Catskill Flower Shop — Local services in Town of Middletown

My husband and I hired Catskill Flower Shop to provide florals as well as wedding coordination services for our June 2023 wedding. I've waited until now to leave a public review because as someone who has worked in the wedding industry, I know how much weight negative reviews can carry. However, when we privately shared our feedback with the business owner, she ignored us -- despite her initial acknowledgment of our feedback and promise of a prompt follow-up. At this point, I see no other way to do our part in ensuring other clients (especially couples on their wedding day) avoid the same experience.

For background, our wedding was hosted by family in Roxbury NY, and my husband & I are based in NJ. Although the wedding was on private property, our priority was for our loved ones to feel relaxed and present, and not make them responsible for addressing last-minute details. It was also important for us to work with small local businesses. We shared these priorities during our first convo with Lydia, owner of Catskill Flower Shop, which we ultimately hired for floral and planning services.

Lydia's vendor referrals helped us plan a great wedding, and all the florals were beautiful. However, the issue with our experience lies with the lack of follow-through on our wedding day. Planning services (this language is directly from our contract) stipulated that "Lydia will personally handle all details leading up to the event and 2 members of the team will be on site through the duration of the event" and her team would "contact all vendors to become liaison and troubleshoot any problems and expedite final details"; "set up Seating Chart Table, Gift Table, and favors"; "coordinate vendor arrival and set up" ; "orchestrate and execute ceremony" ; "orchestrate reception."

Equipped with a detailed timeline, multiple conversations with me and the groom, a walkthrough, and a rehearsal, Lydia passed the torch to Stacy, who was to be our primary coordinator on the wedding day. However, when some of our guests got to the site about an hour before ceremony start time, it was in disarray. There was so much to be done that they called in back up -- and some of our dearest loved ones had to miss our first look in order pitch in & get everything set up in time. The feedback was that Stacy watched, did not offer insight, and did not jump in to help as our loved ones (in their wedding attire!) ran around and addressed these last-minute details, like setting out place cards. They were barely finished in time for the wedding to start. This is exactly what we had wanted to avoid.

When vendors approached Stacy, by all accounts she was not responsive. For example, when the bartender arrived and had questions about the welcome champagne, Stacy did not help clarify and left it to our friends to fill the bartender in on the details of the timeline. When informed that the the women’s restroom was not working, Stacy replied that “she did not know what to do about that,” despite having the contact information for all vendors. Our photographer noted that she "had never seen an on-site coordinator sit so much" and had to jump in to course-correct more than a few times.

When Stacy did involve herself, she often gave misinformation despite having a detailed timeline for reference. For example, before the ceremony, there was a lot of confusion around the procession order because Stacy and her assistant were giving conflicting information. Ultimately the groom (moments before walking down the aisle) had to step in and correct her.

I understand that it's impossible for an event to be executed "perfectly." But now that the dust has settled and vendor and guest stories have been corroborated, we feel it's clear that the on-site team did not try in good faith to follow through on what was agreed to, and certainly did not effectively communicate or problem-solve along the way. When alerted to our experience, Lydia did not take responsibility or even attempt to make things right for her clients. We simply cannot recommend...

The florals for my wedding were absolutely beautiful but unfortunately, outside of that I had a very negative experience working with Lydia as a coordinator for my wedding. There was frequent miscommunication throughout the process, including the day of my wedding when all vendors came to me with the wrong timeline of the day which left me feeling as if our conversations leading up to the wedding had been virtually pointless. Lydia was frequently late for our phone calls and even once unknowingly picked up my call at our scheduled time, and was complaining in the background about having to meet with me (at a time she chose) because she was having lunch. Lydia wasn’t even present for my wedding and instead sent one of her team members, who had been provided with inaccurate and outdated information at every turn. Things that we had explicitly discussed together were not done, and when I asked Lydia’s team to make the simple changes, I was told no. I was left coordinating my own day, arranging the ceremony procession in my wedding dress moments before walking down the aisle because her team was not present. I would not recommend Lydia and her team to anyone and unfortunately I feel as though I wasted my time, money, and energy as I had an increased level of stress that day that was completely...

The flowers ended up being beautiful but getting there was not easy with them, the samples looked nothing like the final product. We didnt get what we had asked for or paid for, the vision is not what we got in the end. They even snuck in peacock feathers I told them I didn't want them ( a trend through out our entire time working together ). You say one thing, they do the opposite. The "flat greenery" was the least flat greenery I have ever seen was actually removed from our day because of how much we hated it. We never got flowers on our wedding cake, wont even get a response on why. We got less center pieces than we paid for. Horrendous...