Missing Florist

[MintDuck]

Hi fellow Brides! Just hoping someone can re-assure me that this is normal....I booked my florist in March of last year, I told her it was unlikely to be a big order (she was one of very few that didn't want over a certain spend in the thousands). I paid her a deposit of £100 last march.

She sent an email in the new year to say that she'd be in touch with six months to go and contact would get more frequent as we got closer. Six months came and went and I heard nothing, so with four and a half months to go I was emailing and calling and didn't hear back from her until about a week later, saying she was mega busy (understandable) but not to worry, our contact would be increasing from then on.

Fast forward, and we're now 8 weeks out and I can't get a response from her again. Is this normal and she's just busy? I am concerned though as we've not discussed what we want in any details, types of flowers etc.

Our order won't be massive, but I would have thought she'd at least want to talk through the colours and the choice of flowers, and how much of everything we will need and the final cost (previously she just gave me a list of rates). Fiancé thinks she's taken a bigger order for the same day and is just going to ignore us or contact us at the last minute as anything will do as its not a massive order (but then, she doesn't even know that yet!).

I had a friend email her yesterday enquiring about a wedding and she responded almost immediately, but mine go unanswered, so she is around.

Any advice?

We'd wanted a bridal bouquet, one for the MoH, buttonholes, 2 arrangements for the church (to then be reused at the reception venue) and some confetti. Given the list of rates, we'd budgeted around £800.

I thought florists didn't like moving arrangements from the church to the reception? I read somewhere that it's a real pain.

I'd say she fake at this point scam for deposit money, why only email no mobile number on her business card?! And real professional florists wouldn't ignore you do you have her business address? Or mobile?

Can you not visit in person? She’ll not be able to ignore you then.

I approached a florist about doing my wedding and he accepted. He asked for the venue details and said he’d visit and get back to me with ideas. It would be quite a significant prefer (black tie London wedding for 120). So I waited a bit and heard nothing so went back to see him and he was not in the shop. Waited a bit more started to get a bit concerned so went back and spoke to a colleague who said he may have said he’d do it but no way would he! We hadn’t signed a contract as I was waiting for him to look at the venue. But the woman suggested he gets carried away but doesn’t have the (mental) capacity to organise arrangements for a big event. Yes he was the owner of the florist shop.
So started to panic but a month out I found a fairly well known florist who was totally welcoming and professional and said she could do it. Quite quickly we discussed what I needed (she knew the venue and was doing a wedding shortly so told me to go check it out the morning of to see what she could do). She was brilliant.
Go in person and get your deposit back as she has broken the contract - or at least go and find out what the hell is going on! You will be able to find a replacement but you need to get on it asap.

If the first florist fails you & you can't find another who can fit you in, you could look for gifted flower arrangers who might jump at the chance, e.g. NAFAS members or church flower arrangers. They should be able to make large arrangements for the church/reception, & someone among them will probably be able to do buttonholes. The two bouquets might be a bit much, but you never know. Once you start asking around, somebody will know somebody. What about a local floristry instructor at a college?

I used to be a church flower arranger, & if we had a wedding we'd find out the colour scheme & make our usual big arrangement the day before the wedding but in the bride's chosen colours (if there was more than one wedding on the same day with clashing schemes, we'd use neutral colours), plus small arrangements behind the altar - all for free because we'd be doing them anyway. Have you checked with your church, in case they do this, OP?

Thank you everyone for your replies, ideas and suggestions! There is a little progress on this one, firstly with regard to my friend contacting her they were going back and forth communicating absolutely fine and as soon as my friend mentioned the date all contact has stopped, she's now not answering calls, texts or emails from her either, which I find absolutely bizarre.

I've continued trying to contact her, and visited her premises on Saturday as we were back at 'home' (where we currently live is not where we're from - that's where we're getting married hence why its not been as simple as going around to her premises until now!), however it was all shut up with no signs of anything happening (its not a shop as such - more like a rural workshop type place) so I've now sent both an email and a letter by registered post stating that she is in breach of contract. I've asked for written confirmation of the details of the order — including the specific flowers, colours, quantities, and final costs (which there is no way she can provide) but if she cannot provide that within 7 days it will confirm that she can't fulfil the contract as agreed, I will consider our contract terminated and require the immediate refund of my deposit.

I went to a different florist on Saturday (just a little florist shop in our local town) who I met in person there and then and who was more than happy to discuss exactly what we need, the type and number of flowers and arrangements and that aspect of it is all sorted, so we will have flowers for the wedding party and the reception).

We also went to the Church yesterday that we're getting married in as our Banns were being read, some of the ladies there were really quite excited to be having a wedding happening and were asking us all about it. When we told them the issue we'd had with the florist they've said to us if we drop some flowers to the Church on the Thursday that we have our rehearsal then they will do all of the arranging in the Church for us!!

In terms of having the flowers sorted for the wedding we now don't need to worry about that aspect, so its just a wait and see what happens with the other lady and if she'll return the deposit or if I'll be trying to recover it through small claims and leaving reviews to other would be brides to beware! The only thing I need to do now is to source some petal confetti (as the Church doesn't allow paper etc).

Thank you all again for reassuring me that I wasn't being a Bridezilla and this should have been sorted by now!

Well done. That's a good update. Looks like she was prepared to also scam your friend.

Have you checked on local Facebook groups if she's had any comments on there? You are probably not the only one.

That’s good. Sounds like you are getting back on track.

Just out interest, where did you find this florist and what prompted you to choose her to do your flowers?

She was actually on the reception venue's list of recommended suppliers, she had lots of social media posts and seemed great when we originally spoke 18 months ago, and she was one of a very few that didn't need a guaranteed minimum spend of £1000. Basically, she said we didn't need to confirm anything that far out which made sense to me, but then when I tried to chase as she missed contact dates to discuss and confirm that she'd initially set out herself, there was no communication back.

When I started looking into things a bit further, I found in the last 6 months she's had one social media post and no reviews, I was a bit concerned as obviously I didn't want to be chasing someone or berating them if they'd fallen ill etc, but the fact she was able to then correspond with my friend for a new booking perfectly OK indicates that's not the case at all. Lesson learned....

Do ask the reception venue to take them off the list. I'd tell them the whole saga in the hope they'll give a discount to the value of the deposit!

How odd.

Sounds like she might have been new to the industry and putting herself ‘out there’ to get business by the social media presence. Lots of established florists have a minimum spend because they have to buy minimum quantities. This is often 20 stems minimum per flower. It’s not such an issue for a shop but it doesn’t make financial sense for a workshop florist to just do a bridal bouquet and a couple of buttonholes if they have to trek to the wholesaler (or pay a delivery charge) and then have a lot of flower left over. New florists will suck it up and will make little to no profit to get the practise. Lots of people are doing this and it’s messing it up for the industry. They stagger on for a year or so then disappear because they realise it’s bloody hard work and they’re not making money because they haven’t been charging properly from the start.

It’s not hard to get onto a wedding supplier list but it means Jack shit. For established florists, it just means you have to pay a percentage to the venue out of what is already a very tight profit margin. Same with wedding fairs, quite a bit of investment for not an awful lot of return and a lot of decent established florists will avoid them.

I guess the only weird thing is the communication then silence with your friend.

Sounds like you had a lucky escape.

Just ask your florist to supply the petal confetti. They can deliver it with the flowers on the day.

just seen your update - hopefully she will refund you and you can move on. Make sure you give her a factual review to save other brides going through it. Good luck with the wedding!

So glad to hear you've got your flowers sorted out. I'd just check with the church arrangers that they'll be bringing foliage, unless your flowers include enough foliage e.g. eucalyptus. We used to get flowers paid for by the church & provided by a florist, & bring in foliage from our own gardens.

Ah that's great news..I was giving more time thinking about you being let down like this than I ought to.. 🤣
Here's an idea re petal confetti..lots of roses are losing their petals now & in the coming weeks..do you have any local groups..nextdoor or olio etc?...get in touch..they will gladly come together to bring all their flower petals for your wedding. Explain what happened..& it will take off..communities are absolutely brilliant with things like this!

Thanks for those thoughts about the foliage and the petals, all things I'd not considered! I will definitely check with the church ladies about the foliage and that's a great idea about the petals, thank you all!

I've also spoken with the reception venue and have been informed that this person is already no longer on their approved suppliers list...make of that what you will, but sounds as though we've not been the first to have a problem.

@MintDuck shame they didn’t tell you that! (The venue)

Hello @MintDuck did you get this sorted out in the end? I hope your wedding went well too!