Sorry this is so long. I wasn’t going to post a review about Bells and Whistles,
even though I was fairly upset about some of the work that was done. I
got my wedding pictures back today (they are amazing), which changed my
mind. The pictures of the flowers that were wrong, reminded that I
really was upset about them. Take this how you want to but it needs
to be said.
Dorothy is very sweet and really listened to me during our
two meetings. She really seemed to understand my vision and got excited
during the planning. The flowers at the wedding were mostly beautiful
and a lot of her work was great. Overall I think I would give
Bells and Whistles a 2.5 out of 5. I would not use them
again due to the issues.
Communication:
Dorothy's communications are less than timely. She
would rarely get back to me without my planner contacting her first. Out
of all my vendors, Dorothy was always the last person to return quotes, updates
and emails.
The flowers:
Let’s start with the positives regarding the
flowers. My bouquet was absolutely
beautiful. The colors in it were just perfect. Two of my bridesmaid’s
bouquets were also beautiful and exactly what I wanted. The
third bridesmaids bouquet unfortunately was wilted and falling apart before the
ceremony even started. The centerpieces at the reception and hanging
arrangements at the ceremony were beautiful, and like my bouquet, exactly what
I wanted.
I wanted the flowers for the wedding to be soft and romantic,
so during our initial meeting, Dorothy suggested using peonies. I
knew they were going to be out of season and also very pricy, but she said she
could do. During the ceremony and reception, I noticed there were no
peonies anywhere. All the arrangements, bouquets, bud vases etc. had
roses instead of peonies. Dorothy later told me that she was not
able to get peonies. I didn’t mind the change; the roses were very
pretty. I would however, have liked to know that they peonies were
being replaced with roses because of the significant monetary
difference. Dorothy gave us a $60 refund for the difference in price
between the two flowers.
The men’s boutonnieres were made with one
ranunculus, which was wilted before the ceremony even started. They
were also tied with this horribly ugly brown and pink ribbon that did not match
anything. I wasn’t going to have boutonnieres on the groomsmen to
save on cost, but we added them in the end. I should have saved the
money.
At the reception almost everything was great except the
arrangement on our gift table and the flowers in the bud vases. The entry
arrangement was supposed to be an arrangement of peonies and we were
charge $95 for it. The arrangement was about 10 roses, bright
pinkish orangeish in color, which did not match at all with our color
theme. The arrangement was not pretty at all and actually looked
like it was made at the last minute. You wouldn’t have even noticed
it if you weren’t actually looking for it. We also had about 30+ bud
vases throughout the reception again a lot of the flowers in those were that
bright color.
I think what I was MOST upset about were the ceremony
flowers. I asked Dorothy to put flower petals down both sides of
the aisle. I had seen a picture and loved the look. The
pictures I sent Dorothy were of light pink and cream flowers. When I
got to the ceremony I was shocked to see an ombre style layout that went from
cream, light pink and peach (which is what I wanted) to bright pink and bright
orange. This was a splurge for me ($250) and I was so disappointed
that it was wrong. I now have to see the bright colored flowers in
every picture of the ceremony. The pedals completely took away from
the hanging flower arrangements lining the aisle (which were perfect) and
really the overall theme of the ceremony. Even my husband mentioned
that they didn’t match and that is saying a lot for him to notice.
All in all, my bouquet, reception centerpieces and hanging
arrangements at the ceremony were beautiful. However, Dorothy’s
communication needs to be a lot better and there were a lot of things that were
not right at the wedding and the reception. We spent $2100 after all
was said and done; she refunded us $60 for the peonies. Overall
I think I would give Bells and Whistles a 2.5 out of 5. Because
of all the things that were wrong, I would NOT use
Bells and Whistles again.