Cleveland The Florist, Inc.

The flowers for our wedding were perfect! Kelly worked with us to get every detail perfect and exactly what we were looking for in the bride's bouquet, bridesmaid bouquets, and table centerpieces. The flower colors perfectly matched our wedding theme and colors and looked so good in our table centerpieces. We loved these flowers thank you so much!

I approached Cleveland the Florist to do my wedding flowers in 2014. Our wedding was in Mobile, but I live in Colorado, so was doing all the planning long distance. I first contacted them in February, even though the wedding wasn't until October. Because it was so close to Valentine's Day, they were slammed and asked me to call back later in the month so they could focus on my event. I called back a couple weeks after Valentine's and spoke to LeNae Denson. When I called the first time, she had asked me to put together an inspiration board on Pinterest, which thrilled me since I'd already started a board for flowers there. But the next time I called, I spent more than 20 minutes trying to help LeNae log in to Pinterest. I'm sure it was frustrating for both of us. LeNae gave me a rough budget and we went back and forth via email a few times regarding miscellaneous details. My fiance and I had planned a visit to Alabama in June, and I asked if LeNae would be available during the week of our visit to meet with us and get everything finalized. We made an appointment months in advance and I confirmed it with her a few days before we were scheduled to meet. My fiance and I had scheduled meetings with all our vendors during the week we were in town, and appointments were back-to-back for the most part. We had very little free time (even to spend with family) and would not be back in town before the wedding a few months later. LeNae STOOD US UP. She was not in the shop when we arrived for our appointment. She'd also left her phone on her desk so no one could reach her, and no one else there seemed to know anything about us, our event or our meeting. We were 10 minutes early, so we waited, but LeNae never showed up. Another woman at the shop, Carla was willing to discuss the wedding with us. She was friendly and knowledgeable, and spent about an hour with us going over arrangements, bouquets, corsages, and so many little details. At this point we still had no contract with them. I asked if she would like us to submit a deposit or sign anything, and Carla said it was up to us. I'm glad I trusted my gut to wait, because it took 3 weeks for anyone to follow up with us, and LeNae never apologized for missing our appointment. I felt unimportant and let down. I was astounded at the lack of professionalism Cleveland the Florist displayed, and the rudeness of the staff (except for Carla) when we had traveled across the country to meet them (not to mention the fact that we were planning to spend thousands of dollars with them on wedding flowers). While we waited for any kind of apology or update from Cleveland, we shopped around for a new florist and booked someone else about a week later. I've seen photos of other weddings Cleveland has done, which were gorgeous and one of the reasons I sought them for our wedding. Unfortunately, trying to work with them was one of the worst experiences of the entire wedding planning process.

Pros: I absolutely LOVED all of my bouquets (bridesmaids' and mine). They were so amazingly beautiful that I cried when I threw them out. I gave very vague directions for my bouquets, because I do not know much about flowers. I told them the general shape I like and the colors for my wedding and that I did not love roses. All of the ladies' bouquets were just stunning with the exact right colors. Also, the floral designer personally delivered the flowers and decorated the cake at the reception venue right in front on me. She did a really spectacular job and I was so pleased. Cons: I initially met twice with one of the other floral designers at Cleveland, but got a call about 1 month before my wedding from her saying she had been fired. It was all very shady, because she said I could get a refund and just pay her to do the work independently. I wasn't comfortable with this, so I stuck with the company itself. No one from the company called me to tell me she was fired, though, which I do not like. I had to call them and ask about it to see if they still had someone who could do my wedding. They delivered the flowers a little later than I would have liked, though this was not the end of the world. I also thought they were a little expensive and their pricing confused me. The initial designer I worked with had an annoying way of asking how much I wanted to spend on a bouquet - well I don't know anything about flowers, so how should I know how much you need to spend on different arrangements? Maybe this is how all florists are, but I wish they had said "If you spend this much, we can do this... If you spend this much, we can do that, etc." I felt like they could have told me any number and I would have had to pay it, because how should I know? Last complaint - though I did tell them I wasn't crazy about roses, the groomsmen's corsages had roses in them. This may have been so they could put even prettier, more exotic flowers in the ladies' bouquets, I don't know. It wasn't a big deal, but it was a detail they left out.

Matsumi is the best! Works within your budget and does amazing work!