Absolutely horrible, biggest regret of my wedding day!
This is going to be quite a long review of my experiences with this vendor, so please bear with me. I think it is very important that a future bride has all of the facts when making a decision about a potential vendor on what will be one of the biggest and most special days of their lives. If you want a quick summary, these are the most important points, but if you want details, please keep reading:
• Breach of contract for not letting me cancel some items on the invoice 6 days before my wedding (contract states I have up to 48 hours before to change my order).
• 2 hours late for setting up my wedding, didn’t finish until 4 minutes before I walked down the aisle. I didn’t get a chance to take my bridal party photos because of this.
• Flowers were nothing like what I wanted, and they were so dried out they were falling apart as we held them.
• Many items I ordered weren’t even set up, even though I paid a delivery and set-up fee (including the head table garland and all of the linens).
• It has been more than 3 weeks since my wedding, and they still haven’t given me money I am owed from cancelling some items in my order.
• Difficult to reach by phone during the day of my wedding, and rude on the phone when we finally reached them asking where they were.
• Minimal contact after my wedding, even though they owe me $900.36 for items that were cancelled.
I want to start off by saying, I am in the process of filing a complaint with the Civil Resolution Tribunal, as well as the Better Business Bureau, as I am requesting money back that I am owed, as well as compensation from this vendor. I am hoping to warn other brides-to-be by posting this review, because I don’t want anyone else to have to go through what I did on my wedding day.
My wedding was on July 2, 2022, at the loveliest venue (UBC Boathouse in Richmond). I hired this company to do my décor and florals (with their sister company Pretty Things), as they were listed as a preferred vendor for my venue. Most of my contact with them has been through email, other than an initial phone consultation. I am fortunate to have everything documented for my dispute case. I spent $4249.95 total on this vendor.
My biggest issue with this company that caused me the most stress and threatened to ruin my wedding is that they were 2 hours late for my wedding. They were to arrive at 1 pm, so that my wedding party could get our flowers and take our photos at our venue before guests arrived at 3:30. That would also give them 2.5 hours to set up. My day-of coordinator arrived at 1 pm, and the decorators weren’t there. None of the linens were set up on the tables, which I had paid for them to do, so she had to do it herself with the help of our wedding party. At 1:45, I was very stressed because they had yet to arrive. My day-of coordinator tried calling the number for the contact person I was given, but no answer. I called the main company phone number, and Eliza answered. She apologised for them being late, said they got held up but are on their way and would be there shortly. She said she would call them right away and ask where they were, and then call me back. No call back. My sister called 30 minutes later to find out where they were, and Eliza was rude to her on the phone, saying she wasn’t in front of her computer and so she didn’t know when they were scheduled to arrive. My sister told her they were now 1.5 hours late, that we needed the flowers to take the photos, and she said she would call them and get an ETA and call us back. No call back. They finally showed up at 2:55 pm, all frazzled and getting in everyone’s way. We never got to take those wedding party photos, because the guests started arriving at 3:30. In fact, the décor company was still setting up the ceremony when guests arrived, and didn’t finish until 4 minutes before I walked down the aisle. So much for creating an ambience for guests.
In regards to the flowers, they were nothing like the photos I had sent Eliza, which she assured me they could do. The flowers were so dried out that they were falling onto the floor while sitting in the jars on the table. They looked horrible. My bridesmaids tried to fix them by removing some of the dried floral and adding eucalyptus that I had bought from another company, thankfully. Even the colours of the flowers weren’t what I wanted, as I had said I wanted more pinks (sent the colour of the bridesmaid dresses for matching), and not much orange or yellow, but guess what I got? As the decorators were trying to put the flowers on the arch, the flowers were falling off and falling apart. I have photos to prove it. It’s like they were left in a hot car all day, or they were cut several days before. I want to be reimbursed at least 50% of what I paid because of this.
In addition, I paid $240 plus tax for a head table garland that was supposed to be set up, but when we sat down to dinner, we realized it was sitting in a box on the floor behind our table. What was the set-up fee even for, if they didn’t set up the linens or the head table garland?
I also paid a late-night pick-up fee, however they never even showed up that night to collect the items. The venue coordinator was telling my sister to take home the vases because the decorators were not coming to pick them up. Why did they charge me $298 for a late-night pick up charge if they weren’t even going to come?
I am trying really hard to think positively about my wedding, a day that we spent $40,000 on. I am so glad that everything else ran smoothly, and all of our other vendors were absolutely amazing! It is so unfortunate that I had such a horrible experience with All Occasions and Pretty Things florist, because they were an integral part of my wedding. I have advised UBC Boathouse of my experience with them, as they are listed as preferred vendors. My biggest regret is that I hired this company. I sincerely hope no other bride has to go through what I went through with them. I will continue to pursue legal action so that this doesn’t happen again. They still owe me $900.36 for items that I had paid for but had removed prior to my wedding, as well as what I calculated to be $1443.68 in compensation for poor quality and poor service.