Hello again!  So you're about to get married and need to talk to a florist about your wedding floral needs?  Here's some advice about wedding floral and other decor.

One of the biggest piece of advice I give to couples is to buy your centerpiece containers!  Have your florist include the cost of the container in their centerpiece quotes.  This may cost a little more, but your guests will love taking flowers home as a gift!  I used to rent containers and then during break-down, I'd have to throw away all the flowers (and all my hard work!)  I broke my heart.  As a florist, if flowers aren't dead, it is very hard to toss them away.

My second piece of advice is to know when and where to reuse floral!  No matter what your coordinator, decorator, or budget conscious friend tells you, there is a limit to what can be reused.  For example, I never suggest placing bridal bouquets or bridesmaid bouquets on tables as "centerpieces" to cut costs.  The bouquets can stand 10"-14" tall when placed in a vase and can obstruct view!  Also, these bouquets have been without water during pictures and the ceremony and will not look fresh soon after.   However, the toss bouquet may be used as part of the sign-in table decor, since it's viewed during the very beginning and not tossed until the very end.  This bouquet is in a vase with water, causing it to stay beautiful and fresh during the entire evening. 
Other items to not re-purpose: pew hangs, arch pieces, curtain tie-backs, floral crowns, corsages or boutonnieres.

My third piece of advice is to have your florist be the sole entity of providing all floral decor!  Again, no matter what your coordinator, decorator, or budget conscious friend advises, have your florist be the only one handling floral decor!  This will ensure cohesiveness with all aspects of your floral decor.  I learned this the hard way, when I did centerpieces for a wedding where the "aunt who has a green thumb" created the bridal bouquet, bridesmaids bouquets and all other personals.  It was not done well, and the aunt was very stressed the day of.  You do not want to put pressure on your guests or family a few days before your wedding or even the day of.  This also helps the florist protect their image and reputation since pictures will be taken and featured on social media, personal pages, and even magazines!  

Hello again and thanks for reading!
This entry is to go over the impact of online reviews for the consumers and businesses they affect.

Online reviews can be a business' best friend, or worst enemy.  Great reviews mean higher online ratings and can be more appealing to a potential client, while poor reviews can be very damaging and viewed as an inaccurate generalization of the business itself.  

When assessing a business according to their ratings, it is important to see how many total ratings have been given to receive that score.  Some businesses only have a few reviews giving them a very high rating , while other businesses may have 50-100 ratings with most good and a few bad reviews, causing their rating to be lower than the business with only a few.  

Unfortunately, some customers are quicker to leave bad reviews than good.  When someone has a not-so-pleasant experience, they want the world to know and a way to vent.  These online reviews and ratings never go away and can be very damaging to a business' reputation and "online status." 

My advice to the customer with an unpleasant experience, is to talk to the business either over the phone or in person first, before writing a bad review.  Most of the time, when a business owner or manager can get a clear picture of the situation they are able empathize and validate the customers concerns and are eager to find a remedy.  

We are all human and even businesses, new or long established, make mistakes.  As Alexander Pope put it, "To err is human, to forgive, divine."  Let's try to consider leaving good reviews more frequently and try to resolve unpleasant  situations first before leaving bad reviews.

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