I've posted before on my wedding vendors that I loved (my decorator, DJ, caterer, and hair/makeup artist), and those that I was lukewarm about (my day-of coordinator). This is the first review of a vendor that I wasn't happy with. That may be the understatement of the year...I would seriously advise anyone to run far away from this vendor. Here's the story.
After the wedding festivities are finished, the last thing most people think about is flower preservation. I didn't have a bouquet in the traditional sense, but we did exchange floral garlands that were an important part of our ceremony. These aren't just flowers strung together...they're intricate creations with rose petals and metallic ribbon and thread. Ours turned out beautifully (see below), and only after the wedding weekend did we consider artfully preserving them.
Photo taken by: Milton Gil Photographers
Enter Forever Flowers. I can't remember how I found them, but they claimed to preserve flowers and create keepsakes from all over the country. We described our garlands to them, and they assured us that even though the garlands aren't typical of their usual pieces, they could create a keepsake for us. We packed up the flowers in tissue and cold packs, and overnighted the garlands to Forever Flowers in Boca Raton, FL.
Fast forward to a few weeks later. We would be passing through Boca on our way to a wedding from Miami. We figured we could stop in to Forever Flowers and nail down the specifics of our keepsake. The shop is fairly small...the main room for customers has tons of frame samples, fabric choices, and samples of work on the walls. The appointment was promising at first, but quickly went downhill. Since we had no concrete ideas about what we wanted our keepsake to look like, we turned to the staff at Forever Flowers to guide us (they did, after all, claim to be the experts at this), and got no help. At one point, my mother-in-law responded with "you are the experts, shouldn't you have some ideas about how to do this?" To make matters worse, the quotes we received were way over what was initially estimated. They offered to just give us the dried garlands should we choose not to move forward, but would not refund our initial deposit (already a sizable amount). So we decided to just go through with the piece, hoping it would all work out in the end.
Over the next few months, Forever Flowers was fairly unresponsive (in fairness, we weren't great at responding to them either...life was pretty busy in our first year of marriage). The far worse complaint is that they kept increasing the amount we owed them! The longer this process was drawn out, the more we just wanted to give them what they wanted so we could get the piece and be done with it. When we finally received the piece (they would not ship it...we had to enlist a family friend to pick it up), they hadn't even used the right glass (we wanted super-clear museum glass). We contacted them about the mistake, and their response was to chastise us for being 'difficult to work with', and state that we actually underpaid for the piece so we should essentially either deal with the mistake or pony up more $ to fix it. Oh no they di'nt! We just said to heck with them, we'll keep it even with the flaws, and good-riddance.
The final straw in all of this? Some of the pieces from our garlands are falling off, making a sad little pile at the bottom of the framed piece. Surely, with their 'vast expertise', they should have foreseen this and advised an alternate way to display the garlands?
So, in short, we hated them! The summary of why:
1) They promised that they could work with our non-traditional pieces...as it turned out they could not.
2) Their initial quote to us was way off. Expect to be overcharged. What's worse is that they ask for more money after they have your pieces, so you have no choice but to keep paying.
3) They are slow to respond, and seem to have some internal communication issues with their staff.
4) If you have something basic that you want framed, I'm sure they can do a fine job for you. Anything more complicated should be taken elsewhere. It seemed like the most complicated pieces they do are arrangements of bouquets with a picture or invitation. I know, soooo complex. But this seems to qualify them as 'artful' and 'creative' (rolls eyes). Worse is that they don't offer much guidance or advice for your pieces. Indecisive types like myself should steer clear.
5) If they make a mistake, the customer is never right. Unless you get angry and yell at them (poor Husband reached his breaking point much later then I did). And threaten to post negative reviews on every wedding-related website out there.
Sure, they can handle simple and uncomplicated. But so can your local company. Who won't overcharge you. Or leave you with a piece that's falling apart. And be courteous throughout the process. Is that really too much to ask?
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