at the beginning of the year, i professed my utter detest (and i kind of still do) for the idea of spending gajillions of money on things that will just wilt and die at the end of the day. i skulked around the weddings at work yahoogroup, incredulous at brides who blew as much as a hundred thousand pesos on flowers for the church, entourage and reception. a hundred grand!!! on flowers!!!! (then, of course, i vowed i would never do something so ridiculous.)
i scoffed at "event stylists" who were really just florists in disguise. and i toyed with the tempting idea of eschewing flowers altogether, except for the bride's bouquet.
maybe i was different. or maybe i was just cheap. after all, i did get a handful of quotations that, while not as outre as a hundred grand, were whoppers in their own right. and so i hemmed, i hawed, i avoided, i footdragged my way to booking a florist.
until my partner at work recommended his florist, mr. hardinero, to me. a guy raving about a florist pointed to a florist worth checking out, i reasoned. plus, the package rates on their website were just about as much as i was willing to spend on things that were doomed to be forgotten, stolen, or tossed out the next day. so, having done a little homework (pegs from brides.com and martha stewart weddings), i stole away from the office one afternoono to meet pam of mr. hardinero at starbucks tomas morato.
pam is such a sweetheart. her simple and straightforward attitude, heaps of patience, huge portfolio of sample bouquets, never-ending list of suggestions and willingness to customize totally won this anti-flower bride over. so much so, in fact, that i actually found myself getting excited about the flowers for my wedding... and kilig at the thought of my all-purple, all-orchid bridal bouquet.