Events | Luncheon at The University Club, SF

What was supposed to be a casual dim sum for four turned into an intimate luncheon for eight, including Beverly of Especially Yours Chair Covers, Gloria of Gloria Wong Designs, Jubilee of Jubilee Lau Events, Nicole Ha of Nicole Ha Designs, Nancy of Nancy Liu Chin Designs, Laura of Poppy's Petalsworks and of course Barbara Lewis, Catering/Events Manager of the University Club who so graciously offered to host the luncheon for us. Located on Nob Hill, specifically at 800 Powell St, the University Club is the best kept secret in San Francisco!

Real Wedding | wennie & dave

Ceremony St. Regis San Francisco (Conservatory, Level four)
Reception St. Regis San Francisco (Gallery Ballroom, Level two)
Photography Martin Lam Photography

Events | The Knot Industry Networking Event (recap)

It turned out to be a fun-fun-FUN night! Seeing a lot of familiar faces and meeting new ones!

Here's Fu of F.C. Wong Photography (above)

Here's Elley of Elley Photography (above)
Here's Janae Shields of Janae Shields Photography, Gabby of Cake Coquette, Duncan Reyes of events by design (above)
Here's Mary of Very Merry Events, who's that trying to get in our picture? (above)
Is it Andrew of Studio MSV? (above)
IT IS ANDREW of Studio MSV! (above)

And here's the mastermind of this event, Michelle of MB Wedding Designs (above)

Featured | www.brides.com

San Francisco City Hall featured on Brides.com's front page! It's their feature on wedding dresses of the season shown in scenes from San Francisco's City Hall. The photos are all courtesy of Chung Li Photography, which are photos from the same City Hall weddings we did together. If you click through the pictures, you'll see our florals in the background!
Here are some screenshots:

Vendors | New PREFERRED VENDOR LIST

Our new PREFERRED VENDOR LIST is up on our website!! You can view at http://www.anniesiu.com/, click on "CONTACT' then click on "VENDOR LIST".

OR, you can view the list below. Click on these preferred vendors' links to view more of their work on their website. Be sure to let them know Annie Siu Floral & Events sent you their way!

Cake .. www.cakemaker.net
Chair Covers .. www.eychaircovers.com
Coordinator .. www.mbweddingdesigns.com
Coordinator .. www.stacymccain.com (*new!)

DJ .. www.yabata.com
DJ .. www.thespinheads.com (*new!)
Gowns .. www.uniquebride.com (*new!)
Invitations .. www.amberchic.com
Lighting .. www.elle-music.com (*new!)
Makeup and Hair .. abbeauty.blogspot.com

Photographer .. www.kurtyphotography.com
Photographer .. www.photographybyjonathan.com
Photographer .. www.chungliphotography.com
Photographer .. www.diarao.com (*new!)

Venue .. Memorial Club and Hotel, San Francisco (*new!)
Venue .. San Francisco City Hall, San Francisco (*new!)
Venue .. San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose (*new!)
Venue .. Wente Vineyard, Livermore (*new!)
Venue .. The Westin and The Sheraton, Palo Alto (*new!)

Portfolio | Magazine submissions

Received an email from one of our favorite wedding magazines reminding us of their upcoming deadline to submit pictures for their next publication, so that's what I've been doing the past 2 days, gathering photos of our 2008 weddings to submit to this magazine and others. Here are our top four favorites of 2008 that I've decided to send in (shown here are spreads from our print portfolio, in no particular order):

#1 Charmaine & Paul / Palace Hotel, San Francisco / Pink Fog Studios

#2 Grace & Dennis / Silver Creek Valley Country Club, San Jose / Gene Higa

#3 Mike & Jeff / San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose / Emmy Jeanne Photography / Stacy McCain Event Planning

#4 Sue & Andrew / San Francisco City Hall, San Francisco / Chung Li Photography

Networking | Martini Madness

Martini Madness, held by the "who-doesn't-know" Duncan Reyes of events by design, is a chic, fun networking event for wedding industry professionals, usually at the newest lounge/venue in town. This time though, was held unusually at a DANCE CLUB, Infusion Lounge, one of San Francisco's hottest and newest, and also to celebrate Gene Higa's (Top 10 Wedding Photographers in the World) birthday.

My assistant and partner-in-crime, Jamie Reyes, and I went and painted the town red and met some new industry friends along the way. Lilia and Raymond of Lilia Photography and Eric Yee of Spintronix with his fiance, Geri. Remember, I have not been in this scene for 3+ years (since being pregnant with the bb and now him at 2.5 yrs old) that it was such an eye-opener for me! I can't believe what the girls are wearing these days! It's either low in the front, lower in the back or high from the bottom. WOAH! And it was funny joking about how since everyone there was not necessarily in the wedding industry, should we still go up to them and introduce ourselves as such? Then to find out they're not in the industry and that you've just picked up on them. HA!

Picture courtesy of Duncan Reyes, events by design.

Chung Li Photography Gallery Opening!

Chung Li, my awesomest photographer, now great friends. We've been through so much and it's great to see he's finally moved to a new place - a chic and quaint studio in Belmont. The aesthetic is so pleasing, sharp and clean, just like his work, a great new place for meeting his clients. I bet all brides walking in will be "love IT at first sight", because it was for me!

The Gallery Opening last Friday night was fun and casual, just like Chung himself. Everyone enjoyed themselves of great food (especially me! - fat-sized, bottomless Japanese rolls!), meeting new friends (especially a fellow Floral Designer who, the first thing she says is "I LOVE your work", as we're first meeting) and looking for the first time at the published albums of weddings that Chung and I did together. What pictures would be better to post than ones from Chung Li himself:

Classic Party Rentals Open House

I was so excited about the tablescape I created for Classic Party Rental's Open House this morning that I wanted to just quickly post up some pictures before the party tonight:











Hope to see you at the party tonight!
Classic Party Rentals Open House
Date: Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Time: 5:30PM - 8:30PM
Place: 1635 "A" Rollins Road, Burlingame, CA 94010

Will post more after the event!

Post update:
When I got there, of course I was so excited to show my colleagues my table, but when I got to where my table was, it was NOT THERE! I thought, "was it THAT bad they had to take it away?" So I kept walking around, pretending to be looking at all the other wonderful tablescapes from the other Florists, while secretly looking for MY TABLE of course! But soon enough (TG!), I found it! It was actually at an even better location! It was "center-staged" in the "silver room" with a silver-charcoal backdrop, which went even better with my tablescape, especially since it was next to the oh-so yummy tray of SLIDERS, provided by Hugh Groman Catering! (Oh...SO GOOD! I can still taste it in my mouth!)

The rest of the night was just plain FUN! Especially hanging out with my CPR Gwen-e-GwenGwen! We toured, ate and drank! The best part was everytime she introduced me to a fellow CPR, they all said they loved my piece the best (but hush! hush!).

These wonderful guys from Precision Parking 650-620-0095 (the valet parking sponsors for the night) graciously offered to help me take down my display and carry the boxes to my car! Gets my car AND helps with my things? What more could I ask for?

Here are pictures (SO FAST!) from Orange Photography, the sponsoring photographer for the night!

To view the event slideshow with a "kickin soundtrack", click http://view.orangephotography.com/2009/events/classicopenhouse/
To view complete gallery of pictures from the night, click http://www.orangephotography.com/public/refer.jsp?id=3571&pwd=classic

Recommended Vendor of Wente Vineyard!

With 125 years of history and still family-owned, Wente Vineyards has the ultimate wine country setting for weddings and events...AND it's only in Livermore!

In the last 2 years, we've done a few weddings in their beautiful outdoor terrace lawn. Because we've kept in touch with their ultra-nice sales manager during this time, I've recently been invited to meet their other 4 sales managers in the office to do a sales presentation. Bringing them (including the sales assistants and director) each a little squared shaped vase arrangement - inside leaf-wrapped, of green spider mums, midnight-blue thistle with just a touch of eucalyptus - each laid in a 3X3 squared formation. The whole could be used for a centerpiece but then taken individually as favors - serving double duty in this day and age of reduce, reuse and recyle - this idea was easily well-received by all the managers for going-green! LOVE IT!









(not pictured very good here, but you get the idea!)

Below are some weddings we've done at Wente, which are also clips from our new print portfolio (that we've slaved over to finish within a one-month deadline for THIS meeting and other marketing events in the last few weeks, well-worth it because we are now one of their recommended vendors!):





Photographers
Martina Konietzny Photography (top)
Todd Rafalovich (bottom)

Introducing Oceano Hotel & Spa

I've recently heard so much about Oceano that when I ran into their booth at the Hillsdale Bridal & Expo Faire, I had to introduce myself and learn more about this most-talked about, newest wedding venue in Half Moon Bay! After chatting up a bit, the wedding and event planner graciously invited me to their wedding event the following Sunday to view their venue first-hand.
The "Wedding Event/Fashion Show" was for brides, grooms and families to enjoy a fun and informative day at Oceano while viewing their different event spaces. The ballroom was filled with event professionals displaying their services and a selective panel of vendors spoke about "Unlock(ing) the Secrets to a Successful Wedding" in the Atrium. The room that I fell in love with is The Galleria, (above left), whose original intent was not for weddings, but a street that lined the hotel's boutique shops. But after one bride's request to have a wedding in this indoor (but with an outdoor feel because of the skylight roof), the rest is history!

Some vendors I met are:
Studio Cake - love her business philosophy as well as her complete packaging, from the dainty boxes that held her sample cakes to her logo and website. The cake pictures on her website are as divine as they are in person! You have to check it out at: http://www.studiocake.com/. Here are some of my favorites (below):

That Takes the Cake - love her friendly personality and enthusiasm, plus she's on Union Street Wedding Ring! Located in a high-end location, her cupcakes are surprisingly quite affordable! Cutest red velvets (below):

Cakework - wealth of experience, continued innovation, inspired from just about anything! She is the inventor of those famous and flawless stripes you see on cakes. When asked, she wouldn't reveal her secret! =P Hates fondant and uses only white chocolate. The most renowned stripes (below):