Hmmm... well getting married a week after you are I was also contemplating a lot of what you are... as for flowers, being the peak of summer there should be a lot of different flowers in season-- have you tried you local grocery floral dept? I'm not sure where you are located, I am in Chicago and our grocers offer a competitive selection for bridal floral arrangements, and it doesn't cost too much! Although I am not going with that option, I did check it out and they do custom jobs. As for hair I also have the Asian straight hair and was thinking of leaving it down for the wedding-- BUT I am really afraid of looking "undone" by reception time. It's going to be really hot towards the end of July and with running around for pictures and dancing the night away I'm worried that my hair will straighten and our pictures will not be worth looking at (but that's just me). I have my hair and make-up packaged together and I actually found her by word of mouth-- so I'm getting awesome personalized service for much cheaper since there's no brand name behind her name. And for transportation FI and I decided to opt for a luxury car instead of a limo... instead of paying hourly we are renting Saturday morning and driving ourselves to the airport and dropping it off there the next day... Not to disqualify your attendants and parents but your reception will be full of people with cars and I'm sure they can manage to get to the reception.

I hope this somewhat helped... Just offering my ideas-- good luck with planning!

hmm lots to think about! thank goodness my wedding is next year ;)

i do wedding flowers...n know how much work is involved...it's best to have someone else do them...u will have other things to worry about on the day...

i love the look of an all calla lily bouquet. so elegant.

aw thank you about the cute couple comment! =) you guys make a cute couple too! for makeup, I want to get it professionally done, but I've always had HORRIBLE experiences with people who didn't know how to do Asian eyes. I wish some of the cali makeup artists would move to chicago.

for me i'm getting married on 9/08/07 well, my fiancee and got a limo bus...we don't like the fact that limo's are really uncomfortable since my dress is already could take up some space..we wanted a limo bus that could seat 25 ppl...at least we will have more room in the bus than rather a stretch limo.we didn't really pay that much...well,,, we booked it a yr in advance so we did have discount on that too.we're not goin to have a get a way car since we don't really need it....we're already paying for our limo bus.... so we probably just goin to get a ride with our relatives or our parent's or we can just use our cars...

for my hair....i posted pics of my hair and make up trial on my xanga..come check it out....i am having my hair down with curls....and a wk before the wedding i will have my hair dyed and have partial highlites..and i am not goin to have a tiara...i don't like too much things in my head...well,,i am goin to wear my veil till the wedding ends...some brides prefer just to wear it in the church and once they got into the reception at nite they usually take it off..but i like to wear it till the end...it's nicer in the pictures...that's my opinion...

my make up someone is doin it for me professionally...i don't wear too much make up too..but it will be nice for pictures... i don't want to do my own make up the day of the wedding..

so where is your wedding will take place? where are you goin to have pictures after the church?

You could have someone (friend) make your CPs using Costco or something and then have a florist make your bouquet so that you can get the flowers you really want.

i agree - i think that there are so many things going on that day and a few days before - it might be best if you had tons of extra help to do the manual labor yourself and it might work best like miss snow pea suggested to get a florist to do your bouquet. I had a gf and her now hubbies' family working on arrangements until 4 am the night before her wedding - she was terribly sick - not that you could tell - and it was just a lot of strain on her. it's best to have that time to fix the little itty bitty or big problems that might come up or ... just enjoy some free time. i think flowers are one thing i'd rather pay someone else to deal with the headache. good luck in whichever that you choose!

ryc: Thank you so much for your kind words. =)