Worst Prom Corsage

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Lizi

Lizi

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Nov 28, 2007
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Matthews
www.matthewsflowerboutique.com
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NC
I had a customer in 3 weeks ago with 2 other girls, they all wanted custom pieces for the Prom. I made 2 of those at 3:00 this morning. I never heard from the other girl unti 5:30 this afternoon. She came in with her mother and Aunts, all dressed for the Prom. She looked as if she was going to cry. One of the Aunts wanted some crystals or something to put on the shoulder of her dress to draw the eye up. I didn't realize what was going on since I was in a 33 hour work stupor. She was hiding her arm behind her back, I brought up some crystals but nothing really looked good with the dress, I headed back to finish up on last minute corsages (never have seen so many last minute as this year ) any way the Mother came in the work area and told me they were so ashamed because they thought I was too high until they saw the 2 custom pieces I did for her daughters friends. She was carrying this pitiful corsage with about 5 yards of #3 ribbon, 6 brown spray rose about the size of my pinkie and some rhinestone that looked old and rusted. My mouth dropped open, I could not help asking where in the world they got it and was really surprise by her answer. I felt so bad for this girl, I added three big white rose and huge rhinestone to try to take your eye away from how bad it really looked. The girls smiled when I carried it back to the front. Her mother asked how much she owed me and I told her nothing, except to remember that you get what you pay for. They all hugged me and thanked me and said I had saved her Prom and they would not forget that. I felt good that I helped someone fell better on her special day. What really gets me is that this florist let this crap leave her shop, let alone had her name associated with it. It was the most pitiful thing I have ever seen. I just can't believe it, I wish I had taken a picture of it but my camera was at the counter.

I just can not believe the crap that some shops let go out their doors.
 
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Every year, especially for our largest prom, we deal with similar situations. Makes you wonder how the other shops stay in business.

We redo or completely make a few corsages every year. We charge for them.
 
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I had a similar thing happen last year it breaks my heart to see what other florists send out...I agree you get what you pay for.... I felt good I was able to help this girl out...ans since then the family has been back in the store many times.way to go Lizi
 
this corsage was brought in by a young man going to last year's homecoming. the poor boy was near tears when he walked in and asked if we could help him because he could not possibly give his date the corsage he bought from another florist.

we took one look at it and certainly agreed. i took a picture of it because words could not adequately explain it.

in the end, we made a beautiful wrist corsage for the young man to give his date. he was really happy when he left my store with his new flowers.

worst corsage ever.jpg
saving the days one customer at a time...lol
 
The one brought in here was on a sequined band, the roses were at one time white and were now brown. The pic Sharronbrannigan showed looked great compared to the one this girl brought in.
 
sharonbrannigan said:
this corsage was brought in by a young man going to last year's homecoming. the poor boy was near tears when he walked in and asked if we could help him because he could not possibly give his date the corsage he bought from another florist.

we took one look at it and certainly agreed. i took a picture of it because words could not adequately explain it.

View attachment 5935
Click to expand...

Tipped roses and spray-painted BB with gold ribbon. Wonder how he stated his order to the other florist? (I know. I know. The roses are old. Just wondering)

Believe me, I've repaired/replaced far worse than this.
 
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Must be something with my monitor - though Sharon's corsage wasn't pretty, it certainly wasn't the worst I've ever seen. ;) Like Connie, I've seen waaaaay worse.

Great job Lizi on making someone feel special - sometimes that's what it's all about .... re: brown roses? Is there any way this was frozen by mistake? Like you, I can't magine anyone letting brown roses out of their shop on purpose; your surprise at the mention of the florist made me wonder if something else happend before you saw this corsage.

I hope the mom & girl & all witnesses appreciate what you did, and reward that, though your actions have their own reward regardless. :)
 
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We are fortunate that most in our area go for hand tied bouquets, I am thankful for that, I am not a big fan of corsages.

We always have at least one mom come in every year, with flowers from another florist, asking us to fix it...I tell them, to put away the fugly bouquet, as I do not want anyone to think it came from my shop! LOL

We can make them a new bouquet from scratch,as we don't fix other florists bouquets. LOL

With that being said, Im sure it's possible that a mom may have not been happy with one of our bouquets at some point too, you cannot please everyone, and there is always one that will find something wrong with a bouquet, even if it is pretty...opinions vary ;)

I think a great reality show would be "Prom Moms" LOL
There are a few wackos out there! Why do the moms make such a fuss out of the prom, when most kids could care less??!
 
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I don't think the roses were put in the freezer, or left in a hot car, I've seen that many times and this wasn't that. I think the corsage was made up on Monday or Tuesday with older roses and once out of the cooler it died. Another mention, I had to do some funeral work yesterday and afterwards, my husband and I went to a local restaurant for dinner and I ran into both of my local competitors, one of which made this corsage, they both stated they only had maybe 10 corsages, and half of those were silk. They had all of the customers pick up on Friday, because they did not want to be open on Saturday.

Another thing, this florist that made the corsage has been listed on a discount card (for the last 5 years) from one of our local schools, they are getting ready to do the cards again and they called me this morning and said they had a meeting on Friday and they wanted me to be the florist listed on the card, I was curious why they were not going with the other florist again, their answer was quality of product and not being available for customers.
 
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I can't imagine not being open on the Saturday of a big prom, that's ridiculous. We pick up anywhere between 2 to 5 new orders for corsages by being open that day. As long as we have it close to being done, I don't mind doing more.

Did have a gal we dealt with that thought the corsage she got from someone else was awful, those of us in the shop thought it was very nicely done. Guess it just wasn't what she wanted, Prom Mom again.

Would have been interesting to know exactly what that boy ordered for his corsage where it was white, burgundy and red(?) tipping on the rose.

I was never able to see the picture of the first corsage.

Trish
 
That one Sharon posted w/the gold ribbon and bb is a great visual testament to why I don't like to offer weird colors "dipped" for people or bb. There are so many natural colors and better fillers to use. It does make you wonder what the kid actually ordered.
 
I get requests for those darn "tipped" roses every year. I hate them. It just ruins the whole effect. I will do it if requested but do my best to talk them out of it. I have pics I show them to help talk them out of it.
 
That's what It's about! GREAT story - THANKS!
 
I agree alot of it is the mom's and they want their daughter to be the best dressed the best hair the best everything and it just gets nuts. I talked to a hair dresser today who said they will not do updo's next year as you can not make the little darlings happy.
How many of you out there get so you hate all of the corsages you do after awhile? They all look the same to me and I just hate them anymore.
 
I don't get tired of doing corsages I get tired of the M&M Moms trying to relive their prom days. Kids don't want paint tipped flowers or colored Baby "breast" They want bling, they want their corsage to be a fashion statement not a huge pompom that creaps up their arm to the elbow.

And I get tired of those same Moms who think the prices should be the same when they were in HS>>>>>>>
 
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You are so right the one I had to redo was dendro orchids and the girl loved it the mom hated it. And of course the price I 'm only 25 miles away from a big city so I called to see what their prices were and guess what mine where the same. People think I should be cheaper I guess. You know small town not much overhead I guess.I'm sure the stores in the big cites would love to go thru what we go thru as far as trying to match boys up to girls and so forth. Next year I'm going to hang a notice if the corsage and bout are not orded together I can't guarantee that they will match. God forbid if they don't match.
We had one mother here pay $50 to have a vest either custom made or sent in so it would match the girls dress exactly.
 
I love the story except for the fact that you didn't charge her anything.

yes, she will come back to you, hopefully.....

But I think time and time again so many florists do not charge for their time or product and then we wonder why people devalue our business.

I would have charged her. At least $20.

Here's an anology...
you order lunch, take out. Start to eat it and it is just not what you wanted. Pitch it and get something else. You still have to pay for lunch #2 no matter how sorry the restaurant feels for you.

I REALLY do love the story. And being the hero is always nice. But Superman still had to work as Clark Kent to pay the bills!
 
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