Final Floral and BEOs

[MsEsty]

How long before your event did you receive your final bill? We're under 2.5 months away and with the change of wedding planners, I want to make sure we're not scrambling at the last second to make corrections.

 

[Dreams595]

I'm 3 weeks from my wedding and I had to send an email 3 weeks ago to ask for a final BEO which I didn't receive until 5 days prior to the final payment due date. We received the final floral AFTER I had to make the final payment so we actually ended up overpaying. My one complaint with DFTW is the communication process.
Hope you have better luck than we did getting your final stuff!

 

[sambycat]

i don't even know when the final BEO could be - wouldn't that depend on all the changes you could make up to the 30/15 day mark? we only have gotten our FIRST BEO like mid august and just got to actually talk to outr planner to go over the 82 zillion revisions/clarifications/corrections last week. our WP said then she would get a revised BEO to us by 10/1. our minimum payment due dae is like 10/25? i guess contractually, no matter what you are actually spending, you HAVE to pay your minimum by that 3 month date (for wishes) so no matter what, you are on the hook for 9G (for us) so i guess there is little incentive for DFTW to provide a more accurate assessment earlier of final costs despite the fact it makes a HUGE diference in our decisions and it doens't seem like it *should* be that difficult given the fact they generate a couple of these every day (for the last 20 years!!!!). i've no idea how all this will pan out exactly but our floral BEO is "final" in that we havent made any changes to it.

this is the part i don't like either. on the one hand, i have total confidence that the DFTW machine can and will get a great event done, but being unsure of your total budget at less than 6 months out - practically JUST beginning to form the actual budget as compared to what things REALLY cost at 6 months and possibly not even knowing the cost until very close to the wedding is an unneccesarily super stressful aspect to the DFTW process!!!

 

[MsEsty]

I completely agree. Amy was great in getting me updated budgets but Disney Floral, not so much. There was a huge mistake on the bill we received, I responded the same day and we're now going on three weeks without the update.

It might be time to start calling and being a bit more pushy (but nicely of course)

 

[gemmybear83]

My wedding is a couple of days behind yours and we are at the same point as you. Rosie has been on vacation as I got an out of office last week.

 

[Rebclay]

I didn't get my final beo until the week our final payment was due.

 

[sambycat]

I completely agree. Amy was great in getting me updated budgets but Disney Floral, not so much. There was a huge mistake on the bill we received, I responded the same day and we're now going on three weeks without the update.

It might be time to start calling and being a bit more pushy (but nicely of course)

thats so funny because our floral info has been like lightening quick in the turnaround - elizabeth has even responded within 24 hours to my recent floral freak out (a sudden nightmare involving unintended baby blue carnations) - while the big BEO is soooooooooo sssllloooooowwwwwww

 

[clareyfairymouse]

My weddings in just over two weeks and I am still awaiting my final floral invoice to come through!
It's due tomorrow so it will just be good to pay it off so I know everythings complete!

 

[Boston Disney Bride]

I'm 3 weeks from my wedding and I had to send an email 3 weeks ago to ask for a final BEO which I didn't receive until 5 days prior to the final payment due date. We received the final floral AFTER I had to make the final payment so we actually ended up overpaying. My one complaint with DFTW is the communication process.
Hope you have better luck than we did getting your final stuff!

We had the same problem. I had to continually ask my planner for my final BEO and my payment date came and went and still no BEO...I believe we received our Final BEO's 5 days before our scheduled trip to Disney.

 

[NYPrincess422]

Being that we just got switched with planners and less than 2 months out, I too had the same concerns.

Luckily, my floral rep is AMAZING. I love how "on-point" he is and I wish he could have planned my entire wedding. He sends me a revised BEO within 24 hours if a change has been made. Im not so impressed with my planners. My final payment is due in 2 weeks - I had been waiting on a BEO for about 2 months (i guess while the switch of the planners was happening, the BEO was put on the back burner) - and finally when I got the BEO it was wrong. There were decisions that had already been made but still not notated. So guess what, we had to wait again for another revision. Very frustrating, these were simple changes that had been made back in July and still weren't updated.

 

[girli565]

I didn't have any changes after my 3rd BEO so I had it about 2 weeks before the final payment was due. I made my final payment early and didn't have to think about it again. My planner was amazing with getting me updated BEOs and Floral BEO's.

 

[Deb loves Disney]

We haven't gotten a BEO for either Floral or Wedding and our wedding is 2 1/2 months away
Is this normal?
BTW...it is very hard to hear back from floral and it's pretty frustrating.

 

[Nikisha421]

We haven't gotten a BEO for either Floral or Wedding and our wedding is 2 1/2 months away
Is this normal?
BTW...it is very hard to hear back from floral and it's pretty frustrating.

are you having a wishes or escape wedding?

although this shouldn't make a difference. I just wanted to see if Wishes wedding seem to get more done faster than Escapes...

 

[helloirishkitty]

I had my planning session on last week monday and was told that i may not receive my first BEO for 4-5 weeks because October is a busy month for DFTW.

I am kinda of worried about receiving it in time for my final payment because I need to know how much $$ I need to have handy when the time comes. The communication process is the only thing that is frustrating me so far.

 

[MsEsty]

I had my planning session on last week monday and was told that i may not receive my first BEO for 4-5 weeks because October is a busy month for DFTW.

I am kinda of worried about receiving it in time for my final payment because I need to know how much $$ I need to have handy when the time comes. The communication process is the only thing that is frustrating me so far.

That is concerning if October is a busy month and we're already waiting weeks for responses. As for receiving the BEO before it is due, they can't expect anyone to get a large bill one day and pay it the next, especially if there are changes.

 

[vlkleinh]

are you having a wishes or escape wedding?

although this shouldn't make a difference. I just wanted to see if Wishes wedding seem to get more done faster than Escapes...

I'm having a wishes wedding Nov. 12. My planner is Carol Mikles, who is very quick. If I'm waiting for something, I just send an email and if she doesn't provide it (ie. updated BEO) right away, she lets me know when I should expect it. I always cc. Jessica Carter too ( Admin assistant I think)...so that if Carol is busy, Jessica can respond if she knows the answer(s) to my question.

I was waiting on an updated floral quote for 3 weeks, so I finally asked my planner/assistant if they knew what was up. I also mentioned how long it had been since my last floral meeting. I received the updated floral quote the day I sent them the message. I would say, use whoever you have on your side to make sure that you are getting the information you need.

Another thing that helped me, was making my own spreadsheet that included columns for each expense with tax and without (I had to figure out the tax rate for each thing...hint: use passporter). I made sure that the with tax amount ended up equal to what was on my last BEO quote....to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything. This has been useful in allowing me to see how close I am to the required expenditure ..and keep from overspending too much.

 

[2nd Time Bride]

are you having a wishes or escape wedding?

although this shouldn't make a difference. I just wanted to see if Wishes wedding seem to get more done faster than Escapes...

Good point - maybe the Escape weddings are a little more "pre-packaged" and therefore there aren't a lot of changes? BEOs could get completed faster if there are not a lot of special requests? I think it might also depend on what you have included such as a reception, DP, etc in addition to the ceremony.

We got our initial BEO, reviewed it with Kathleen and then received the updated BEO about a week later. We had no changes and were lucky enough to be able to pay the entire remaining amount at that time.

But...we are an Escape wedding and have very little floral and no reception or DP.

 

[Deb loves Disney]

are you having a wishes or escape wedding?

although this shouldn't make a difference. I just wanted to see if Wishes wedding seem to get more done faster than Escapes...

I am having an Escape wedding but honestly I have a lot of "extras" including an upgraded cake, lots of extra floral, decorations, a reception at the Napa room and a DP. We are under the higher minimum of $7500 because of the added events so it would be nice to see a BEO just to make sure we are meeting our minimum and also that we are not going to far over it.
With the amount of extras we are having, it looks like we could have gone with a wishes wedding and had more in-depth help with the event. Hopefully we made the right choice.