I went to 2 florist appointments yesterday. the first being DiBiaso's Florist (My sister used them in 2009 for her wedding flowers) in downtown Wilmington, & the second (because of such good reviews i've seen) was at Belak Flowers in North Wilmington.
DiBiaso's Florist:
I was about 1/2 hr early to my appointment (arrived at about 10:45am & my appointment wasn't scheduled until 11:15), but when i went inside DiBiaso's, I was greeted by 1 of the owners (family owned & operated) & immediately given attention (even though they looked like they had a lot of deliveries to make) they were Very friendly & really took the time to find out more about me & my vision. they had a lot of ideas (even flipped through a bunch of books with us, so there were visuals to compare against), but i was really happy to see they weren't trying to shove expensive flowers at me. infact they helped me pick out carnations (which i absolutely love) for my bridal party in order to help me keep to my $200 budget. she even suggested that we deal with everything else before deciding on my bouquet, so that I would know how much was available for it. By the time we were finished it was 12:30 & our next appointment was set for 2pm.
Because the venue is located just a few minutes away from Belak, we decided to pack a picnic lunch & enjoy the beautiful weather while we ate. My sister ended up calling Belak to see if they could take us a little early though, cause that would have been a LONG lunch, & luckily they said they could! So, we ended up arriving there at 1pm.
Belak Flowers:
When we entered the shop, we were greeted by a girl after a moment was shown into a tiny room in the back. There we met 1 of the owners & we got right to business. She seemed to have all the information that was taken when I set up the appointment over the phone, so we got right into confirming all of the details of when & where the wedding & reception would be. Since what I picked out at the other florist was exactly what I wanted to get before any of these appointments, with the lady's prompting for the information, I told her the what kinds of flowers, & how big I wanted the bouquets & all (the only visuals to help guide us were some silk flower bouquets that were hanging on the walls). The consultation felt rather stiff & a tiny bit uncomfortable. She didn't really suggest anything new or even to remember to ask me what my budget was. we ended up being done with the consultation at 1:20pm.
Here is the low-down on the flowers I chose & who had what price for them:
Flowers DiBiaso's Belak
BM Bouquets:
6 - 9 red Carnations with
tree fern & wrapped 3/4
way down the stem with
white satin ribbon $18 x 3 = $54 $48 x 3 = $144
GM Bouts:
single red carnation with
ferns $3 x 3 = $9 $8 x 3 = $24
MOB/GOG:
3 mini white carnations
tipped in lavender with
ferns & ribbon (Belak
would not tip the carnations,
so they chose lavender
tipped baby's breath for
me) $6 x 2 = $12 $12 x 2 = $24
FOB Bout:
single white carnation
tipped with lavender
(Again, Belak will not
tip carnations, so for
them, it would be the
same as the GM) $3 x 1 = $3 $12 x 1 = $12
Groom Bout:
a single white rose
with a few green button
mums & fern $8 x 1 = $8 $20 x 1 = $20
Bridal Bouquet:
Cascading bouquet
with a dozen white
roses, 3 green spider
mums, a bunch of
green button mums,
either baby's breath
or queen anne's lace,
with ferns (at Belak,
the flowers would be
in a holder with a plastic
handle, rather than the
stems being wrapped in
ribbon) $95 x 1 = $95 $145 x 1 = $145
Delivery Free $10
TOTALS: $181 $375
Deposit to reserve date: $50 $200
Balance due by: May 18, 2011 June 5, 2011
Obviously I went with DiBiaso's Florist. They're 1/2 the cost & I already know the flowers will be gorgeous & exactly what I'm ordering.