Florists: a few personal recommendations

Is floral arrangement a potential area to cut budget on? Hard to tell. You don't want to be holding a cheap looking bouquet on your wedding day; at the same time, it may not make sense to pay a fortunate to fill your ceremony hall with exotic flowers.

How would I save money? My suggestion is , at the minimum, you need to hire a florist for your personal flowers. Fortunately, most of the time, only minimal floral decoration of the venue is required. Less is more. Altar and aisle are usually the places you want to spend some money on decorating. Again, hire a professional! It is too risky to DIY in those highly visible areas. On the other hand, it is totally feasible and fun to make the banquet table centerpieces yourself! A typical Asian wedding can easily involve 10+ banquet tables. A LOT of money will be saved if you DIY. You just need to buy simple glass holders and flowers from Costco, and prepare the centerpieces the night before. At the end of day, you can even ask your guests to take the centerpieces home if they like.

Below are a few florists in the Bay Area whom my friends and I recommend:

1. Mints Workshop: Canna and her team is very creative and is great at bringing uniqueness to floral arrangements. Though their price range is not on the low end side, their work is awesome. I personally saw one of her arch designs at a friend's wedding, and I was stunned.

2. Huong Pham (4150.668.9215): Huong creates floral arrangements out of her own home. She is phenomenal at her job and can re-create any arrangement from a photo you provide. She offers suggestions on what works well together and has pictures you can choose from if you don't have something in mind. My friend brought a photo of a bouquet from a Martha Stewart magazine and she was able to create it exactly as it appeared in the picture. Some friends even said her bouquet arrangement looked better than the photo. She also charges reasonable prices.

3. Le Bouquetier: Jacklyn helped on a friend's wedding. Her flowers were one of the most beautiful among the work of all the vendors that I have seen so far. Her style was simple, clean, and contemporary.