gwtang's reviews

Jeeryn did an amazing job for my wedding at Hakone Gardens! She is incredibly friendly, sweet, and a pleasure to work with. I would definitely recommend her to other brides. She turned all my half-baked ideas into a coherent floral scheme. I received many compliments on how the venue looked and at the end of the night, all table centerpieces were snatched up by the guests. Also, more than 90% of the escort bud vase were also gone. Clearly, the florals were a hit! Thanks Jeeryn!

My favorite item that Jeeryn did for me was the bud vases. Each glass bud vase had 1-2 mini lavender carnations. They were so cute and Jeeryn arranged them beautifully on the Escort Card Table. I think all my guests ended up taking pictures of them.

A few things about my interactions with Jeeryn also stood out to me.

Patient: I went through multiple iterations of what I wanted the wedding floral to be. I changed from tower centerpieces to low centerpieces to no centerpieces and finally to cylindrical centerpieces. Jeeryn was always very patient with me, listening to my ideas, giving her expert input, and promptly drafting up new contracts.

Professional: After the wedding, I found out from my bridal party that one of my guests had knocked over one of the rental altar arrangements. Jeeryn had to redo the rearrangement, which was time consuming given the complexity and size. I am sure that this added incredible amounts of stress to the setup. At the end of the evening, when Jeeryn came by to pick up the rental items, she made no mention of the incident. She was perfectly calm and cheery and never let it slip that a mishap had happened.

Creative: When I explained my color scheme (purple) and venue to Jeeryn, she made many good suggestions regarding suitable décor. I ended up renting purple lanterns from her to hang off the edge of the building. They looked lovely and worked well with the overall style. I also rented votives from her, and she provided a mixture of short and tall cylindrical votives. The tall votives looked very classy and added nicely to the romantic, outdoor, nighttime setting.

Through: I ask Jeeryn for suggestions for hair flowers. She took into account the heat and outdoor venue and suggested robust flowers that complimented my bouquet. One the day of the wedding, she kindly delivered my hair flowers and all the bridal party flowers to the hotel I was getting ready at. To my surprise, she had prepared multiple backup hair flowers as well as a backup Groom’s boutonniere. I am so glad she did! My husband’s boutonniere was smashed from all the hugs even before the reception started.

Giao is an incredibly sweet and talented woman. My husband and I along with our bridal party all enjoyed working with her. On special occasions, I hope to go back to Giao for more hair and makeup sessions!

Trial: As a cost saving measure, Giao suggested I schedule my engagement photo session on the same day. I was pleased she made the suggestion rather than waiting for me to request it. I requested a soft and romantic chignon, which required curling all my hair and then lots of pinning/tucking. I have very soft, fine, and straight Asian hair that I do not color, perm, or blow dry. Such hair does not hold curls well but Giao is extremely skilled and managed to get it to behave.
I wanted some loosely curled strands in the front but did not have any bangs for this look. Giao volunteered to cut my hair and upon my acceptance, she took out the chignon, straightened all my hair, and gave me bangs. She also took care to add layers to the side-front so that the bangs integrated in with the rest of my long hair. My new haircut looked amazing and based on the fluidity of Giao’s movements during the haircut, it was clear she was skilled in cutting hair as well. (At work, everyone complemented me on my new hairstyle, guys included)
When doing my makeup, Giao also shaped my eyebrows. I spent approximately 3 hours with her that day. This is NOT because she is slow. Rather, she had done a lot of beautification on me (curled, styled, straightened, cut my hair and then did makeup). She really went beyond the services included in a hair and makeup trial!

Wedding Day: I had gone with heavier makeup for the engagement photo session and requested a lighter look for the wedding day since I would be interacting with guests. Giao was able to accommodate my request with no problem. She airbrushed my shoulders and upper back as I had a few pimple scars and tan lines. She also let me substitute false lash strips with individual false lashes to achieve a more natural look. Hair and makeup took about 2 hours and 15 minutes (very efficient considering the time it takes to glue individual false lashes).
I had Giao do hair and makeup for my bridesmaids. She did eyebrow shaping for both of them. One BM had straight, thick, slightly above shoulder length hair, but Giao had no problem pulling it up into a lovely updo. Each BM took about 1 hour and 10 minutes.
Giao also lightly airbrushed my then fiancée to give him an even skin tone. It looked natural and he had no problems with it despite having oily skin.
Total prep time for 1 Bride + 2 Bridesmaids + 1 Fiancée was around 4.5 hours. Giao’s efficiency was very important to me as I had a very packed day. In addition, considering I could not really sleep the night before, the later I had to wake up, the better!

Touchup: On the trial day, my makeup lasted more than ten hours with no problems. As a result, I did not request Giao to stick around for touchups. After the wedding, everyone’s makeup and hair was intact. This is impressive as we had an outdoor wedding in the August heat! My bridesmaids and I were all dancing (lots of jumping up and down) but none of us had a hair crisis.

Perfect vendor for Hakone Gardens (Saratoga, CA): This is a difficult venue to work with as they have extremely strict rules regarding waste removal as well as a minimal kitchen. Ava has successfully handled multiple weddings at this location and works well with their staff. She also knows exactly what needs to be brought to the site in order to ensure quality food preparation. Ava was also able to give me helpful recommendations for the table layout. (Note: For venues without an extensive kitchen, be prepared to pay additional costs for equipment)

Food Quality: One word, amazing. During our tasting session, the food was amazing. My then fiancée and I brought our parents and relatives. As we come from traditional Chinese families, there was very strong opposition to a non-Chinese restaurant wedding. However, all the parents and relatives were extremely satisfied and even excited for our wedding date to arrive. The quality of the food the day of the wedding was on par with that during the tasting. This is an impressive feat considering the chef was cooking for 150 people rather than 10. Our American friends also loved the food. Ava was able to accommodate my vegetarian guests and vendors. I think of Le's Kitchen as upscale Asian fusion food (like The Slanted Door located in San Francisco)

Food Quantity: The quantity at the tasting session was more than that at the actual wedding. However, on the day of the wedding, many tables still had leftovers. Only one or two tables that had heavy eaters found the quantities to be a bit small.

Food Service: My husband and I shared a sweetheart table. Ava personally plated our meals and served us. The service to our table was perfect. We also provided take out boxes and Ava’s staff packaged the leftovers. It would have been nice if Le’s Kitchen had provided the boxes. My bridal party also found it very easy to work with Ava and her staff. She alerted my BMs when the alcohol ran low. Some guests commented that the food service was a bit slow (~2 hours for 8 dishes). I felt slower service was a fair trade for high quality.

Responsiveness: Ava responded to my many questions in clear emails. The email responses were a bit slower in the beginning (~8-10 months prior to the wedding) but were very fast towards the end (~0-2 month prior to the wedding). Ava was also very proactive and suggested a site walk through. I did not intend to do one, but found it very helpful when I did.

Flexibility: I requested multiple tweaks to the menu such as swapping out one dish for another, substituting prawns in the fried rice for meat, adding bamboo to one of the veggie dishes, etc. All the changes were accommodated with no problem. I do wish there were more types of beverage packages or custom ones. I never got around to inquiring about a custom one, but Ava did give very good recommendations of where to go and how much to buy.

Specific Dishes:
Favorites: Lobster, Sea Bass, Filet Mignon, Salad with Soft Shelled Crab
Moderate: Roasted Quail was a bit hard to eat because of the amount of bones so I would not recommend this substitute. It was especially hard for the bride and groom to eat in a refined manner!

Ava also threw in a few perks into the final contract which were totally unexpected, but a lovely surprise. My husband and I have no regrets going with Le’s Kitchen for our wedding. If you are looking for an upscale Asian Food caterer in the South Bay, Le’s Kitchen is likely the best. (Some other good Asian food caterers only do business in San Francisco). I'd like to be realistic and state that Le's Kitchen is not cheap. However, the cost we spent on food was clearly felt by our guests, so we felt it all worthwhile.