Reception Decoration & Flowers

Since there are only 2hrs between the ceremony and the reception, we expect all decoration and set up to be completed before the ceremony at 3:00pm.

For the reception, Jack & Jill Weddings (JJ) will be responsible for the head table, guest book table, cake table and the ceiling décor. The dining area is surrounded by lots of windows with plenty of natural lighting. Behind the head table is a series of windows, so we do not want to order a backdrop to block the view and the light. For the head table, we like the idea of using dark purple swag and a string of lights to embellish the front of the table where it faces the guests. The two large floral arrangements in the ceremony will relocate to the reception on the two ends of the head table. Perhaps will order a long and low floral arrangement to place in the middle of the head table. There is a ceiling lattice work in the middle of the main dining area. Both of us love the idea of fabric draping on the ceiling to accentuate the lattice work above. We haven't thought about the design for the guest book and cake table. The details will be communicated with JJ a couple months before the wedding.





I dislike the concept of paying someone else to do every single thing for the wedding. This is such an important day in my life and I wish to be more involved in the process, especially to be able to make something for my own wedding. After discussing with BMM, we have decided to be fully in charge to decorate the guest tables. Creating centerpieces will be our most significant contribution. Our initial thought is to make submerged flower centerpieces, with floating candles or placing waterproof LED lights in the bottom of the vases. I have done my research on suitable flowers to use underwater and a handful of choices are my favorite, including tulip, orchid, hydrangea, calla lily and rose. In order to establish a more appealing setting, we are considering to add a second design of centerpieces, small flower arrangements in cube vases. Ideally half of the guest tables with submerged flower centerpieces and the other half with small flower arrangements. We will add flower petals and candles surrounding the centerpieces to enhance a romantic ambiance.







The wedding theme color is purple, so we will purchase violet shade table overlays or linens for the guest tables. If the overlays/linens do not have printed patterns, yellow runners will be added to brighten up the tables. Chairs will be wrapped in solid white covers with purple satin/organza sashes. I am looking for other ways to tie the sashes, aside from the conventional style of tying a bow.



The traditional display of table numbers will not be used at our wedding. We have decided to assign our tables with city names, places that we have traveled to together. BMM suggested a while ago to use a map as the seating chart, but I thought this is difficult to accomplish since many cities we have been to cluster in Europe. I'm not sure how to fit the guest names on the map without looking too messy. Nevertheless this idea is very creative, so perhaps we will take a closer look later. For the individual name tags, I am thinking of printing the names on lotus shape papers. Attach a cocktail straw at the back of each lotus and place it in a wine glass. I have a Cuttlebug (die cutting) machine at home, so I can buy a variety of die templates to make all sorts of crafty designs.

The lotus die template is sold by Spellbinders.



The chart below shows the responsibilities of each party:

	Reception
	JJ	Florist	BLMM
Head Table Décor	√
Guestbook Table Décor	√
Cake Table Décor	√
Ceiling Décor	√
Guest Table Centerpieces			√
Flower Petals & Candles			√
Table Overlays & Runners			√
Chair Covers & Sashes			√
Long & Low Arrangement		√

Ceremony Decoration & Flowers

For the sake of convenience, our ceremony will be held at the same location as our reception, at Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club. We plan to begin the ceremony at 3:00pm and the reception at 6:00pm. The 2hrs in between are intended for photo shoot with family, friends and the bridal party.

The Club allows set up at the venue starting at 10:00am. An afternoon ceremony is preferred so that we can actually help to do some set up. We have heard from many married couples that there will be no time for us to do anything the day of, except be focused on our part of the day's festivities. However, being a control freak I really can't imagine not taking part in the decoration set up. I will get so upset when I arrive at the venue and see something turns out not the way I wanted at the last minute. So I'm hoping that I can spend a couple hours at the Club to decorate before the ceremony starts.

We have confirmed to hire Jack & Jill Weddings (JJ) to cover the decoration work partially for our ceremony and reception. Why partially…for two reasons: 1) JJ refuses to take on ceremony chair rental and 2) we like to make our own centerpieces and get our own linens, chair covers and sashes for the reception.

The Club does not provide any outdoor chairs for the ceremony; this is EXTREMELY EXASPERATING. This element alone will cost us CAD$400-500 just to rent 100 chairs being used for no more than 45 minutes. I really hate to deal with an extra vendor and rental company generally has a very wide delivery window, which makes it unpredictable when exactly the chairs will arrive.

The look we want to create for our ceremony is quite simple. Guests will be seated facing the ocean view on the outdoor ceremony ground. A wedding arch at the front with two big flower arrangements placed on pillars, creating a small triangular shape. An aisle runner down the center of the ground, with flower petals along the two long edges. Fabric draping from the chairs following the two sides of the aisle runner. Round pew markers hanging down the chairs on every other row on both sides. We need to check with the Club if we can sprinkle flower petals on the ground. We were told by florists that many venues do not allow flower petals on the ground because they stain carpet if they get stuck on shoes and taken inside.





The chart below shows the responsibilities of each party:

	Ceremony
	JJ	Florist	BLMM
Chairs			√
Arch	√
Fabric Draping	√
Aisle Runner			√
Pew Markers			√
Flower Petals			√
Flower Arrangements		√
Bridal Bouquet		√
Bridesmaids Bouquets		√
Boutonnieres & Corsages			√

Travel Diary - Chapter 3: Berlin

St. Valentine's Day behind the iron curtain.

Well February was approaching, and that can only mean one thing, the day we celebrate a Roman priest that was brutally martyred at the hands of Emperor Claudius II. Yes none other than Valentine's Day, what does this murder of a priest have to do with love? I have no idea, but we need some day to celebrate our sweethearts, right...so why not? Anyway it had been almost a month since the M's had been away on a trip and a whole two months since they had been out of the UK, this could not stand so they decided to take a trip on this most special day to the most romantic city in Europe, Paris… NO… the home of the Third Reich, the Gestapo, and Checkpoint Charlie.. none other than Berlin. All joking aside, Berlin despite it some times sorted history is a charming city with a lot to see and do, and some very friendly residents.

LMM the undisputed master of Ryanair by this point, was looking over the deals to be had and came across a ticket to Berlin for the weekend of the 14th. The deal, £70pp, was actually quite expensive for a ticket to Berlin (considering it was with Ryanair). But for a special occasion, their fist Valentine's Day together and it just did not seem right to spend it siting in the small dorm in Edinburgh, so they decided to go for it and booked the tickets. This would also mark the start of their travels outside of the UK with no checked bags :P Fresh off their trip to London, LMM bought a nice, hiking style backpack that would 1) fit in the Ryanair carry on restriction and 2) be just big enough that they could bring a few days supplies without needing a checked bag.

Our Journey in Berlin

The trip out was uneventful; the flight is short from Edinburgh to Berlin. Upon arriving they were greeted with typical German efficiency, there was a quick s-bahn link from the airport to the center city, then just a few more stops on the u-bahn to their hotel. The hotel was after the last few trips they had been on quite pleasant. It was clean, and fairly cozy.

Infected by the spirit of German industriousness, they wasted no time and set out on the city, hitting many of the important sights: the Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Wall (or a section of it that remains), The Reichstag, Humboldt University, and just enjoyed soaking in the culture and atmosphere of this city. They sampled some of the local food currywurst on the streets, and Berlin style pork knuckle.

The Brandenburg Gate



Berlin Wall



The Reichstag - the dome is the large glass dome at the very top of the building. The main hall of the parliament below can also be seen from the cupola, and natural light from above radiates down to the parliament floor.



By the 14th, they had seen most of the sights they wanted to see in the city, realizing they had access to a s-bhan ticket that let them take an excursion to Potsdam and look at the charming Sanssouci Park gardens. This allowed for a very scenic and relaxing stroll through the gardens and palace that was once occupied by Frederick the Great. As luck would have it started to snow this day too, not the biting blizzards that were oh so familiar to BMM, but a nice dusting of clean white snow to accentuate the already pristine grounds. They returned to Berlin that evening, had a nice dinner (of sushi, what else could you have when in Berlin :P ), took in one more stroll in the Berlin snow, and went back to relax with some German TV with a bottle of red wine.

Checkpoint Charlie



Sanssouci Park



Berlin Style Pork Knuckle



The next day it was time to go home, so they packed up their stuff and headed out to the airport, the trip back again was nondescript other than the German Ryanair staff being much more pushy making LMM prove that the backpack was under 10kg and would fit in their tiny little box for the second time. But nonetheless they got back with no problem, so they could plan their next adventure.

Decoration & Florist

The BLM took a break off to wonderful Malta at the end of April, so that the blog has not been updated in the past couple of weeks.

So…what should we talk about this week? Let's talk about decoration! We searched all over the lower mainland area in Vancouver for a decorator to handle the arrangement for both our ceremony and reception. Ideally a "one stop" shop service is preferred, due to the fact that we don't live in Vancouver. It makes more sense to hire someone to handle the details and to minimize the number of vendors we have to deal with individually.

While we visited Vancouver in February, we consulted 6 shops that are able to deal with both the floral and venue decoration arrangements.

1) Fannie's Florist Ltd. - #105-8460 Alexandra Road, Richmond, BC
Fannie is the owner of the shop and the only person who can really give you a quote on your needs. You should make an appointment to speak with her directly at the shop before you walk in. Fannie told us she takes at most two bookings on the same day for event decoration and she will personally be at the venue to direct her staff to make sure everything is perfect. Since the Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club does not provide any chairs for the ceremony, we are expected to hire our own. Fannie even agrees to arrange the ceremony chairs set up/return/delivery on our behalf. Another advantage that Fannie offers is a demo prior to the event, price included in her quote. Fannie's Florist is truly a one stop shop for wedding arrangements. The total cost is quite reasonable and she requires a CAD$500 deposit only (many require half of the total as deposit). Fannie's flower arrangements are overall decent, but when it comes to venue decoration…we are not entirely pleased with her designs. The style is just slightly outdated (有D "leung"). Even without knowing the ethnicity of Fannie, I can tell immediately that she's a Chinese designer from an older generation by her previous work.

2) Something New
We met Something New at the Bridal Wagon, hosted at the River Rock Casino in March 2010. First of all, I would like to mention that this event was NOT worth going because there were so few vendors available (just one vendor in each category). I'm not sure if all Bridal Wagon functions are like that or it's just the one I went to was so small.

Something New has no real office, it's run by two women in Port Coquitlam at a home office. We met with both representatives, Kimberly and Amanda, at the initial consultation to share our ideas and provided with a quote via email a week later. Compare to Fannie's Florist, Something New is slightly more expensive by CAD$700 given the same items required (also including the chair rentals). Something New's demo at the Bridal Wagon was gorgeous and classy. Also, the two reps were nice and easy to work with even though we requested revision on our quote several times. They even allow us to split the fee in three installments (rather than 50% deposit upfront). We were so close to signing the contract with Something New until we realized aside from the demo at the Bridal Wagon we haven't seen any other photos from their previous work as a full decorator for a wedding. Something New was originally a florist only until not long ago the store expanded to provide decorating service as well. When we requested photos from their previous events, Kimberly and Amanda were unable to provide. They gave us references to contact, but coincidentally either the reference only hired them as florist or no longer retain records of the event (this reference said she is divorced so didn't keep anything). The flower arrangements made by Something New were beautiful but we felt uncomfortable to go ahead without any idea of how well they handle a complete wedding.

3) Bridal Beginnings
This is another home office in Coquitlam. The owner, Larissa, is a stay at home mom. We were taken upstairs to her living room where a bunch of vases were displayed randomly on top of her television. Then were shown with her collection of chair covers and sashes (FULL of stains) displayed in her dinning room. People who know me well must be aware that I'm a clean freak. I was seated reluctantly at the dining table with several vases trying to imagine which vase to use as centerpiece without blocking the line of sight. We told Larissa our theme color is purple…thereafter her suggestions only comprised of shades of purple or of complimenting color of purple (e.g. pink). She kept emphasizing the quote will follow within the week. We received an email from Larissa the week after saying that she was sick and would give us the quote in the next few days. Guess what happened??? She disappeared in thin air and never got back to us.

4) Florist on the Fifth - 8031 No. 5 Road, Richmond, BC
Florist on the Fifth is our favorite pick for flower arrangements. In terms of cost, this shop is probably the most expensive among the ones we have spoken to (will not handle chair rental).

5) Kam Ngai Orchid - #1415-4380 No. 3 Road, Richmond, BC
We feel indifferent about the flower arrangements here, overall not pretty but not ugly. The shop also refused to handle chair rental.

6) Flower by Jean at Southland - 3008 W. 41st Avenue, Vancouver, BC
BMM said he didn't like the flowers; I can't remember whether I like them or not. I want to say two things about this store: 1) we were very annoyed by the sales repeatedly reminding us that they made the flower arrangements for Clinton's visit years ago; 2) the boss was on holiday at the time we visited the store and the sales was unable to provide any information whatsoever.

Since we came back to the UK, we wrote to another 4 decorators: 7) Lisa Gregory Special Events and 8) Cultured & Co. Wedding, both have VERY expensive quotes; 9) Imagine that Events, reasonable quote but the photo gallery was only satisfactory; 10) Jack & Jill Weddings, a tad expensive on rental, set up and service fees, compare to the others we talked to, excluding 7) and 8) but we love what we saw on the website. So we have submitted a retainer to Jack & Jill Weddings to hire their service on our wedding day. I will get into details as to what we require from Jack & Jill Weddings on the next post.

I'm planning to write about the ceremony and the reception decoration on two separate posts. To be continued...