The flowers were gorgeous! Everyone loved their flowers and they were able to accommodate all of our special requests!

I cannot say enough positive things about this company. They completely made the vision for my flowers for our wedding come to life! They are reasonably priced and do just amazing work.

When the lady came to deliver my flowers to my bridal suite, I asked her if she had any extra flowers that I could use to put in my hair for the reception. This was a complete last minute thought. She was very friendly and I followed her down to the delivery van and gave me a few different flowers that I could use after the ceremony. When I got a glimpse of the tall manzanita branches in the van and all of the flowers, I just couldn't wait to see them set up at our venue.

This florist and my DJ were two of my favorite vendors for our wedding. Highly recommended!!

Overall, the flowers for my wedding turned out alright, but I was disappointed by a few things. I felt that I was never exactly sure what I was going to get. I worked with the co-owner, John Windisch.

On the positive side, John is friendly to work with in person. The flowers were all delivered on time and the arrangements for the church and the bouquets were gorgeous.

However, I was surprised by how some of the flowers looked on the wedding day. I booked Simply Elegant after a consultation where John wrote down what I wanted for flowers, then about 6 weeks before the wedding we had a sample day where John showed me samples of the bouquets and different centerpiece designs we had agreed upon. Unfortunately, the designs changed between the consultation, sample day, and wedding. For example, I had initially asked for solid white bridesmaids bouquets. At the sample day, John had some dark purple flowers in the bridesmaid bouquet he showed me. I liked the way the white and purple looked together, so I didn’t request that he go back to all white and I approved of the samples he showed me. Then the bridesmaids bouquets he delivered the day of the wedding were all white. Similarly, I felt that the centerpieces at the wedding were a lot less full and lush looking than the samples John showed me.

I was also bothered by the fact that John came across as very gruff in emails I exchanged with him. Whenever I would send an email to set up a meeting, confirm table count, or arrange payments, I would get replies that were very short and written all in caps, such as “GOT IT”, “TALKED TO VENUE. ALL SET”, “GOT YOUR CHECK”. I felt this wasn’t very professional and discouraged me from following up on details.

We were very unhappy with the service they provided. On the day of the wedding we were told we had to gather and return all the vases. (11 very large and 8 small vases). Not in contract. No way to spend the end of wedding and ceremony in tuxes and dresses. As well as they almost all did not fit in our car. We were told when we signed the contract that they would be there from start to finish. The the next day they were open we had to drive 2 hours round trip to return. The contract called for pedals down the aisle which were not there, the large vases were dirty, and the groomsmen flowers bloomed to early and became very large because they have no refrigeration at their store. John had nothing to say when we returned the vases. BEWARE

I hired John when I was planning my wedding primarily because I was looking for a nontraditional look. I came to him with exact photos and ideas and I really believed that we shared a vision. He seemed creative and in tune to event planning in addition to flowers. As his quotes and estimates began to come in I soon begun to wonder if I hadn't made a mistake in hiring him. His quotes were always inaccurate and typed in all caps and full of misspelled words. I was generally in a state of frustration working with him. I spent hours researching the names/color families of the flowers in my bouquet, correcting his errors and trying to regroup back to my vision. He mentioned in our first meeting that he requires you do a sample of the bridal bouquet to ensure it is what you want. Thankfully we did a test bouquet. He showed up late to our trial run and the bouquet (while beautiful) was not even in the same color family as the one I asked him to create. The sample was done in deep purplish flowers and I had asked for deep deep reds and yellows (fall outdoor wedding w/ red bridesmaid dresses). I told him no, I really wanted to go back to the photo and he insisted "yellow & red look like McDonald's together" and "you absol can't have exposed stems on your bridal bouquet b/c it will become a focal point against your ivory gown." Basically, he wanted what he wanted and didn't care that I was the paying client. As the wedding got closer, I became more worried. I went to drop off the milk glass vases to his location and pulled up and the store front (originally located on Rte 34 in Plano, IL) was empty! I called him and he said "oh yeah, we moved to Jericho." Then he inquired as to why I was stopping by ... even though my parent's and I had made an appointment.

The real kicker was the day of the wedding. He asked for an extra fee to show up and pin the flowers on the entire wedding party. I was told by my brother that he simply handed out the bout's and didn't pin anyone. When he showed up on site I had my wedding assistant/point person/good friend available to help him and direct him. He was frantic and a pure unprofessional spaz on the day of my wedding. He dropped off the bouquets and flower girls baskets. I had specified the flower girl baskets to be a midsized bird nest with an attached handle and full of deep red toss petals. He brought me 3 very tiny baskets that looked to be for decorative purposes only and he had created a little setup of glued down flowers and grass in them ... no room for toss petals. He had brought 3 plastic bags of toss petals!! Um, that isn't going to do it for little girls that want to throw petals. The baskets were not even the ordered birds nests. Even better, my bridal bouquet did not have the exposed stems I had repeatedly asked for (regardless of his opinion)!!

I had ordered a stick archway with no decorations/flowers (we were in the country and I wanted a simple look) ... the only thing to go on the archway was to be a crystal chandelier that I rented from him for $25. It was a unique look I had seen on-line and fell in love with. John told my mom the day of that if it was too windy he would not hang the chandelier. She said OK, she understood. While walking out to the grounds to take pre-ceremony photos I noticed that he had taken it upon himself to add white organza/chiffon bows to the sides of the archway. They were hideous and looked like something from a 90's prom. I asked my brother to see that they were removed and he untied them for me. Apparently, sometime between when he untied the bows and while we were taking photos ... the chandelier fell (due to a windy Oct day in the country). The chandelier was made from plastic "crystals" and a couple came unhooked. It was reattached and everything was fine. This is the point when John took my mother aside (in front of arriving guests) and started yelling at her because the chandelier fell using explicits and starting off with "Your (fill in the blank) daughter..."
Come to find out he had huffed at my father-in-law during set up as well because he was kindly asked not to drive his truck on the lawn and he attempted to anyhow stating that the pumpkins/etc were "too heavy to carry" ... this might not have been an issue had he brought the "crew" he promised instead of showing up alone.

Several other disappointments, lack of toss bouquet, misplaced centerpiece vases, etc occurred during the event. But, the kicker was receiving an invoice for the "purchase" of his "broken" chandelier upon returning home from my honeymoon. He attempted to bill me $160 when his services were not that of his payment from us. I'd highly suggest you really research your wedding florist/event planner. While John had creative ideas, his wants/needs super cede those of his client. He is not capable of handling day of event stress, which any event planner knows is inevitable. He's unprofessional and rude on-site.