Flowers, Flowers Everywhere

The next thing that was on the list for a Houston trip was a trip to the florist, but how does one find a florist? I was trying to find a florist relatively close to the church and the reception site, which are twenty miles outside of Houston. One of my friends suggested it, as she had a friend whose florist who had forgotten one of the bouquets for the bridesmaids, and had to drive all the way back in town and back out to the site and was almost late for the wedding. The other main reason was cost. The flower shops down in town (unless you’re on Fannin) seemed to be pretty expensive, and flowers were not assigned a large part of the budget, so I didn’t want to go that route. Our reception site was absolutely unhelpful, as it doesn’t keep a list of recommended vendors (obviously they don’t have a kickback set up like the caterer).

My sister tried to help. She did a search of flower shops with some internet site and pulled up several that were in the area then sent me their numbers and websites. I scouted them out online and found that they looked okay, but all of the websites looked the same. They had different headers, titles and side things, but they were all pictures of the same bouquets. I called her up (at work J ) and asked what she thought.

Her: “Well, we can just go visit them and look at the flowers they have on display. If those look pretty, then they’re a good florist.”

Me: “That’s a horrible idea. I don’t want to spend all day driving around to florists and then judge them only by what they have out.”

A list of nightmarish possibilities ran through my head. The caterer could take the deposit and run, she could show up with not enough flowers, she could show up with the wrong flowers, or she could show up at the wrong spot. Not something to gamble on.

Then, a light bulb came on (actually, an email came in from the MBA student association notifying us about some networking event). I would use my networks, and the most powerful network of all is the Catholic Church. I quickly shot an email to the marriage coordinator at the church and asked her if the parish had a florist that worked well or often on the weddings in the church. Not five minutes later had gone by when she emailed me back with a name. So-and-so is the parish’s regular florist, and he will bend over backwards for you, especially if you let him know that you’re a parishioner. Bingo! I called the shop and set an appointment for that Saturday afternoon.