Flourish Floral and Event Design — Local services in Easton

I started working with Kristin at Flourish in April, to have her provide flowers and printed materials for my daughter’s bridal shower in August.

We met a few times in the months leading up to the shower, each time with Kristin providing great ideas. The vision for the flowers was amazing, and she promised a cohesive theme for all of the items that she was creating for the shower. As the shower approached, though, the printed materials just weren’t materializing. What had gotten done was either incorrect or just didn’t match the whole theme we had discussed on multiple occasions. I told Kristin a few times that I was really getting nervous because we didn’t have any of the materials, but she insisted that there was nothing to worry about. So again, we pushed on. She promptly collected the initial retainer, the progress payment and the final payment, despite producing nothing. She promised a contract that also never materialized, but she assured me it would, so I made the requested payments.

As the weekend of the shower approached, we still had received no printed materials. I once again told Kristin I was getting nervous, and this time she got very defensive and told me if I was that worried, I should do them myself. Not seeing that as a viable option given everything else that needed to be done, we went back and forth on some ideas and she promised to provide everything later that night … and then the next day … and then the next. (She did say she would need to charge me more for all of the back and forth, even though I was just trying to get her to produce the things we had discussed from day one.) Finally, the night before the shower I realized I wouldn’t be getting the games or signs, so I told Kristin that I would figure out a way to do them and we would just see her the next morning with the flowers. It was my fault or waiting so long, but I tend to take people at their word. Lesson learned. The morning of the shower, the unthinkable happened. Kristin called and said she was unable to deliver the flowers. She said we would have to come to her shop to pick them up. Unfortunately, given where we live, her location, and the venue for the shower, that wasn’t possible. There just wasn’t time, especially considering that we were frantically producing bridal shower games and signs. She had promised to deliver and set up all of the flowers and other items, but again failed to follow through. We fortunately found a family member to go and pick some flowers up, and they weren’t anything like what Kristin had promised, either in size, quantity or appearance.

A couple of weeks after the shower, I contacted Kristin about a partial refund. She had initially been the one to promise a refund when she didn’t deliver, so I was just taking her up on the offer. I asked only for a partial refund because she did provide some flowers, and I wanted to acknowledge that. Kristin first promised the refund would come in a few weeks. It did not, so I reached out again. She then said it would be mailed out the next day. Over a week later it still had not arrived, so I reached out again. This time she said she had been waiting to hear from me, and that I had never responded to her last message. I pointed out the email chain in which she made the promises about sending the refund. She then said she wanted to discuss it. I was done discussing. I was done waiting for the refund. So I told her to just forget about the refund so we could both move on. She once again became defensive, and I simply stopped communicating. Sometimes it’s just better to lose the money than to lose the sleep worrying about it. In fairness, she might have eventually produced a refund. I waited about 6 weeks after my first refund request, but made the decision not to wait any longer.

So, I worked with Flourish for 4 months to plan my daughter’s bridal shower. She got my 3 payments. We got no cards, no games, no signs and almost no flowers. If you’re looking for a florist for an important occasion, be careful &...

Kristin did the flowers for my wedding, and they were beautiful. So why 2 stars? Because working with her was stressful, chaotic, and unpleasant every step of the way. I booked her too late to change florists - big mistake. Huge.

Highlights: Kristin, the owner, cancelled my viewing appointments four separate times. The excuses were elaborate: stuck in traffic downtown, and then also with a flat tire! Has Covid. Preparing for Easter. "Crazy day today." She did not give me a contract until I had paid a $1,300 deposit, which I then found out upon receiving the contract was non-refundable. I had to ask her multiple times to send the contract. She promised it several times, and then claimed she'd forgotten to attach it, or that she had meant to send it. It wasn't until I was really freaking out that she finally sent it. When I received the contract, it was not itemized. It was also $600 more expensive than we had agreed. When I asked her why it was more expensive, her story changed multiple times. I had asked for a seating chart. She had added more lanterns. How much were the lanterns? I have no idea, because the contract was not itemized. She arrived at the venue with none of the flowers ready. She just had loose cuttings that she put together morning-of. The bouquet I received was beautiful* (see next point), but clearly hastily-made because there was a bunch of loose thread from the ribbon around it. I had to pull that off myself. She finished the bouquets for the mothers of the bride and groom 1 minute before we were going to walk down the aisle. We had written them off at that point. She did not deliver on the things promised. There is one flower, the proteus, that she talked about at our first phone call, both viewing appointments, and via text afterward. It's an expensive flower that I was really excited to have in my bouquet. It was not in my bouquet. It wasn't in my wedding flowers at all. We had discussed LED candles, because my venue was in the woods, and fire was not allowed. I had also told her I didn't like candles floating in water, and she'd removed them. They were put out on all of the reception tables. The only reason we were able to keep them was that the venue coordinator was too busy to notice them - again, open flame was NOT ALLOWED. Just an example of how disorganized she is.

This list does not sufficiently capture how unprofessional, stressful, and off-putting Kristin was to work with. My day-of coordinator, my photographer, my bridesmaids, my AUNTS - they all independently noticed and told me how bad she was. One of my bridesmaids bravely called me to warn me against working with her. I had an entire, fully thought-out contingency plan for if she no-showed on my wedding day, because it was a serious possibility (my bridesmaids would go to Trader Joe's; my day-of coordinator would set the flowers out; we had already made our own seating chart and ordered our own lanterns because we didn't trust her to do that). I bought event insurance that included vendor coverage in case she no-showed.

Before you book, check out Flourish's Facebook reviews. And please, don't make the same mistake I did. Do yourself a huge favor and book...

This review will be long, but well worth your effort to read. My wife and I read the positive reviews and decided to hire Kristen at Flourish. At first everything was great. She can be warm and personable, and her arrangements are beautiful. She really does have talent. However, as time went on things began to deteriorate. We had a limited budget, so we made a deal with Kristen to offset the costs. We basically worked for her to pay off some of what she charged us. We drove to venues, delivered flowers, and worked the events. At one point Kristen told us she would comp our wedding rehearsal if we worked a certain event. And she told us she needed us to rent a truck for her that she would reimburse us for. We worked the event in the morning and then went back that night to clean up. We were there until 1:30 am. Later, Kristen claimed she never told us she would comp the wedding rehearsal and sent us a bill for it. When we asked to be reimbursed for the truck rental she refused to pay us. She also owes us for buying last minute flowers for her events. What I have written is just a small sampling of our dealings with her. This review would be five times longer if I told you everything. She can be incredibly rude, she makes lame excuses for under-performing, and her attitude changes in the evening to the point where you really have to wonder about her. And when my wife sent her a request for her to pay us what she owes us, she sent ME a text which read in part, "Tell your wife she has a better chance of seeing Christ come off the cross than see (your money)" Kristen, the owner of Flourish, lied to us, she cheated us, and she swindled us.

9/11/24 Well, we took her to court, and had our case heard today. First we went to mediation, where, by her uncooperative behavior, Kristin chased the mediator out of the room, almost in tears. I am not making this up. The mediator was saying "I can't deal with this, I can't deal with this' over and over on her way out of the room. We then went to adjudication. Lots of lies and misinformation later, we were done. We get the results in a couple of weeks.

Long story short: read the other negative reviews, and...