O’cie Florals

Carol was absolutely amazing to work with throughout the process. It was important to me that I have something unique at my wedding but also not break the bank. Carol was wonderful in working with me to incorporate my slight kitchen theme into the wedding incorporating herbs beautifully into the floral arrangements. Since I really love all flowers, she was great about letting me know which flowers would be more expensive and recommending wonderful alternatives. She was also really good about letting me know which flowers wouldn’t hold up to the hot August heat. We did some extensive browsing to decide on my bouquet and the bridesmaids bouquets. For our centerpieces, however, I let Carol take over and I was so impressed. She captured this whimsical, rustic, wildflower look and I absolutely loved it. She is also so much fun to work with. If you’re like me, living in the city and getting married in the burbs, her office is extremely convenient to get to since it is right off of the BNSF Naperville stop. No need to drive out there! I would recommend Carol to any bride.

I am so happy we chose to work with Carol at Ocie Florals for our August 2015 wedding. Carol is the kind of wedding vendor who is reassuring and would go out of her way to make sure your wedding day goes smoothly. When I first met with her, I was very upfront with her that I would be doing the centerpieces myself with flowers from Costco, and that I only needed bouquets, corsages, and altar pieces from her. Not only was she not offended, but she immediately offered her refrigerator as a backup if the Costco flowers opened too quickly, and to be a backup person to help if it ended up being more work than I could handle. Her sincerity impressed me and I knew right then that we had picked the right florist.
When we met for our consultation to pick out flowers, she was able to work within my budget and never once tried to press me to spend money beyond the budget I gave her. I had pulled some pictures of arrangements I liked and described to her that I wanted a loose, garden feel with lots of texture and greenery. I think she executed this vision perfectly and recommended that I use seeded eucalyptus, hypericum berries, garden roses, and wax flowers. The final products were beautiful!!!

My initial consultation with Carol went well. I quietly flipped through magazines and pointed out concepts/​colors/​styles I liked. Throughout all subsequent consultations (once the deposit was made), Carol seemed to push back/​question my ideas. «Sunflowers are too casual» (even though they are my favorite flowers), and «Orange is too bold.»
She pushed me to select pastel colors… the opposite of what I wanted, even though I brought pictures of only bright colors. I tried to keep an open mind throughout all of our meetings since she was the expert and knew what was in season, within budget, etc., but even my simple request for a colorful bouquet was ignored, and I received the one thing I absolutely did not want: an all-​white bouquet. Don’t get me wrong, it was a lovely bouquet! I was just flabbergasted that of all requests, this one seemed like an easy one.
At our final meeting before the wedding, she told me she had lost all the photos from our studio appointment, which is essentially a practice round for centerpieces. We also had 3 types of arrangements at our reception hall… low, medium, and tall. We opted for only 4 of the tall variety, as they were quite pricey. In all, the room did not need any tall centerpieces. I will also mention, our low centerpieces were lovely. I wish she had advised us to only use low and medium sizes.
I emphasized that I was looking for lush bouquets for my bridesmaids (on a budget, but still full). The only way I can describe how they turned out is «spikey.» So, in comparison, I’m happy I had a lush white bouquet rather than a colorful spikey one.
To my surprise, walking into the wedding reception, I saw we had a HUGE head table floral piece that we didn’t ask for (and frankly looked like something for a funeral home), and those flowers would have been much better utilized in the pieces we actually wanted… pretty bouquets.
If I ignore the flowers, the wedding day itself was absolutely perfect. It is just a shame to spend so much on a detail I disliked.
I’m not one to provide a negative review, but felt inclined to inform other brides who are still shopping. I’m sure she is as talented as the other brides have explained, but that was certainly not my experience.

All I can say is thank you thank you thank you. I was married on Saturday and carol made the most beautiful arrangements I could have ever imagined. We had a very vintage/​rustic theme, and boy did she deliver. Mason jars, garden roses, and grapevine swags. Absolutely stunning work. I watched her put together my alter pieces from my room the day of my wedding. Her creativity and passion was overwhelming. She practically skipped into my room to give me my bouquet of garden roses, which was about 5 lbs of perfection. I absolutely recommend O’Cie to any bride looking for vintage themed pieces, as it is her specialty. Thank you so much for such a great experience.

Carol is a true artist! She is AMAZING to work with and made all of my dreams (even the ones I couldn’t articulate) come true! She is truly the best and you won’t find anyone who puts more love and attention into making your wedding the most beautiful day! Down to every last detail, I can’t say enough wonderful things about her!

Carol provided the flowers for my wedding in January 2013. We had (3) types of centerpieces — one low flowers, one varied height floating candles w/​flowers, one high mound of flowers. The tall centerpieces were absolutely nothing like we discussed. We have photographs and the quote, identifying a mound of solid white hydrangeas & nothing else for the tall arrangements. When we met with Carol 3 weeks before the wedding, she prepared a tall arrangement with just the white hydrangea as we discussed. We thought we were set.
However, the flowers we received were a mix of white stock, orange tulips (no other arrangements had tulips, so we have no idea where they came from), pink peonies, hydrangea and leaves. My parents, myself, and my mother in law all remembered the discussion & that the arrangement that we discussed and were confused by the arragements.
My parents, who paid the bill, met with Carol a couple weeks after the wedding to discuss the centerpieces. Carol simply pulled out a copy of her notes (which she did not read or allow my parents to see), saying that we had changed our minIds at our final meeting. 4 people at that meeting (my parents, my mother-​in-​law, & I) all remembered the exact same meeting — we were set with the white hydrangea ball. Carol was the only one who remembered anything changing or any different.
It was clear that the discussion was not going anywhere — she was sticking by her notes and not budging on the fact that the four of us (the clients!) remembered & have record of something completely different. If she believed that we had changed our minds on something, she should have copied her notes & provided us a copy of the change for our records at that last meeting & prior to proceeding with a completely different centerpiece.
We had a beautiful wedding, and if the flowers were the only problem, we made out pretty well. I am mostly disappointed in the lack of compromise or admission that something had gone wrong. I would not recommend her services for this reason.
I am not one to give a poor review, but felt that other brides should be alerted to this issue so they know to obtain records at each meeting so they get what they expect.

We loved working with Carol! She didn’t make us compromise on what we wanted and we stayed easily on buget. Her creations were beautiful and our guest kept commenting on the centerpieces and how they are buying similar vases so they can copy her designs. She made this aspect of planning the wedding fun.

Ocie Floral provided the flowers for my wedding two years ago and I could not have had a more positive experience. Carol took the time to walk through books and books of arrangements to determine what I wanted. I had a really tight budget and she didn’t bat an eye. She was honest in setting my expectations and ensured that everything would be gorgeous. And it was! The centerpieces were so beautiful, but I have to say, my bouquet was stunning. I still think it’s the prettiest one I’ve ever seen and I don’t know how she found peonies that perfect out of season. She was a dream to work with and I recommend her to all of my friends.

Carol did the flowers for our August wedding, and she was absolutely fabulous. I had a general idea of what I wanted our flowers to look like, and even after I changed my mind – deciding to go with very bold colors rather than something muted – she expanded on that vision beautifully. Carol also worked well within our budget and created for me the most *gorgeous* wedding bouquet of several variations of pink roses, even adding some beautiful orchids to complement the men’s boutonierres. My bridesmaids wore chic, elegant, lovely knee-​length dresses from J. Crew in Caspian Blue (sort of a French navy), and their hot pink Gerbera daisies completely popped against the color of the dresses. I knew the flowers would be beautiful, but the overall look was more striking and gorgeous than I ever imagined possible. Thank you Carol!!! We would recommend you to anyone in need of stunning flowers! Kelly and Tony, Elmhurst, IL

I absolutely loved working with Carol at O’cie Floral for my recent wedding. From the beginning of the planning process to the set-​up on the day-​of, Carol made the experience really easy and enjoyable. She has a brilliant way of helping coax your vision out of your head, with lots of pictures and magazines. I knew the feel I wanted for my wedding, but not much about the individual flowers, and she helped me articulate exactly what I wanted. We were very budget conscious and she did such amazing work and kept us well within what were able to spend. The end product was absolutely perfect. I can’t recommend her enough.