Fresh Affairs

We recently had a consultation with Lyn to discuss our wedding plans. Lyn was very unprofessional from the moment we walked in and condescending throughout our consultation. He seemed shocked that we both had normal parents with no step-​parents to include in the wedding party. He made a random comment to my fiancé that he thought she would be into «something weird like wearing a red dress,» which related to nothing as all of our plans are very simple and pretty ordinary. He also decided without asking that I would be wearing a black suit and was totally thrown off that I want a blue tux. These are only the few things that really stood out to us out of an awful experience. We were never shown any examples of the work they can do, outside of the pictures on the walls. The estimate that he said he would send to us with a list of the services and pricing information has still not been sent to us after more than a week. Out of respect for yourself, find another florist. There are many more florists in Raleigh that can do and equal or better job with the flowers and provide you the service you would expect when planning a wedding.

I was referred to Lyn by a friend who used him and was happy with her experience. I am not one to write reviews at all, but in this case, I feel it is necessary to describe my experience in the most objective way possible in order to help other brides/​planners who may benefit by finding someone else.
During the 2 weeks prior to my wedding, Lyn was very difficult to deal with. Lyn was unhappy with my captain’s table size and wanted a larger table to work with despite my wedding planner and I deciding that was not a good idea because of the space it would take up in my reception hall (it would’ve impeded the dance floor). Lynn responded with this email, which I have copy/​pasted, verbatim:
«Fine. We will proceed with making sure linens equal tables. I will warn you that the head table will not have the WOW we were looking for. You are only leaving me 4– 5 inches in the middle of the table and I can only sit one vase, candle or flower. This table is going to be so cramped just with guests much less any décor. Just want everyone to know I can create magic but I need space to do it.»
Very unprofessional, to say the least. I have to say that I was slightly underwhelmed by the floral aspects of the tablescapes. He did include a lot of candlelight, as I requested.
On top of all this, I was charged $ 750 more than previously quoted and honestly I am still not sure what that money went towards other than a few more linens for my cake table and gifts/​namecard table and about 15 – 20 rental frames. Lyn tried to charge me an extra $ 150 for the captains table even though I didn’t increase the size. They refunded me that amount in the form of a check by mail.
Payment is another issue. No one from Fresh Affairs informed me before they charged my credit card on file and they did this prior to me reviewing the final bill. My (amazing) wedding planner was surprised by this as well because usually other vendors (florists included) do not charge the credit card until the flowers leave the warehouse on the day of the event.
Lastly, it’s important to mention that my fiancé, my wedding planner and myself all reached out to Lyn with phone calls about one week prior to the wedding to try to sort this out and he never returned any of our calls. This, to me, is inexcusably unprofessional behavior.
Positive notes: I loved my bridal and bridesmaids bouquets and the groomsman boutonnieres. I loved my wedding reception and luckily it was a very romantic space without décor, so it didn’t need too much to make it look amazing.
I’m sure Lyn can and has done amazing things in the past, but the drama that I had to deal with 2 weeks before my wedding is why I would recommend going somewhere else.

All I can say about Fresh Affairs is WOW AMAZING WOW! My wedding was absolutely gorgeous and perfection in every way possible because of Lyn Graves at Fresh Affairs he created the wedding of my dreams and was amazing to work with every step of the way. He made my wedding beautiful and was better than any wedding I’ve seen David Tutera do on TV. I am truly blessed that Lyn took such great care and effort to create a beautiful day for me he did everything from the flowers which were perfection to the decorations of the ceremony and reception to the linens and plate selections. Simply amazing I can’t say enough about how great his company is and how wonderful of a person Lyn is to go to such lengths to create a perfect wedding. I am blown away by what he created. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being a special part of our wedding and working so hard.

I LOVE Lyn Graves and the Fresh Affairs staff. My wedding flowers were pheonominal! He made my dream wedding come true!

Kudos to Lyn and his Fresh Affairs team for making our wedding beautiful with just a few weeks notice. My husband and I are not locals and called many florists in the Raleigh/​Durham area, and Fresh Affairs was the only one who got back to us. We’re very grateful they did– Lyn’s personality and the friendliness and responsiveness of his team went above and beyond our expectations. They also stayed right on budget with their proposal and were very flexible with add-​ons. It was a pleasure to work with Fresh Affairs and I appreciate them making the flower portion of the wedding planning effortless.