Flowers by Asiel Designs

I figured I would take some time to write about some of the florists we are considering for our ceremony for anyone that my be in the LA area. Asiel came highly recommended by our photographer, Daniell Biel at SkyeBlu Photography.

I really enjoyed looking at their website. I especially love their "Tim Burton Inspired" section. When I think of what I want our wedding to look like I think of Burton's distinctive look with sharp lines, swirls, and colors that are bold and strong.

I have a meeting scheduled next week to discuss some ideas with their floral designer, so I'm totally excited to see what they come up with. More details to follow!

Still the Debate about the Flowers and the Video

In my mind at least it's a debate. These are the last two big things that we have to decide. At first I was sure I didn't want video, and then I saw videos from Paper Tape Films and fell in love with those. The only problem is that since we are getting married on a holiday weekend they have a six hour minimum and that would set us back about $4.5k.

Then I ran across Layer Cake Films and they also do gorgeous 8 mm wedding video. Unfortunately their holiday weekend minimum is $3.5k. Why does everything in LA have to cost so much?

Then there's the flower front. For a while I was seriously considering doing these ourselves, but started thinking about the logistics. Orange County isn't way far from home, but it is a 40 minute drive. If we had flowers delivered they would need to arrive on Friday for a Sunday wedding, or we could pick them up at the Downtown LA flower mart. Either way that means transporting those to the OC, and I have already had a few experiences with flowers not travelling so well, so I'm a little worried about how that may turn out.

So It's back to the drawing board. In the next few weeks we will probably meet with the lovely people at Asiel's Designs, and the work on their website is gorgeous. I feel like they really have a great eye for whimsical, which is totally what we want.

I've also spoken to Bobbe over at Bobbe Vagell Floaral Designs and he seems like a really nice guy. His work is amazing as well.

So only time will tell what may happen. I feel like so much of the wedding is set and these are the two areas where we can fiddle with the budget. If we ended up not having video I would be ok with that too, since we already have a great photographer, and I don't really want to spend money on a "bargain" videographer. I mean if I don't like the final product and never watch it, it's not really a bargain.

Wedding Flowers From Costco?

This is a little tidbit I read about in that Bridal Bargains book, but also something I noticed on one of my weekly Costco trips. Costco.com does wedding flowers. You can buy all sorts of kooky things at Costco.com, like caskets and urns. Fortunately we are not in need in need of either at this point and our focus is wedding flowers.

Another option I am considering for wedding flowers is a direct seller like Grower's Box. I really like their selections. You can buy flowers in bulk and arrange them yourself, or have a friend do them for you. I already had a friend that has taken a few flower arranging classes volunteer to do it.

I am going to risk angering the wedding gods here and go out on a limb and say maybe the flowers aren't that important. I still really like the idea of our tall centerpieces with the lanterns.


But if not having these saves us 1k to 2k, then isn't that worth considering? People would think they are really cool, but in the end aren't they really there to be there, and take advantage of the open bar?

The controversy continues, but either way we will make a decision, hopefully soon.

Some Great Mad Tea Party Ideas

In my endless trek through the internet in search of wedding related material I came across these pictures. I really love some of the ideas and might incorporate some of the ideas into our wedding. We were thinking of having Mickey and Minnie stop by the wedding, but maybe some of the Wonderland characters would be more in keeping with the theme?