Catherine’s Garden

Upon our initial consultation with Julie, everything seemed great. She was very friendly and very knowledgeable about flowers. I left the consultation feeling very confident and excited to see with the flowers would look like for my wedding day. When I received my mock bouquet a few weeks before my wedding, I was over the moon excited with how beautiful the flowers looked. Then on the morning of my wedding I am not sure if devastated is a strong enough word to use to express how I felt when I saw the flowers. It was written in the contract that I did not want to see any green in any of the flowers. All of my girls bouquets had green leaves falling out of them, my bouquet with significantly smaller than my bridesmaids bouquets, and the boutonnieres looked as though they were run over by the delivery vehicle. I called them crying and they did nothing to fix it. I sent countless emails requesting a refund for the wedding flowers, and Julie flat out ignored me. This has left me no choice but to file a formal complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I urge you to look somewhere else unless you would like your wedding day ruined like she ruined mine.

Julie, Stephanie, and the rest of the staff have always done a phenomenal job with our quarterly corporate events in the Chicago-​area and I am very appreciative of how easy they make the process of booking, delivering, and setting up our events every quarter. They’ve made it so easy to work with especially since we are a company that is out of state. Julie and her team have always taken the time to understand what our needs are, make a solid recommendation and they always exceed our expectations in terms of quality and working within our budget. They always give me one less thing to worry about when I land in Chicago from DC which is appreciated, keep up the great work Julie and team!

A few months ago, I was dealing with some pretty heavy stuff, and to cheer me up, a friend sent me not just a beautiful floral arrangement, but some much-​needed donuts that were delivered to me along with the flowers.
The flowers were easily among the prettiest I’ve ever received. I liked them so much that, when my friend had a baby recently, I couldn’t help but send her flowers from Catherine’s. Ordering over the phone was easy enough, even though I called at what sounded like a busy time. The woman I spoke with was friendly, professional, and helpful. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted, so I appreciated how patient she was with me, and that she didn’t try to upsell me at all.
After receiving my flowers, my friend texted me a picture to say «thank you» and I was really pleased with how the arrangement looked. My wallet was pleased too, because Catherine’s Gardens is a good bit less expensive than the place I had previously ordered from.
Next time I have an occasion to order flowers, I’ll definitely be giving Julie and her staff my business again.

Our consultation went amazingly well all the times we met with Julie and her staff, we really thought she knew exactly what we wanted and loved the attention she gave us and our children. Unfortunately, on the day of our wedding, our flowers were over an hour and half late after several calls made by bride and mother of bride, incorrect, and wilting. The arrangements at the reception were not at all what we imagined as far as flowers on the bottom with our vases being placed in square vases with water on in them-​this was not as we discussed. They were sparse and sloppy. Worst of all, my mothers wristlet was incorrect, as we ordered an orchid and received two calla lilies which were to be for the groom, his father and our children only in honor of my husband’s mothers passing. Several of my bridesmaids bouquets fell apart after the church during photos, my mini bouquet toss bouquet was no were near my bouquet and my bouquet was browning. Everything seemed rushed, and real care was not taken in providing the service or the flowers that we discussed, with that being said we feel that a portion of our payment should be reimbursed for unsatisfactory flowers and service. We have attempted to email, call and contact Julie to discuss as to why incorrect flowers were give, and at least allow her to offer an apology and some type of refund but she has not responded in any form.

Trust the other reviews and book with caution! Flat out, you get what you pay for and if it seems too good to be true it probably is. I was impressed with Julie during our consultation and loved the cash deal discount. As it got closer to my wedding she was hard to get a hold of, but eventually returned messages. We had agreed on a mock bridal and flower girl bouquet and a mock floral centerpiece. As it got closer to my wedding all I could receive was the mock bridal. I understood wedding season is busy, so I was fine with it. My mock bouquet was GOEGEOUS, but also nothing like the picture we had agreed on. Julie explained that she couldn’t get all the flowers in for my trial, but it would be great the day of. I also reviewed my contract and wanted to correct a previous color choice. She said no problem and I kept it moving. Again, I trusted her EVEN AFTER reading all her negative reviews.
The day of the wedding– the flowers arrived 3 hours early and no one was at the hotel to receive them except my father, who is colorblind. I spoke to a young girl on the phone and she said that they couldn’t wait and now I had no choice but to accept them. We got to the hotel and low and behold the flowers are wrong. I had two strange looking succulents stuck in the front and a few of my flowers were wilted. Again, this looked nothing like the picture I had originally showed her and absolutely nothing like the mock up. The bridesmaids flowers were supposed to be variations of champagne and ivory and were bubblegum pink. When we got to the reception the low bowl vases I chose were switched out for standard stock vases that you receive for free with 1−800-flowers. There were also calla lilies in my center pieces that I specifically said I didn’t want. The floral center pieces were so small and looked like an afterthought. I was so upset because I put a lot of work into choosing what I wanted and didn’t receive it. Julie is cheap, but she isn’t free. I still spent a lot of money considering what I received.

All of you out there… Please take time to read this. I live in oak forest and my family is very versed in flowers. Both my sister and I have won beautification awards from the city as flowers are our thing.
This place was recommended by a friend who got a bouquet of roses. We used them for my wedding which was this past Saturday August 15, 2015. Their pricing was so reasonable. We also used them as I roped my sister into it for my wedding shower. You ask why two events? We went there for the wedding. Julie was great with her knowledge, color books, etc and then gives you a prepay deal and discount for other events. By the time I saw the shower outcome I couldn’t break the contract. Sure it was great considering that my other floral quote was $ 1,500 more.
Wedding shower… Tiffany theme stunning expensive shower my sister threw me. The centerpieces were falling apart — the bling wrap around the vase. Event didn’t even start and my sister had to tape them. The flowers did not look fresh and looked like they had been sitting out and were old. Fell apart the next day which of you order fresh flowers they do not do. Everything looked yellow when it was supposed to be white. This owner makes promises she does not keep not to mention her staff. The favors were the absolute worst at the shower. My sister wanted succulents from Martha Stewart magazine in the shape of hearts with thank yous on them. She brought the pic in and Julie said she could do it. My sister asked if she was sure because she would have ordered them and done it herself. For the cost of three dollars a favor see what we wanted and what we got. Hell, my sister made an entire candy table with custom fabric and wall words so she surely would have done the favors too. Julie is no where to be seen of or heard from on your event day. You deal with the minions that work for her. And yeah, she offered a hundred off and my sister said take it and shove it up your ass.
She gave me the hundred off on the wedding charges.
Wedding day… All of the flowers were not there when promised. Why? She knew she changed things so you are stuck. I’m an attorney and I tell it like it is. So here it is… I rewrote my contract with her in type and went over it explicitly because hers had scratches everywhere. I did this after the shower fiasco so nothing was unclear and made three trips in there. I talked to her staff Hannah about how I wanted white flowers nothing yellow but she didn’t have any of the whites when I came on there to make sure. Convenient. I also had mocks done of my favors in three different flowers to decide. She up charged me for those and I paid. Got pics and everything. So the big day… Bouquet was yellow looking roses. Didn’t yet see the favors. Called as I was trying to take pics. Said I got the whitest roses there were. Which when I went in the store they have a color rose chart on the wall. The roses were not like it. I asked the video guy and photographer have they seen whiter as the photo flowers all the time. Neither one would say anything for fear I would be pissed then I was as my dress was white. I called and they sent over daisies which were white to remedy my upset at my request of course. But did not use as there was nothing formal about them. Next centerpieces… They were lovely To her credit. Probably the best of the whole experience but she changed vases on me which should have been told. I ordered Eiffel Tower vases (more expensive) and got long cylinders. The bracelets for my sisters and bridal party bouquet were all nice. The favors again not what was asked or pictured. She charged me for three lisanthis to be in the mini watering cans. I ended up with a hodgepodge of purple flowers. The tent card table — I ordered a black tree with mini lanterns, lanterns at her suggestion. I thought it would be metal. Never did I think it would be a cheap plastic pot with branches I could have taken and sprayed with paint for eighty dollars. My vision was the brown tree in the things remembered store on black with the plaque of our story begins here in front of it. Of course the guests don’t know any better but you do and that is all that matters.
Non wedding… we ordered flowers around the same time for initial consult. The telafloral bouquet was great but a florist in Indianapolis did it as they are stock orders. The local bouquet for Mother’s Day of rainbow tulips meaning different colored ones was a disaster. Catherines did those.
It is obvious to me after reading reviews which I did not that 75 percent here think it is a bad experience. Trust me if you know flowers and love flowers especially for events as showers and weddings, this is not the place for you. If you don’t know crap about flowers, don’t care and like switch ups this is the place for you. Walk in walk out stuff at best.
When I have time i will write the knot about my experience as well as the city of oak forest as my town wants us to support local businesses

I ordered flowers for a friend in the hospital. She texted me a pic to thank me. The flowers looked NOTHING like what I saw on the website when I ordered.
I called to complain and the person I spoke with said they substituted, making sure I got my money’s worth. Maybe I did, but I still thought the final product looked liked something I could have put together myself by getting flowers from the Jewel. Nothing special, just some lilies, a rose and alosteria. While the vase was nice and appeared to be an upgrade, a ribbon would have been a nice touch, as was in the picture.
Lastly, delivery was a day later than requested, although this could have been an issue with the hospital, not the florist.
Given the choice of sending flowers in the area again, I will try another florist.

We made the mistake of using Catherine’s Garden for our wedding flowers, which were supposed to be peonies and dahlias. On the day of the wedding, none of the bouquets included a single dahlia, and the two peonies in my bridal bouquet were wilted. Basically all of the flowers were replaced with roses, which I explicitly stated that I dislike and didn’t want. Similar issues with flower girl pomanders, which were supposed to be peonies and instead arrived as strange-​looking green blobs with two ugly roses perched on top. The centerpieces were also subbed with roses and were not in the vases that had been picked out. I’ve reached out to Julie four times now — initially she was going to «follow-​up» and then stopped responding. I’ve noticed too late that multiple other brides faced similar issues. Overall I am not only upset that the flowers were incorrect, but also frustrated that the more expensive peonies and dahlias were replaced with cheaper roses without any notice.

The absolute WORST service I have EVER experienced-​and they didn’t even care to remedy it! I ordered flowers for my mothers birthday on Sunday. They rang the doorbell, but she couldn’t answer at that moment, so they decided to deliver to another random house in the neighborhood! (we have no immediate next door neighbors), and they just so happen to pick the one neighbor with whom my mother has a standing lawsuit with! Unbelievable! Of course, they could not have known that, but WHY on earth would they deliver to some random house in our neighborhood?!? We have never heard of such a thing! And the cherry on top? We called 1800 flowers back to complain (they were equally as mortified) & they refunded us immediately followed with a RE-​DELIVERY order from the same florist… their response? Refused to redeliver since they already dropped off the flowers at another house… Are you kidding me? If I could give them 0 stars I would. Worst ever.

Catherine’s Gardens provided the flowers for my wedding. I would not recommend them. When I met with Julie for our consultation, which the setting is less than stellar, she was short and I did not feel like she provided much guidance. I did provide a photo of a crystal centerpiece with a flower arrangement she said she could do. It was a good thing I reviewed the order with her several times because she wrote the color completely wrong for one of my flowers (white instead of red). On the wedding day, the arrangements and «crystal vase» looked NOTHING like the picture. I was totally shocked and disappointed. Our bouquets — the flowers kept falling out. We were sticking them back in just to take pictures before the ceremony. My pictures look terrible. The ceremony arrangements looked cheap and underrated. I was completely disappointed. When I contacted Julie, I gave her very specific examples. I even stated that I was unable to preserve my bouquet as I had planned because it was falling apart BEFORE the ceremony. After various contacts, she agreed to remake my bouquet, although it was not the same, and give and small refund. However, when I began requesting these and provided my address for the refund, she would not respond to me despite my various attempts to contact her. I was already disappointed with the business and unsure if I would use it again prior to not receiving the refund. After being ignored and not receiving the agreed upon refund, I would NEVER return to this business nor would I suggest that anyone I know support this business.

I did not know that Avas Flowers used this place for my flower arrangement, Catherine’s Gardens put together a arrangement to be delivered to my wife at her office. The arrangement was just thrown together with no care, I guess they knew that it was a farmed to them from another vender. So they really did not care about my needs. They also attached there price list of the item I bought to the arrangement with there card. I would think they would of done a better job if there arrangement was to a first time customer before they place there business card to it. But the topper was the price sheet telling everyone what I paid for it, Very tacky and unprofessional.

Owner, Julie and her staff always go above and beyond. I have been ordering from Catherine’s Garden’s since the beginning and I’d never go anywhere else in the Chicagoland area! Her prices are fantastic — quality is great and the end result is ALWAYS sensational.
She’s easy to work with and her staff is too — I never worry about the condition of flowers ordered because I know no matter what I order or when — Julie will do an awesome job designing a piece that’s perfect in every way!
You can’t go wrong with Catherine’s Gardens!

I had a great experience with Catherine’s Gardens. I’ve always loved daisies and wanted them to be a prevalent part of our wedding. I came into the consultation with a lot of specific ideas about how I wanted the flowers to be done, and they were more than accommodating. Julie helped us hammer out some of the smaller details, and we left the consultation confident that our flowers were going to be just right on the big day.
Catherine’s Garden did an amazing job with the flowers for both our ceremony and reception. They were able to achieve a simple look while maintaining the level of elegance we wanted to achieve.
I’ve also received flowers from Catherine’s Gardens as gifts on a few different occasions. They arrangements have always been beautiful and the flowers were long-​lasting. I can say that I recommend them for both big events and those times when you want to send a great arrangement to someone.

DO NOT use Catherine’s Gardens! You will be incredibly disappointed. My fiancé and I met with Julie about the wedding we were having 7÷16÷2011. Julie seemed super nice and appeared to know exactly what we wanted. We showed her pictures of our ideas (from her own books so you would think she could do the things she is promoting) and she told us it wouldn’t be a problem. We left feeling comfortable that our flower needs were in the right hands. BOY WERE WE WRONG!
One of her employees came to our venue on the afternoon of our wedding. The first thing she screwed up was our cake. We were supposed to have groops of roses, but it looked like she closed her eyes and just threw them at the cake. $ 500 cake = ruined. We were supposed to have rose petals covering the entire center of each table. You were not supposed to see the tablecloth. There were maybe 10 petals per table. It looked cheap to say the least. Centerpieces = ruined. Those same petals were supposed to be on our cale table. There were none.
For our ceremony we ordered pink hydrangea balls to line the aisle. Their idea apparently was white with an extremely light tinge of pink that if you weren’t right up next to it you’d have missed it. Aisle = ruined. Behind the «altar» we wanted to pilars with white pots on them with pink flowers coming out. Here the flowers we actually ok, but the vases and pillars were very wrong. The pillars were tiny, one to one and a half feet tall. And on top of the «pillars» were the ugliest clear giant vases you could have imagined, filled with hot pink water. It would not have looked tackier. The worst part is that this was supposedly an upgrade! Ha! If I wanted to «upgrade» to cheap and tacky I would have done the flowers myself! Altar flowers = ruined. Also up on the altar was our unity candle. Our ceremony was outside and we had talked to Julie about hurricane vases for all 3 candles so that nothing would blow out. «No problem» she told us. Our big candle and a vase around it that was probably 3 inches too short. The other candles had nothing. I had to pull a lighter out of my pocket during the ceremony to re-​light the candles. I guess that went with the tacky theme Julie decided we were having.
Fast forward to after we return from our honeymoon. After exchanging a few emails in which I included pictures of the disastrous flowers, Julie and I spoke on the phone on 7÷30÷2011. She agreed that she messed up (read ruined our wedding) and that she would issue us a refund for the items that were wrong. She said that she would send flowers and the check either ⁸⁄₀₂ or ⁸⁄₀₃. Those days came and went and we heard nothing. I emailed both her work and personal emails and got no response. I drove all the way down there ⁸⁄₁₂ to talk to her face to face. She acted like we were best friends. «oh i just need» so and so «to cut a check, it will be there tomorrow». Tomorrow came and went and we got nothing.
Julie is not one to be trusted. Unless you want your wedding to be ruined like ours was, stay far far away from Catherine’s Gardens. This account didn’t even include everything that was wrong (like the delivery girl leaving with the father’s a ring barers’ flowers still in the van). I could go on and on. Julie is a liar. She will tell you what ever it takes to get the sale.
Buyer beware!
***After a month of threatening to sue she has FINALLY given us a partial refund. Do not make the same mistake we did.

I am extremely unhappy with Julie’s services. She did the centerpieces for my wedding on 5−28−11. I sent her a photo of what I wanted, i. e one long, planter-​style vase for each table. I also told her what flowers I wanted. Julie said she could do the job, so I put in the order and paid. On my wedding day, I discovered the centerpieces were not what I asked for. Julie delivered the right flowers, but as it turns out, she didn’t have the long, planter-​style vases I wanted. Instead she decided — without ever consulting me – to put two smaller vases side by side on each table. After the wedding, I complained and asked for a full refund. After several back-​and-​forth e-​mails, Julie ended up giving me a partial refund. But of course, it’s not about the money (and I have to say, her prices are reasonable). It’s about the fact that she mislead me, and ruined my vision for my wedding day.

Julie and her staff did a fantastic job with the flowers and décor for our October 2010 wedding.
During my consultation, Julie helped me figure out how to bring my very vague ideas to life. Even better, when she told me the price, I was floored. The pricing is very reasonable compared to what I had found elsewhere.
The day of our wedding, I was brought to tears when I saw our flowers. They were gorgeous and looked amazing all day (and night) long. The ceremony décor was exactly what I had hoped for, as well.
Would highly recommend them.

Let me say this: having lived in the OF area for most of my life, I’ve checked out a lot of florists. First, there was Vacha’s (nice work, too expensive), then there was Susan B.‘s (absolutely nothing to write home about), and now, we almost always go with Catherine’s Gardens. Their strongest point is in the cash-​and-​carry Most of the orders – up until recently – that we’ve both sent and received have been amazing; lately, they’ve been a little skimpy and slightly lacking in their usual exceptional quality (economy, maybe?). Overall, I’d definitely recommend checking them out – especially if you’re going the cash-​and-​carry route. Btw, the staff is super nice and really listen to your ideas/​the kind of arrangement for which you’re looking, etc.