A little behind

Okay so according to Martha Stewart and the wedding industry I was supposed to book a florist waaay back in November. Hahahaha. Whatever. Oskar and I went to Santa Barbara on Friday morning to scope some out. We left pretty early to catch a morning meeting with Lani from Lani B. Production Services-the crew that's going to handle our lighting at Cabrillo. It was a fairly easy meeting to sit through. I showed Lani, who in true Santa Barbara fashion was wearing a pair of flip flops, pictures of what my color scheme was going to be. He said he thought a nice amber color would suit our party. Apparently, amber and peach are flattering colors. Anything to look good in pictures right?

Later on we skulked around State Street. We had some tea and lunch and then walked around in search of flower shops. We walked into a Riley's on Chapala. The store was cute but the lady behind the counter didn't want anything to do with us. She told Oskar that the "designer" wasn't it and to come back some other time. Oookay.

After that underwhelming encounter Oskar and I decided to get out of downtown and go somewhere closer to upper state street near San Roque. We quickly found a couple including Gigi's and White House Flower Shop.

We walked into Gigi's where Doug the florist called up their wedding coordinator and set up a meeting for us in the evening. That's customer service.

Then we went to White House flowers. A spry golden retriever welcomed us in and licked our hands (I think we smelled like the chicken we had for lunch). Laura, the owner was just as friendly (minus the licking of course) showing us some of her wedding binders and asking us questions. She was very attentive and understood what I wanted for the ceremony bringing out flowers that she thought would look nice like peonies, roses and stargazer lilies. I told her that I also like anemones and poppies and she said she would find out if they were available that late in August. Laura has also done flowers for events at San Roque before! Most important, the price she quoted us was right where I wanted it to be. Yes! Oskar and I left the flower shop really really happy.

Later on in the evening we headed back to Gigi's. The coordinator pulled out her notebook and asked me how many people were in the bridal party, who needed corsages, what my colors were. She was convinced we needed two big altar pieces, and two smaller ones. And earlier in the day, when Oskar and I first walked in, Oskar asked the staff how much boutonnieres cost, "Eight dollars," said one of employees.
"Twenty-five dollars," said the coordinator later on during the meeting. Hmmm...
She gave us a quote that was almost three times what White House gave us. Oskar asked her if there was a range of prices and if so, was the number she gave us at the higher end
"I don't like ranges, I don't want to give them," she said. "I think that with ranges, you pick something that's low and you won't end up liking the end product and I won't end up liking it."
Oskar and I just nodded and thinking the exact same thing: "What the hell is this chick talking about?"

I think businesses just hear the word wedding and they automatically think "cha-ching." Unbelievable. I am still waiting back to hear some quotes. Hopefully they will send them to me this week cause I really don't want to think about flowers anymore. But if all goes well, I think Oskar and I will have simple and elegant arrangements we can be happy with. Of course Oskar would probably be happy with fake aquarium plants.