We found David at the D.I.Y. bridal expo and the lady representing his company talked so very…read morehighly of David, she was even using him for her upcoming wedding, so we scheduled to sit down with him. At this first meeting, we discussed all of what we wanted, one of the big needs was an outdoor white tent. We received a quote of about $3,000. We mentioned that we may go to a different vendor for florals, and he was very put off by this. We were very pleased at this number, surprised at all that we could receive at that price, and decided to schedule a second meeting where we could view a line item and finalize paperwork.
When we arrived, David was walking around the shops nearby and as we walked in, he gasped as is surprised to see us. He explained that we were not on his assistants books, but he could have sworn that we had an appointment that afternoon. This was our first red flag. He was extremely unorganized, and throughout the appointment, he would have to get up and leave the store to figure out something on the side.
Prior to walking in to the meeting, we read his google reviews. Many were fans of David, but two in particular took their time to write a detailed review about their awful experiences with David. Between the two, it was mentioned that the staff was late to the ceremony and reception, the bouquet showing up minutes before walking down the aisle, wrong table cloth colors, wrong floral colors, ect. As a bride and her family, this was extremely concerning and needed to be brought up. When a member of our group began to ask David about the reviews, he cut them off and began a rant about the previous customers, made a very racist remark toward them, bashed on their wedding party, and cussed multiple times. During his rant, he also mentioned multiple times that he "does not need our business". He explained that there are two sides to every story, and we did not deny that, but the way the conducted himself, yelling and cursing, was not professional in the least. Once he was done talking, it was mentioned that we should move on from that topic, and he looked at the person who brought up the reviews and said, "Well this one still has a craw up her butt", his words exactly.
Never mind the way he conducted himself, but when we received our line item, the total was $9,716.06!! This is more than 3X what we were quoted, and this did not even include the tent! He blamed that large number on us because of our floral requests, but in the first meeting, he was pleased by our floral request because there is only one bridesmaid and one groomsman. Once we said that that was not what was discussed, he said that he would go to the computer to see what he could do. After cutting down on decorations, lights, linen quality, the final price was $5,904.04, nearly double our original quote.