Florida-Central Florida

Blooms for Brides - Sorry this is so long!

I just wanted to give any central Florida Brides the heads up... I had decided to get my flowers from Blooms for Brides. I loved them during the consultation! They had great ideas and were at a super good price. I went ahead and signed the contract confident that I had found someone who would give their all to my wedding. Months later, after a class where we discussed contracts (I go to school for event management! Future wedding planner!) My teacher informed me that I had made a rookie mistake in not getting a counter signed contract. So I sent an email off to Angie (the owner of Blooms for Brides) Asking for the counter signed contract and verification of my payment I was sending out. Two days later I sent an email back to her since I hadn't heard anything from her regarding sending a contract out. Posted below:Angie, I haven't gotten any type of email confirmation or anything from you? Should I cancel the check I sent out? It really creeps me out when you take forever to send me an email and you tell me you didn't even know if you had my 1st payment. Hopefully things will not be this way on my wedding day...?She responded:things will not be this way on your wedding day. I have many emails with efficient correspondence on our part. I am sorry I have not  received your check yet. I will let you know when I do I got pretty upset that she was being blunt and a bit rude to me so I responded:Really, there was no reason to get gripe-y. I simply have been confused because you had advertised yourself to be more personalized since you weren't part of a big company, etc., etc. I had sent an email about a month ago to ask when you would need to get into the Peggy Brown Building, so I could rent it out and give you plenty of time. However, your response a week later was, 'Sorry, I've been busy I'll get back to you later.' Unfortunately, when you did get back with me you only answered part of my questions included in the original email. I feel like any business, big or small should have been able to answer any questions I might have, due to the fact that I am paying them money. Also, had our roles been reversed and you were the poor college student and I told you I had no clue wether you had paid your 1st payment, wouldn't that start sending warning flags up? Warning flags aside however, your last email and the long response time to my emails is just unprofessional. Therefore, to protect myself, I requested a counter signed contract and once you receive my 2nd payment I would like to have signed confirmations sent to me for both payments. I also have had the bank pull record of my first payment. This was all requested in the email sent out on Monday. I really had high expectations when we had our first consultation and you portrayed yourself to be professional and to have highly personal service. I do not feel like I am getting any of this. P.S.: Just so you know, the Peggy Brown Building is reserved for 12:30pm on March 7th. I ended up getting two different emails, one was courteous and polite and telling me that it was bad business and that they didn't think they could continue doing business with me... I understood... I thought no biggie I get my money back and I find somebody else. But then I got another email, it was much much more rude and very unprofessional in my eyes Hi Alecia, Please see the timeline below. It was 3 days that I actually responded in a professional manner and not as above quoted:Hello Alicia,I will get back to you when I get back to the office with all your answers..Rest assured I will let you know immediately when I get a check from you and email you a receipt.Sincerely,Angie HarmonBlooms for Brides Also, you told me in several emails you would have payment by the end of August and it is now Sept. 23, almost a month later and I still don't have the payment.Please verify the address you want your money mailed back too. I would also advise not besmirching the name of my company as this is as I am sure you know illegal.Please note you could have called anytime if there were concerns regarding the validity of my company. We have many weddings going on at any given time and it is unfortunate when hard drives crash before you have time to print out all the emails and other back up documentation. This is not your fault nor mine. However, it did slow ONE response back to you out of the over 50 emails I have archived with you. Again, Your wedding isn't until March of next year and usually it isn't the florist you wait on to hire your venue. Hire the venue first and they tell when the florist can come in and set up. You had a few centerpieces which would have taken a few min. tops. I do wish you the best in the future I thought that this was rude, so I only responded with my address. Then today I got an email claiming that they were sorry and that they understood my position. They were willing to do my flowers 1/3 off. It would have been a good deal if a.) I trusted them to make my dreams come true and b.) I hadn't already signed with another florist. So i responded:Hello again,   I actually have already gone out and found a new florist. I did receive several responses back to the email that 'broke us up,' and I must say, one was rather nice and professional. But then after I received the second email that appeared to be from a blackberry, I realized there is no way possible I could ever work with your company. I mean this in the nicest way possible, but as both a bride and a future wedding planner I can't imagine having an email as such from a vendor. Frankly, it was rude and unprofessional. Then to add the part about 'besmirching' the company... I feel you burnt a bridge between us, again, not only as a bride, but as a future central Florida wedding planner. Again, I apologize things went sour, but I feel maybe the two of you as a company should a.) show a united front and b.) work on professionalism to all clients regardless of the size of their pocketbooks.This email I did get a bit nasty (Heres where I look sheepish!) Then I got this total Jewel of an email a couple of hours ago:Alicia,We did absolutely nothing wrong or unprofessional, I am certain when you get out in the"real world" you will see things are not as you perceive them to be. Actually we gave out an olive branch when we had no need too, and as far as the blackberry goes , that is the most efficient way to respond when you have as many weddings as we do.I know of not a single vendor that would work with your attitude. Your major is quite saturated with wedding planners and I know how vendors and venues feel about them!I still advise no besmirching of my company and please keep your snide advise to yourself. Refund is comingBlooms for BridesAngie HarmonIn my defense, I am out n the 'real world' I am a front desk manager, and I pay for everything on my own... I may be a college student, but i'm independent. Also, I have worked with several vendors. I'm actually planning a non-profit  event with one of my classes at Lake Eola on Nov. 21st! You should come! its for New Beginnings Pet Rescue! anyway, I have never once had a vendor treat me this way! I wanted to make sure all Central Florida Brides knew about what was going on. I can't tell you to avoid her, but I do advise tredding with care. Make sure that which ever vendor you choose, get a counter signed contract and that you feel like you are put first, irregardless of the size or price of your wedding! You are paying them not the other way around! Well, good luck to all of you! and (insert devilish smile) Flowers by Edith does amazing things! She helped me so much and I feel very taken care of!

Re: Blooms for Brides - Sorry this is so long!

  • lovinloganlovinlogan member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Forgot to add that in my defense, I had told Angie I would get a payment out to her after my birthday, which is late August. However, some birthday gifts were sent out, so I didnt get my birthday money till half way through September!
  • edited December 2011
    Angie, I haven't gotten any type of email confirmation or anything from you? Should I cancel the check I sent out? It really creeps me out when you take forever to send me an email and you tell me you didn't even know if you had my 1st payment. Hopefully things will not be this way on my wedding day...?It really creeps you out? I'm sure it really creeps her out too.That first email doesn't seem to initiate a very professional confrontation.
  • skhynesskhynes member
    Seventh Anniversary 500 Comments
    edited December 2011
    I think you were premature when you went off on her when you hadn't heard from her in two days.  She hadn't received her payment yet, so obviously she had no copy to send back to you.  She might have just been waiting until she received it to write you back.  And you weren't very professional when you wrote her that first time, which probably set you up to have a bad working relationship.  Yes, she definitely said some things to you later that were somewhat blunt and unprofessional as well, but I think that kind of communication was initated by you first.  Doesn't excuse her actions, but just something to think about.You also were a month late with what I think was your second payment.  Frankly, she was nicer about that than a lot of vendors would have been. I'm sorry this happened to you, but you may want to word things a little more carefully when you are doing business with people.
    Claire Elisabeth born at 27w1d on 2/20/11
    Image and video hosting by TinyPic
  • lovinloganlovinlogan member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Yeah, I know about the first email wasn't the best... I plan on calling Pat, the other member of the team to talk to her. I get the feeling she is the author of the nicer emails... I want to explain to her what went down, because most of the emails I get from her make it seem like she's not exactly sure what happened. She really is sweet... The main message from the post is to be super careful with your vendors and if you get any warning flags from a vendor to trust your instincts. Also, I don't think I explained it right... The payment was set up where I could make 3 payments on the flowers whenever I so choose as long as it was paid in full by a certain date. The second payment wasn't techanically 'late' as I had just told Angie that I was hoping to have a payment out to her sometime after my birthday.
  • Theresa626Theresa626 member
    1000 Comments
    edited December 2011
    That response was rude.  How is it illegal to tell other people a bad review of a vendor?  People should be able to know if a vendor was good or bad just like they give doctor review, restaurant review and every other kind of review. 
  • Theresa626Theresa626 member
    1000 Comments
    edited December 2011
    Also, I didn't tihnk your attitude was so bad that, as she said, "I don't know of any vendor who would want to work with you".  That is really really harsh.  Especially considering all the real bridezillas out there.  I mean can they really afford to be that ridiculously picky? 
  • skhynesskhynes member
    Seventh Anniversary 500 Comments
    edited December 2011
    I believe it's really only illegal if what she's saying isn't true.  And since the bride is sharing e-mails straight from the vendor, I don't think it qualifies as slander, but I really don't know much about it.  Maybe someone who knows more about the legal system can chime in!
    Claire Elisabeth born at 27w1d on 2/20/11
    Image and video hosting by TinyPic
  • edited December 2011
    This is a tough one unfortunately because I do think you jumped the gun way to quickly.  Unfortunately with all of our vendors we aren't their only wedding and it hey are a good company chances are they have many other weddings beyond ours.  Contact through Blackberry isn't that uncommon and myself personally I would appreciate any response I get.  I have a wedding planner at the moment who is also planning her own wedding and is very busy.  It takes her at least a week to respond to me and doesn't answer all of my questions when I ask them.  I don't take offense to it because I'm not the most important person in the world and half of my questions are for my relief more then technicalities.  I hate that this has happened to you and unfortunately I think on both ends you two were getting a little testy as the time went on.  It's unfortunate the things that were said between the two of you but once it was said and done I think both of you knew you wouldn't be working together.  I think that is why it made it much easier for the two of you to speak more frankly and upfront.In the future I would probably just contact them and be kind that you would like a response and go from there.  I am very glad you found someone though.  What they said that no one would want to work with you is unheard of, even the worst of the worst Bridezillas can find vendors.Good Luck on your Wedding and Congrats!
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