Natalini Flowers

Natalini Flowers provided the most beautiful orchid centerpieces for our wedding. They were both modern and creative and were everything I could have asked for. Unfortunately, there are many reasons why I'm unable to give them the full five stars they would otherwise deserve:

(1) They are hard to get a hold of and are not very responsive to emails or phone messages. It took me one email, one phone message, and another phone call before I was finally able to get someone to talk to and set up a first meeting. Even after that, it always took several calls before I was able to contact someone. I'd prefer to not have to chase vendors down if I am paying for their services.

(2) They wouldn't give me an estimate up front during our initial consultation. It wasn't until after our first meeting that they emailed me a contract and I discovered how astronomical their prices are. Although I was able to negotiate the contract to fit our budget by cutting out some unnecessary arrangements, it would have been nice to know what kind of prices I was dealing with from the beginning so I could make my decisions accordingly.

(3) Despite my giving pictures to Crispy (the owner) of bouquets I liked, I was a bit disappointed in my bridal bouquet. For one thing, it had roses in it (I hate roses) and way too much green filler. It didn't ruin the wedding, but I just wish she had followed the pictures I provided to her.

(4) We were charged for rentals we never received. At our final meeting two weeks before the wedding, we made some adjustments to our original contract including adding two pedestals for the ceremony arrangements, so that they could be re-used for the reception. This was done verbally and we were subsequently charged an additional $175 to rent the pedestals, which we paid along with our balance. We never received a revised contract after our final meeting reflecting the new additions. On the day of the wedding there were no pedestals. When we followed up with a phone call the next day we were told that since the pedestals weren't written in the contract they must have been overlooked. However they did not offer to refund our money, claiming that they had included extra things (ie. extra flowers for the centerpieces, although we did not ask for them) and therefore it made up for the missing rentals. This upsets me because it's one thing if they wanted to throw in some extra arrangements for us but we never asked for them in the first place and they can't say that those extras justify the fact that they forgot to rent pedestals that we already paid for.

In retrospect, if I could do it all again, I would probably still go back to Natalini just because I really did love the centerpieces and ceremony arrangements and I don't think any other florist could have had the same vision. However, I would definitely make sure to GET EVERYTHING IN WRITING, from my choice of flowers to the tiniest details, and not leave anything open to interpretation.