Vale Of Enna

My daughter and I met with Grace to discuss flowers for her November wedding. We both came away feeling good about the initial meeting with her. She told us she would send a proposal in two weeks. We waited patiently, did not hear from Grace, and emailed her after three weeks. After multiple attempts of contacting Vale of Enna, we finally received an email response six weeks after our initial meeting. She responded that we would receive the proposal the next morning. Days went by without any follow up from Grace. I left multiple phone and email messages. Finally after weeks of trying to contact Grace, we started our search for a new florist. We never heard from Grace again. She has no communication with her client if she chooses not to! We are APPALLED by the treatment we received, or lack of. NO ONE should use Vale of Enna. The WASTE of time and energy and frustration she caused us NO ONE should experience, especially through the busy times of wedding planning. The florist we ended up using for the wedding, we walked away with a proposal in our hand the day we met!!!

This is long overdue — Sarah did our flowers for our wedding in early October and every last detail was perfect! She was so great to work with throughout the whole process, had great ideas and pulled everything together perfectly. We are still getting compliments from family and friends about how beautiful everything was. I would recommend Sarah any day!

So bummed. Loved her work, had a great meeting with her and was ready to hire her (even if she came in above my budget) until the proposal just never came. Followed up multiple times, never received it and she stopped responding to any of my emails. I left work early to make the meeting after she had rescheduled the first and I wish I didn’t waste my time. Maybe Grace is used to working with larger budgets and my $ 5k budget was too small for her to consider but if that’s the case just tell me upfront or even after the meeting. Just not responding when you’re in the service industry is simply unacceptable. There are too many great florists in the city who are very responsive and want to win your business, don’t waste your time.

I had a wonderful experience working with Grace!
She did a creative number on our tablescape and truly transformed the room. I told Grace that one of the most important things about the decoration is that it needs to breathe vintage elegance yet modernly chic. It’s important to me and my parents that the things in the room looks luxurious, rather than aged. She immediately understood what I meant and suggested that we take advantage of crystal candelabras and utilize candle lighting to luxuri-​fy a room.
When the proposal that Grace gave surpassed by budget, she graciously accepted the task to trim down the proposal, cutting out small things here and there so that we can have it under budget, but still maintaining the overall feel of the design. She was also able to design a bouquet that was not only beautiful but hid a GoPro camera without anyone noticing.
Grace is really great at working creatively. When I showed her a picture of what I want my guest book to be like, I asked her if she can recreate it. When I saw what she had done at the reception, i was totally blown away.
I would definitely recommend Grace for all your tablescape and design needs!

LOVED working with Grace and her team for my wedding flowers for my June wedding. When we first met with Grace on our initial appointment, I felt listened to. I didn’t know any flower names but I knew I wanted something summery, pretty, with bright colors… and Grace and her team sure executed. We couldn’t not have been happier with the final product. We got so many compliments on our flowers on our wedding day. Would highly, highly recommend Vale of Enna!

Originally I had not planned on having flowers at our wedding, they just weren’t that important to me. But our parents definitely hinted that they wanted flowers, and I needed a chuppah anyway (which is usually provided by a florist). I spoke with a few florists and Grace at Vale of Enna just seemed to understand our style and vibe that we were going for. She was also super nice and patient through all my questions and revisions and dealing with my budget constraints. In the end, I’m so thrilled we hired Vale of Enna to do our ceremony and reception flowers/​décor. It was so beautiful and really set the mood of the wedding in my opinion. The chuppah was especially gorgeous with the uplighting. Our parents were also so happy with how things turned out and thought the chuppah was stunning. I even noticed someone added some flowers to our cake, which was not planned/​included in our contract. It was a really nice touch and made it look much prettier. The whole Vale of Enna team was so sweet, I’d recommend them for any type of event. (P.S. — I’m a flower convert now! Thanks, Vale of Enna!)

Grace did a phenomenal job at our wedding in Libertyville this past November! She surpassed our expectations! Everyone was talking about how gorgeous our room was… Honestly it was breathtaking! Thank you for being so patient with us during the planning process. I know we changed our minds a couple times! The floral arrangements were absolutely gorgeous at our wedding! Thank you again!

Grace from vale of enna is amazing and so super talented! She did the floral for our wedding and surpassed all of our expectations. She does a great job helping you figure out your vision and executes flawlessly! She is super sweet and patient too! Would highly recommend her!

Grace is AMAZING. Period. She did the flowers for my wedding at the Chicago History Museum and my only regret is not asking her to do MORE! What I mean by that is that I tried to DIY some of my additional décor (gold candles, etc.), and I fully admit that Grace has a better creative eye than I do. So if I had just left all of the table décor to her, including candles and such, the already beautiful tables would have looked even better with more of her touch.
Not only is Grace super sweet, but she is really great at being able to identify your vision, even when you’re not sure of it yourself! I sent her my Pinterest board of flowers and table décor that I liked, and she got the overall look just right, while being sensitive to my budget. (Think large baby’s breath arrangements, lots of champagne/​ivory/​blush, a little bit of country mixed with elements of glam — her arrangements were perfect).
Delivery and set-​up was flawless. I didn’t even notice flipping the room from the ceremony to the reception site, which goes to show you how smoothly everything went. If you want to see photos of her work beyond what is on her website, the Vale of Enna FB page has great updates! Thanks so much, Grace, for helping to make our wedding look just the way we wanted!

After an initial consultation a week before my wedding for a few small flower arrangements, I never heard back. At the very last minute, I had to switch to another florist. I still never received an explanation.
Update: Finally heard from the owner and she apologized citing health issues.

Having compared portfolios of various floral vendors, Grace’s work stood out to me because her arrangements paired colors, tones, sizes, shapes, and textures beautifully to create a visually stunning work that was spot on with the setting/​event her flowers were being used for. Grace’s creations are more like artwork than a floral arrangement.
Sometimes you go shopping and see designs that copy the key elements of a designer item, and leave you with that «not quite right/something’s off» feeling. That’s how I felt looking at portfolios of various florists — there was a sense of frustration trying to identify what it was that wasn’t quite right, even though technically the flowers had the elements I was describing. Grace brings to the table the element of aesthetic style, and a keen eye for design details. Even the arrangements on Grace’s portfolio that I didn’t like (for my wedding), I still liked. Her work is modern, clean, unique, and visually balanced.
Grace was wonderful to work with on so many levels. Having Grace on board for flowers for my wedding allowed me to rest assured that my flowers would still be gorgeous even if I wasn’t able to explain clearly what I was looking for. Grace is so patient and sweet as well — for someone like myself who has a hard time identifying and describing the aesthetic elements that I’m looking for in a wedding, Grace was patient with trying to help me put together the look and feel of the wedding, and was always receptive to my ideas even though she’s the expert. She looks beyond the flowers to understand the «experience» that’s being created with her flowers. Had I described the same thing to a different person, I know it wouldn’t have turned out as wonderful.

I gave Grace a budget and some general guidelines for a birthday bouquet for my wife and it came out awesome. My wife’s whole office was raving about it, and she liked it so much she brought it home with her.

Grace is beyond amazing! She did the flowers for my July wedding and somehow managed to make sense of the random words that came out of my mouth when telling her what I was envisioning for my wedding and turn it into something beautiful.
I asked for 4 different but cohesive looks because I wanted each bouquet to be a single color… then I needed coordinating boutonnieres for each groomsman and then coordinating flower fairy wands for each flower girl… then coordinating flowers for everyone else in my large (50 person) Wedding Party. She said no problem without skipping a beat and started giving me examples of flowers she was thinking of using for each color. Every bouquet, boutonnière, fairy wand, corsage, etc. was beautiful and then she brought each flower into my bouquet to tie it in together.
For the reception I told her I wanted a variety and I wanted them to be bold. She created three different centerpieces in varying heights. When my husband and I walked into the room it literally took our breath away. Not only were the centerpieces beautiful but the cocktail and lounge area had flowers as well making the whole room look amazing!
Grace is super friendly and brilliant at what she does! She’s definitely someone I highly recommend!

I created a Unilocal account just to review this vendor if that says anything. I’ve been meeting with florists for my wedding and stumbled upon Vale of Enna’s FB page and saw gorgeous flowers. I ignored some of the previous reviews saying how unresponsive Grace was and decided to give her a try.
After meeting with her, I thought we had found our florist. I loved her ideas and she was extremely friendly. I asked when we could expect a quote back, she said a week and a half to two weeks. So I waited two weeks until I reached out to her to see if we could get an updated ETA for the quote. No response. I waited another week and reached out again to see if she could just give me an idea of when I could expect the quote — no response. I e-​mailed THREE times to see if she could update me (not even asking for the quote, just an update) and no response. This is EXTREMELY unprofessional and ultimately makes me very nervous to trust her to follow through on my wedding day when she can’t even respond to a simple e-​mail.
Now I understand that you shouldn’t expect an immediate reply but I do expect someone to answer my e-​mail when I ask for an updated ETA. A simple «i’m working on it» would’ve been appreciated.
And by the way, there are TONS of other equally, if not more, talented florists in Chicago who actually respond to your e-​mails and provide quotes within a few days!
Moral of the story — if you’re looking for a reliable florist, look elsewhere.

Grace is amazing!!!
I got married at Room 1520 in March and was completely nervous about transforming a blank canvas into something spectacular. Thanks to Vale of Enna, the room looked gorgeous!
I had requested some kind of wow factor to be placed at the entrance and Grace arranged cherry blossom branches with hanging candles.
Grace was so friendly and accommodating. I was really nervous about the budget, but she was VERY comfortable to talk to. I came across some other snooty vendors who told me peonies weren’t available during our wedding, when Grace was able to get them.
Ok, now for those of you who may be put off about the initial lack of communication, you’re in for a rude awakening about the wedding industry. Unless you’re dealing with a huge corporation or some chain, you will most likely encounter lag in response time. Trust me, I’ve gone through it with multiple vendors! I understand that it can be completely frustrating.
Please don’t let that deter you from going with Vale of Enna. After the initial proposal, she was very prompt with all her responses. I requested several revisions and she was very quick with those as well.
I can assure you that come wedding day you will not regret using her services! I’ll let my pictures be the proof.

For those of you who mention issues with professionalism and managing the business, I too experienced this problem with many vendors during my wedding planning, I have chopped it up to it being the nature of the beast. You are working with small business owners who have a craft and their craft has nothing to do with «running the books.» With that being said, it can be extremely frustrating but I advise having patience (something I significantly lack).
When Grace and I first met, my now husband and I were very prepared knowing what we wanted (to an extent) but needing someone who could complete the job within our budget, Grace was just that person. She used our ideas and built on them to customize the floral to our style and make it unique. She offered us the best price of all the many companies we spoke with (and didn’t provide me with an estimate twice that of the budget I communicated) and she was able to work with all the quirks and tiny changes I had as we moved closer to the date. All of our updates were quickly applied to the proposal and her writing made it very easy to visualize what to expect. Personally, floral was the hardest for me, there are a lot of options and when you see your idea in words, you are never sure what it will ACTUALLY look like. Grace did a great job providing us with visuals of her previous work or samples she would base her design off of and did a wonderful job delivering.
On the day of the wedding Grace and her team pinned the flowers on the guys, had the bouquets to the ladies with plenty of time for photos, and did a wonderful job with timing. Her staff turned over the ballroom from the ceremony to the reception and everything looked outstanding. I cannot thank her enough for helping me minimize my stress and for delivering great ideas to the table. I would recommend her to anyone, for anything. On top of it all, she is really nice and easy to work with!

I contacted Grace again for a small job — flowers for an intimate bridal shower at the Drake Hotel for Afternoon Tea. I needed one medium sized arrangement and 4 bud vases and said they should be purple. but otherwise, it was up to her what kind of flowers to put together.
Wow, did she deliver! Everyone at the shower commented on how pretty the arrangements were. The bride to be loved them as well.
Not only did she hand us a beautiful arrangement for the gifts table, she decided to kick it up a notch with the bud vases. (I was expecting a single flower in a small clear vase — she gave us a combo of anemones, hydrangeas, and roses in an antiqued silver votive).
The flowers were short notice (I think I called her 1.5 wks before the event). She was super sweet and responsive.
I cannot recommend her enough.

Grace from Vale of Enna did our wedding décor — and we couldn’t be more happier with the results! Our wedding venue was a large open room with vaulted ceilings, exposed timber and brick — and she TRANSFORMED the room with her designs and pieces! She took our initial thoughts and ideas and helped us to refine what it was that we really wanted! Her suggestions were great and the flowers turned out amazing!
Since the wedding ceremony and reception were held in the same large room… Grace had created beautiful ceremony pieces and then moved them all around and for the 28 centerpieces we needed!
People who took photos from our wedding (and there were a lot of photos being posted on facebook) all included at LEAST one photo of their centerpiece or some other piece that Grace had put together– That’s proof of the impact her work had on our guests!
Vale of Enna: Modern — clean — creative — beautiful — timeless

Grace did my sister’s wedding in September of 2009 and i knew that she was going to be the florist at our wedding in October 2011. I find that so many wedding florists create tacky bouquets and centerpieces. but Grace has such a good eye and understands the bride’s taste. She met with me on multiple occasions (since I am super picky) and made sure that i had all the flowers and centerpieces I needed. She also quickly realized styles I liked and recommended centerpieces that I loved.
I saw her several times throughout my wedding — she makes sure that everything is set up PERFECTLY before she leaves. my bouquet and centerpieces were SO beautiful and I knew that Grace would do an amazing job :)
i did requests quotes from several other florists to compare prices, but Vale of Enna was by far the most reasonable. Grace is also very flexible in working with the bride’s price range!

I really loved some of the work that Grace did for some weddings that I was able to view through facebook. When I researched her for reviews, I was half half on whether or not I should contact her because I heard she was not a very quick responder to emails and there were lots of issues with communication. I ended up giving her a try anyways due to my love for her work.
I emailed her. No reply. I was worried that the reviews were right. I gave her a second chance. Two weeks later, I emailed her again and she responded six hours later. Grace said she never received my first initial email. So maybe there is a bug in her email system through her webiste? I’m not sure but from then on, our communication was very smooth. She is much better with the phone than email.
We were able to set up a consultation at a Starbucks of her choice which didn’t bother me since I knew she did not have an official office. This is why she can give me such a good deal right… because there are no overhead charges. Meeting at Starbucks was like meeting at her office, the same you would do for any other florist. The only unprofessional aspect of the meeting was that she brought her two adorable kids to the meeting after running fifteen minutes late due to her husband not being able to return from work in time. This was okay since I love kids and I could understand that she is a working mom. The kids soon left after her husband arrived.
We were able to discuss the look and feel I was going for and Grace was able to give me all her insights on how to achieve this feel. She never pressured me into using more expensive flowers and she even told me which flowers would be the most durable and look the best for my wedding season. When I received my quote from her, she told me that I could look through the proposal and take things out or change things around and it would never bother her. I must have changed the proposal three times within the two days to see how my prices would change if I did something different. Her prices were amazing compared to the local florists and other vendors I have contacted. She was able to give me a quote that allowed me to use all mini calla lillies and orchids as I had wanted. I had also wanted to do my centerpieces all by myself but after she gave me her quote for them, they ended up costing the same! My fiancé insisted that since it was the same, I should go with the florist. I was only hesitant because if I made the centerpieces by myself, I can resell the items. Grace even offered to give me tips on how to make it myself I wanted to! I am glad I didn’t do the centerpieces myself! It’s so much work and stress for the day before the wedding.
After signing a contract with Grace, she allowed me to contact her whenever I wanted to change the flowers if I needed to. One month before the wedding, Grace came back into contact with me to make sure if I wanted any changes. She made sure that I was absolutely satisfied with everything on the contract.
On the day of the wedding, all my flowers were set up and arranged exactly as planned! All deliveries were made to the correct places and on time. The only thing that was late that I know of were my hair flowers because Grace had forgot them back at home but it was delivered to me as soon as possible. The set up and tear down was efficiently done and I didn’t even see the crew do it! On the day of the wedding, I had a memorial table set up for my dad and Grace even put some flowers on that table when I completely forgot to ask her to add some there. Nice judgment call from her :) Grace even tried her best to order me yellow orchids that didn’t have those red speckled dots on them that I hated! Good job Grace :)