Nicole Ha

Nicole is incredible. I loved working with her while planning my September 6, 2008 wedding, not only because she is amazingly talented, but also because she is a genuinely sweet and caring person.

Initial meetings with Nicole were a breeze. She’s great to talk to and brainstorm with, as well as a true professional. She was prompt in all of her e-mail responses and was very receptive to making revisions to our contract, which, as a lawyer, I really appreciated. Nicole is surprisingly affordable in light of her talent and popularity and is very conscientious of making sure to work within your budget, whatever it may be. Throughout the planning process, Nicole was very flexible about changing the items I wanted to include and made very thoughtful suggestions about all aspects of décor. About one month before the wedding, Nicole made us a trial centerpiece, which I absolutely loved and was able to take home; when my husband expressed some reservations about the centerpiece because it was too “modern” for him (haha), Nicole was kind enough to make a NEW trial centerpiece for us to view and provide suggestions. She was so sweet about it, even though I was freaking out about changing course last minute – she remembers what it was like to be a bride, and treats all her clients with the kindness and support that every bride-to-be needs leading up to her wedding.

Nicole regularly works closely with Crystal Lequang of Amazae Special Events (my coordinator), so having them both on my wedding team was amazing. Like Crystal, Nicole went above and beyond to make my wedding truly special. When I had told Nicole that I had purchased votive candles to put on all the tables, she offered to decorate all 150 of them with this beautiful netting...I can't even imagine all the work that that took her!!!

The event itself blew me completely away. She really brought to life the organic, natural elegance I wanted to express with the flowers at my wedding. My bouquet was lush and colorful, and I loved the custom kissing ball that she hung above our “altar” at the Hakone Gardens - so creative, and exactly what the venue needed. Her floral decorations at the reception were absolutely breathtaking. I loved the gorgeous garland that she had made for the escort card board, as well as the NEW and totally unique centerpieces submerged flower centerpieces. She totally outdid herself with additional kissing balls hanging from the ceiling (which she had made on her own and that weren’t included in the original contract), and the head table and cake table were incredibly decorated with river rocks, moss, and flowers. I could never in a million years have imagined that our venue could look that great. I love that Nicole does not just reuse old designs to create a cookie-cutter wedding - everything about the décor seemed fresh and new. I really think that innovation is really Nicole’s element.

Nicole is the best!

I loved working with Nicole. She works out of her home and does this on the side, so she charges about ½ less than what you will pay because overhead costs will not be charged to you. She was wonderful to work with, had great ideas, and knows how to incorporate your ideas, theme, and vision into her work. And my mother loved her! She executed my vision beautifully. Some brides, I’ve noticed have complained on these boards about her lack of responsiveness, but you have to remember that she has a full time job on the side! My goodness! You can't expect a response in 15 minutes when this is her side job! I really didn’t rush any of my vendors and always was patient, and they all came through for me (LESSON LEARNED: DO NOT BE A BRIDEZILLA! See advice at the end of post). Her response time via phone or email was pretty good (she replied to e-mails or phone calls within a day or two), and in the end, I was so glad I went with her. She did 33 table centerpieces for me (both high and low arrangements), decorated my cake, made five bridesmaid bouquets, my bouquet, and some of the boutonnieres. She also decorated my sign-in table and made my breakout toss bouquet (which was a huge hit - the bouquet was actually six little bouquets, each with a tiny message tied to it, so when you throw it, it breaks open so six women could catch a bouquet!). She will also give you ideas as to how to save money (e.g., how to use flowers for both your ceremony and reception, etc., how to make boutonnieres, etc.). On the day of your wedding, she will bust her butt to get the job done, and she's worth every penny I spent. She is friends with Mylinh Phan, my coordinator, so hiring them as a package is great b/c they will both make sure that every detail is perfect on your wedding day (e.g., Yank Sing sort of just threw the chopsticks and plates down on my reception tables and they, along with my helpers, went around fixing everything and making sure everything was perfectly aligned). Cost = about $2200.

I LOVE LOVE LOVED working with nicole! Our flowers turned out to be so beautiful, and beyond our expectations. Our guest talked for days how beautiful everything looked. Nicole is so very creative and absolutely willing to work with your budget (I know this because I had ajusted my budget a couple times, and had made many changes to my original scheme)and everytime nicole was able to make valuable suggestions to complete my vision. I didn't give any specific guideline on the flowers, and basically let Nicole run with my vision, and she pull everthing beautifully together. She was so professional, on time(early on wedding day), and thorough (Nicole covered arrangements for all the tables, all display, everything that I didn't even think about, she covered!!) I can not recommend her enough to everyone.

Nicole is so talented and just a friendly person to talk to. Although she works from her home she seems to be very professional at what she does! I absolutely love her work! Its very young, hip,and modern. She listens to your requests very carefully so she can create you dream wedding accordingly! Even my FMIL liked her a lot!! It does take her awhile to send you a quote/email but she did warn me ahead of time that she's busy so it'll take her longer than usual to respond. We won't be going with Nicole for various reasons but its not because of her services and such. And if I could hire her and our florist both i would! but we can't.. :( But i thought she deserved 5 stars because of her work and her personality!!

Price:

$2,183 with 20% due at time of booking, and the remainder due 1 week before the wedding. Here's the breakdown:

1 Bridal bouquet, consisting of pink peonies, garden roses, sweet peas, etc. - $160

6 Pink mini spray roses for bride's hair - $12 ($2 each)

1 Groom's Boutonniere with black satin ribbon- $10

3 BM bouquets, mini version of bride's bouquet - $225 ($75 each)

5 boutonnieres with chocolate satin ribbon for 3 GMs and 2 RBs - $40 ($8 each)

2 FG baskets with silk rose petals - $40 ($20 each)

2 wrist corsages for Moms, pink cymbedium orchid - $30 ($15 each)

3 boutonnieres for 2 dads and 1 grandfather, designed to complement moms' corsages - $30 ($10 each)

1 simple boutonniere for officiant - $8

8 stand rentals for ceremony aisle arrangements - $64 ($8 each)

1 Arch for ceremony, pink hydrangeas, roses, and hanging amaranthus. Reuse to decorate head table during reception- $414 ($23/foot)

Rose petals and candles to decorate guest sign-in table - $20

8 tall centerpieces, seasonal flowers, used to decorate aisle during wedding ceremony then reused as guest table centerpieces during reception - $440 ($55 each)

14 short centerpieces, pink hydrangeas, vases decorated with pink, green, and chocolate ribbons - $308 ($22 each)

Flowers to decorate 4 layer wedding cake - $96 ($24/layer).

Delivery & setup fee - $120

Pluses:

Our bouquets were very lush and beautiful. I loved my bouquet, mainly because of the gorgeous pink peonies. Too bad I couldn't keep it since we were flying out to Italy the next day.

All flowers arrived on time.

Boutonnieres and corsages looked great.

Nicole decorated our cake beautifully.

Deltas:

I did not like the mini pink roses that Nicole suggested I use for my hair, but maybe this isn't her fault because I didn't really specify what I wanted. I just told her I wanted to put flowers in my hair during the reception and that the flowers could not be white (bad luck per Chinese customs). The pink roses were nice, but I just didn't like the way they looked as hair accessories. But it was all I had so I just went with it. In hindsight, I wish I hadn't used them. Lesson learned - if you're going to use flowers in your hair, know the type of flower you want, and if possible, test it out by putting one in your hair and photographing it to see if it really looks as nice as you think. Flowers that lay a bit flat looks a lot better than those that will protrude out of your head (like the roses I got).

The arch for our ceremony was not as nice as I had expected. I don't know if it's because, according to Nicole, pink hydrangeas were not in season, so she ended up using white hydrangeas and then spray painting them pink. After seeing a photo of another arch she had done previously, I was disappointed that our arch wasn't as lush as the one I had seen.

While I ended up loving my bouquet, my initial reaction wasn't Wow. I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. In the end, it grew on me though, and I loved the peonies. But when I look at flowers from my friend's wedding, or even flowers from my cousin's wedding that Nicole did (which turned out fabulous by the way), I'm disappointed with what I got.

Summary

I loved working with Nicole. She had some great ideas that weren't limited to just flowers. Nicole made me dream of a gorgeous wedding, and got me all excited about it. And yet she was very understanding when I came back later to say I was buying a house and had to cut the wedding budget. She didn't make me feel bad, and made me feel like, even with a smaller budget, the flowers could still look nice. She's so nice about working with your budget. She was super patient, despite my indecisiveness. One minute I wanted tulips, next minute calla lilies, then peonies, then orchids, etc. I could never make up my mind because there are just so many beautiful flowers out there. I finally just left it up to her to decide (in hindsight, maybe I should have been more specific)! Nicole has great potential, but unfortunately is not consistent. The flowers at my wedding were just okay. But the flowers she did for my cousin's wedding were gorgeous. Oh well. But she is definitely a sweetheart to work with.

My wedding was in October 2007. Nicole was one of my favorite vendors. I loved all the floral arragements at my wedding. I had a budget of $2k for flowers and she was able to work with my budget. I knew I wanted cymbidium orchids for my bouquets and boutonniers. Because I had a small budget, Nicole suggested using seasonal flowers for the centerpieces and they still came out lovely. The best thing was I didn't have to stress about flowers at all. Nicole's so creative, when we had our first meeting, she threw out so many ideas by just looking at pictures of the wedding site, that got me excited about the wedding. At the time, I was stressed about everything and was not enjoying the planning phase. I ended up paying a little over $2k and I got the following:

Bridal and (4) bridesmaid bouquets - all cymbidium orchids
8 boutonniers
3 corsages for mothers
13 centerpieces
cake decoration
toss bouquet
2 large arrangements

I reused all the flowers used during the ceremony for the reception. She even added an extra touch for the head table that made it look even better. I received so many compliments on how nice the flowers looked that day. Nicole did a fabulous job for my wedding!

On another note: My cousin used Nicole for her wedding too and I must have to agree with her that the flowers were okay, but not outstanding at her wedding.

In conclusion, Nicole is super nice, very easy to work with and would work with your budget. I would recommend her to everyone!

My wedding was September 30th 2007 at the Del Monte building in Sunnyvale.
When initially meeting with her she was so friendly and accommodating to my hectic schedule. The look I was going for was a modern chic look. When talking about my wedding colors and scheme Nicole actually got really excited and enthusiastic. You could tell this was her passion. She gave me plenty of choices and ideas to choose from and was patient at my reluctance to make a concrete decision. She really walked me through the whole floral process and what flowers were good choices for the particular mood I was trying to set. She responded to all my questions and concerns in a timely effective manner while always being personable.

I didn't have a wedding planner and thought I could go without one since me and my husband was on a tight budget. I thought I had all the bases covered but come a month before the wedding all the small things crept up. In my moment of panic Nicole completely assisted me. She not only organized a sound schedule but she made favors out of river rocks and orchids she walked me through everything and became my own wedding planner.

Now for the important part the flowers….

Nicole completely transformed the Del Monte into an elegant and beautiful showcase for my wedding ceremony and festivities. I used the upstairs room for my ceremony but could not afford to have chair covers for my ceremony but she decorated the aisles and my chuppah (Jewish wedding canopy) so beautifully the room looked breathtaking. When I walked down the aisle I was overwhelmed by her artful and stunning décor. It literally took my breath away. Walking down stairs to my reception I was again amazed how the ballroom was decorated. Everyone and I mean everyone was impressed.

I had two bouquets one for the morning ceremony and one for the afternoon ceremony. The morning bouquet exploded with colors using various flowers including tulips which I loved. My other bouquet was a cascade of roses and orchids with a dash of color. Oh my gosh it was the most gorgeous bouquet I have ever seen. I wanted to freeze dry it and keep it in a little container so I could admire for years to come but Nicole promised she would replicate the same bouquet for me for my anniversary.

All the flower girls had kissing balls which were decorated in bright orange roses.
She provided gardenia’s for my hair.
The bridesmaids had lovely arrangements of roses and peonies.
The groomsmen had miniature purple calla lilies.
The centerpieces were modern and artfully placed, just what I requested.
All were done with exquisite taste.
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Overall my wedding turned out better then any prior expectations I had. I felt like a princess in my beautiful palace.



I didn’t realize the importance of flowers and what kind of mood they really set at a wedding until I started planning my own.
I know how painful the wedding planning process can be and all the choices you have are overwhelming but with Nicole’s services you just can’t go wrong. She has the talent and the passion. Guests are still talking about my wedding and I receive so many complements about the floral arrangements! If you ladies want any pictures of my flowers from my wedding please feel free to email me. Hope this review helps in the complicated process of wedding planning

Nicole was absolutely amazing!!!
She did the flowers for my wedding on August 14th, 2008 at Viansa Winery. She did 7 bouquets, 7 bouttonieres, 1 hairpiece, 8 centerpieces and 1 extra large head table centerpiece. The result was breathtaking and looked abut three times as expensive as it actually was (thanks to Nicole's very fair rates).
I am an extremely fussy person, and flowers were no exception. For Nicole to have met and exceeded my expectations totally blows my mind. She even found me peonies in August for my bouquet because she knew how much I loved them!!
My centerpieces were tall vases with submerged white orchids and then tall silver manzanita branches with hanging votives and white orchids intertwined. The head table had a more elaborate centerpiece- natural manzanita branches weaving all over the table with tons of votives and lots of huge white orchids. My other vendors were shocked to hear that I paid well under three thousand dollars for all my flowers. My guests were bowled over bythe flowers, especially the quality and size of the orchids.
Nicole was a complete pleasure to work with, she traveled all the way out to Viansa to meet us onsite (and this was before we even hired her!), and throughout the entire process she was quick to reply to my emails and answer any questions that I may have had.
I have viewed her website and don't think that it even begins to do her justice, so as soon as I get pictures, I will post them here. If you are interested in her, you should also check out the flowers she did for the Una Bella Sera event (go to: http://augiechangphotography.blogspot.com/2008/04/una-bella-sera-at-casa-real-pictures.html ), they are simply to die for!
I honestly just cannot reccommend her enough! If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing about the entire experience with Nicole.

Nicole is great! I had such a positive experience with Nicole Ha during my planning process that I truly feel lucky that I found the right vendors to work with and made the overall planning effort not such a nightmare after all. Nicole's flowers were amazzzzinngggg....I loved all the work that she did with executing all the ideas and visions that I had for my wedding. She even gave me tons of great ideas to do on my own which I happily worked on - they added more depth to my own little projects for the wedding. I would happily recommend any wedding couple to Nicole Ha - she really does have the flare and vision with her craft. I loved that she went above and beyond on her delivery. Great vendor!

I would not recommend this person. She was not even there during the wedding decoration until the very end. She has no store. Its like working in the garage. She hired people that does not know how to arrange flowers. I would say she is a good florist if she actually did it. I guess she was too busy with another wedding or was ill prepared for our wedding. She did not deliver what she promised regretably. It was very unprofessional. I just posted two pictures one from the wedding of the centerpiece at the actual wedding and one that was done at her home. I'll let you be the judge whether the center piece was done nicely or not.

I really love her flower, and i am sure i will book her for my wedding.. great job on what she done on my friends wedding. But kinna pricey :-)