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User Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
by Melissa G.
12/31/2010
This review needs to be told for future brides in the Palm Springs area. Let me preface with the fact that I have attempted several times to contact The Arrangements to give them the chance to fix what they did and they have refused to grant me a call or an email response acknowledging my complaints concerning my wedding in October 2010.
My wedding planner had referred this company because she felt that our styles would be similar. She was right. In the beginning, this company was everything I was looking for. I was on a strict budget for flowers and needed a designer to help me come up with a plan to get the most bang for my buck. I contacted this company 6 months before my wedding and we instantly got started. Things were great at first and I was working with Luna (daughter of the owner's of the company) who seemed to have a great design sense that I could relate to (I am early 30's and work in the interior design field myself).
As time went on (and after the contract was signed and deposit was paid), I noticed that it would take Luna on average, 2 weeks to respond to my emails. At one point, my wedding planner had to call the owner of the company, Ramon, to see why I wasn't getting any response back! When she would finally return my call, there was no apology for her not getting back to me and no responsibility taken.
This went on all the way up to about 1 week before my wedding. Finally, I called and got a hold of Luna. She started to demand that I send the final payment in money order form. I replied that we hadn't finished the design plan. Which meant there was no final total sent to me yet so I couldn't send a final payment. My fiance and I had driven out several times from Long Beach to meet with Luna at the wedding property and to The Arrangements to see a mock up of what the centerpieces would be. In all honesty, I didn't have much choice but to trust them...we had done so much work up to this date, that there wouldn't have been time or money to find a new florist.
On my wedding morning while getting my hair done, I received a phone call from Luna to tell me that the orange orchids had come in (which were half of my centerpiece flowers and the only flower in the mens boutonniere's) and that they were ugly. She said they would be replaced with succulents and it would be beautiful. Of course I said ok because...well, what choice did I really have hours before the wedding.
When I arrived to the wedding site, none of my flowers had arrived (including centerpieces, bouquets, etc). They were 2 hours late with no phone call! My wedding planner had gone over the time line with The Arrangements weeks before. For so many reasons, this inconvenienced many family/friend helpers along with my photographer missing out on a lot of photo opportunities with dressed guest tables, etc. Once The Arrangements did show up, Luna was not there! She had not told me she wouldn't be there on that day to execute the plan which I feel was a crucial bit of information to mention since she was the only one I had brainstormed with, emailed, met with, and spoke to for about 6 months. Very unprofessional...and probably a big reason why things didn't go as planned.
My centerpieces ended up only having 2 flowers per centerpiece!! Let me repeat...2 flower stems. The other half of the flowers were supposed to be the orange orchids (which I paid for) and were not replaced with anything. So I had a lot of empty glass containers on my tables with only 2 orange dahlias per table. Nothing like the photos I had taken of the mock ups we did months prior.
The communication with this company was awful. I feel if this job was too small for them, they should have passed. And no correspondence concerning our complaints or some type of refund shows a real lack in character and honest business practices. Definitely DO NOT use The Arrangements for your wedding floral needs.
I can not speak enough positive words about April of The Bride and I! I hesitantly called her not even sure if I could afford a wedding planner but after seeing her website, I had a good feeling. We set up a time to chat and she made me feel so comfortable with her no-pressure business sense and passion for weddings. I knew right away that April would be essential to making my wedding day perfect (especially since I lived out of town and didn't know vendors in the Palm Springs area). She was worth the money we spent plus about a million dollars more! We started working together about 7 months before the wedding. She played a huge role in helping me book local vendors that she had worked with and by getting me the best deal possible. She helped me with everything from going over all of my contracts, meeting me several times to go over all aspects of the wedding and reception, brainstorming with me to come up with wedding design concepts, coming up with a timeline for the rehearsal and wedding day...and most importantly making my wedding day go as smooth as possible! All of my friends and family instantly fell in love with April and trusted her to make sure everything was taken care of. She made my fiance and I feel like we were the only couple in the world getting married (of course we knew we weren't) and that our day was important. Definitely use The Bride and I! You won't be disappointed!