Six comments, each numbered and each linked to the service it refers to. Between them they cover what the benches are asked for most often: hand-tied bouquets, vase work, sympathy tributes and event flowers.
01
I asked for something in rust and cream for an anniversary and left the rest of it to them. They told me on the telephone which of the two flowers I had named was three weeks out of season and what they would use instead, so nothing arrived as a surprise. What I collected was better than the photograph I had brought in, and it still looked right four days later on the kitchen table.
02
They took the wording for the card twice and read it back to me before it was written out, which mattered more at the time than I can explain. The form of the tribute was agreed in one conversation and the price with it. It was at the chapel a full hour before we were, and it was the right size for the space rather than the size I would have guessed at.
03
I needed table flowers on the Friday and only thought to ask on the Tuesday. Instead of taking the order and hoping, they went through what could actually be sourced in three days and what could not, and charged twenty dollars to find out. Two of the five tables ended up with a different flower from the rest, and that was agreed in advance rather than discovered on the day.
04
The vase came already watered and I did not have to go looking for anything to put it in, which is the part I always get wrong. It sat on the shop counter for nearly two weeks and people kept asking where it had come from. They also told me which two stems would go over first, and those were the two that went over first.
05
The arrangement changes every week and they take the previous container away with them, so there is nothing to empty or wash out at this end. It has never once turned up looking like the week before. When we closed for ten days over the summer they paused it on a single email, and nothing was charged for that fortnight.
06
I turned up to the consultation with a folder of photographs and no idea what any of it would cost. The forty-five minutes ended with a written list and a figure against every piece, including the two I was talked out of because the room did not need them. Nothing on the day was a surprise, and the fee came off the final bill exactly as they said it would.
A description of the occasion, the colours wanted and the date is enough to start. The studio replies with what is in season for that date and what it would cost.
It is published in the open, where anyone can copy it, so it is left short of its final polish and audit pass. The design chosen is fully audited and polished before it goes live.