Lara was our floral design for our wedding at the Bell Tower on 34th, and she also took care of the decor in the Saint-Vincent de Paul Catholic Church. I will start by saying that she is a wonderful florist and that she really had a vision for this wedding. My husband and I are really into the japanese and 'zen' style, which means a little number of flowers put together in a 'geometric' fashion. We wanted a purple decor with a touch of orange. Everything turned out amazing. We had calla lilies, orchids, birds of paradise, tulips and bamboos in our centerpieces and in the church. She did such beautiful arrangements, it was breathtaking. I wanted to avoid having large arrangements of roses everywhere and she was so successful in doing something nice, original that was 100% 'us'. The theme of the wedding was 'Math and Science' (we are both scientists) and she helped us keep an hedgy and elegant wedding in spite of what people would say is a nerdy theme. She played a lot with the shape of the vases and containers, and with symmetry. And they kept the flowers for worship the next days in the church and I heard from so many people that the decor was really original and amazing! Just beautiful! A few problems to mention though. First, we had 8 tables, 3 arrangements for the church, one bouquet (i didn't have any bridesmaids) and a few corsages, and also some decor for the signing table and cake. For that we paid $2,500, which I don't consider too bad but still a little expensive... You have to consider though that she rented us a lot of glassware, so that may be why, but I still think we didn't have a lot of flowers for the money. Another problem was that we went away for our honeymoon and came back a week later, and my parents that were staying at my place said the flowers all died 3 days after we left and that they could only save a couple of orchids for us. Finally, our first agreement with her was that set-up was included in the price. However, the napkins and chair sashes we wanted to rent through her were 3 times more expensive to rent than to buy, so I decided to buy it online. 3 HOURS before the wedding she sent a paypal payment request asking for $150, saying that she would tie the sashes if we didn't pay that amount right away. And guess what? We didn't get the email before the wedding because we were busy doing other things (as you may guess...), so she didn't set up. Fortunately for us the lady at the venue decided to do it for free as she didn't want us to be disappointed because of a stupid last minute problem... A little disappointing, that's it. I also have to add that she wasn't very flexible in terms of the times at which we could meet with her, and in spite of her promise that we could see a sample of the centerpieces before the wedding we couldn't. But if I assume the flowers were expensive after this summer's drought, and also a little weak for the same reasons, then I can say that generally speaking she was a great choice (much better than other vendors we saw anyway!)
LZ Floral Design responded with the following comments:
This was a lovely wedding of tropicals in an unconventional geometric style. While I tried my best to accommodate all of the brides needs some were out of my control. Her budget was smaller than what was needed but I worked with her by offering to discount the delivery charge. She had requested services that I don't personally handle but refer to outside vendors. When she was unhappy with the price of the high quality satin linens that I recommended she did opt to purchase tulle for her chair ties, giving her what I hope she had wanted though not what I had envisioned. The bride was less than courteous to me after standing me up twice the week of her wedding for follow up consultations. Many of her arrangements were loose stems and submerged flowers. Her family did remove all of the flowers, I could not guarantee the life of those flowers since I do not know how quickly they were put into water. I am glad the bride was happy with the designs that I put together for her and do apologize for any shortcomings we each encounter from the other. I wish the best to both the bride and groom.
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