The Meadows

Both my fiance and I used to love The Meadows - we lived in the neighborhood and we used to buy our flowers from them. So when we started planning our May wedding, we checked to see if The Meadows do weddings. They said yes, so we arranged a meeting with the owner and florist Patrick.

Patrick had many ideas about how to decorate our wedding site (The Berkeley Faculty Club) and he wanted to add linens and lighting to the floral arrangements so that he can transform the Faculty Club into a more garden-like setting. We met with him in late January, after having interviewed two other florists in the Bay Area, and we really liked his concept - he didn't want to just do flowers, he wanted to create an overall look about the place. He was the only florist who talked about creating a complete vision. He also wanted to walk through the Faculty Club with us and talk about decorations. We also liked the fact that he had done many weddings at the Faculty Club and knew the place well. In January we asked for a proposal with a cost estimate, and he refused to give us one. We should have been alarmed. He said, "In my experience, people who talk to me, always hire me."

We met with him in early February at the Faculty Club and he said he wanted to provide linens and professional lighting for inside and outside, as well as candles and cocktail tables decorations. He gave us a loose cost estimate $4K. He told us to get in touch with him after Valentine's Day. I emailed him right after Valentine's Day and he never emailed me back. In early March he called me and apologized for not being in touch. We scheduled a meeting at the Faculty Club for mid-March.

When we met we spent an hour and a half talking about the decorations, the set-up, and what not (Patrick is very talkative so unfortunately much of the conversation was not even wedding-related). I asked Patrick to give us a proposal and an estimate for the cost, since we really needed to know how much it would all cost. At this point he said $10K!!!!!!!!!! I am not kidding. I was shocked and worried. I asked him to give us the quote in writing and he said he would do so after Easter.

My fiance was worried about the cost since that number was way out of our budget. He called Patrick and asked for an estimate in a week. Patrick never sent it to us, so we started looking for another florist. We emailed Patrick saying we were uncomfortable about not having a contract with him and not knowing exactly how much his services will cost, and we would like to look for another florist. Patrick replied saying by all means, find another one. He sounded relieved. I don't think he wanted to work with us because we insisted on what we think every vendor should offer: a contract and an estimate of the cost of services. To make a long story short, we "fired" Patrick (we never had a contract so we couldn't really fire him) and we talked to Pat Gibbons who agreed to do our flowers.

So my word of advice would be: if you work with The Meadows be sure to exact a proposal with cost estimate in writing and a contract!