Poppy's Petalworks

Wow!!! Wow!! Wow!!!

Laura totally took my breath away with the gorgeous flowers she put together for our wedding. It was EXACTLY how I envisioned it. A bit whimsical, a bit asian inspired, and completely ORIGINAL!

I am so in love with Laura! She made the whole process so easy and so fun! She accommodated all the changes I've made throughout the year without a single grunt. She was always prompt with emails and other correspondences. And how many times was she at my house to pick up my stuff for the wedding?! Just about half a dozen! Now that's going above and beyond! Not only did she saved me time but saved me money as well.

Laura, I think I'm going to have to name my first child after you. Thank you so much for listening to my ideas, sharing yours, and executing on our special day! I truly appreciate all your hard work! ;)

We cannot begin to express how happy we were with Poppy's Petal Works! Laura and her staff created the most amazing floral arrangements for our wedding!! It could not have been better. Laura was extremely helpful in guiding us through the process of choosing the right flowers without dictating our decision. She is incredibly talented and does a fantastic job of matching the flowers with the location and the couple. She and her staff delivered exactly what we envisioned for our big day! Not only that, they were timely, reliable, and professional! Thank you, thank you, thank you. We would recommend you to anyone in need of tasteful floral design :)

Amazing flowers, pushy personality. In our interview she was very nice but would not listen to what I envisioned. She chose what we should like, she chose what we should do, and she chose our budget. Her flowers are gorgeous, but it could be better for business if she would only take the time to listen to what the customer wants. At least in our case. I will say she is perfect for Brides who do not want to worry about figuring out which flowers would be good for them, and hand that trouble over to her. She is very talented.

Laura of Poppy's Petalworks was wonderful in every way. She is friendly, approachable, extremely responsive both to correspondence as well as to your ideas, visions, requests for your floral plan for the day. She went way beyond the call of duty to help make sure we had the desired floral color palette for the day and even helped our friends decorate our limo when they had trouble on the big day! She was extremely respectful of our budget and frequently offered ways to adjust the floral plan to help us stay within budget. On top of this, she's extremely artistic and talented, with a new, modern style that is both different and elegant. You won't be disappointed--she's great!

I had a pretty different experience from theDame -- I thought Laura was really patient and helpful, and I didn't really have any qualms with putting down a deposit to reserve the date. Seems like standard practice to me...

I'm definitely not one of those girls who has played out her own wedding in her mind since childhood, so I started out not having much of a game plan at all. No theme, not even a strong sense of what my preferred colors were going to be. But by the end of our meeting (which was two hours, mind you, and entirely free of charge), Laura had guided us from vague likes and dislikes into a real vision for how our wedding would look and feel.

And her designs -- incredible, even within constraints. After my fiance and I expressed some initial hesitation at the budget, Laura came up with a bunch of great options to cut costs: reusing flowers where practical, scaling down the design a bit, renting glass pieces, or using alternate flowers. She truly listened and cared about making us happy, and we ended up really excited about the final proposal.

My husband and I planned our wedding from the east coast. We found Laura online. She was extremely helpful and patient. She did her initial consultation with us over the phone for about 2 hours. She gave lots of ideas that were realistic to our bugets. She was sincere and extremely helpful for someone who knows nothing about flowers, showing us pictures online. We had several change of ideas during the planning and she always respond quickly to our email/phone call. She would always give us an updated estimate immediately. We never met Laura until about 1 month before the wedding, but we felt completely comfortable during the planning. She made a trip about 1.5 - 2 hours out to our wedding site to meet with us during the second consultation and to check out the site. On the day of the wedding, she delivered everything as promised. We had reused some of the flowers from the ceremony during our dinner reception, and she had everything ready on time. She was able to keep the flowers fresh for the dinner even in 80-90 degrees outdoor ceremony. I highly recommend Laura. She was awesome.

I got married End of January 2008. Laura is the best florist hands down. Her method of conducting business not only puts you at ease, but you immediately know that she is an incredible designer who goes the extra 100(0) miles for you, and is always happy to do so. She is overwhelmingly generous as a business person, which is just her style.

Here are my ratings:

Business methods: A+++
Service: A+++
Creativity: A+++
Responsiveness: A+++
Ability to Listen and integrate your requests: A+++
Teamwork: A+++


She's dedicated, her price is reasonable, and her energy AND PATIENCE that she exercises to meet your EVERY need as a bride--is well, the most a bride could ever dream of in any vendor.

How did I pick Poppy's Petalworks? I met with 10 florists, and upon evaluation of all florists, she rose very quickly to the top #1 on my list. I could give you a 1000 reasons why I would choose Laura again, here are only a few of them:

- REASON #1: Laura is overwhelming generous with her time + her creativity will make the wedding of your dream come true.

Laura spent 5 hours with me on our first meeting, she was incredibly patient, helpful, and an excellent listener. She asked me for "themes" I had in mind. I came in with no idea (or very vague) and she helped me to piece together these vague ideas in my head. She not only provided ideas, but she listened to every word in that 5 hours. She did not bat an eye when I told her I didn't like something, she just very attentatively noted it down. By the end of the meeting, she showed me provided me with her tentative proposal including detailed costs. Let me repeat, she did this all for FREE. Other vendors charged me as much as $100+, depending on amount of time spent on the first meeting.

- REASON #2: Laura is there for you and WHAT YOU WANT and an incredible listener.

I am an extremely detailed person, that said, I changed the style of my wedding 7 different times. The last "idea" I had was VERY different than the first. She provided me with proposals on all (a total of at least 10 different and unique proposals), and with an incredibly upbeat spirit. She was not only able to roll with the punches of my ever-changing mind, but made me feel completely confident that she would execute to the "T" on all the specifications I had outlined.


- REASON #3: Laura has an indefatigable spirit and will work all hours to meet your needs.

As a working bride at a fast-paced company, I was only able to plan my wedding and designs for it around 11PM every night. Laura not only was responsive, she was very detailed in her responses. She would respond within about 2-4 hours to every question. She was always very pleasant and upbeat. Some days, I sent her 25 emails, and I received responses to ALL.

- REASON #4: If you hire Laura, you will receive SO MUCH INCREDIBLE service, you will get the feeling that you are her only client.

Need I say more?? 'Nuff said!!

- REASON #5: You will be incredibly WOWED by her execution of the floral designs. They are literally PERFECT. I received overwhelming number of accolades on the floral arrangements Laura designed. Many said, they had never seen anything so beautiful or PERFECT or detailed.

I could give you 1000 more reasons to go with Poppy's petalworks. You will get every value you pay for, and even more.

Seriously, take the time to meet with her and you will see what I mean.

With Poppy's Petalworks, you are in the best hands--creatively and business-wise--you will never doubt that Laura will do everything in her ability to make your floral dreams come true for your wedding.


The BEST thing is: Hire Laura, your floral dream WILL come true and getting there, will be a fun experience when Poppy's Petalworks is on your team.

Creativity, presentation, concepts: A+
Business methods and practices: C-

I met with Laura of Poppy's Petalworks and my initial reservation was the meeting. She didn't listen to me. She'd ask a question, and then interrupt- constantly. I attributed it to an odd enthusiasm; as if the ideas she was coming up with had just jumped into her mind. It made me uncomfortable but I focused on her work which was amazing. I told her my budget and for 30 minutes, she proposed many ideas and options that I loved, only to have her calculate that they would double my budget. I understand that people are trying to 'sell' you more but it was rather disheartening to learn that 1/2 of these amazing ideas were outside of my budget. Her ideas and her work are unique, distinct, varied and beautiful.

She refused to give me a copy of the proposal that we had just worked out. I found that uncomfortable but I accepted it. She claimed she didn't want someone to take her proposal and have another florist beat the price. Her style is so unique and distinct that I thought it was a bit paranoid but I accepted it. No other florist had this policy.

I decided to book her and she said she would not draw up a contract until I sent a 50% deposit. Payment without receiving a contract? I'm going to agree to terms before I even know the terms? In all of my years of contract negotiations; that's never been requested, it's not standard and it's not acceptable.

I chose another florist.

I had some pretty specific ideas for what I wanted for my wedding flowers. With these ideas, I interviewed about 6 florists in all, in a variety of price ranges, including one of the most sought after florists in the Bay area. Honestly, I had my heart set on hiring that particular florist, but after receiving her quote and basically being told that she's completely unwilling to negotiate on price or even work within a budget (her quote was $1,800 over our target budget), we decided we just couldn't hire her. A few weeks later, I interviewed Laura and was extremely impressed not only with her portfolio but also her willingness to work with a set budget and to find ways to cut costs. Her prices are much more reasonable than other florists, because she works from home and doesn't have all the overhead of owning a studio. My ideas were kind of elaborate, so she suggested that we reuse the pew flowers for the centerpieces, to cut down on overall cost of flowers. We even made an agreement where, in exchange for 8-10 professional photos, she would provide the welcome table arrangement for free. Most of all, Laura is extremely creative, bringing in lovely contrasts of color, textures, and shapes. We decided to hire her shortly after that.

In the following months leading up to my wedding, I had about a zillion different ideas and changes of heart of all the floral arrangements, and the whole time, Laura was incredibly patient with me and tried her best to fulfill my vision. Right before the wedding, because she knew I was the type of bride who really wanted to know in detail what everything would look like, she gave me detailed descriptions of all the arrangements, including the colors, shapes, and types of flowers and branches she would be using.

The flowers on the day of were incredibly amazing. I thought all the bouquets and boutonnieres were extremely beautiful, and I was blown away by the tall centerpieces that she made. Everyone commented on how beautiful and unique all the flowers were. Not only did she realize my vision for the wedding, but she really exceeded my expectations.

I truly believe that for her price range, she's one of the most talented and artistic florists out there, and I wouldn't be surprised if, in the near future, she becomes one of the more sought after florists in the Bay area!

I just got married earlier this month and would love to recommend Laura of Poppy's Petalworks to any bride looking for an elegant, modern, beautiful, and affordable flowers! She is much more than a florist; she designed such beautiful floral works of art that people are still emailing us and telling us how much they liked the decor! Warning: this is a long review, but I thought I'd touch on all the things I loved about working with Poppy's Petalworks.

My husband (then-fiance) and I met with Laura in February to plan for our October wedding, and from the first meeting, we could tell that she is very organized, creative, and easy to work with. My husband and I had a bit of an idea what we wanted for flowers types and colors, and Laura listened to what we wanted and added helpful suggestions. She also was able to draw up a quotation at the end of our meeting so we could see if it fit in to our budget. She also lowered the price for our centerpieces by allowing me to buy my own vases ($3.30/each at Michael's!).

We decided to book with Laura, and as the months went by, I would email her photos of centerpieces, bouquets, and decorations that caught my eye, but I was having trouble coming up with a central theme for our wedding flowers. Laura was able to compile all the images and styles I liked and turn them into a beautiful "wild autumn" theme that blew us away when we saw it on our wedding day!

A couple days before the wedding, Laura took the time to make a sample centerpiece by wrapping one of the vases I'd provided in a paper we had agreed upon to hide the stems. She contacted me and told me that the paper ended up clashing a bit with the flowers, fruits, acorns, and leaves she arranged, and she offered to line the vases with oak leaves in order to tie the theme together. Although wrapping the vases with leaves had been a more expensive option when we had originally discussed the centerpieces, Laura went ahead and kindly did this for all 24 centerpieces without raising the price.

My husband and I also had a bird theme going on in our wedding (perhaps "birds in wild autumn" would encompass it all? :)), and Laura designed our ring pillow to resemble a birds' nest with perfectly fall-colored birds, flowers, and branches. It was a hit with our ring bearer and the guests, and tied in beautifully with a birds' nest cake topper we had atop our cake. We also had a raffle where one person at each table won the centerpiece to take home, and the winning guests were just thrilled.

Laura and I had emailed back and forth (she is very prompt at returning emails) about the bouquets, boutonnieres, centerpieces, arch decoration, etc., and she was able to capture design elements I couldn't even put in to words - she made our wedding so elegant while also being perfectly "us".

Overall, I can't thank Laura enough for her time and consideration. She put so much effort and creativity in to our wedding! I highly recommend Poppy's Petalworks to any bride looking for an indescribably beautiful wedding day.

The moment I saw the bouquets, corsages, and boutonnieres the night prior to my wedding, I was certain Poppy's Petalworks had already exceeded my expectations. Laura was a pleasure to work with. She was very accommodating, open, patient, and suggestive to my needs and requests. She would provide professional feedback and advice, but never did I feel like she was trying to push her ideas onto me. Laura was able to fully comprehend the effect in which I had envisionsed.

The level of service was commendable. For example, the delivery of the flowers reflected punctuality - I did not have to worry about late presentations, as the flowers arrived timely the night before and promptly to the wedding banquet, and best of all without a bit of compromise to the quality. The final project exhibited all themes and sensitivities I imagined. The flowers were fresh and obviously prepared with bundles of thought, effort, and the responsibility to do an excellent job.

Not only did the resulting fanfare achieve all marks and stars possible, Laura was also there on my wedding day, ready to help with those last-minute disasters. She helped me decorate my wedding cake with flowers, pin boutonnieres
to our guests' suits/dresses, and much much more. In all, Laura became involved in my wedding in ways exceeding that of a florist. She went above and beyond the ordinary florist by striving to meet my needs and making everything design-related go smooth.

Poppy's Petalworks is undoubtedly professional and deserves high recommendations. They took my wedding project to the tops, and their attitude and passion for doing splendidly and simply making things beautiful was successfully proven. I will certainly use them again if I need to get married again. :P

Poppy's Petalworks is a great florist. Laura is a wonderfully professional and has a very creative background. You can count on Poppy's for fun, whimsical, and fresh florals.

"Beautiful flowers and great to work with" -- Maria Chang of PMA