Flowers?

And now on to florists. Flowers are definitely not my "thing," though apparently I do have a taste for the expensive when it comes to floral design. I wanted to stay as far away as I could from roses, and use primarily mini callas, and cymbidium and dendrobium orchids.

We were only able to actually meet w/ one florist - Katie Elfers - while I was in Cincinnati, but we were so blown away by her that I don't feel too terrible about not meeting with more. I found Katie through some fabulous recommendations on the Knot, and once I saw her website (go there! - it's AMAZING!) I knew we had to meet her. Her designs seem very fresh, creative, and modern - things I was definitely looking for in a floral designer. Katie agreed to meet w/ me on her day off (because of my smushed schedule) and so we drove down to a small coffee shop (Reality Tuesday - I highly recommend them for their yummy sandwiches and fair trade-only coffee policies) in Kentucky.

SIDE NOTE: Anyone who thinks they don't need a professional-looking website to get business, take note - we knocked several florists off of our list because their websites were a bit shoddy looking, and we refused to talk at all to DJs who didn't have one. A fantastic website doesn't necessarily mean that you're a great florist/DJ/etc., but it does tell me that you care about your company, and about presentation - two things that I want our vendors to care about on our wedding day..

Back to our meeting. Katie was fantastic. I'd sent et her quite a bit of information before our meeting (she asks you to fill out a form describing your wedding and I had given her access to my planning bio) and she had definitely looked over all of it before we met. She had examples prepared for the look I was going for, and was very upfront about what would work (and what wouldn't), and was incredibly knowledgeable about floral design (at one point I pointed to some greenery in the photo of the bouquet I want - see below - and Katie was able to immediately spout off its name - pretty impressive).


And she was very quick to respond to my questions and concerns. Less than 48 hours after our original meeting, I had a VERY reasonable quote in my hand (a quote, I might add, that was THREE TIMES LESS expensive than our second choice - Benken's Florist). So reasonable, in fact, that I felt a little uncomfortable and ended up asking her for references - which she promptly provided. Her past brides have nothing but glowing reports about her, though, so it looks like we'll be definitely be booking w/ Katie.

If her future work is anything like her past and current work, we'll be worry-free when it comes to floral design on our wedding day.