Month: October 2011

Once Upon a Time, at the Dining Room Table…

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Photo of a dining room table piled with objects
Don't let clutter kill your fairy tale romance!

We dined, once, at our dining room table.  Then we got engaged. Suddenly piles of bridal magazines, boxes of invitations, and a flower girl basket took up residence.  Don’t let it happen to you.

“Why?” you may ask. “All that lovely flat space for storage.  Certainly a few months of dinner elsewhere won’t kill us.”  And you’re right – but it does, eventually, kill the romance in a relationship.  Normally romance doesn’t come easy, or cheap, but there is nothing so simple and special as to sit across from each other, light a few candles, and have a meal.  It doesn’t matter if you are eating frozen waffles on paper plates.  There’s something in the quality of the light that makes you both remember why you got engaged, married, pinned, whatever.

So watch one of those HGTV clutter busting shows, and keep that dining room table clear for some romance.  Sunday nights are perfect for a lovely dinner, but at the table – not in front of ABC’s promising new show…Once Upon a Time.

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HYelp! The cry for help with Yelp! issues heard ’round the nation

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The Yelp RV.
Image via Wikipedia

HYelp! HYelp! My Little Flower Shop is the latest in a long line of wedding businesses to find that Yelp! seems to have a really unfair, arbitrary non-algorithm that pulls down positive reviews left by real customers, leaving subjective, often unfair reviews to sink your online reputation.

Do you Yelp?  Yelp (officially with an exclamation point) is a crowd sourcing review website that is often handy.  When you’re in Omaha, how else would you know where locals get the best Thai food? Unfortunately, some vocal (and prolific) customers have taken the tool that’s meant to share information with the community, and begun to wield it as a weapon against businesses that have displeased them in any way whatsoever.  Say, by telling them we are closed on a holiday weekend, and can’t take their flower order.

So the kicker is, the people at Yelp! know that there are also businesses that try to “game” their system by putting up fake positive reviews.  So they check them all, and pull down ones they think looks suspicious – often they are 100% true, from happy customers.  To top it off there are the rumors of the sales calls where people offer to wipe out bad reviews or restore good ones with the purchase of advertising.  It’s gone as far as groups of small businesses suing the company for extortion. Patt Morrison, Southern California KPCC radio journalist, covered it on her call-in show, with this chat with Yelp! spokesman Vince Sollito. (Patt also has her own hot dog on the menu at Pink’s Hot Dogs.  Now that’s an accomplishment).

My Little Flower Shop needs your help on Yelp!  Are you a happy bride? Happy floral customer?  Please leave a geniune review for us.  We’ll hope that some of them stick!

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Wedding Day Wisdom: Assume Nothing

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Preparing for your wedding? Good rule of thumb: Assume Nothing.

Really! Nothing. Always specify ( in writing if possible) what you’ve planned for, asked for, paid for, hoped for and wished for.

Ladies, especially when it’s hopes and wishes, please please please don’t expect men to read your minds. They are no better at it during a wedding than usual.

See below for some examples of assuming gone awry.

Don’t say to a bridesmaid going to your wedding rehearsal: “I’ll see you there.” In her mind (she’s the rowdy one) you’ll see her there…perhaps after the wedding, hung over from a night out clubbing.

Don’t say to your caterer: “I love beef, so just be creative.” He will begin to plan living out his fantasy of a giant reproduction of the Venus De Milo made out of steak tartare.

Don’t say to your brother, “Yes, the best man makes a toast. Funny childhood stories and such” and then be surprised when he tells the guests about you stuffing your bra at twelve.

Ok, there’s one thing you can assume. Assume that someone’s assumptions on wedding day will make for a great story. Here’s to the birth of family lore! Cheers!