Sunshine, lollipops and rain-clouds?

Ms. Frozen Yogurt recently blogged about her lonely venture into the wedding-preparation world. I could empathize, as I have had to do many things alone. However, her blog also reminded me of a day, not too long ago, when I really wish I had been alone in my lesson planning.

During my brief visit home, I decided to make an appointment to meet with my florist. Now, because I have been away for so long, I have never met my florist (gasp!). I know, I know...try it before you buy it, but I didn't.

She had come highly recommended to me by my bridesmaid who had done a trade show and had seen her work exhibited there. She told me that she had a very good eye and that she did stuff that was a bit unconventional. Great, I thought. Sounds like what I am going for. I called her, saw her stuff online and based on our conversation, thought that she would be a good person to work with.

So, I made my appointment to meet her at a local coffee shop and decided to bring along two aunts and my cousin/junior bridesmaid. She showed up with a lovely arrangment for me and one for the coffee shop, which I thought was a nice touch. She handed us her portfolio as well as some flower magazines to browse through for ideas. I will admit that I had no idea what I wanted going into the meeting, but I figured that the ideas would slowly emerge through our conversation.

Well, that did not happen.

One of my aunts tried to give her vision - centerpieces composed entirely of one type of flower, with each table having a different flower a la Martha Stewart, like this:

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Or these:

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I had not really thought about it, but upon a quick reflection, I thought that might be a good idea. Unfortunately, the florist was not on board. She insisited that having only one type of flower in one particular color could be disasterous. Why? According to her, if we insisted on say, all orange tulips or all yellow roses, we could be faced with sub-quality flowers. Her example was, "Say you have a dinner party. And you have been planning it for weeks. You have in your mind that you are going to serve chocolate-covered strawberries and when you get to the store, all the strawberries are moldy or soggy. However, right next to the strawberries you see the most beautiful and ripe raspberries. What do you do?"

I saw where she was coming from and agreed - to an extent. What if, I asked, I gave you a list of flowers that I like and you can get them in any of the following colors. Not all of them have to be the same, but as long as you get these flowers in these colors. Can you work with that? Of course, she replied, I just need some leeway.

However, the damage had been done. My aunt was furious that the florist was so stubborn and adamant about her stance and the florist was incensed at my aunt "butting-in".

We left the coffee shop with me wondering if I had burned my bridges with this florist - who, mind you, already had a deposit. I called the florist a few weeks after that and fortunately, everything was ok. I assured her that my aunt would not be coming to any more of our meetings and that from here on out, she would be dealing exclusively with me. She was grateful to hear that and we both agreed that there was some misunderstanding on everyone's part - the florist wasn't listening to my aunt and my aunt was not listening to my florist.

Things are a better now, but I am definitely a bit more cautious in inviting people to accompany me to vendor meetings.

What about you? Do you have a horror story to share about vendors and family?