Quill & Oak

As a wedding planner, I have worked with many florists over the years. Kei is one of the most wonderful, kind, generous and thoughtful women in this industry. I've used her services for weddings of many clients, my own baby shower and other industry events through my business. Her quality of work is impeccable, her care and dedication to her clients working in fairness with them to provide a finished product that works with their budget and style is so admirable. A lot of people can learn from Kei both as an individual and business owner.

Devastated, Absolutely terrible Experience My fiance Anders and I got engaged on December 21, 2018 (feels like forever ago now). We started to plan our wedding almost right away, locking down the Elora Mill as our choice pretty quickly for the date April 10, 2020. We thought about flowers for a long time… We’re not what you would call ‘flower people’. We weren’t picky about what kinds of flowers we wanted, we just wanted simple, pretty, neutral colours to brighten up our day. For those of you planning an event or a wedding you already know, this isn’t an inexpensive ask. We initially met with Kei and she seemed absolutely amazing. She put together a quote for us, and (not going to lie) we were a bit shocked at the cost (over $5,000). We took a few weeks to think about it as we were hesitant to make such a large investment. At the end of the day, we came to the conclusion that you only get married once! And Kei seemed so wonderful and like she would do everything in her power to make the day perfect. That’s when we received her contract. Now, I don’t know if you normally read your contract thoroughly but BE WARNED - this one is a doozy. It actually says in plain English that if she doesn’t show up on your day, she still gets to keep 40% of your money (NON-REFUNDABLE). I looked it over and was a bit shocked… but then I realized, there’s NO CHANCE I would ever cancel my wedding!!! I would never have to deal with any of these issues. So we paid the deposit of 40% a year from our wedding day. After signing the contract, Kei went dark until a few weeks before our wedding. This made sense, we had no follow up questions for her, again we are NOT picky people! A few weeks before our wedding we had one call (for under an hour, just clarifying aspects of the initial quote). A day or so after this call she sent us an e-mail saying COVID-19 was potentially going to affect her flower shipments… she asked if we wanted her to postpone ordering flowers. We said, yes please!! At this point things were getting bad. Finally the Ontario premier made the announcement banning all gatherings of over 50 people and we were forced to cancel… I’m guessing you can already tell where this is going. Because Kei hadn’t ordered any flowers, nor had we spent any sort of significant amount of time working with her, we assumed we’d be refunded the majority of our money. THIS OF COURSE WAS NOT THE CASE. Kei has refused to refund us 40% of our money… We are absolutely devastated. We let her know this. Her response was to offer us $400 of the $2000 deposit. And this was ONLY if we agreed to sign a gag-order saying we wouldn’t speak about Quil & Oak negatively. Of course, this was not worth our while. We want to warn everyone and anyone NOT TO SIGN A CONTRACT with this woman. We spoke to our family lawyer - and he has assured us that her contract qualifies as unjust enrichment (as in it only protects her interests, and is unjust). Anyways, we are devastated. We are out $2000 of our wedding fund. My parents and our hard earned money has disappeared into Kei’s pocket. To clarify, this isn’t me saying Kei shouldn’t get to keep a deposit! We generously offered to let her keep $500 for any expenses she incurred. She of course refused. If you would like to speak with me or even see any of these contracts (or the proposed ‘gag-agreement’ she sent us) please feel free to reach out to me. My name is Michelle Base-Bursey, I’m not hard to track down on social media or e-mail. My goal here isn’t even to get our money back (she has already refused this) but to warn everyone about practises like these. I am a bride and I feel a responsibility to other brides, DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU! Find someone who is going to act graciously during a global pandemic and not take advantage of you during these difficult times. You’ve been warned!