Florist Invoice

Flowers were delivered on wedding day. They were absolutely stunning, I had so many peonies in my bouquet, and the silk rental looked beautiful.

Fast forward to this past Friday, 7/7, I get the mail after work and there’s an invoice from the florist for $400. Obviously I am happy to pay a vendor for their work, but this was absolutely never discussed, even after I brought it up to her twice in that meeting about our grand total. We were assured the venue’s allowance would cover our flowers, even after inquiring and offering to pay any overage. We were just so shocked to get this in the mail, especially long after we thought we were finished paying for everything.

We plan to call her tomorrow and ask wtf is going on. Again I am happy to pay a vendor for work they’ve completed, but $400 is a decent amount of money we had NO clue we’d be billed for. We’re about to have a baby and are trying to budget for that now that we’re supposed to be done paying for wedding related expenses. Of course we don’t personally have a contract with her because she’s contracted through the venue. How do we even know the allowance from the venue she wrote on the invoice is accurate? I could’ve sworn earlier in the process she said the allowance was a larger amount than what she wrote on the invoice, but I don’t have that in writing. Any advice as to what our next steps should be are appreciated.

Did the venue write down the allowance?

I would contact your venue to make sure that your florist isn't trying to pull a fast one and double charge. This should have been discussed with you prior to your wedding and especially when you brought it up on more than one occasion. I completely understand paying a vendor for their services but not a surprise bill that you were assured was not even going to be a thing....

There was nothing specific about allowances or other vendors in the venue contract. I'm sure I can ask the venue for that information, but regardless of what the allowance was, shouldn't I have been made aware of any additional charges BEFORE wedding day? That way we could have made the decision to cut out a few peonies or decide against the silk rental. I just don't think it makes sense that these extra charges were never mentioned despite us asking about it.

What kind of vendor provides services to a client without discussing what it's going to cost?

I'm sorry this has happened to you. The only thing I can think of is that you were way out of peony season, so because you told her you would pay for them, she went way above and beyond. That wasn't right of her, but by looking at a flower that is out of season and giving a verbal okay that you would pay, I could see where a vendor might go over. Again- not excusing the behavior- just giving you another side of the story based on my past experience as a florist. I would call her and ask, though I wouldn't expect to get the money back, though I hope you get a good explanation/at least some of it back!

@Tori after I told her I would pay extra for the peonies and asked her how much it would be, she told me everything would be covered by the allowance. I totally understand that me agreeing to pay for something means I should pay for it - but again she didn't tell me I would owe anything, much less $400. We haven't paid the invoice yet so it's not a matter of us getting the money back, but whether or not we should really be paying it in the first place.

@Mrs Richmond - I would bring this up to the venue as well as the florist. They should know that the florist is doing this and they may well decide to not use her in the future if she doesn't handle this correctly. I agree with you completely that you shouldn't pay for something not agreed on beforehand, especially when she verbally told you there would be no charge.

@riededo good point, I'll definitely bring it up to the venue.

Bring it up to the venue, that is so unprofessional of the florist!