Flora — Attraction in San Diego

POST-WEDDING BRIDE DETAILED HONEST REVIEW

Contract-wise: Flora has a very, very, very strict contract with absolutely no wiggle room. You have to put down 50% of the cost of venue (about $5000) to hold the space, another $1,000 security deposit, and 50% of the cost of the bar (~$2500) at the very beginning. Many things we thought wouldn't be a problem ended up being a huge nuisance. Additionally, it's best to use their recommended ‘in-house’ vendors because there are less requirements. Otherwise they'll make your vendors fill out a tedious ‘vendor approval packet’ and require insurance (even for drop offs). All of our outside vendors did not have a good experience communicating with Flora prior to the wedding.

Staff: (8/10) Generally friendly people but they were unprofessional at times, as nobody was on the same page when it came to things. Many people 'misspoke’ on items that the owner herself said would be okay. One example (out of many) was when I told my team that the video montage must be sent to the DJ since he’s wired up to the sound system, as per my conversation with Katherine, the owner. The Flora coordinator corrected me and said that’s not the case and we would need to send it to Flora. But on the actual wedding day, I was told by Flora staff that it needed to be sent to the DJ.

Venue: The venue itself is quite unique. You would never expect something like this in the middle of downtown San Diego. We did the ceremony and reception, but I recommend reception only because of how cramped it was. My bridal party could barely fit and the tree was blocking a couple of the girls. Ceremony + reception, will run you about 10k off the bat (for 6 hours only). And they mean 6 hours… they literally will have your guests waiting outside 30 minutes before arrival time. There's no reason for this as vendors stop setting up by 2:30pm.

Bar: (6/10) Haha, actually theeeee worst, most painful part of the entire wedding process was figuring out this bar situation. If you're doing an open bar OR a dry wedding, you'll be fine. Cash bar will be your biggest nightmare. First, you will be required to pay up front $27 per guest and you get refunded if your guest make that amount of money back. For a cash bar, they required us (again no wiggle room) to hire their 4 bar staff at which we paid a rate of $375 pp plus 20% industry fee and sales tax. That’s about $2,000 to simply STAFF the CASH bar. If you're trying to save money on the bar this is not the place for you. The director of beverages was also very unpleasant throughout the entire process. Partly to blame by miscommunication with things we could/couldn’t have… and partly was just the attitude. I will say the owner Katherine helped us reconcile these issues and offered one or two accommodations to make up for it. (which we didn’t end up taking because it wasn’t even worth talking to the bar director ever again lol)

Post-wedding: A generic email was sent out asking me to fill out a review. Other than that none of the staff bothered to contact us post-wedding. Not even about our security refunds. Or taking accountability/explaining things that went wrong with my caterer (in which they were CC’d on those emails). It felt like it was because they were done draining us of our money.... Luckily, we ended up getting all our deposits back in full a month later after they sent it to an outdated address.

Overall, I would rate my experience here a (6.5/10). I just wish the staff/business was more flexible and cared more about easing the bride and groom’s then just the rules. While I understand it’s to protect the company - it comes off as cold and not a fun time. Not how I wanted to remember the venue of one of the biggest milestones of my life but oh well. They treated us like just a money bag from beginning until the end. Do I think it’s worth $10k+ after all the headaches from their team? Sorry but...

My partner and I recently had our wedding at Flora. Flora is a hidden gem, tucked away in the middle of downtown historic San Diego. Flora’s owner, Katherine, did an amazing job of marrying historic with modern, urban with the outdoors. The entrance has a moody, speakeasy feel that leads to a bright, ethereal urban greenhouse, adorned with preserved moss, ferns, and mushroom accents and houses 150 live plants, including an indoor tree. The white wainscot walls and skylight are a perfect combination to reflect lightning comparable to overcast skies that photographers love. Our photos were breathtaking. The venue also has cute little details, such as a bookcase that pays homage to the building’s original 1922 owners and a fireplace. Flora also has an aviary-inspired bridal suite with gorgeous blue and white wallpaper that harmoniously brings out the brass bird cages and furniture, natural wood, and greens from the plants. The bathroom gets all the love. The bathroom is every Instagram influencer’s dream with a floral print that was blown up 500x, and where many of my guests, namely my bridesmaids, took bathroom mirror selfies. There are so many eye-catching details in this space, you really do not have to do too much when it comes to decorations. What sold me was the tech. Flora’s speaker system features zoning so that the music can be bumping on the dance floor while being low enough for guests sitting at tables to continue to have conversations. Flora also has their own lighting and the hues can be customized to complement an array of wedding colors and themes. Flora also has a built-in projector for video montages as well as displaying names of the bride and groom or company logos. What is super convenient about Flora is that they provide chairs, tables, bar coordination, security, as well as their own wedding coordinator. The planning process was so easy with Flora’s team. We met with Katherine, the owner, about a year before our wedding date. We also had to move our wedding forward due to a medical reason and that was really easy to do as well. Jameson and Jill, the wedding coordinator took over 90 days out. We also finalized our bar choices with Erin, the bar manager, 90 days out and she was so great with the back and forth until me and my partner were able finally make a decision based on projected guest count and budget. Jill was the absolute sweetest person to work with. My partner and I are in school and were in the middle of exams during the latter part of wedding planning and Jill took over the correspondence and relieved a lot of the stress that can come from wedding planning, especially since I was kind of a DIY bride in some aspects. I even had some of the oddest requests fulfilled, like asking for plant cuttings from some of the plants at Flora and she coordinated with Jeff, the horticulturalist that takes care of the plants, and now we have a piece of Flora to remind us of our wedding day. Jill and Amanda did such a phenomenal job taking care of me and wedding party and my family and guests. There are so many things that happened during the wedding that we were unaware of until after the wedding once we got to spend some time with some of our guests, which goes to show the level of professionalism and hospitality that Flora’s team displays. For example, my dad’s girlfriend had an adverse reaction to something she ate because she has an immune disorder and Amanda took care of her and Jill checked in on her as well. Flora’s team truly goes above and beyond to take care of their couples and their guests. I actually loathed wedding planning so much, but Flora’s team made our big day so special, I’d do it over again in a heartbeat. Highly recommend Flora...

I have so many positive things to say not only about Flora, but also about the wonderful people who work there, that I just don't know where to start. My now fiancé and I moved to San Diego a little over two years ago and while exploring our new neighborhood we walked past this somewhat nondescript building with interesting metal gates and lettering in greenery, but we had no clue what the building was for. Being curious, I immediately went home and did some research and what I found can only be described as a hidden gem. Inside the building is a room full of beautiful greenery, a live tree, and the best bathroom wallpaper I've ever seen. Safe to say I was obsessed; however, I was not engaged yet so I tried to play it cool. Fast forward a few months and a ring later, we went to see Flora in person and it was everything I imagined and more (custom lighting options I didn't even know I needed until I saw them). It was the only venue we toured and we haven't looked back.

Beyond the beautiful space are all the beautiful people who are part of the Flora team. Everyone we have met with at Flora has been kind, encouraging, and excited to be a part of our big day. We have been fortunate enough to work with them even more closely than originally planned. Part of the Flora venue contract requires each couple to have a day of coordinator which was fine with us (we need all the help we can get). While couples have the option of bringing in an outside coordinator, Flora does offer full and month of coordination services through the venue. Considering my fiancé and I both work in industries that leave us incredibly busy for large chunks of the year, I was immediately interested in a full service coordinator and who better to do it than someone already familiar with our chosen venue. My fiancé was not as easily convinced and was not sure we would get huge value out of paying for full service coordination versus a day of coordinator. However, he was eventually convinced and we chose to do the full service coordination through Flora. Enter Elena who has been nothing short of a saving grace. Not only is she incredibly sweet, but she has worked so hard answering all the questions we have had, updating floor plans for us, creating short lists of vendors to choose from, working with vendors to create quotes that matched our vision at different price points, and so many other things behind the scenes I'm sure I can't even begin to articulate. Working with Elena has even convinced my dubious fiancé full service coordination is so worth it!

While I don't think there is another space in San Diego that can check as many boxes as Flora can, there is one item I do want to note about the space to couples who are planning weddings with a larger guest count. In the initial stages of our planning we had anticipated inviting around 150 guests for both the ceremony and reception. While Flora can definitely comfortably accommodate that many guests, in the process of discussing our floor plan options with Elena we realized in order to best utilize some of the wonderful and unique features in Flora's space, notably the moving partitions, a guest count closer to 130 would be a better fit. To us it is worth having a few less guests in order to use some of the features that made us fall in love with the venue!

This turned into a much longer narrative than intended, but I hope this helps someone in the planning process. If you choose Flora I'm sure you...