Obtain a Fire Permit for Candles in Los Angeles County

You cannot have a true romantic and intimate wedding experience without candles! However, many venues in Los Angeles County require a Fire Permit to be obtained for candles to be used in the ceremony or reception. In fact, a lot of the historic downtown buildings are actually prohibiting the use of real candles completely. If this is the case for your venue, I would suggest you purchasing LED candles as your alternative.

Your venue is who determines whether or not a permit is needed, so make sure you ask them before the wedding. Most florists will obtain the Fire Permits for you for an additional fee (or they build it into their proposal). Fire Marshals DO show up at events asking to see the Fire Permit. If one is not presented to them, or there are 7 votive candles on the table instead of the 6 that are permitted, they have the authority to shut down your event. Although sometimes they'll just make you remove the non-permitted candles, but as a wedding planner, I would not gamble with this.

If your florist won't get it for you, or you are one of those DIY brides, here are the steps for obtaining your Fire Permit:

1. Call the Los Angeles Fire Prevention Department at (213) 978-3580 and find out which Fire Inspector handles your venue. Make an appointment with them to obtain a Fire Permit. You can also just go to their department in City Hall East (200 N. Main Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012) on the 17th floor and wait in line to see the next available inspector. I would suggest you to make an appointment instead of walk-in because (A) you don't have to wait in line; (B) inspectors like to know what is going on and being permitted for "their" venues.

2. Purchase the type of candles and holders that will be allowed to be permitted. Fire Inspector will NOT issue a permit for standard votive candle holders because they are only 2.5" tall. The flame must be at least 2" below the top of the candle holder and not be within 6" away of cut fresh foliage, nor within 12 inches of dry foliage. So my advice is to purchase taller votive candle holders.

3. The candles have to be stuck down with double-side tape or putty to a secured base. Since you cannot affix it to your table linen, purchase or rent mirrors or glass plate, so the candle holders can be taped on.

4. Before you go to see the inspector, get a sample of your centerpiece and any item that is going to be on the table close to the candles. Bring everything to your appointment with the inspector. He/she will inspect them, then issue you a Fire Permit. If there is anything that does not meet their requirement, the inspector will advise you for a correction and bring it to him/her for an re-inspection.

5. Be polite to the inspector. When you have a nice attitude, sometimes the inspector will charge you a little less and will only advice you to make adjustment instead of making another re-inspection appointment if your candle holders did not meet their requirement. I had a bride who owns a catering company. She went to get the fire permit on her own. She didn't make an appointment and didn't prepare anything to show the inspector. The worst part was she was yelling with the inspector for charging a fee. The inspector charged her $260 which I normally paid $125. So she decided not to display any candles at her wedding.

The fee in Los Angeles County is average about $200 + $7 per candle. You may ask your inspector and find out the actual price.

Click to see the "Open Flame and Candles Requirement Sheet" from Los Angeles Fire Department - Fire Prevention Division.

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions about your wedding.

TWOGETHER EVENTS
www.Twogether-Events.com
(562) 888-2-WED

Green Wedding Presentation

By Sherrien Shui

Congratulations! You've decided to "go green" for your wedding. Besides finding the locations, wedding dresses, cake, florist, table linen...it seems to add another layer of research to your planning process.

I was fortunate teaching a group of talented wedding consultants last year at Asian American Wedding Professionals Association (www.AAWPA.com). For their final project, I always plan on something that is tied to the current trend. So we will attract more audience and media attention to our wedding consultant students work and help them to promote their names to the wedding industry.

The students divided into 4 groups: ceremony setting, guestbook table, reception table and sweets buffet. My only two requirements for them were (1) no fresh cut flowers; and (2) use recycled products. The students had meetings among the groups and decided to create a vintage outdoor theme using lavender and green as their main colors. After presenting me their inspiration board (aka mood board), and some private meetings with me,  we had our presentation on July 27, 2011 at the Royal Vista Country Club in Walnut, CA.

I was very touched to see my students creating a curtain with recycled Pepsi and Sprite bottles. Many live plants were used in their decoration. Also, they use picture frames from yard sale, antique typewriter for guestbook signing, bird cages, recycled paper for invitations and other stationery. We had almost 200 wedding vendors and brides joining us on that day. The turnout was fabulous.

Here is a news clip from the largest Chinese news network - CTI TV. Our presentation was actually shown worldwide.



You really don't need to spend a fortunate to have a memorable wedding for you and your guests. With some creativity and friends who are crafty (or hire a good wedding planner), you can also have a very special and memorable wedding that your girlfriends will gossip for years.

Every year, I offer free wedding design to 1 couple at my class. So if your wedding is between May and August this year, please contact me for a free design. Each student will do a design for you based on your likes and dislikes and we will do a presentation in our class. If you like any particular student's work and would like to hire  him/her, you will only need to pay for her meal and some gas money.  If you want to hire professional and experienced wedding consultant to coordinate your wedding, my staff can also assist you with your wedding and implement the design and ideas from the student. We will hire the student to work as our assistant on the wedding day.  It will be a good experience for our students.

My 2012 Wedding Consultant Certificate Program will begin on February 16 in Brea. If you are interested to become a wedding professional (e.g. planner, designer, photographer, videographer, florist, DJ, catering manager...), I would welcome you taking my class. I will invite several guest speakers to our class sharing their experiences and knowledge with you and taking you to some vendors' office (e.g. rental company, photography studio, flower shop) to see how they work. If time is allowed, we will also spend an entire Saturday visiting 7 to 8 wedding venues in Orange County and Los Angeles County. If you are interested, please go to www.AAWPA.com/training and register for my class.



Video Credit: Flick N' Roll

Wedding Planning Tips

If you are planning a wedding, you’ve already heard the two key tips: stay organized and don’t panic. Easier said than done.

While these are both nice starting points, they are not going to help you through the next year of phone calls, meetings, food samplings, location visits, travel arrangements, and much more.

I was married in 2000 before I became a wedding planner. More than once, I got so wrapped up in planning the “perfect” day that I yelled at my fiancé, started crying, and ate way too many dark chocolate. It didn’t have to be that way! Spending a little extra time on keeping my desires
organized, sharing the weight of planning responsibilities, and simply reconnecting with my fiancé on a regular basis would have made all the difference.

Here are seven things that I wish someone had warned myself about even before the proposal. It may take some self-reminders, but in the end, you can save countless amounts of time, stress,
and money.

1. Start Early, Start Simple
Every wedding magazine and website has their checklist to help with your planning. Most
checklists are based on a 12-month timeline, which is the common timeframe used for planning all aspects from start to finish.

As a wedding planner who planned over 550 wedding, my advice for you is to START SOONER! You should stay focus and arrange the larger aspects first— choosing just the right color scheme, theme or location can be a long process. I see many couples ended up changing their wedding date and location 3 or 4 times during the planning process.

Even if you and your fiancé aren’t planning on getting married for a while, start thinking
about color schemes for your event. The colors you use will set the tone for the entire event, and
sticking to a color scheme by featuring said colors in all aspects of your day (decorations, flowers, invitations, bridesmaids' dresses, guest favors, accessories, etc.) is an easy way to save money.

Check out some of the great wedding-related blogs on the web. They are full on constant inspiration and a great source for color palettes:

• Project Wedding
• Style Me Pretty
• Pinterest
• Snippet & Ink
• Little Black Book
• Flights of Fancy
• Once Wed
• 100 Layer Cake
• Style Me Pretty

Take all the time you need to explore their depths. Narrow down your favorite color choices to 3-5 different palettes and then consult with your fiancé to pick the final verdict.

2. Food, Photography, or Location
Regardless of the economy, weddings can be super expensive and a well-thought-out budget is a key to long-term sanity. As with any budget, you have to prioritize what is most important to you and where you will spend the most money. The most common big-ticket items are:

1. Food
2. Decor 
3. Location 
4. Photography & Cinematography

My advice? Splurge on your decor and photography! Good food doesn’t have to be expensive and almost any location can be special. Your memories of the day will be captured in the images your photographer and cinematographer take—make sure they are great ones. If you need to redirect some of your budget to cover photography and cinematography costs, recruit friends and family to help with food preparation, and favors.You’ll save money and make the day all the more memorable for everyone.

3. Be Original
Three-tier cakes, ball gown-style dresses, guest favors, seating assignments—after awhile, all the
little things become extremely hard to track. Have you ever stopped and thought about what you really want? How about cupcakes instead of a layered cake? Why not ditch the wedding favors or make them yourself? Forget about the princess dress and try something that reflects your personal style.

My advice is don’t do something just because everyone else does.  If the tradition does not reflect you, then be yourself. After all, your wedding is your wedding. Devote time to looking at lots of magazines and real weddings online to figure out what kind of day you really want. Maybe a ceremony in a public park and then a cookout-style reception is right up your alley. Or how about renting a carnival for both events? There are no limits to what you can do for your day, so let your mind wander for a few months before you start signing contracts and paying vendor deposits.

"Green Wedding" designed by AAWPA Wedding Consultant Graduates

4. Prepare for the Paperwork
Whoever said that death and taxes are the only two guarantees in life mistakenly left out paperwork. Everything from magazine pages and catering menus to receipts and contracts will soon be overflowing from your desk, unless you develop a system. Remember, staying organized is vital to saving money and your sanity. Repeat this like a mantra through out your planning.

Organizing is like clothes shopping— one size does not fit all. You have to find what works for you and embrace it. Personally, I like file folders, but some like binders with dividers, pocket folders, or even cloth-covered boxes. You should also get the free shareware called DroxBox or Google Doc. I use that to share files, pictures and music with my brides. So you can have access anywhere you go to as long as you have access to internet.


No matter the method or style of organizing you choose, make sure that it is easily updated and
makes finding what you need as simple as pie. For wedding planning in particular, there are a few consistent elements you can expect & use to stay sane:

• A calendar
• A budget
• A payment schedule
• Payment receipts
• Vendor contracts
• A vendor contact list
• Ideas clipped from magazines and found on wedding blogs
• A guest list
• A wedding party list

By having these particular papers on-hand, you will be able to answer any questions others have or facts & figures you can’t remember off the top of your head. For chic and sassy organizing tools, check out the following websites.

• Paper Source
• See Jane Work
• Russell + Hazel
• EcoJot

Well, if you booked our wedding coordination service, you will receive a Wedding eBinder that helps you to organize all your wedding paperwork from budget, vendor contracts, guest list to wedding calendar, wedding day timeline...

Wedding at Terranea Resort (Photo Credit: Unique Photography)

5. Remember What You Are Planning For
This is your wedding – you’re marrying the person you love. No matter what flavor the cake is or the color of your napkin, at the end of the day, the two of you will be married. That is more important than any china pattern or location. Take time out to spent regular “date nights” together, excluding any wedding conversations. Simply remind yourself of why you fell in love in the first place and why you are busting your chops to make a special day the two of you can share.

6. Hire a Wedding Coordinator
No matter how perfect you have your wedding planned, on the wedding day, you'll need someone to execute your ideas and bring that vision into reality. So hiring an experienced and reputable wedding coordinator is important. She can manage the day for you, iron out the final details, make sure things run smoothly and on time, and ensure you’ll save incredible over-time costs.Call (626) 768-3666 and schedule a visit to our wedding studio for an afternoon tea. We will give you some free advices on how to make your wedding stress-free and fun.

Twogether Events Crews (Photo Credit: Manalo Empire Photography)

We won the WeddingWire Bride's Choice Awards 2012

Many thanks to our wonderful customers and vendors that support us in creating beautiful weddings in the past year. Once again, we won the WeddingWire Bride's Choice Awards 2012! That means we are in the top 5% of Wedding Pros nationwide. We will continue do our best to serve our customers. 

Wedding Ceremony Elements and Traditions

What you include in your ceremony is limited only by your imagination. As an officiant, many brides and grooms ask me to create some unique elements for their ceremonies. All of these rituals offer opportunities for parents, children, and extended family to participate in the ceremony whether through an active role in the ceremony or giving a reading its meaning. Here are some sample ceremonial elements that you may wish to include or customize:

Unity Candle

The unity candle continues to be popular in all its variations. In some, the bride and groom each light the side tapers and use the tapers to light the center candle during the ceremony.

Other versions include the parents. Parents light single tapered candles, which the bride and groom then use to light the unity candle as a symbol of the two families joining together.

This can incorporate one or both parents, and may include a few spoken words by either the officiant or the parents themselves.

If you plant to have an outdoor ceremony, I would suggest you using a hurricane candleholder (with glass cup), so the wind won’t blow the candle off during the ceremony.

Sand Ceremony

The sand ceremony is especially well-suited for beach and waterfront weddings. Sand representing each family is poured together into a single container to symbolize the blending of the two families. This ceremony also offers choices in the sand colors to create sand art in a bottle or container that retains the individuality of the bride and groom or their families as they combine to make a single work of art. Some choose shadow boxes, vases, or bottles that can be kept as keepsakes.

If you are looking for ways to include children, different colored sand can be used by each person to show the unification of the blended family. Brides and grooms can also choose to have their parents or siblings share in the ceremony to include them in the event.

Water Ceremony

Like the sand ceremony, the water ceremony has the bride and groom (or members of their families) pour water from separate glasses into a single bowl, vase, or glass. The bride and groom may also share the glass of water, with each drinking from it. Alternatively, colored water can be used to create a new color when combined (e.g. cranberry juice and apple cider).

Wine Ceremony

For this ceremony, the bride and groom pour wine from two separate carafes into a single glass, which they drink from together. Often, the officiant reminds the bride and groom that like the wine, their lives will blend both bitter and sweet together. As with some of the other ceremonies, this one contains symbolism of the two become one. Brides and grooms may also choose to pour the wine into separate glasses and intertwine their arms to symbolize their unity and yet their continued independence, as each still drinks from his or her own glass.

Tying the Knot Ceremony

In lieu of a unity candle try tying the knot literally. This is a simplified version on handfasting (see below).

The mother’s of the bride and groom present the bride and groom with a piece of ribbon of different colors. The officant says a few words about the knots being individual and separate until the bride and groom make them one with a knot. The bride and groom then tie the ribbons in a knot.

Handfasting is a betrothal or wedding ritual in which the couple’s clasped hands are tied together by a cord or ribbon — hence the phrase “tying the knot”. The tying of the hands may be done by the officiant of the ceremony, by the wedding guests, or by the couple themselves.In some modern Neopagan groups, the ceremony has been reinterpreted to be a spiritual marriage, whether on a trial basis or as a permanent (even eternal) bond.

Bread Ceremony

The bread ceremony is a tradition that reflects the bride and groom’s willingness to care for each other and their families. In this ritual, the bride and groom tear pieces off a loaf of bread and share with each other. Often, they share with family and friends, too. A Polish tradition calls for the parents of the bride and groom to bring salted bread and wine to the newlywed’s during the reception to symbolize their hope that the couple will not be hungry (the bread), will overcome obstacles (the salt), and will have a life of joy (the wine).

Hand Ceremony

The hand ceremony calls on the groom and bride to take turns holding each other’s hands palms up while a reading (often by the attendants) reminds them that those hands will hold them, care for them, nurture them, wipe away tears, and caress newborns. The wording of the readings can be tailored to your wishes.

Rose Ceremony

The rose ceremony also has a variety of forms. In some ceremonies, the bride and groom each give their own mother (or parents) a single rose to symbolize their thanks for all the families have done for them. Others choose to have the bride give a rose to the mother of the groom and the groom give a rose to the mother of the bride, each symbolizing the giving of gifts to welcome the new family members. Many times, these single roses are presented without the parents’ knowledge this will happen to make the gesture feel less staged.

Some brides and grooms choose to each give a rose to each other as their first gift as husband and wife. This makes a lovely keepsake if the rose is preserved (whether dried or preserved with silica, which helps maintain the color).

In all of these, there is an opportunity for the bride and groom to tell those present what the roses symbolize, or the tradition can be explained by the officiant or in the program. The rose ceremony also has a variety of forms.

Chinese Tea Ceremony

This Chinese tradition is growing popularity because tea can be enjoyed by all. The complex Chinese ritual of serving tea to the groom’s family, beginning with the elders, symbolizes the family’s acceptance of the marriage and the celebration of the new family. While brides traditionally serve their parents at home before the ceremony, a more modern adaptation could include them, as well.