Let's talk petals. Remember when I told you how I'd won flowers at the wedding expo? Needless to say, I was excited to meet with the florist and get a conversation started. Mommy Buttons and I made an appointment at the shop, and I immediately did what I promised myself I would avoid: I let the vendor take me for a bit of a ride.
On one hand, the vendors are professionals, and yes...you want to take their advice (hey, they do this for a living, trust them!). However, letting them steer you in a direction you didn't really have in mind? Nooooot so cool!
I don't know much about flowers, but I had a vague idea of what I was looking for. I brought in a picture of a bouquet that I loved:
She confidently told me that she could recreate this exact bouquet. Ok...off to a good start! I told her that I want the flowers to be simple, green, and white. She then began to explain her entire vision for my flowers: hydrangeas hydrangeas hydrangeas...
She even suggested green hydrangeas for my bridesmaid bouquets:
So far, I was feeling ok with her suggestions. Hydrangeas are definitely beautiful! Then she moved on to the bouts for the guys. She suggested a calla lilly. To be honest, I like them, but they weren't what I had in mind, so I said that to her. She then suggested to switch the callas in my bouquet to white roses, and have the bouts be roses to match. ***Sigh.*** White roses weren't my vision either. I wanted the bouquet as-is; I didn't want to change the flowers around. At this point, I sensed the florist was getting frustrated with me. She started to go on about how the men's boutonnieres need to match the bride's bouquet, so I had to pick a flower to go in my bouquet that could also be in the bouts.
I was perplexed. I hadn't heard of this before! Although I could see the logic, it wasn't that important to me. Who is going to notice if the flower on my groom's lapel is also a flower in my bouquet??? But, she wasn't budging on this issue, so I dropped it for the time being. Mommy Buttons and I left our appointment with a proposal and pricing (which is also a very sobering moment...am I right?!?!), and overall I felt a little uneasy about what had happened.
In the end, I was very happy to get this experience out of the way early on. In all of my planning books/online research/etc, I had constantly read about how you need to go into vendor meetings with clear and concise ideas, make sure that your vision is understood, and to make sure that you are comfortable with the vendor. I had failed miserably...I didn't have a clear vision to articulate, and then when the florist to give me all of her opinions and didn't really listen to my own, I just shut down. Although I thought her ideas would be beautiful, I wasn't incredibly excited. And, when you are getting ready to shell out hundreds, possibly thousands, of dollars on flowers, you need to feel confident! I made a vow to not allow the same situation to occur with other vendors that I met with!
So...I let the flower issue stew for a few months, and eventually I figured out a plan that is going to work for us...but explaining that is for another day...
Did you allow a vendor to "take you for a ride?" Did you have a hard time standing your ground at times during your vendor meetings?
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