Finding "those guys"

After having carefully constructed my floral vision, all I needed was for a professional to execute it.  There are a handful of flower shops around Johnstown, some with better reputations than others.  Between the relatively high number of options and the (probably) relatively low demand for wedding flowers in my small town, I kind of shuffled "finding a florist" to the back-burner.  I figured that a rose is a rose is a rose, so it wouldn't really matter if I got Joe's Floral or Mary's Flowers or City Florists or any other place to slap together some flowers, tie them in a ribbon, and call it a day.  Maybe I was naive, maybe I was stupid, or maybe I was right.  At this point in time, though, I'll never know.

Image via Wedding Obsessions by TheKnot / Photo by Jennifer Davis Photography / Bouquet by Colonial Flower Shop
 (OK, maybe not all roses are created equal...)

The reason I don't know if all florists are actually interchangeable is because I never really looked into my options, good or bad.  I never did site visits to receive proposals and hear their visions of my wedding day flowers.  Instead of poring over each and every option, which I've been known to do, I got one recommendation and went with it.  I know that may sound kind of bold, but let me clarify.  I got one recommendation over and over and over again.  It seemed like every person in the Johnstown area who had attended or planned a wedding in the past 2 years all kept echoing the same name.  Well, sort of.  They actually kept echoing a vague but glowing review, such as, "Oh, you have to get those guys out in Hollsopple.  Or Davidsville.  Or Hooversville.  Somewhere out there.  They do amazing work."  No real names, no phone numbers, no websites.  Just "those guys out there."  And we heard about "those guys out there" repeatedly. 

Realistically speaking, for as little as we knew about these guys, if any of the pairs shown below could construct amazing wedding flowers and lived in rural Western-Central PA, they honestly could have been the florists in question.

 Image via Crispy Gamer / Artwork by Nintendo

 

 Image via The VAR Guy / Artwork by Columbia Pictures

Image via Tech Banyan / Artwork by PBS

Image via Unreality Mag / Man Candy by Warner Bros. Pictures

Finally, a family friend was able to track down their real name (Bob's Floral) and their phone number.  The combination of the non-stop parade of positive reviews and the headache of trying to locate these florists who are apparently enrolled in some sort of wedding witness protection program made me more than inclined to just book 'em, Dan-o.  So, I finally got my hands on their phone number, gave them a call, and plopped myself into their calendar for August 2011.  It was such a breath of fresh air to book a vendor on the first try, without wringing my hands and wondering if I made the right choice.  It was a bit nerve-wracking that we signed on without having laid eyes on the florists, their shop, or their work, but I figure everyone couldn't really be wrong about "those guys out there."

Did you ever book a vendor solely based on others' reviews?