able to translate that vision into real, tangible suggestions & he was much more professional & helpful (our impromptu appointment took well over an hour, which he did not seem to mind at all). 

I haven't confirmed to Jeff that I will be using TGG because I haven't told Jakob that I won't be using BD.  I'm just not good at "pleasant" confrontation on a personal or professional level.  I also don't want to hurt Jakob's feelings because he will still be there for our rehearsal dinner & wedding, making sure everything goes smoothly at the venue.  At least when I do get the courage to turn him down, I'll be able to do it over email :) haha!  More to come about Christmas later.  It deserves a post all its own as well!