Avant-Gardens Florist in Miami
17 November 2009Brides Beware – A Bait & Switch happened on my wedding flower order along with poor quality flowers and an unprofessional delivery man.
I was very excited when I went into the office of Avant Gardens in Miami (off Bird Rd). I was told that they were the Nieman Marcus of florist and although my budget was not huge I wanted quality not quantity.
My sister and I looked through all of their beautiful flower books. Picking my bridal bouquet took a bit longer because I chose not to go traditional with my dress so I really wanted my bouquet to stand out. I saw a picture of a beautiful arrangement with a mix of flowers that were highlighted with an Eggplant Calla Lily. It was gorgeous. That was the one I wanted and I didn’t care how much it cost. If there were no other flowers in the room – it didn’t matter. I waited until I was 43 to get married – damn it I wanted my bridal bouquet to AWESOME. I felt I had chosen the perfect bouquet.
My sister had seen a picture of a wedding cake that was decorated with a mixture of flowers that was so beautiful. Again, not traditional but very elegant. Flowers were picked for my wedding cake and told there would be a $105 decorating charge as it would take some time – on the day of the wedding- to decorate the cake according to the picture. Done & Done. It was what I wanted and considered it worth the money. Even if I had to go to a lower budget on the food or other arrangements. I really had my heart set on the flowers to be beautiful.
The day before my wedding I was contacted by the owner – Rick – who asked if it would be ok to deliver the flowers a little earlier than discussed. I explained that I would not be at the location of the wedding until much later so he needed to contact my sister before the delivery to make sure she is there to recieve the flowers since she was with me when I placed the order and knew what needed to happen with the cake.
I had kept the details of the wedding cake secret from my future husband because I wanted to surprise him. The day of my wedding I called at 12:30 (wedding was at 5) to see how everything was going and was told that the flowers were delivered and the cake wasn’t decorated. My future husband told me that the delivery guy said he had extra flowers and thought they would look pretty on the windows and left. I was furious and contacted Rick. He informed me that his driver didn’t speak English very well and didn’t understand what he was supposed to do but he would have the delivery man return. He returned, with an attitude and shoved flowers into the wedding cake creating big holes. I later found out that he was attempting to have a security guard sign for the flowers so he could just dump and go.
When I saw my Bridal bouquet and the Bridesmaid flowers I just started crying. My bouquet wasn’t anything like I ordered. What I got was about 14 Eggplant calla lilies wrapped in masking tape. No other flowers. It was boring and ugly. The Bridesmaid flowers were freezer burnt and limp. They too were wrapped in masking tape. I paid $165 for my bouquet and an additional $85 for the two other bouquets and didn’t get at all what I expected in color or quality.
The Men’s flowers were all a Single flower with a stick pin.
In the end I paid over $1,000 to Avant-Gardens in Miami. I could have gone with a less expensive florist, as they are a dime a dozen but I choose Avant Gardens for their promise of style and elegance. Maybe because my order was only $1,000 they chose not to treat me as a valued customer. Rick’s attitude with me has been arrogant and non-apologetic. I would not reccomend this company and I have reported them to the Better Business Bureau as well.
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