News

welcome L’ Aterlier Vi to the Mints blog

I am so pleased to welcome Venus of L’ Atelier Vi to the Mints’ Blog!  Venus is an aspiring fashion designer; an amateur baker; cooking enthusiast and snobbish foodie. I am one of the lucky people who had tried her sweet and dessert and oh boy! they were helllllla delicious. Venus likes all things French-inspired, likes to collect tea cups, vintage trims & notions, dessert books, and above all likes to shop! And that’s why we invite her to write for us. Enjoy and Welcome Venus!

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all images by L’ Aterlier Vi

Inspiration Boards: Charlyn Koo

This year Charlyn Koo didn’t attend National Stationery Show as my life has been a little bit frantic with two businesses, many on-going projects, and a wedding to plan, and though I stand by my decision that I should only attend the show if I could give it my best, I do miss new York and being a part of the creative circle. We debut our first collection last year and we met many talented designers, such as Elum Designs and Red Cap Cards and our personalized collection is now available exclusively at Neiman Marcus. As a newbie in the industry, we did a pretty good job and I was really looking forward to launch more designs but oh well…

This is our idea board and work for last year show and the good news is we have already started our new inspiration boards with many new products coming in 2010! New york, we will be back soon. =)

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Real Weddings: Alissa & Ryan

I came across these wedding photos by Jose Villa featured on Design*sponge this morning and completely fell in love! I love how they accented the chairs with ribbons, the cute illustrations on the stationery and the cozy benches with cushions.

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Bride & Groom: Alissa and Ryan at shop horne
Venue: San Ysidro Ranch
Event Design: oh, how charming!
Photography: Jose Villa
Flowers: Mindy Rice Floral Design
More details at Design*sponge

Steal Our Ideas!!

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All images from stealourideas.com by Art director Jon Kubik and copywriter Adam Noel.

25 Random things about the Mints sisters

1. We are about the same height and size and that’s why I always steal clothes and shoes from Canna and Mei.

2. We all learned to play classical piano and even got the certifications from Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM), but we haven’t touched a key since 1992 and this tells you how much we love it!

3. My very first job – Dishwasher at a local Chinese restaurant. Till this day, I still think this is the coolest thing I have ever done.

4. I love watching TV. I once skipped work a week just to finish a Korean drama. If there’s a television/ movie marathon, I would be the first to sign up.

5. Mei is the shortest among us but she is taller than our mom and she is very proud of it.

6. We love spongebob and icarly. I guess we never really grow up.

7. We sponsor 10 kids through world vision.

8. We have 29 cousins.

9. I used to wear a pair of big plastic glasses and people thought I looked like keroppi, the Sanrio green frog.

10. Mei always says “I know I know” and sometimes I wonder if she realllllly knows.

11. I am a procrastinator but Mei likes to finish everything a month earlier. That’s why we are in this business together.

12. If we fight, Canna will win for sure. It’s been proven since we were kids.

13. Canna once imitated a TV character stabbing herself in the chest with a fabric scissor and yet she survived. Thanks god! or who would do the bouquets!

14. Canna also got hit by a Taxi once but she just pretended nothing had happened, stood up and walked straight to school. We were too scared to tell our parents. This is one of our secrets for a very long time.

15. Once I forgot to bring our apartment key and Canna climbed out from our neighbor’s window, crawled across the little rack loosely hanging between the windows, which were about 3-4 ft apart and entered our house. We were living on the 17th floor! I guess she learned the stunt from Jacky Chan.

16. Mei is a sweet girl for sure and that’s why she always get stung by bees and badly bitten by mosquitoes.

17. We love to listen to music and sing (mostly out of tune) while we work on wedding flowers. That’s my favorite part of working at Mints.

18. All images on our website and on our blog are taken by Gary, Canna’s husband. He is the most detail-oriented person I have ever known. He read the rules before signing up for the United Mileage Plus Program, and I think this is why he is a good photographer because he can pay attention to all the tiny details I missed.

19. We love to tease our parents and we love them even more for letting us tease them and for sharing our sense of humor.

20. All shelves and the fish pond at Mints are built by my dad. All the fishes we have in the pond are with us since day 1. wow, it means they are all about 4 years old.

21. Our favorite customer is Peter, who used to go to Alameda High School and has been our loyal fan since the first week we opened.

22. We love peonies, hydrangea, ranunculus, and orchids. And we also love all these odd things, which we don’t even know their names. Yea, we are all very bad with names.

23. I can remembers birthdays, phone numbers, even my college ID card number but I can’t remember 4 times 8 equal 36 (oops…! I know is 32!!).

24. Canna’s daughters are Charlyn and Charene. I just think their names are all very pretty.

25. Canna and I are allergic to many flowers and greens!! and we are in the flower business. wahahahaha.

I stumble upon: I mean, okay

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image by I mean, okay

To Sara the yelper

About a month ago, I received an email from one of my clients asking whether I have checked our yelp’s reviews lately. She was concerned because we got a few 1-2 stars reviews and she thought they weren’t at all fair.

Over the past 4 years, instead of expanding our business, we decide to stay true and small and keep Mints a Local Alamedan family owned mom n’pop. We want to get to know our customers personally and we want to pay attention to every tiny detail — like making a kid laugh when I poke the Venus Flytrap or wrapping a $5 succulent plant with dragonfly tissue paper and ribbons. We take a great deal of pride in everything we do and it would be a big fat lie if I told you the bad reviews do not bother me at all. I am disheartened and disappointed because we have tried so hard yet we fell so far short of our own expectations.

Usually if I have the contact info, I would contact the reviewers personally hoping to clear any misunderstandings or fix our mistakes. For instance, one reviewer was frustrated because we didn’t return email soon enough and it was totally my fault as I was overjoy with Canna’s new baby girl that week and I was behind on emails. Another reviewer was upset because we were late on our consultation appointment and since then we tried to schedule only 2 consultations per day so that each bride has more than 3 hours to discuss her dream wedding. I truly appreciate yelpers for bringing things up. With this information, we can take the proper steps to ensure that mistakes such as these do not happen again. =P

Nevertheless, as much as we would like to provide the best customer services, I can’t help but wonder why a person would need to use the F word just because we didn’t have her order ready when she walked into the store. After reading Sara’s review, Mei and I searched every single receipt, trying to remember when did this horrible thing happened. We didn’t find anything. Maybe it was one of those busy weekends when we had a long line of customers or maybe it was totally Mei’s fault for being absent-minded. I am not here to deny any responsibilities, but do we really need to use such an offensive language for a tiny matter like this?

I know I shouldn’t worry as we have 25+ 5 star reviews but I am really upset this time because it is just simply painful to know that someone was this rude to my little beloved sister. Mei works really hard at the shop and she always wears a big smile for every customer. I guess I really don’t understand why people can be this mad and disrespectful to people they rarely know. oh well, here’s my dot and let’s put the past behind us. Happy Friday!!

Real Weddings: Julie & Matt

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Venue: Yoshi’s San Francisco
Vans: District
Photography: Joel Flory
Stationery: Passing Notes
Shoe Cake: Debbie Does Cakes
Hair and Makeup: Diana Wilcenski, Trenz Salon, Burlingame

Three Little Surprises

It’s been so long since I last blog and I have so much to share with y’all!
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To kick start 2009, we welcome Charene the Sleepy Head (Canna’s second baby girl) to join our team! YEAH! She took us by surprise arriving a little bit earlier than we expected but what’s not shocking is Charene looks just like her sister, Salad and her dad Gary. We are truly thrilled with this new addition and I bet now my wallet is lighter than ever! I will post some of my latest finds for these lovely girls later this week.

Now the second news may not be a big secret after all. As you have already noticed, Mints has a new website and I hope it would be your new eye candy and your source of ideation! The songs are my personal favorites and I am asking my friends to send me theirs too. stay tune!!

Last and not least, I am engaged!! After planning hundreds of weddings for others, it’s finally my turn and I am telling you it is not at all an easy challenge. You may think that I should know it all by now, such as where to find those talented vendors, DIY ideas, bargains, tips and tricks and I just need to pick and pay and boom all set. I thought so too till I realize how many choices I have and it’s heartbreaking to let some great ideas fly out the window but focus on a few! Why can’t I have it all, rt?! I am having so much pain and fun and I am committed to share every single step with you all.

so here it comes our three little surprises!

Thank You Cards

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I was really sick last week and still lose my voice. I was so planning to take it easy today till I received a thank you card from Kim and Derek. It’s a very personal and thoughtful note and I am so touched and so glad that we could be a part of their wedding. Your appreciation really sparks our motivation. Thank you for thanking us. =)

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