Bouquet by Golden Gate Studios, Cranston. Photo by Oggi Wedding Photography, Bristol.
By Amanda Parker
More than 260,000 flowers. There are more than 260,000 different flower species all over the world. And I have to pick a couple for my wedding day? That’s quite a task.
My mom and I set out on a Saturday to two florist appointments, two very different — extremely different, actually — florist appointments. The first was three hours (THREE HOURS) of looking at different pictures from past weddings and saying, “Oh, I like that,” and, “No way!” Flipping through books, pictures on the computer, looking at vases — I needed a glass of wine!
Right after that appointment we grabbed a quick coffee at Dunkin’ (we needed more fuel to go through this again) and set off to appointment number two. Sitting, waiting, no florist. So I called and the florist had the wrong time (strike one!). We walked into the showroom, sat down and, five minutes later, we were out the door — sent on our merry way with the florist saying, “I know exactly what you want.” In my head I was thinking, “Umm…I’m not quite sure that you do, but okay — go for it.”
We received both of their proposals within the week. One was several thousand more than the other, but we still had one more florist to visit. One night after work, my mom, Adam (Side note: He wanted to be more involved — I in no way forced him against his will!) and I went to Golden Gate Studios and met with Jay. We talked about my vision, and he kept writing and writing and writing. At the end he said, “Okay, let’s go over this,” and handed me a piece of paper. The paper had everything that we talked about on it — he knew exactly what I was going for, my vision. Jay does many weddings at the Biltmore. He knows the room and what does and doesn’t work, and we were so comfortable. His recommendations far exceeded our expectations. We had heard great things about Jay, and when we met him, we knew he was our florist. We walked out of there that night knowing exactly how much everything was going to cost. I loved it, the good old-fashioned way. No waiting in suspense for them to give you the proposal, etc. When we were leaving, Jay said he would be in touch about three months before the wedding so we could come in and see a sample of the centerpiece. I was ecstatic! I know what I want, Jay knows what I want, but to be able to see it and make changes if necessary makes me so much more comfortable.
Since then we’ve run into Jay at a lot of the wedding shows we’ve gone to, and he has just been absolutely fabulous. I cannot wait to see his creations when we walk into that ballroom. Jay is the best!