One of the best and worst vendors of my wedding day was Amy Osaba Floral Event & Design. The flowers were absolutely gorgeous. They looked hand-picked which was exactly what I wanted. She also tried to incorporate my vision into my flowers. That's where the pleasantries end.
Come the wedding day... so many things went wrong. I guess I should mention that things were going wrong in the florals department from day one.
I contacted Amy Osaba's company after I saw a mention of her on a wedding blog. I thought it was awesome that her florals were gorgeous and that she lived/worked in Atlanta! Dream come true, right? Vendor #1 taken care of.
My mom didn't like Osaba's florals from day 1. My mom said the florals looked silly. I liked them, so we decided to meet up with Osaba and her coworker. First of all, for my vision, I brought images that I was thinking about for the day's theme not realizing they wanted floral images. (Hint to future brides: bring floral images when you first meet your possible floral vendor.)
Then we tried to meet with Osaba again since I wasn't comfortable with where the first meeting had gone. With our first meeting in June, I thought, for sure, they would be able to meet sometime between June and March if only to make me feel more comfortable with hiring them. Apparently not. Several e-mails later, I had given up on Osaba. Her floral studio was completely unprofessional taking weeks to respond to e-mails. Her staff was not providing me with any clear vision of what the wedding day florals would look like. I was completely uncomfortable with her, but Justin wanted to go with her. I couldn't find a reason to argue, so we did despite the fact that my parents continued to angerly chide us about or decision constantly forcing us to meet with other florists. (None of the florists they asked us to meet with knew anything about cherry blossoms and really, truly could not think of a way to make cherry blossoms work into our wedding florals.)
I decided to let the florals go and trust we had chosen the right vendor. We paid half the floral price and signed a contract. Then Justin and I focused on obtaining other wedding vendors.
Come January, Osaba decides it is time to meet up again... and where was the rest of her deposit?! Five e-mails later and she still hadn't sent me the total amount due to her and it was the week before the wedding. She insisted that the deposit needed to get to her ASAP approximately three days before the wedding. Justin had already planned to pick up my hair flowers the day before the wedding, but apparently that was too late to receive the money.
First of all... why would you wait until a few days before the wedding to e-mail your client the amount due when your client e-mailed you at least a month in advance asking about how much they owed?!?! Really?!?!
Second of all, if your client is already late with the payment through no fault of their own, why can you not accept the payment when it is good for your client. Three days before the wedding is not going to make a difference. Besides, it was your fault that the client did not know the total prior to then.
Osaba, get your act together and your billing straight! There is no reason to be so unbusiness-like and cause undue stress to the bride and groom who hired you. The bride and groom could just as easily have made their own florals; you are a splurge.
Honestly, three days before the wedding I considered breaking the contract and going with another vendor. This company made me so angry.
Osaba delivered our florals the Saturday of March 10 at our reception site just as we had asked her to do. From the moment the bouquet was put into my hands until the moment I walked down the aisle, my bouquet was falling apart. Osaba came back, after only the wedding coordinator was able to get in touch with her, to fix the flowers... only to have them continue to fall out of the bouquet despite how careful I was with them. Even just standing still at the alter was enough to make the bouquet fall apart. How depressing to spend so much money on something that falls apart! The wedding coordinator and my grandmother, who had worked with florals before, did their best to put the bouquet back together.
Later we found out that pendants we had given the florist to put on the bridesmaid bouquets were never put in. We also realized that we were never given the tossing bouquet originally promised to us.
My verdict: Even though Osaba did put pendants in the flower girl bouquets as well as a rosary in my bouquet, I would never recommend using her. She did not perform business in the way she should have (in my opinion). She also claimed we were lying when we said we had not received the tossing bouquet (even when our wedding coordinator backed us up). The flowers were pretty, but what does that say about her work when the flowers were falling out of the bride's bouquet, wilting and turning brown even before the wedding started? Nothing good.
I can't get my money back, but you can avoid using Osaba, or a florist like her for your wedding. Note how vendors treat you at the beginning of your wedding planning. Generally, if they act like they want your business, if they make you feel good about hiring them, and if they give you a clear vision about what to expect, they will probably be a good hire. It is your wedding. You should feel comfortable and confident about the choices you make regarding your vendors. If you don't, reconsider who you are hiring and take the time to check out other vendors first. Finally, if you get a vendor who does not perform up to a certain standard, make sure to let them know so that they can do something about it.
Osaba florals were handling approximately three other clients (according to her blog). While this may have been a good excuse for the awful floral work she provided us with, she did not own up to her mistakes and help us to solve our problem in a timely manner. It took her approximately three months to send us a check after Justin had discussed our issues with her. By that point, the check was hardly worth anything to us. (Not that $100 really makes up for florals that fall apart on your wedding day to begin with.)
You deserve the very best on your wedding day. After all, you only (hopefully) get one.
