Florist Quote

arosem23

I know it's Saturday morning and some of you might not be on here. (I try not to go on the computer as much as possible on the wedding because I'm on it all week...) I just wanted to get your thoughts and ideas. 
I have a friend of a friend that is possibly doing our flowers. We are getting married September 11, 2010 and we are doing a fall forest theme...think rustic but elegant - all "leaf colored" flowers...red, orange, yellow, green, brown. I made it clear that I did not need fancy flowers, ie: roses, calla lilies, orchids. I also tell the girl that we do not want to spend over $2000 for all of the flowers. That includes 7 girls, 8 guys, 2 dads, 2 moms, 1 grandmom, roughly 25 centerpieces, 2 arrangements for the church. 
I get an email from her today with the breakdown and final cost - $2875 and she is putting in roses, calla lilies, orchids - every expensive flower that I know of...this is frustrating. Obviously, she didn't hear me when I said "it's the color, not the flower that I'm going for"....
Can you recommend any inexpensive flowers that I could propose to her as another option?? Any help would be appreciated.Thanks,Alison

jagore08

Roses aren't usually expensive but you could put in gerber daisies, carnations, or spider mums.  Then stress to her that you like what she put together but it cannot be over 2,000.  Period.  Let her know that you just don't have anymore money.  Florists do this all the time to see if you can up your budget.  Just don't give in and she should be able to replace the expensive flowers for less expensive ones.

Marsarah

Maybe you could do something different for the centerpieces that use less flowers or none at all. That would bring the floral proposal down.

arosem23

Well, we are planning on using laterns and doing a ring of flowers around the laterns. I don't think the amount of flowers we are using for each centerpiece would be a normal size since the lantern is going to be in the middle. I wrote her back and stressed our budget. I'm hoping she can work with us on this.

flower_diva

just tell her to redo .....and tell her again ,not over $2,000.  You could always go to a florist instead of a friend and they will work with in your budget...time to play hardball. Having friends "do" things for your wedding is not always such a good idea.  It usually turns into their vision,not yours...

arosem23

We decided to check out a few local florists - I think we've found our match. I'm just waiting for her to get back to us with the finally tally. I told our friend that we really can't go over our budget and I appreciate her help. Thanks for listening and your advice!