Flowers by Laurel

We needed last minute floral arrangements for our rehearsal dinner and called Lovorka. I was horribly vague about what I wanted and really just gave her our budget and the colors we had already, and put my full trust in her, with knowing very little (fingers were crossed). Walking into our rehearsal dinner was a very happy and beautiful moment. The flowers were perfect and just stunning! Everyone loved them and were commenting on them all night. I highly recommend her services! She was very helpful over the phone, gave helpful suggestions, and gave us beautiful flowers:) Thank You!

I am a budget bride when it comes to flowers. I only really wanted to get a wedding bouquet and most other décor are going to be other things besides flowers, therefore, I have a very low budget for flowers. After filling out my contact request form, I received a phone call but when asked my budget and the fact that I was just thinking of getting a bouquet, she said she «didn’t want to waste my time» then hung up. I understand it may be disappointing that I don’t want to do a big flower extravaganza, but that was just plain rude. It sounds like others have had issues with her services as well. Even if I decide to devote more of the budget to our flowers, I will never consider this business as they don’t want to have their time wasted with people like me.

I had searched a perfect florist for my wedding without success. I went to a wedding show at Los Verdes Golf course and met Flowers by Laurel. Lovorka took her time to talk to me in regards to all the flowers that she offered. She asked what my vision was for my wedding and really took the time to find out more about me as an individual. I set up an appointment with her and after viewing all of the beautiful flowers I signed the contract the same day. On the day of my wedding I couldn’t be more happy with my flowers from my bouquet to my center pieces my wedding looked like a dream. As soon as I entered the ballroom the smell of roses possessed me. It was so beautiful in the ballroom and the flowers were the icing on the cake. I literally cried. The romantic beach feel had came to life right before my eyes and Lovoka is to thank for the beauty. I cannot thank Lovorka enough for all of her time and effort that she put into making my wedding look breath taking. She is truly an amazing soul with a creative heart. If you are looking for someone who will take her time and fully take in all of what your visions and bring them to life. I highly recommend Flowers with Laurel.

If you found it too long just jump to * lines!
I hesitated 2 months to write this review to make sure it is not emotional but now I think should share this with those who are frustrated finding a good florist.
My husband and I planned our entire wedding alone and in 4 months. You can imagine how crazy it has been. I thought choosing a florist was easy because flowers are beautiful anyway but after a few meetings with florists we understood it was so difficult and boring!
*It matters that how much flower a florist uses to make a beautiful piece. It makes a huge difference in the budget!
After 6 meetings with florists I got so frustrated and every time we had to attend in the most boring meetings with them and go over the number of each bouquet or center pieces or boutonnieres and … until the venue coordinator introduced Lavorka.
After a long drive we got there and she wasn’t there (later I found out there was a misunderstanding about the appointment time between two of us) and we were so ready to hate her. She arrived with her great attitude, that we both thought she was just good at marketing, but she made us love her!
*First of all she was so organized, she had thousands of pictures in her computer all categorized by colors and then types. So I could see exactly what I want and compare them rather than talking about that specific flower that I could never pronounce or heard about or had seen many years ago in a picture.
She is an artist and has years of experience. So she could see the whole picture not just FLOWERS and her comments were really helping me to decide.
*Trust her! She knows what she is doing and apparently she reads your mind too. She knew what I wanted better than I did.
* She gave me a quote with all the details. Off course she asked for my budget because she could work with any budget but she doesn’t go cheap so she explained different options to stay within our budget.
* She was confident about the flowers she could use. Other florist was keep telling me that everything depends on the flower market at the day and if they could find that kind of flower that day. With my dark bluish purple theme that I had hard time explaining to them the color I meant, I couldn’t trust anyone else.
When we signed the contract we were sure we had chosen the right one (for some reason during the wedding planning process this kind of confidence is a very rare feeling)
2 weeks before wedding I asked my made of honor to call all vendors and reconfirm everything and when she called Lavorka she said she needed to see us again to finalize some few pending items and since we were in panic mood, frustrated, tired, behind the schedule and short in time got so crazy about it. But we went there anyway and I am glad we did (and make sure you go too).
*She was able to revive all the wedding excitement again. I don’t know how she did that but we were relaxed and focused after that meeting. She took us to her workshop and showed us some of prepared stuff for the coming weddings and she asked me to try one of those bouquets and look in the mirror and … I was reassured and excited when I left there.
*On the wedding day she arrived on time. Our flowers looked a lot more beautiful than what I imagined. She cared about every single detail.
She stayed there until we all got ready. She moved all dual purposed center pieces from our Persian arrangement to the reception tables and arch flowers to the sweetheart table. She took picture like a family member.
*Make sure to have her in your bridal room. Her energy and comments are the gifts you could use.
* At the end she decorated my cake with fresh flowers and it looked awesome.
* My bouquet last until 12 days after wedding although I throw it 2 times and I never put it back into the water that night.
* Center pieces were elegant, perfect size, full and fresh
* She had enough extra flowers so she could decorate any last minutes changes or missings. She never charged us for all extra stuff she brought.
I got my pictures few weeks ago and I see all flowers are breath taking. Our photographer has captured the way she was looking at me. Just like a mom who was looking at her daughter in a bridal gown.
I wish I had a younger sister or a close friend so I could work with her again in their wedding. I truly miss all my vendors, especially her.

If you don’t want to read my rant, here’s the gist:
The flowers were gorgeous. The business aspect of my experience was disappointing.
I had a specific vision that I wanted to achieve for our wedding. It entailed a lot of green garlands, which smaller, one-​person shops couldn’t accommodate, but I couldn’t afford the larger companies. So after meeting with several other florists (exhausting), I met Lovorka. I was a little hesitant because of the mixed reviews here on Unilocal,but when I met with her she was the first florist to ‘get’ me. She even brought new ideas to the table like doing ombré flowers down the aisle in lanterns and a ribbon curtain. She was so stoked on our venue, and even took the time to visit the site pre-​meeting to make sure she knew the «lay of the land» when she met with us.
She promised me the world and was desperate to make me happy and give me perfect flowers for my day. There were a lot of items that we talked about and she said «ok ok i’ll take care of it», «don’t worry, we’ll do that» and so on. Some of this was written down on her paper, and my mom and her agreed on a price that was to encompass everything — INCLUDING those «I’ll throw it in» items.
*Red Flag 1: A month before the wedding (a few months after our initial meeting), we met again to refresh and review my order. I’m sometimes a pushover, so I probably shouldn’t have gone to this meeting alone. She went through the very basic parts of my order — apparently losing all recollection of those: wink wink: i’ll cover that, I’ll take care of it — items (cake décor, toss bouquet, etc). Not only that, but she now seemed hesitant on delivering dahlias because of the weather, she no longer stood behind her idea of the ombré flowers in the lanterns down the aisle and couldn’t remember what we discussed for centerpieces offering a lesser version. She ordered a birch altar for which she put in a guesstimated number on our quote sheet, and apparently the one she ordered in was more expensive than that or she wasn’t going to make a profit on it. She didn’t charge us but literally rolled her eyes and huffed and puffed that she wrote down that guesstimated number. Like the other reviewer, the dramatic signs were abundant in this meeting. I felt like I was being taken advantage of, nickel and dimed. I mean, this is why I hired her in the first place — she was accommodating, wanted to give me the world, and had beautiful creative ideas!
*Red Flag 2: She did not show up on the day of my wedding. One of her assistants did. She promised me the week before that she’d be there. If you have an emergency, I get it, but at least call us so we’re prepared to make sure everything that was promised in our meetings will happen.
*Red Flag 3: We paid an additional X amount of dollars for cake décor and a toss bouquet. Nope. None of that made it to the wedding. [Update]: Post wedding discussion with Lovorka, led to a refund of this money.
The colors weren’t really what we discussed, but they were still pretty — The variety of flowers seemed skim — there were 3 large dahlias of the same colors everywhere (burgundy, orange, white) placed in greenery. My bouquet included some roses and whatnot, which would’ve been nice to see in the centerpieces. I also wanted minimal orange and there were huge coral/​almost orange dahlias everywhere. They did last longer which was nice because the heat killed the white ones, but didn’t really match the initial pictures I gave her. At the end of the day, like I said, it was pretty and I decided day of that I wasn’t going to lose my shit over that stuff and I didn’t. But I didn’t promise anything afterwards, especially after hearing about Red Flag 3 and 4.
Bottom line –
The flowers = beautiful, but the business practices = not so much. I’m happy with how the flowers turned out. They really were gorgeous. My bouquet was really awesome and full and weighed as much as a baby — exactly what I wanted. The garlands were there, also full and beautiful. But make sure everything little thing is documented — cake décor and a toss bouquet aren’t the end of the world, they just added to some disappointment from my experience. Don’t fall for the «good price» BS and don’t trust the empty promises. Meet with a bunch of florists and after your first meeting, go home and sit on it for day, then make your decision.

We asked for the impossible and they delivered! Peonies are not in season, but we had our hearts set on a bouquet of her favorite flower for their 50^th wedding anniversary ceremony. We also got a a single rose for the groom. We asked for classy, elegant and they delivered. I give them the highest rank for professionalism & product

I have never been married before so planning a wedding was like learning a new language. I had no idea where to start or what the heck I was doing. All I knew for certain is that I wanted it to be perfect and gorgeous with no game plan. Tall order, I realize but I can be a little HM in that way sometimes.
I chose Flowers by Laurel based on the fact that she was the first name on a list of recommended vendors by my venue and by her website. The flowers on her website looked amazing and much better than the other vendors’. I also met her very briefly at a bridal event held by my venue and I recalled her saying she had been doing flowers for that venue for 20+ years. Experience is key.
When I met with Lavorka, I brought her ideas of flowers I liked and she guided me through photos on her computer. At the end of the meeting, the cost of the flowers were a little higher than my budget. I chose pretty expensive flowers but still thought maybe the price was a little high. However, I could tell that this woman really enjoys her job and she had really good, positive energy so I decided it would be worth it and agreed to pay a deposit.
By our second meeting, we went through some more details and ideas and I ended up spending a lot more money than I anticipated. But I really wanted to do everything she suggested. I didn’t feel like she was being pushy at all, I felt like she was genuinely making good suggestions. When we looked at our new total, my fiancé gave me the «Are you sure about this?» look. I felt like I was pretty sure.
As it got closer and closer to the wedding date I started getting anxious about everything, including my flowers. I though that maybe Lavorka didn’t really understand my vision and maybe I spent too much money. Holy crap. Why wasn’t I more specific?!! What if my flowers suck?! What if I got ripped off? I don’t know if I’m sure about this anymore!!! Oh no!!! Aaaaaaah!!!
The day of my wedding… I was SO relieved and SOOOOOO happy. Lavorka EXCEEDED my expectations by ten fold. My flowers were GORGEOUS! The wedding arch looked amazing, the centerpieces were so beautiful, even the flower petals in the aisle were done just perfectly. And my bouquet? You wanna know about my bouquet?!! It was absolutely AMAZEBALLS! Even my photographer said that it was the nicest bouquet she’d seen. I was in love with my bouquet. The boutonnieres were so cute and perfect. The pictures I’m posting don’t do the flowers justice. Everyone remarked on how gorgeous all the flowers were.
So…that was my experience. Everyone is different. I am a person who does not mind paying extra for quality and I am really glad I did. Flowers by Laurel did a perfect job.

I heard about Lavorka through my ceremony/​reception location. She’s listed as one of their preferred vendors. She was the first florist I met with on the road to wedding planning and left me with the fear that I was in for a much bigger battle than what I had anticipated.
Let me just say that she came across as very nice at first. We sat down, I showed her photos of what I was looking for and discussed what kind of colors I wanted. She immediately took that and ran with it. «I see your vision» seemed to be her tagline. Over and over again, she told me that she not only understood what my overall vision was for my wedding day, but that she shared it and wanted to make it come true for me. Honestly– her words.
I’m sure there are many brides out there who want to feel like they’re completely understood, and that there’s this magical person who really gets that it’s their day that they’ve been dreaming of since they were little girls. But I just wasn’t one of them. I didn’t appreciate getting the hard sell like she was trying to sell me a used beater car. I very explicitly told her my budget, which I felt was a fair to average amount to spend. She gave me some very dramatic sighs and said that she would have to see what she could do for me. After moving to another table at a completely different computer and again sighing very loudly, and with lots of dramatic head shakes, she came back to me with two different quotes.
One was exactly $ 100 under my budget with the other being about $ 1500 over. She then proceeded to spell out to me that with my budget, I could manage to get a little of what I wanted, but it really wasn’t much. I asked her how large an $ 80 centerpiece was and she showed me what looked like a $ 30 FTD arrangement. BUT! Good news! If I was willing to spend just a little bit more, she could bring my vision to life!!! For only $ 1500, I could have beautiful bouquets and lush centerpieces! And just for me, she was willing to just split the difference and only charge me an extra $ 1000. I wouldn’t have to pay any additional labor! All the extra money would go 100% into the flowers! I felt that the almost $ 400 delivery and set up fee was really on the high side and she fobbed me off with telling me how much gas prices are. Really? My venue was in San Pedro, she’s in Redondo Beach. Not a huge drive.
When she called me back later asking if I had made a decision yet, I let her know that I had gone in a different direction. She sounded extremely insulted that I hired a different florist and wished me the best in a very rude sarcastic way. I’m so thankful I didn’t have to have any further dealings with this woman.

The wedding center pieces and bouquet were beautifully arranged. The colors were just like how I wanted them.
However, the dusty millers in my bridal bouquet were completly wilted before the ceremony even began. In the center pieces, some of the roses had «burnt» edges (dying/​drying).
I’m not sure if it has to do with the fact that the flowers had to be delivered by 9:30am.
The pearly-​bead-​tipped pins in the bouquet’s base were rusty, so when the bouquet was taken out of the water, the white ribbon wrapped around the stems/​base had orange stains running down from the pins.
There was only one center piece that had a succulent and the rest didn’t have any.
All the center pieces were missing a starfish.
You have to triple check the order form, because details will be missed and prices may be wrong, then you must follow up in person or on the phone.
She might push you to change your mind on linens or décor. You have to stick to your guns and your vision. Bring photo examples.
The flowers were expensive!

I cannot say enough good things about Lavorka. I came to her nervous and worried about what I would do for my wedding, and she literally walked me through the entire process. I told her my ideas, she showed me pictures similar to what I wanted, and together we were able to perfectly piece together my wedding flowers. On the morning of my wedding, she took care of every detail, and the flowers couldn’t have looked better. I would give more stars if possible.

Lavorka is WONDERFUL!
My husband and I got married at The Hotel Portofino in Redondo Beach and Lavorka was a recommendation. Well we couldn’t have been happier with the care and service she gave us. We gave her our budget and she was able to create absolutely STUNNING arrangements and bouquets for me and my bridesmaids. Not to mention, the arch for our ceremony! We got so many compliments on our flowers! She even brought over a sample centerpiece so I could see what it would look like on the day! She is such a caring person to work with and you really feel like you’re in good hands! I would recommend Lavorka and her team in a heartbeat!

I am so happy to review for Lavorka of Flowers by Laurel.
I am giving her five stars because the flowers were stunning! She herself even came and pinned all the flowers on the ladies and groomsmen on the day of the wedding, which I thought was above and beyond the call of duty.
And the flowers were unbelievable. As the bride, I ordered a simple white rose bouquet, but the bridesmaids’ bouquets — they took my breath away, a beautiful concoction of shades purples and leaves. It was art, and they complimented my girls dresses PERFECTLY. The boutonnieres were so simple and such wonderful accents.
The reception flowers were stunning, as well, made with vases, that green foam thing, and a vase filled with water and floating candles. Our sweetheart table had candles and beautiful white roses. I wish I could post pictures — please visit her web site! It’s simple and could use some updating, I guess, but you’ll see exactly what I mean.
We did have some last minute additions, and I think my suggestion to you brides is to really try to figure out how many tables you’ll need for your guests (which is difficult when you are booking your florist). We should have been more on top of that — better to overshoot and take back then to have those last minute costs.
But she is as lovely as her beautiful floral creations! I give her my highest recommendation!

I feel like part of my disappointment with my flowers was my fault for not being aggressive enough, but I really didn’t know what I was doing. (Hey, I’ve never been married before!) Some of the things we ordered were beautiful and exactly what I wanted. Unfortunately, these were pre-​wedding event flowers. When I saw my bouquet, I was SO disappointed. I let it go, because I had other things to think about, but now when I look at pictures, I am just pissed. My colors were dark orange and hot pink. We looked through a ton of photos to see what types of flowers I liked. Lovorka showed me some roses and I said «but not that color, right? because those are light peach?» and I was told, no they would be the correct color. So what’s in my bouquet — the peach roses I specifically said I did not want. And my hot pink flowers were nowhere to be found — they were all purple. I even brought samples of my colors so I don’t know why the colors were such a mess. If I ever need to use a vendor for a similar event, I would demand a sample prior to the event to make sure we’re all on the same page. Overall– the flowers were beautiful, but they kind of screwed up all of my wedding décor by being the wrong colors. My photographer is going to try to color correct them for me in some photos. :(
And they almost never return emails, but if you call they are responsive.

Flowers are beautiful and fresh. The florist, Alex, really tries to listen to your likes and dislikes in flowers and she planned accordingly. Their prices were a little higher than other florists, but I felt it was worth it since Alex was writing down in detail what I wanted in the arrangements. Alex was great! There was another lady there that seemed very abrasive and rude and was glad I didn’t get her.

Lovorka is a flower artist! She did our wedding almost a year ago and I still think about how beautifully the center pieces turned out. The dining room looked like a fairy tale! Lovorka has a gift and can take your ideas and turn them into more than you ever imagined! I also felt that I could trust her implicitly to deliver on her promises — and she did. Her services are not cheap, but the quality is top notch!

I felt this florist was horrible! This was the first floral shop I went to to find wedding flowers and the lady who was helping me, Lavorka?, was so rude. She kept trying to push me into buying more flowers and more expensive flowers and kept questioning me when I requested something I knew I wanted. I understand florists have a vision and I do like to hear it because it’s sometimes better than what I was envisioning, but when my ideas get put down and slammed it really turns me off.
Since this was the first florist I went to I wasn’t sure what flowers cost. Lavorka had me «guess what the cost is» at the end of selecting everything! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? So I guessed after telling her I didn’t want too about 3 times, and her quote was over 2 times as much as I was thinking. She then tried to sit me down and do a real hard sales pitch even going as far as to say «don’t you want your guests to feel comfortable at the wedding? Then you need to have these flowers! Don’t you want them to have a good time?!» Ummmmm… yes I want my guests to be comfortable at my wedding and to have a good time and I don’t think flowers are the pivotal point in which my guests will make those judgments.
I would not go back to this florist shop ever! Even if I got another quote from a different dlorist that was for the same amount of money or more money I would go somewhere that I wasn’t being treated like a criminal because I don’t want flowers exploding out of every orifice of my wedding. I ended up getting multiple another quotes for less than half the price. I selected a florist with over 80 amazing reviews on Unilocal and Wedding Wire and from super sweet and helpful people.
Avoid at all costs.

Flowers by Laurel did amazing work on all the floral bouquets and arrangements for our wedding, their designs accented our colors and theme wonderfully. We appreciate the time and effort they took to setup everything perfectly. We received many compliments from friends and family on the beautiful job they did!

If I could give 0 stars, I would. Beware!!! Go anywhere else but here for your wedding. I would recommend Villa Hermosa Plant Shop instead. Lavorka seems very nice and is highly recommended in bridal circles, however, once committed with her, it’s a different story. She promised my fiancé and I that everything would be beautiful with our wedding. On our first meeting, she told my fiancé and I that everything we wanted would be done and that we didn’t have to worry about a thing. She also said she would call and meet with us again as we got closer to the wedding. My fiancé paid her as she requested at the first meeting. As we got closer to the wedding, she never called to meet with us. Instead, I had to leave a couple messages before I got a phone call back. At the second meeting she assured us that everything that we wanted would be taken care of, however, this was not the case. If you do decide to go here for your wedding, make sure that you get everything in writing from Lavorka. She will tell you that this and that will be done, but then she forgets, so make sure that you get everything in writing, so that you can make her accountable. Our flowers were old, wilting, and fallling apart before the ceremony. She did not get the color orange that we requested, instead our flowers were light peach. She told us later that the peach roses were the only ones she could get, that she couldn’t find roses in the color she promised us. Too bad she didn’t tell us that we might have the color we wanted when we booked her. Also, thank God our photographer was able to doctor the photos and make the flowers the orange color we wanted for our pictures at least. The roses for my grandmother and mother were the ugliest roses I had ever seen and my fiancé and I were quite embarrassed to give them to our family during the ceremony. They were yellow roses, even though the roses we requested were supposed to be sunset orange. Lavorka must have been embarrassed too, because she dropped off all the flowers at the church and took off. We never saw her before the ceremony or at the reception. She forgot to leave the bridal toss bouquet at the reception. Thank God, our reception host was able to make one for me from some of our center piece flowers. When I called Lavorka after our honeymoon to tell her of our disappointment, she offered us a $ 20.00 refund from the $ 1300.00+ that we paid and snidely stated that I should be happy that the flowers were the only thing that went wrong with our wedding. We paid way too much money to be treated so badly and for the awful flowers she provided us on the most important day of our lives. We wish we would have gone to the Villa Hermosa Plant Shop, but Lavorka (Flowers by Laurel) came so highly recommended. Please learn from our mistake and go anywhere but here, visit the Villa Hermosa Plant Shop, they are simply the best in the South Bay. Had we booked Villa Hermosa Plant Shop for our wedding, we wouldn’t have been disappointed.

I can’t say enough good things about Flowers by Laurel and the staff. My husband and I were on a tight budget. They listened to my ideas, helped us figure out the best plan possible and gave us a wedding day that was unforgettable. Our guest LOVED the flowers. I would recommend them to anyone. They were easy to work with, friendly, no hassle and professional. They also have amazing, artistic ideas for any occasion and any budget. I give them an A++.

contrary to my awful experience at lily pad, i had the most wonderful experience here getting an estimate for my wedding flowers. it seems like this place is not only dedicated to creating the most beautiful arrangements for your special day with the best flowers out there but knows how to make you feel special too.
i haven’t decided whether i will hire this shop yet, but if i don’t … this place would be a close second.