Bloom-the Art of Flowers

Where do I begin… On the Monday prior to Mother’s Day I placed an order to purchase 6 thematic bouquets for a ceremonial graduation, the owner was helpful we exchanged business cards and I left with the understanding that my order had in placed and would be ready for pick up by Friday at 4PM, I arrived at 345PM to pick up the flowers and they’d not even started to prepare them. I offered to return one hour later and when I did the owners started to shout at me, shout at a customer? They didn’t think I was returning even though I’d clearly stated I’d be back. When I said I could not wait one of the owners chased me out the store screaming at me calling me a «fucking yoga bitch», this is no exaggeration this is the complete truth. If you are intending to conduct business with Bloom on Granby in Norfolk, Virginia please don’t. Walk away. No, in fact, run. This place knows nothing about customer service, morals or etiquette.

Update: was told i was getting a refund and never did. avoid this vendor!
A wedding is a once in a life time experience. If you want perfect flowers with a professional environment — be prepared to manage the vendor better than I did.
Positive experiences:
1. I screwed up my order and the sweet lady who dropped off the flowers scrambled to make me another bridesmaid bouquet.
2. They worked in my budget and didn’t try to sell me $ 10,000 in flowers. (this is a good option if you’re on a budget!)
3. The flowers at my reception were beautiful.
Negative experiences:
1. Didn’t type anything I ordered up and scribbled everything to the point where I couldn’t read it. Had i known this was important I would have made her read the entire thing with me so I would have known the way I wanted my bridal bouquet was not written properly and that I didn’t order a throw away bouquet.
2. 2 days before the wedding Patrice left me a voice mail. When I called back someone picked up the phone, told me Patrice had stepped out and when i stated my full name so they knew I was calling about my wedding in 2 days and that i was returning a phone call I was told «yeah right» and the promptly hung up on because they thought I was a telemarketer. (this threw me into a panic)
When I attempted to call back, Patrice herself picked up the phone and told me she was out. When I pleaded to talk to her because i had a wedding that Saturday, she told me it was her and that she thought I was a telemarketer. (When I’ve told people this story they couldn’t believe the customer service level)
3. The grand finale is that my bridal bouquet was embarrassing: wilted flowers throughout, NOT the design I ordered and FAKE greenery!
**Note: Patrice is planning on refunding me for the bridal bouquet, but that was something that I wanted to save and have lots of pictures of. I hated it so much I threw it away almost immediately and there are no pictures other than ones of me walking down the isle. It was actually the only thing at my wedding that had me truly upset.
Long story short, they’re not great, they had some bright spots but overall, I wouldn’t use them again.

After hearing good things about Patrice and Mary Lou from friends, we decided to contact them about vintage rentals for our October wedding. We emailed and called them back and forth for weeks when they finally gave us a price quote. This came after my fiancé had to call and speak with both of them, basically begging them to send us one. We had emailed them letting them know we wanted to come in and view the pieces before we committed to anything, which we thought was legit since we live in the DC area.
When my fiancé spoke with Patrice on the phone, he asked her if it would be alright to come and visit on May 18^th, since we had made appointments with our other vendors that weekend to confirm and discuss contracts, etc. She told him that this was «totally fine, stop by any time you are in the area and we can help you.» I had also emailed both Mary Lou and Patrice before this (about 3 times), letting them know that we would be in town this weekend and were hoping to meet with them.
My fiancé and I arrived at the shop around 10:00am on Saturday, along with his dad and stepmom, excited to discuss our vintage pieces. We walked in and there was no one to help us. A couple minutes later we saw Patrice walk out from the back and introduce herself to us. We told her who we were and that we had an appt to talk about the rentals. She told us that she «didn’t remember making an appt today since she had 2 weddings and that we would have to call on Monday to make another». Excuse me? We drove over 3 hours to get there and meet with them! You have got to be kidding me.
After this interaction, she told us to speak with Mary Lou who was just walking in the front door. We again introduced ourselves and she had absolutely no clue who we were. Now I’m getting angry. Are you serious lady?! She then said she doesn’t remember us again and that she doesn’t remember making an appt with anyone for today since «we have 2 weddings going on» but that we could look around and take some pictures of what we liked and «be sure to like us on Facebook.»
Needless to say, we decided right there to leave and not deal with people who didn’t have their stuff together. But the kicker was the attitude we received as we were leaving. When Mary Lou asked if were interested in the pieces, I told her «Probably not» and she replied with a very short «Ok, fine, see ya.»
These people definitely don’t know how to properly run a business. Mary Lou is completely incompetent and needs to be booted immediately. I asked her 4 times for a price quote and she had no idea what I was talking about. Seriously?! Learn what you’re doing before opening a business. Sorry.