My flowers were the biggest disappointment of my wedding.
They were also the aspect of the wedding that I had been most excited about. I found a picture of my dream bouquet online and designed my wedding around it. I presented Danyel with an e...xact photo of the pink-orange bouquet I wanted, and the one I got was light pink and wine red.
I first met with Danyel in December 2019, for a wedding scheduled for May 2020. What sold me on Enchanting Flora Designs, besides its flawless reviews, was a pledge to check in regularly before the wedding for an ongoing conversation about flowers. This never happened. COVID-19 was a factor, but it wasn't the whole story. Besides brief discussions to reschedule dates twice, I didn't hear from her until I reached out a month before the Aug. 14, 2021, wedding.
The last month, I struggled to get a hold of her. I would send a message, not hear anything, send another message days later, and then get half a response to one part of my message. This happened multiple times.
On July 26, I called, and she didn't answer. Her voicemail was full so I couldn't leave a message. I texted her after hanging up.
No response. More than 24 hours later, I called again and this time she answered. At this point I was frantic and near tears. I noted that we hadn't talked about flowers in depth since 2019.
She told me in the call that she planned to order the flowers for my wedding 2 DAYS LATER. If I hadn't reached out to her, she was going to order flowers for my wedding after talking to me once about them IN DECEMBER 2019.
Fast forward to Aug. 14. Danyel delivered the flowers, and the colors were completely off. Instead of the beautiful shades of pinks and oranges I had designed my wedding around, the flowers were largely light pink and wine red. The boutonnieres and corsages were a lifeless shade of light pink.
My first instinct was to scrap the flowers completely and instead use the bright pink fake flowers lined up for the reception centerpieces. But my maid of honor brilliantly suggested sticking the pink fake flowers in the bouquets for the pops of color I was looking for. We also sent a bridesmaid to Kroger, where she bought $100 worth of pink and orange flowers. My mom and my angel photographer, Mollie Woody of Jeff and Mollie Weddings, removed all the wine-red flowers and replaced them with the fake flowers and the Kroger flowers.
There was nothing we could do about the boutonnieres and corsages because other flower shops were too swamped to help us.
After we had a plan to get the bouquets closer to what I wanted, I messaged Danyel and told her the flower colors were not what I had envisioned and asked if there was anything she could do to help me get hot pink/bright pink flowers. I told her I would pay for whatever. She said all her wholesaler had available was a "Juliet garden" that would cost me $250. They were the same lifeless, so-light-pink-they're-almost-white flowers I already had. At that point, I had my MOH call her because I was too upset. Danyel suggested that the photographer could manipulate the colors of her photos to make the flowers appear to be the colors I wanted.
My biggest takeaway from this experience was Danyel's complete indifference. She didn't listen to me, and she didn't deliver the flowers I asked for. My bridesmaids and my photographer cared more about my flowers than Danyel did. I wouldn't even care about the poor communication if she had come through on the flowers, but she didn't.