lingy's reviews

Josh and I feel so fortunate to have been able to book Jerry Yoon Photography for our wedding. When we first researched potential photographers, we weren't really excited about all the ones we came across; it's not that they had bad work, we just wanted someone who put the art first. Maybe it's because Josh and I are both artists that we're so choosy about anything visual. Anyway, we didn't think we'd ever find that photographer, so we were about to throw in the towel and settle for someone we felt was more standard, until I stumbled across Jerry Yoon's page on Martha Stewart Weddings. After scrolling through his images in his blog, I dropped everything I was doing, showed Jerry's work to Josh, and e-mailed him immediately to see if he was available. The gods must have been smiling on me that day, because it turned out Jerry was indeed available for our wedding date. Working with him and his team has been nothing short of a pleasure. Our engagement session ROCKED (see here http://www.blogjerry.com/archive/san-francisco-engagement-red-riding-hood-rosann-josh.html) and they did a KILLER job on our actual wedding! I could wax poetic for a long time, but if I had to summarize what separates them from the pack in a sentence it would be the following: they're not just about getting the composition or the colors right; they're also about the narrative told through the image. If we could do it all over again, we would go with Jerry Yoon Photography again in a heartbeat. They are truly artists' artists.

Beautiful main room! We held our wedding ceremony here; the wooden floors, huge windows, and stage sold me. The rental price is extremely reasonable, and we even rented the Friday afternoon before to setup.

We were looking for a Chinese restaurant for our reception that didn't look too, well...Chinese! We were happy to find Ming's and booked the right side of the restaurant for our wedding. David the banquet manager was a total breeze to work with; always answered our questions and addressed our concerns in person and on the phone. We didn't get to eat much on the day of since we had a sweetheart table, but everyone told me that the sea bass was divine. Their banquet prices were reasonable too and we were even able to haggle a little (thanks, Mommy)!

Kathy Wilkerson was absolutely wonderful to work with. My husband I were so pleased with her sincere, candid nature upon our first meeting that we hired her on the spot. She really tailored the ceremony to our needs and guided us on anything that we got stuck on. We had guests come up to us after the wedding and tell us that they loved the ceremony! Already we've passed her information along to engaged friends. I'm so happy she performed our wedding!

NONA, NONA, NONA!

Few people are truly rock stars at what they do, and Nona falls into this category. When my husband I first met with her to discuss flowers for our wedding, we brought in some photos from the net of initial ideas we had, and she expanded upon them further with beautiful suggestions.

Because we would be standing in front of large windows for the ceremony, she talked us out of using an arch in front of it because a structure in front of a structure would look jarring. Instead, she suggested that they tie kiwi vine and flowers around the windows to frame us! I was BLOWN AWAY when I saw them at the ceremony site!

And I don't even know how to get started about our bouquets. Let's just say, the moment I saw them, I screamed, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME! OH EM GEE!" (in a positive manner, of course.) My bouquet had gardenias, which smelled absolutely divine for days afterward. I really need to find a good photo of it to put up, but please have a look at the photos I've uploaded of the kiwi vines and bridesmaids' bouquets.

You know from previous reviewers that she is reasonable with her prices, and she even talked me out of getting flowers for our reception since it took place at a Chinese restaurant and everyone would take them off their lazy susans anyway.

My god. Hire Floral Design Studio NOW.

We found out about Sugar Butter Flour through Yelp when we researched bakers for our wedding. We were charmed by their ability to create unique cakes, like the kind you see on those cake shows on TV. SBF was the first place we tasted at and the one we happily went with. Irit, the owner, met with us for the tasting. Me being a red velvet cake lover and my new husband a chocolate lover, we were in heaven when we took bites of SBF's chocolate hazelnut ganache and red velvet with cream cheese. My husband even reeled back a little from the chocolate cake - he was in love! We ended up getting one more flavor too: white cake with peach filling, for our less adventurous guests. I brought along pictures of our inspiration and Irit made some great suggestions on how to tie it in better to our wedding palette. The cake would be ivory and the flowers would be white, with some having gradual orange centers. Extra sheet cakes were ordered to feed our 200 guests and because of this, the cost was very reasonable. On my wedding day, I SQUEE-ed when I saw the cake! It was more adorable than I had even imagined. I still can't get over it! It was so good, I had all three flavors and even took my cake plate out on the dance floor to eat some more.

I am so glad I found A Touch of Elegance. Chair covers are one of those things you probably don't consider until most of your wedding planning is done, at which point you're probably sick and tired and just want to get married already! Thank goodness it was such a breeze to work with Blanca. Blanca Samano is organized, professional, and flexible. She has such a wide range of sash colors to choose from that it was difficult to decide on what we wanted! We found her prices very reasonable considering we needed about 200 chair covers. Everything was set up beautifully. They really did add that last touch of elegance to our wedding.

I must have gone to Jo-Ann about a dozen times now, because there's always something for me to buy there that I can use for wedding planning. From styrofoam, to silk flowers, to craft punches, to fabric, you need it, they most likely have it. Be sure to sign up on their mailing list because they send out coupons every week. I've almost never had to pay full price for anything because of those coupons. I only go to the super store in Fremont, California, because the other local ones are kinda cluttered and disorganized.

I don't know where I would be without Michaels because I've bought so much from them. Ribbons, styrofoam balls, silk flowers, paper, etc. Affordable and local.

Our vendor highly recommended that we buy our own wine, so when we saw that the 5 cent wine sale was going on at BevMo! We bought two crates each of Stanza Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiloh Road Chardonnay. Because of the sale, we saved over $400 on wine. We intend to return the unused wine to the store, but the last reviewer is making me worried if they'll take it back or not. I will not tell BevMo! the wine was for a wedding.