Big News: Apertura Photo did our Engagement Session Yesterday

YAYYYYY................... I think it's all fate............... Apertura Photo in Corona is top 10 wedding photographer in US in 2009.. I had reached out to them but their rate is way beyond my budget so I couldn't do it.. A couple weeks ago, I got a linkedin invite from Erwin , one of the photographer partners at Apertura. I didn't recognize the name and I clicked on it trying to figure out who he is, which brought me to his website and then his blog. And his blog shows his latest twitter posts and I saw that he said he needed a volunteer couple to do engagement session for a video shoot......So I emailed them my picture and hope.... We didn't hear from them until the day of the shoot supposed to happen so I figure we didn't get it... And then around 2pm yesterday, Ray (the other partner) emailed us and said the volunteer couple dropped out and was wondering if we are available... (OK so we are not first choice, it's okay.. still get a free engagement session)....

So we did that yesterday.. we were 30 minutes late... sorry.... !! but we went to pasadena and walked around there to take picture.. I reallyy really really really enjoyed /loved working with Apertura Photo both Erwin and Ray. After 20 minutes, the videographer actually left to go catch their flight. I figured Erwin and Ray would stop photographing us soon after that since they won't be videotaped anymore. I was wrong.. they did a full 2 hour engagement session with us (I think generally engagement session is 1 hour long) i think it's also because both Erwin and Ray are main photographers so they each styled us and thus it takes 2 hours..

In terms of style, Erwin and Ray are very urban, hip, lots of lighting play, a lil vogue styling too... They are the kindest people and they are supper passionate of their works. You can really tell if they spend 2 hours with us when we don't pay them and they are actually printing out some photos for us (of a $1000 value) I know I know I told you it's fate.. luck.. what ever you call it..

Soooo if you guys are looking for a wedding photographer, do check out Apertura Photo I really recommend both of them. They are both passionate, great to work with and professionals. Good luck, let me know if you have any question at all.

OOH.. and Apertura photo just did the shoot for the fashion tips

from Junebug that launched today.

Note: I still love our wedding photographer :) Really... :)

Review of City of Commerce Flower

How do you not loveeee this centerpieces? And Duke send me home with this centerpiece and the bridesmaid bouquet and one stalk of this david austin Juliet which I looooveeee....

All in all I have been working with them probably since January. I just want to make a couple of notes for some of you who are looking for wedding florist in Los Angeles.

Pros:
1. OMG the price.... their quotes are 30-40% lower than other quotes I have received.. This is mainly because they do big volumes.. 7 to 11 weddings in a day or maybe in a weekend?
2. They are the sweetest people ever... they will send you home with free samples... the two out of four times i've gone there.. they send me home with flowers.... awww...
3. since they do sooo many weddings... they are likely to have done flower arrangement at your venue.. Eddie told me in the beginning that my venue could get windy in September so bear that in mind.. especially when doing manzanite tree/ candles etc..
4. They are very frank.. and also want you to stay in budget. Duke would told me... no you don't really need that.. save that money for something else.. people won't really notice it....

Cons:
1. they don't seem to have experience working with fancy/unusual roses? Or maybe Duke is kinda forgetful? I showed him the picture of David Austin Juliet which I said I MUST HAVE in my bouquet... He took a look at it and he said... " but that is peony".... I'm like... Mmmm.... NO.... That is garden roses... A little worrying... He told me to find out what the name of the flower , send it to him and he will get it for me.... Really really worrying.. but i did send it to him.. he called me back a couple days later to say that yes we can get it... and then afterwards when I went for my sample meeting; he did have those flowers in hand for other weddings... mm...
2. They want to keep a low budget sometimes more than i do.... Like if I said... i want dahlia/garden roses... they'll be like" ooh that cost too much..." and sometimes i just really want them..... like when i said i want this big dahlias... and theyll be like.. ooh they cost a lot.... Which is fine with me coz as my blog name says I have a champagne taste ("on a beer budget") so they help me stick to my budget....but if you have a somewhat bigger budget, i think the other florist i've met can be more creative and really create new things for you/ expand your visions...
3. They still do their proposal with pen and paper.... i love pen and paper... really.... but with multiple iteration and changing stuff... this makes me nervous !!!!! coz he'll be scratching things up from the proposal and changing it... really a little disorganized....... Makes me want to type the proposal out on excel spreadsheet and give it to them and be like.. OK you follow this okay.. Seriously i think i am really going to do it....... Among the four florist or so i've worked with, they are the only one who use pen and paper... and they have this big filing cabinet where they save your paper proposals........... MMMM........... as long as you get it right... i'm okay :) but i'm going to still print out those excel spreadsheet and be a little controlling...

Overall, I have a limited budget in flowers (taken out to a couple of my spending spree in invitation ; live event painter and the such...) so I will gladly work with them since it's 30-40% lower in prices... However.. if you have a more agreeable budget and want a more creative/attentive to detail vision.. I'd say you may want to look at those fancy flower boutique to help you build your vision...

Is there any vendors you really love eventhough you're still wedding planning?

Cheap Letterpress Invitation: Mercurio Brothers

So some of you who follow my blog, might have heard of my invitation woe.. I want letterpress.. I don't want to pay for the price..and I can't do illustrator.. great combination... So what's a girl gotta do to afford it... I perused lots and lots of boards, emailed a bunch of letterpress company and ask for their rates and I finally found the most affordable with a great quality letterpress: Mercurio Brothers.

I worked mainly with Nicole there and she's great... At first it's really hard to get any email reply from her.. but she's always available when I call her. and she quoted the most affordable wedding design cost (compared to again all the etsy vendors I've reach out to/letterpress company). The good thing is I know which invitation as an inspiration so things have worked marvellously. The only problem is of course, I printed two colors on a Somerset 300 gsm paper and also printed out an information ticket and now I spend almost all my stationery budget on these invitations (and I have not budgeted enough on the program/placecard/thank you card). Kill Me... who knows program is soo bloody expensive....

So i plan to print all these other stationeries at work and cut them at work (sssh... dont tell anyone at work ok...) will give you guys picture next month after I send it out to my guests..

Biggest News ever.....

I am in the process of booking my most favorite live painter Agnes Csiszar YAYYYYY................. I'm super duper excited......................

I love her works...... I love how her painting really show resemblance to the people instead of a total impressionism where i can't even see the face of the guests.... So I'm super estatic.. Ok so I'm still working out the contract right now but still estatic because a couple weeks ago she told me that she was booked and I was soooo bummmed...... and then today she emailed me and said that my date got freed up... yayyy

What do you guys think of my live painting idea???