De Vinnie’s Paradise

What a devastating experience. Irma promised me the world, I was so happy and enthusiastic about choosing DeVinnie’s Paradise… and then the nightmare began. In our contract it stipulated that she would be loaning us lanterns as centerpieces… they never arrived. The garlands were chintzy, even though we were charged top dollar for them. The team showed up late and was completely inept. Luckily I had an incredible bridal party who made lemonade out of very sour lemons and figured out a way to make the tables look adequate despite having only half of the arrangements. My bouquet was pretty, but the bridesmaid’s bouquets were laughable. The flowers provided could have been bought at HEB for a sixth of the price we were charged. When I called the week after to express my disappointment, the conversation resorted to name calling and the manager screamed into the phone and hung up on me. I truly hope this review will help future couples steer clear of the stress and disappointment this vendor caused on our wedding day. They should be ashamed of themselves for the product and service they provided. Oh, they also charged us a tear down fee and did not stay to tear anything down. Brides be warned — don’t chose this company if you expect competence and basic respect. We live in LA and are not used to this pathetic level of service, a shop like this simply wouldn’t survive in California. San Antonio surely has better offerings.

I ordered a wedding bouquet for my elopement and provided Irma with 3 very specific photographs of what it was I wanted. We met and agreed on flowers however the key to my unique bouquet was that it was to include succulents that I planned to root and plant as a keep sake. When I picked up the bouquet it was 3 times larger than I asked for and included a lot of greens as filler. It looked nothing like the pictures provided to her. I asked for 2 large succulents along with smaller succulents and there was only 1 large and it was not at all the succulent that was agreed upon in my contract. The one large succulent provided was the ugliest plant I have ever seen. The smaller succulents were tiny and couldn’t even be seen among all the greenery that I did not want in the bouquet. I expressed my concerns with the young lady working the day I picked up the bouquet and asked that Irma call me the next day. I have yet to hear a word and it’s been 2 weeks. Beware that this florist does what THEY want not what you, the customer, wants.

I went to De Vinnie’s Paradise and Irma was absolutely the sweetest woman ever. She helped my dream day become a reality! I loved all of the floral arrangements she came up with for me, and I previously saw photos of her work at another wedding. So I knew I had to book with her. I am getting married in April, so when I have photos of her masterpieces I will be sure to include them :)

This past V-​Day (yeah i know this is late), I received the most hideous flowers ever. They were half dead and they were arranged horribly. To make matters worse, they had a hideous plastic-​y bow tied around them that looked like it came from a funeral arrangement. And top it off, the bouquet included 1 carnation and it was stuffed with horrible Baby’s breath. Unbelievable! Who puts one of any type of flower in a whole bouquet? It was obvious that it was a very cheap move. I wanted to toss my cookies when my hubs told me that he spent $ 87 on them. H-​E-​B has better flowers for $ 25. Way to go 1−800-flowers for networking with anyone who has «florist» plastered to their front door.