Florist apparently threw all my flowers away next day?
Hi, I got married on December 6 and everything was beautiful. I spent close to $5,000 on my flowers because I considered that a very important element to my wedding. I had told both my florist and my wedding coordinator that I wanted to keep the centerpieces and would pick them up the next day from the venue. I understood the florist would be picking up the rented stands but could remove the floral centerpieces as they were in Styrofoam forms. I also left my bouquet at the venue as I was planning on picking it up the next morning.
Well, my family and I showed up to the venue after breakfast the day after the wedding to load up the flowers and they were ALL GONE. No one could find them. I asked the front desk attendant what happened. To this day, no one knows but apparently the venue staff saw the florist carry out giant trash bags to the dumpster. We are not sure if these are the flowers.
I checked all the dumpsters and could not find anything. I have still not heard back from my florist. Not sure what I should do at this point. I am disappointed because I wanted to preserve my bouquet. Has this happened to anyone else?
Re: Florist apparently threw all my flowers away next day?
Was it noted in your floral contract that you were to keep all floral arrangements? What about in your venue contract? A lot of times the venue will throw away the flowers as they are cleaning up after your event.
I find it hard to believe that no one knows what happened. Sounds like they are just saying that to not get anyone in trouble.
Unless it was specifically listed in a contract that the arrangements were to be saved then you really have no recourse. And honestly, if you had really wanted to keep them then you should have made arrangements to have them taken home that night. I am not saying this was your fault but a lot of times your venue coordinator is gone before cleanup begins so sometimes requests that aren't written down are just not known by the staff.
At this point, I would make a trip to your florist in person and ask what happened. If they say that they didn't throw them away then I would just drop it. If you had a photographer then I am sure you will have many pictures of your flowers that you can then look back on and admire.
Continue contacting the florist. Even if it wasn't in a contract, I think they should've understood that you didn't want them thrown out. That seems very unprofessional.
But it may not have been the florist who through the flowers away.
And if it wasn't in the contract they may have forgotten the conversation even occurred. I have done many wedding deliveries and pick ups for the florist I used to work for. The contract is everything. If it is not written down then how are we supposed to know what to do? The person you set up the contract with isn't always the person fulling the contract. This is why everything needs to be in writing. Not only because it gives you legal recourse but because it helps your vendors know exactly what you are wanting and what they need to fulfill.