Flowers By Helen

Helen was amazing and so easy to work with throughout the stressful planning process. We contacted her a bit late in our planning, but we were able to work out every detail before the wedding. Helen was extremely responsive with emails, flexible and gave honest feedback when I was about to make the wrong choices. My flowers were absolutely beautiful and exactly what I had envisioned. Helen has amazing attention to detail, very creative, impeccable professionalism and she was very accessible whenever I needed to discuss any changes. She is such a likable person and an absolute pleasure to work with, I couldn't have asked for a better person to do my flowers! I wish I could have her do the flowers for my 2nd wedding in the Midwest!!!

Our wedding was gorgeous and elegant, and it is all thanks to Helen. Her bouquets and centerpieces were exquisite. She did all kinds of bouquets, including nosegays for the grandmothers and mothers, which were just beautiful and added so much to the ceremony. She also did bouquets for our chuppah and then, after checking with me to make sure it was okay, she added some additional floral flourishes to the front of the chuppah which made it even more outstanding. From the petals along the aisle to the flowers on the cake table to my daughter's bridal bouquet, everything was perfect. Even the boutennieres for the men were stunning. We wanted something simple, which she did, but the flowers themselves provided a huge pop of color that made them look terrific. And everything looks wonderful in our pictures. Also, Helen worked within our budget and gave us many options and ideas of how to get everything we wanted while not spending a fortune. But the best thing about working with Helen is that she is a remarkable person. She responded to every call and e-mail. She was a voice of sanity and calm and took an interest in our well-being throughout the process. She has enormous talent, and an even bigger heart. She brings an amazing passion to what she does -- something you can't easily find. It was a pleasure to get to know her, and we're forever grateful.

I booked Helen to do my flowers for my May 2011 wedding and they turned out absolutely beautiful! Helen really listened to the look I was going for and the results exceeded my expectations. I did not have a huge budget for flowers, but Helen was able to work with me and offered great budget friendly suggestions that didn’t compromise on style for example having a mixture of high and low centerpieces. For budget reasons, I needed my flowers to serve double duty so after the ceremony, Helen came back to the church to move my altar flowers and brought them to the hotel ballroom to decorate my cupcake display. Since I couldn’t afford separate head table flower arrangements, Helen lined all the bridal party bouquets along the head table with roses petals and votives in between and it looked like a million dollars. Helen is also so sweet and very professional. She would always respond so quickly, practically instantly, to all my emails, which I appreciated so much since I was planning my wedding from out the country. I would recommend Helen to everyone and anyone! Book her- you will not be disappointed!

Helen did an amazing job on our wedding flowers. From the very begining she was very flexible and willing to work within our budget. Always very responsive, Helen listened to my ideas and showed me pictures of different arrangements and flowers that would work for us. The flowers came out absolutely spectacular! The centerpieces were so elegant and beautiful, the bridal bouquet was PERFECT. Helen is so nice and down to earth- she even helped watch my crying 2 year old for a little bit after our ceremony so we could take some photos!! The flowers were one of my favorite things about our wedding and I'm so glad I had a change to work with Helen :)

Helen is truly gifted with the ability to create beautiful floral arrangements; there are no limits to what she can do. Her love and passion for this definitely shines through her works of art. I went to her with just a few very details/ideas on what I wanted and Helen took them and created the most beautiful pieces. Not only does she have an eye for arranging and pulling ideas together but she is also extremely prompt in responding to emails at essentially all hours of the day. She is very professional, flexible and a real pleasure to work with. I give Helen five stars and two thumbs up. You would be honored to have her as your florist!

I am so blessed to have helen as our florist!! I found her through our photographer and I am SOOO glad that I did!! I had talked to maybe 2 or 3 other florists but it seems like they didn't understand my vision. as soon as i met helen, I knew she was the right florist for us! I gave her a budget of $3000 for the big wedding of 400!
she did more then I ever expected and I was so happy! my guests were coming up to me throughout the whole night telling me how gorgeous everything was ..and that it was the nicest wedding they've ever been to! even my groom said that it looked like a million dollar wedding!

I highly recommend helen! she was amazing !! she made my wedding dreams come true!

Words to describe Helen: Wonderful, amazing, talented, gifted, down to earth, fantabulous ( ok, so that may not be a word but Helen deserves her own).
When I met with Helen we instantly got along well. She was the most relaxed florist that I had ever encountered. When discussing floral ideas Helen would always email me right away after sending her a message...thank goodness for tech savvy people.

Initially I was a bride that said " flowers die I don't want us to spend so much money on them". That quickly changed when I realized how much I loved flowers. We trusted Helen so much with the creation of our vision we basically let her decide what she thought would look best! Now who does that?! When working with Helen we knew we wouldn't have to worry, based on her talent and professionalism.

When arriving at our venue one word crossed my mind: WOW! I was truly in awe with what Helen created. I can't choose which piece was my favorite.Everything from the alter arrangements to the bridal party flowers-I LOVED, LOVED my bouquet, it smelled so good.

I KNEW she would come up with something great!

First off, I think I should say that for my wedding I contacted so many florists it was insane. I had a wedding in Southern California but I live in Northern California. Perhaps this is only my experience but I found that there was a consistent pattern with many florists I contacted. First, they would not contact me back from the first call or e-mail; I would have to call a few times or e-mail them a few times. Second, when I would get a hold of them and talk about what I was looking for they would then send me a quote: with flowers I specifically e-mailed that I did not like; forget ceremony flowers or reception flowers on the quote; or go way over what I had said my budget was. And many times it was a combination of all of these. I was so frustrated with these people that I was ready to cry.

And then the sun came through the clouds in the form of a referral from my day-of coordinator. Helen was the opposite of all these other people. She was so patient with me and worked so hard to get what I wanted for the price I could afford. And this was all before I had even signed a contract with her. She had not even met me face to face and yet she went so far out of her way for me. She was so fast in responding to my e-mails that at one point I was the one behind in the communication. After my experience I didn’t think much of florists but Helen made me do a complete one-eighty.

At our wedding it was a complete fairytale. She did the most amazing job, better than most photos I saw on other florist websites. Everything had the most wonderful details. I had asked for some unusual things, one I wanted my two nieces to have flower wands instead of baskets or floral balls or anything like that. Helen came through perfectly and the girls loved them. And two, for the ceremony site I wanted flowers from an arch on the building with fabric hanging down, only you are not allowed to permanently attach anything to the building. Helen pulled this off magnificently and my ceremony site was exactly what I wanted. One of the most impressive things for me was how fresh the flowers where and how long they lasted after the wedding (I took my bouquet home). I would highly recommend Helen to any Bride and Groom. She was wonderful to work with and her passion for her work really shows, making her creations truly magical.

I highly recommend Flowers By Helen. Helen is wonderful to work with!

Here are my favorite things about Helen:
- Honest & Professional. Working with Helen was very easy and she is straightforward and willing to spend as much time as possible to work with a bride & groom. It was very easy for my husband and I to trust Helen. She runs her business well and I had not one worry about how the flowers the day of the wedding would turn out.
- Reasonable Pricing. I shopped around for awhile for a florist and just found that most florists overcharge for their services. I can say Helen's pricing is so reasonable and you really get amazing value for what you pay.
- Attentive & Collaborative. Any ideas you have you can let Helen know and she will do her best to help create your vision. She works with you and tries to find pictures of what she's thinking to ensure you and her are on the same page.
- Responsive. Helen is great at responding to emails! This was so great to me because getting an answer to a question after a few minutes is a huge perk when dealing with a vendor. You feel you get things accomplished quickly and it gives you peace of mind.
- Great Floral Design. I was so happy with all the flowers at my wedding! They were beautiful and Helen created such a nice ceremony and reception space.

And there are much more positive things about Helen, she is truly great to work with!

I am completely shocked that there aren't more reviews here for Helen. I was referred by my photographer as well and had seen some of Helen's work in various blogs. I KNEW she was the florist I wanted. So when I had 5 weeks to put a wedding together, Helen was the first person I booked. She is super responsive...possibly due to a blackberry addiction. =) Helen totally went above and beyond as I would even ask her for her thoughts on dresses, shoes, etc. I know, not her job. But I felt sooooooo comfortable with her that I couldn't help but ask.

So needless to say...Helen is amazing. I didn't even meet her until my wedding day. All I had to do was send pictures of the venue and some inspiration boards and BAM! She put together the perfect centerpieces, boquets, & ceremony decorations. I can't even express how HAPPY I was with everything! Pictures will be posted on my page soon if anyone wants to check them out.

Helen was the florist for our wedding. She's such a great find, thanks to my photographer for recommending her. She's very passionate about her work and works with everything you bring up. She did a wonderful job putting together our bouquets, boutonnieres, church arrangements, pews flowers and even a manzanita. Everyone loved her work, she is very professional and prompt in answering questions and giving opinions. She went above and beyond even adding petals to our empty tables at the reception and adding flowers to our cake. In addition, she worked with out budget. We booked her on our initial meeting and we're so glad we did!

First, let us say we LOVE LOVE LOVE Ms. Helen Tao. She does such an amazing job from adding swarovski crystal and our wedding date for my bouquet (which she added as a surprise), creating original initials to use for our wedding cake and center piece, and adding extra touches EVERYWHERE. Ask her to send you pictures from our wedding (06/26/2010), and you can see that everything she does comes from her heart. Everytime I contact her, she would immediate response to me, and I wonder if she even take a break during thd day? I just can't thank enough for her assistance, sincerity, and warm-hearted personality.

There are the vendors that just do enough and then there are the vendors that go above and beyond. Helen is the latter. You can tell she is very passionate in her work. Thank you so much, Helen, for making our wedding look beautiful.


Mirei & Jimmy Hong, 6/26/2010 wedding day at the Hyatt (Long Beach, CA)

We were so fortunate to have found Helen through a referral from a friend-of-a-sister-in-law. What a find! From the instant we met with her, we instantly connected. She was the first and only florist we spoke with.

She is such a talented and sweet professional; she came to our first meeting armed with books, photos, ideas, and estimates. Pretty much was ready to go out of the gate. She was familiar with our venue so she was able to help us figure out space, required decorations, etc..

We think she has an e-mail server embedded into her brain, since she is very responsive. She would reply to any and all questions as soon as we asked; sometimes it seemed as though she was replying before we even hit "send".

We referred her to a friend of ours whose having her wedding later this year and our friend hired her instantly too. Can't say enough positive things about Helen; she was so flexible, so helpful, and we couldn't have been happier with she was able to do with our limited budget.

If there were possible to give 6 stars, Flowers by Helen would easily get 6 for all categories. We found Helen through a friend of a friend and Helen was the find of the century. Not only is her enthusiasm sincere, it is infectious. She is extremely professional and quite talented; aware of all the current trends and aesthetics. We were purposely aware of our budget since we didn't want to go too crazy, and Helen delivered in amazing fashion.

She is ridiculously responsive; sometimes it felt like she was replying to our e-mails or text messages before we'd even finished writing them! She was also very involved with flower selection and offered guidance when asked.

She's also great to work with; very personable and friendly. We loved being around her and we referred her to a friend of ours whose having a wedding in a few months. If we could, we'd refer her to everyone.

I met Helen while visiting a flower wholesaler to gather inspiration and get an idea of cost. I had no idea how much flowers cost, so I simply guessed on what my budget should be. One of the other florists scoffed when I told her what I had in mind, saying that a wedding my size (135 guests) typically costs $3-4k.

Helen didn’t flinch when I told her my budget - she said she does this as a passion, enjoys it, and would be very willing to work with me on cost. She answered all my questions and sent me pictures and ideas, before she knew I was interested in booking her.

After I hired her, I had even MORE questions. She’s patient and super responsive by email, which I love. It was less stressful knowing I could depend on her for answers – especially because I only had 4 months to plan! Not only is she professional and knowledgeable, she is also friendly and thoughtful.

I would definitely work with Helen again for future events. My friend just booked her for a wedding next year!