Dandelion Ranch

I inquired with them in March '07 to do the flowers for my June '07 wedding. I explained to the owner I didn't need a lot of flowers because my wedding was outdoors in a nature setting. She was cool with that. I finally received an initial quote from the owner in early May. At over $8k, it was for everything under the sun, which was ok because I wanted to see what her creativity would come up with. During this process, she was very nice and our ideas were in sync. When I began to cut items from her inflated budget, I started to get the cold shoulder treatment and was passed off to, what felt like, a "B" level assistant. I felt I became a very low priority to them, and the budget process took weeks. In early June, when I finally knocked the floral budget down to $1500, I was eventually put back in touch with the owner. She e-mailed me to explain, essentially, that if I further removed any more items from the quote/budget, I would no longer be worth her time and should go elsewhere... this was THREE WEEKS before my wedding date. I contemplated going with a different florist, but I was too busy and too spent from wedding planning. I just didn't have it in me to start over to look for a florist. Plus, the $1.5k budget was ok, and I even added an additional $500 to the budget ($500(!) to have mums hang from a tree). The actual wedding day was a disaster: - I was never shown an example of what the bouquets or boutonnieres would look like. When they arrived at the wedding, I was disappointed. I asked for a "natural look" for the Bridesmaids' bouquets: I received stiff flowers in a "mound." - The owner flat out refused to do part of what her contract agreed to do. The owner told my mother, "If you would have paid more money, I would have done this!" - I paid for (3) tall glass vases that were to line up along a ledge. One vase arrived with a crack in it, and another vase's bottom fell out of it when rocks and water were poured into it. No replacement was brought in for either of them. I essentially paid for two non-existent vases. - The extra $500 that I paid for the hanging mums...the mums were strung through fishing line and weren't looped around or affixed/glued to the line itself. By the end of the ceremony, most of the mums sadly sat on the ground. If you have a good budget for florals, you might get better treatment than I did. But if you don't, stay far, far away from Dandelion Ranch. They didn't seem to care about my needs. I felt like I was a low priority to them and only cared about my money.