This story was soooo amazing (ly unfortunate!), that I had to pass it on to BBH Members! Brides and Grooms beware of vendors who only want your ca$h.
By JANA WINTER and DAREH GREGORIAN
October 16, 2007 -- A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but hydrangeas of the wrong color allegedly stank up a Manhattan couple's wedding.
Elana and David Glatt have filed a $400,000 suit against an Upper East Side florist, charging it caused them "extreme disappointment, distress and embarrassment" on what was supposed to be the greatest day of their lives by providing the wrong-colored hydrangeas for their Aug. 11 nuptials.
In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, the Glatts and David's mom, Tobi, charge that Posy Floral Design Studio used cheaper pink hydrangeas instead of the contractually agreed-upon rust hydrangeas, messing up the color scheme of the deluxe wedding at Cipriani 42nd Street.
Posy's "performance was also substantially defective" in other ways, including "using wilted and/or browned flowers, leaving the event without filling half the centerpiece vases with water, and using dusty and dirty vases," the lawsuit says.
"After spending nearly $30,000 and over 12 months planning the flowers for their wedding, the flowers were not even close to what plaintiffs had bargained and paid for," the Glatts charge. "We had an agreement for the florist to provide certain things and they didn't live up to it," Elana Glatt said. The bride said she tried to get a partial refund from the florist but was rebuffed.
"So we could either let it go or pursue it, so that's what we chose to do."
Posy owners Paula and Stamos Arakas were stunned by the suit.
"I can't believe this. I put my heart and soul into this wedding," a teary-eyed Paula told
The Post. Stamos blamed the "completely unwarranted" suit on Glatt's lawyer bride, Elana.
"She's being a Bridezilla," he fumed, claiming that Elana would order elaborate arrangements that her future mother-in-law, who was paying for the flowers, would then trim down.
"They sent us 200, 250 e-mails changing things up until the last minute. We did everything they wanted," he said. The suit says David and Elana first contacted Posy about doing flowers for their wedding in July of 2006 - 13 months before they were scheduled to walk down the aisle. "Elana e-mailed Arakas attaching a picture of a particular hydrangea - a green hydrangea with red tips, sometimes called antique hydrangea, or rust hydrangea - and asked Arakas if that particular flower would be available in that particular color in August for her wedding. Arakas responded in an e-mail that she could provide the 'exact' same color," the suit says.
A month later, Posy - in return for $1,000 - showed the couple a sample centerpiece with the hydrangeas, and told them "the centerpieces at the wedding would be 'exactly' the same as the sample," the suit says. They picked Posy as their florist, and meticulously planned the arrangements.
Two weeks before the wedding, Posy demanded the couple pay the rest of the cash they owed - $26,435.14 - by cashier's check, instead of credit card, as they'd planned.
The couple said they discovered they'd been the victims of "a bait and switch" on their wedding day, when they found the "hydrangeas used were not the rust hydrangeas defendants agreed to provide, but rather were light pink and light green hydrangeas," which are "significantly less expensive" and "entirely the wrong color."
The suit says that was a disastrous difference, because "colors had been specifically chosen to match the tones of the room." The filing also alleges the flower arrangements in the bathroom weren't what the pair bargained for, either, and appeared to be made up of flowers that were "no different than the roses available from a street vendor" for "$5."
Paula Arakas maintained everything was clean and just what the couple had asked for. She seemed especially hurt by the rose crack. "She says my roses were deli roses. They're not. They're beautiful. My roses are beautiful," she said.
Let this be a lesson, which needn't be experienced personally to learn, always get exactly what you are expecting to get in writing! And settle for nothing less than what is in your contract!
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