so i met with a whopping 7 florists, many of whom are not listed on the boards and just wanted to give them reviews because they were pretty good.
Man and A Woman: Andy and John are awesome. I used to work at Las Colinas CC, where they are the preferred vendors, so I knew that their work is high quality. I was surprised that they were also the ones who quoted me the lowest price without me even giving them my budget.
Di Fiori: Robin was really nice. She is super busy, but I thought she also had great ideas. She was a bit pricier (by almost $700), but I liked her designs.
2 friends and a Party: they are OFF THEIR ROCKERS! stay far, far away from this new business. this lady used to work with bella flora and she admittedly has nice designs, but she quoted me over $2000 more than other florists! i was more than shocked. she said to lower her prices she could do an arrangement of just candles and flower petals for $85!!!!
Darrell Ward: he was recommended by a friend of mine. we met at the wholesale flower market and he showed me different options. he seemed a little disorganized, but was very helpful. he promised to stay w/ in my budget, but let me know up front that we would have to do some centerpieces with just candles.
Hailey Jane Designs: love, love, loved her. she is also opening up her new business and used to work under bella flora. her work is beautiful and she donates part of her earnings to a charity. price was in the middle.
Creative Vision Events (Mark McDowell): he was suggested by my venue. he seemed disorganized. he kept promising that he could do everything within my budget and that it would look great, but i did not like his style and designs of previous weddings. he was unable to produce pictures of what i really wanted.
Garden Gate Floral: they are SO hard to get an appointment with, but Junior is AWESOME! waiting 1.5 months for a first appointment was worth it. junior sat down with my mom and me for about 2 hours and helped with the overall look of the wedding from floral to linens to lighting. he gave wonderful ideas. he doesn't have a website, but a lot of his work can be seen on the dfwevents blog. pricing was in the middle.
i had a hard time picking between hailey and garden gate, but ended up going with garden gate because i felt better with junior re-directing me in some things and seeing so many great pictures of his past work.