I should have listened to the warnings of the difficulty in working with family.
My dad's cousin offered to do flowers for us before my FI and I were even engaged. She does lovely work and she has done weddings before but I have learned that her business practices ...suck. We got an original estimate back in about August and since then I have made some minor changes---swapping out one of the expensive flowers for a more budget friendly one, and adding 2 boutonnieres for the musicians. Nothing major. However, she never let me know about the changes in my estimate until I finally asked a few weeks ago for an update in the estimate.
Yesterday she sent me a "Final Invoice" (instead of an updated estimate) and the total price had increased. I was kind of irritated because I wasn't expecting a final invoice... as she had not given me a date for a final number for the centerpieces. But I started looking over it anyways and saw that she had centerpieces for 4 more tables than we need. So I let her know that we got final numbers for the wedding and we would be needing 4 less tables. (Each table had 6 vases with flowers, so that would be 24 vases... what I thought should be a visible price difference.)
Today I got an email with a new invoice and a note of "why didn't you tell me about these 4 tables when you knew I was doing the invoice?" (I didn't know you were doing a final invoice...) and "Because of these changes and that this is your 4th invoice I will have to add a change of invoice fee." So the new "final invoice" comes back EVEN MORE expensive even after removing the extra 4 tables....
First of all... this was the FIRST (unexpected) invoice, and then the SECOND invoice updating final numbers. I asked if she had it in her contract that she would charge to change invoices, especially since it was just to update numbers.
It's NOT in her contract but she is charging us anyway, and threw in some bashing on me about how no one else she's ever worked with has changed their flowers 4 times (which as stated before, is NOT true... it was once... with adding 2 bouts and then giving a final table count). It was just RUDE... I don't care what business you are in... you don't bash your customer (to their face... wait until they leave at least!). I wasn't expecting her to do the flowers for free by any means and we are actually paying more than we want to... and even more with her new arbitrary price increases.... but sheesh.
I wanted to tell her to keep the deposit and we'd find someone else or do it ourself but my mom doesn't want to start a rift in the family. So. Irritated. My dad said he would call after the wedding and let her know that as a business person it IS her responsibility to keep her client updated and if she knows they are trying to cut costs to HELP them do it. Also, being more clear with dates and sticking to her contract.
Uff sorry this rant was so long. Conclusion: Don't be like me. Be leery of hiring family. Even when they initially seem super willing to help you.
