I was in charge of floral for my grandmother's birthday. I wanted to spend about $600. The country club recommended Alpine Florist. I work in the event industry, but in California. When I showed up early to see the floral arrangement, I was extremely upset. I had asked for one large centerpiece for the gift/sign in table. The florist took her own "artistic liberty" and gave me three miniscule arrangements! The arrangement was small and completely unoriginal. It looked like wedding flowers from a non-descript, boring wedding. They completely faded into the background. When I inquired about their 'artistic liberty,' they told me 2 things. 1) that I was lucky to even get flowers on a Sunday, and 2) that they used expensive flowers, so the arrangement couldn't be large. Well, I had 2 responses. 1) I work in the events industry, and if you're in this industry, you go into it KNOWING THAT YOU WORK ON SUNDAYS, and 2) I had originally wanted gardenias, but they told me they would be too expensive for a large arrangement. So I agreed, that in order to have one large arrangement, we could use less expensive flowers. So why did they still use expensive flowers in the arrangement?? It is in direct contrast to their original statement. Also, I emailed them numerous times to confirm specifics, however never received return emails. They claimed that they did respond, but that their emails must have gotten lost in "email world." Lastly, I asked for a beautiful corsage for my grandmother. I wanted to spend about $40 on this. Well, they 'forgot' and last minute showed up with a man's boutonniere. They were going to charge me $40 for a single calla lilly. The lady kept saying that their company does 'a million weddings" and have never had a complaint before. Well, I soon figured out that they were so lazy, they took an arrangement from the night before and used it for our event...charging us outrageous prices! UNPROFESSIONAL, UNORIGINAL, PRICE GAUGING, AND LAZY!
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