Let me begin by saying that the bouquet and flower crown that I received were absolutely stunning. I chose Kate based on her social media pictures, and she did not disappoint in terms of her product.
However, working with Kate was extremely s...tressful. It was virtually impossible to get a hold of her, and I was left wondering many times if she would actually come through.
I contacted her in February about my October wedding. After a few weeks she emailed me back and said she was available for my wedding date. She provided me a questionnaire, which I filled that out promptly and returned. After a month of not hearing back from her, I emailed her to be sure she recieved it. She contacted me briefly in April stating I needed to let her know if I wanted to book with her within 2 weeks. I immediately returned the completed contract and asked how I should pay the deposit. I sent her over several emails asking if she has recieved the contract and if I could send her a deposit, to which I recieved no response. Finally in August, with my wedding creeping up, I messaged her and let her know that if I did not hear from her I would be forced to find another flower provider. She finally responded, stating that she was "busy busy" and that's why she didn't contact me or respond to my multiple emails for months. She finally gave me the information I needed to send her a deposit, so I did so promptly.
Here's where I have a few other issues. When I originally spoke with Kate and on the proposal we had discussed delivery, which I was paying 15% (almost $50) for. It was not until I was paying her my deposit that she mentioned that delivery to my Big Sur venue by Big Sur flowers wasn't possible due to distance. She asked if my father could meet her about a half hour (hour round trip) from my venue. She clarified that I would still pay the delivery fee to have her meet him. It doesn't seem right to me that I should have to pay for delivery and also have someone pick it up (especially when the contact I signed reads "all flowers will be delievered at the required time and location"), but I didn't feel like causing an issue when Kate's communication was so poor. I feared she would just stop responding again and leave me without a florist. So I agreed to pay the money for delivery and still send my father on an hour long trip.
To add insult to injury, the delivery was a half hour late. So my father was away from the venue for nearly two hours on the morning of my wedding to get my flowers that I paid $50 to have delievered.
Coordinating the meetup was also a nightmare due to her lack of communication. I contacted her on the 23rd and the 27th about scheduling a meetup time for my wedding on the 1st. She responded on the 27th that she would talk to her assistant and let me know. She did not get back to me until the 29th, the day before I arrived in Big Sur (and therefore had no service) to set up the wedding. This was unneeded stress in the days leading up to my wedding.
My final issue is that in the chaos of planning, I failed to notice that the amount Kate billed me for was more than the amount we had originally agreed upon. In the original contract she sent me, I agreed to pay $75 for a flower crown. It was not until I was printing my contracts for the big day that I noticed she ended up charging me $95.
Overall, I would say Kate is extremely unprofessional and clearly does not care about how her clients feel. I sent her many stressed and concerned messages, most of which were completely ignored. Having Kate as my florist introduced a ton of unnecessary stress into my wedding planning, and if I could go back I would have chosen to work with someone else.
I'd like to reiterate that the flowers that I recieved were gorgeous and absolutely met my expectations, but they simply were not worth all the issues I dealt with.