Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Another Dreamy Bouquet - Ivory, Apple Green and Aquamarine

My bride Tara, came to me via a Long Island wedding forum after she saw my work via another one of my brides. She was intrigued and sent me her vision of what she wanted. Her color palette was ivory, apple green and teal. She asked if I could somehow incorporate the teal.
The flowers we agreed upon were creamy ivory peonies, champagne ivory roses, green cymbidiums and white freesia. To incorporate the teal or in this case really aquamarine, I glued aquamarine Swarovski rhinestones in the centers fo the roses. It's subtle but I think really beautiful. Not too much but just enough.
I finally worked on it last night and today. I must be getting faster because literally I finished her flowers in 4 hours tops and I assembled them this evening which took another hour. I think this is another one of my new favorites. I love the soft colors and since I didn't have rhinestone picks so I decided to take the aquamarine rhinestones I had glued them into the centers of the champagne ivory roses.

Next up is an order for hair flowers, corsages, boutonnieres and a cake topper. Once that's done I need to finish the centerpieces for my destination France bride!

To all my Tiffany blue and orange brides - check this out!

One of my favorite Etsy jewelry designers, Otis B Jewelry came out today with a great necklace that I thought is PERFECT for all my brides & clients who have requested the Tiffany Blue and Orange color palette for their invitations. I always wondered why this color combination is so popular, but it really is. I think it's hands down my most popular one going on 3 years!Anyway, I'm Darrah's fan on Facebook and she shares her new jewelry creations with us and I saw this and thought to myself, "my brides would die over this and eat them up!" They are great bridesmaid gifts for your bridal party and will match your wedding colors!

Check her out at www.briguysgirls.etsy.com. She's affordable and she has some wonderful pieces. She basically comes out with something new almost every day! She's one prolific and very talented jewelry designer. Believe me, it takes all my will power not to buy a lot of her pieces!

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Custom water bottle labels, place cards and favor tags

My bride, Sharon is getting married at the beautiful Mauna Lani on the Big Island. I had helped her with her invitation design and I'm currently working on her water bottle sleeves, favors and favor tags, and her place cards. These are just some images of the samples I was meaning to send to her. I love the oranges and cream colors and I'm always a fan of starfish and orchids!

Destination France Bride's Bouquets

I finished my bride, Amanda's bouquets yesterday. Tonight I have to work on her centerpiece concepts. My previous post talked about her clutch bouquets for her mother and sister-in-law to be. Amanda is getting married in France so I'm trying to finish her centerpieces by next week so she can have her fiance transport many of the flowers to France ahead of her.
Her bouquet consists of peonies, roses, hydrangea, bells of Ireland and stephanotis with the same ribbon wrap as the clutch bouquets. Her bridesmaid bouquets have more hydrangea and only the cream colored roses instead of the peonies. I love the periwinkle hydrangeas. So beautiful against the lush green bells of Ireland.Align Center

Monday, June 22, 2009

Clutch Bouquets for My Destination France Bride

My client Amanda is getting married in France in August to her French fiance! She found me via the feature in the In Style Weddings magazine article on my eco-chic floral arrangement. I've been working on her bouquets and will start working on her centerpieces later this week. She asked me to create clutch bouquets for her mother and her brother's fiance instead of going with a traditional corsage. She wanted to go with ivory flowers that matched her bouquet so for her mother, we did closed peony buds and for her sister-in-law to be, we went with the cream colored roses. They are so pretty. They are wrapped with a woad blue Midori satin ribbon and honeydew organza ribbon. I should have her bridal bouquet and bridesmaid bouquets done tomorrow so more photos to follow!

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Lotus Flower Bridal Bouquet

My bride, Ash, came to me via my Etsy site and asked if I could create a custom bouquet for her with closed lotus flowers. I learned how to make fully open lotus flowers a long time ago, but I had never been asked to make them nor to make closed ones. Ash sent me a picture and she gave me her deadline, but asked if I could ship it out earlier as she has bridal portraits a few days before her wedding. So I finally worked on the flowers last night and this morning and they were dry enough to actually put together so I was determined to finish her bouquet so I could start the next order in the queue.
I could not get the lotus flowers to be as closed as the ones she sent me in her picture, but I told her it would be hard based on the material of the peps used and I figured it was much prettier to show more of the detail of the petals and the center so I created more half open lotus flowers. She also requested white roses and white ranunculus. Rather than overpowering the bouquet with too many lotus flowers, I decided to make 5 and they would be the focus flowers with the accents of the roses and the ranunculus. I am quite happy with the way it came out. There was a little experimenting with the center since the way I learned the lotus flower was not using this particular center. I love creating new skills and techniques or taking what I've leanred to figure out how to make the elements of different flowers. Stressful sometimes but fun. Best wishes to Ash and her fiance!

I was worried about how the bride would like the bouquet, but she emphatically LOVES it! PHEW! :) Well, tomorrow although be it Father's Day, I will be working on my next order for my destination France bride. Lots to do, 5 bouquets and 14 centerpieces. Hope to finish by next week and ship by Saturday! Wish me luck!

Friday, June 19, 2009

Beautiful Centerpieces for Napa Valley Bride's Cocktail Reception

I'm happy to say that I am now done with Katherine's order!!! I just finished the remaining centerpieces for the high boy cocktail rounds for her cocktail reception after her ceremony. Katherine plans to give these as gifts to her friends who she couldn't ask to be part of the bridal party but who are taking a special part in other ways at her wedding. I think this is such a nice gift if I do say so myself. :)Hmm.. seems to me like this could be a nice addition one day to my Etsy site! LOL. Best wishes to Katherine and Henry on their upcoming wedding day. It's been a pleasure creating these items for them and I cannot wait to see their photos!

Bridesmaid Bouquets for the Napa Valley Bride

Just completed Katherine's bridesmaid bouquets! They are a little smaller and have white hyacinth rather than the purple hyacinth. The stems are wrapped with the reverse ribbon, ivory on purple. I just love how they turned out!

Custom Corsages - Ribbons and Flowers

Katherine asked me if I could customize the corsages to her mothers and grandmothers. So she picked the flowers based on what her mother, mother-in-law and grandmothers liked as well as customizing what color ribbon to go with what so that it goes with their attire. Katherine plans to put each of these on the 4 special women in her life on the day of her wedding. She opted for the ribbon to be able to tie onto their wrists.

Here are a couple of pictures. Back to work on finishing the bridesmaid bouquets and 2 other centerpieces.

Rustic Elegance - Flowers for a Napa Valley Wedding

In between teaching this week, I've been trying to complete this big bridal order. Will finish it today, but I wanted to share the photos of the bridal bouquet and the high boy centerpieces. Katherine wanted light shades of purple and ivory with a hint of tropical, hence the white plumerias. I love the way it came out. A bunch freshly made clay flowers. Hyacinth, freesia, peonies, Victorian roses, branches and plumerias. Very rustic yet very elegant. I can't wait to see it with her beautiful dress!
She wanted matching centerpieces for the high boy table tops that she intends to give the centerpieces to her friends who she wants to honor even though they can't be part of the bridal party. What a nice gift they will be receiving. :)
More pictures to come soon and then on to the next order on the list...

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Purple Hyacinth Hair Flowers

My client Katherine is getting married next Sunday in Napa, she's having a rustic, outdoor wedding in a beautiful winery. I am like a crazed woman making her flowers. I'll have pictures in a couple more days as all the flowers are ready to be arranged. I did however want to share her flower girls' hair flowers. Cute little hyacinth blossoms on tiny hair combs. Sorry this is a short post, but just wanted to share this one photo of the combs!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Blue Hydrangeas, Green Bells of Ireland, Shamrocks and Tuberose

Gosh, it's almost been a week since I last did a blog post. Sorry for the distance between posts, but lots of stuff going on between trying to crank out orders, taking care of a sick 4 year old, trying to recover from being sick myself and dealing with a lot of other personal matters. The next two weeks will be hectic trying to get wedding bouquet orders, invitations, centerpieces and more out the door plus teaching. Hope I start feeling better soon!

At any rate, today's post is about my bride Valerie's order. She asked me to create a bouquet with dark blue hydrangeas, green bells of Ireland, shamrocks and some hints of tuberose. Her inspiration comes from a swatch of Tartan fabric so she wanted to stick with those deep hue colors. She's going to wrap the stems herself.
I've done bells of Ireland before, but I tried something new to make them look more lifelike. I added the little things in the center to make them look even more realistic. Working with hydrangeas is kind of challenging. I've figured out though that if I make each cluster it's own stem, it makes it SO much easier to assemble and get the right shape and look that I'm going for!

She also wanted me to make wrist corsages for her mother and her fiance's mother using their favorite flowers. Back to work on my flowers....

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Pineapple Inspired Wedding Fans

I got an email last week from a bride asking if I could create some wedding fans for her wedding & reception that is being held at the Plantation House Restaurant in Kapalua, Mau'i. She sent me some samples that were very simple, and I decided to take what she sent me and create something a little more "island" style. Since she's getting married at the Plantation House, I thought it befitting to use my pineapple design. She wanted it in pinks so this is how it turned out. So cute!

Friday, June 5, 2009

New Additions to my Etsy Product Offering!

I posted new arrangements on my Etsy site today. These were the pieces that I displayed at the Five Star of Aloha Gala event last evening. Blog post on that later. I am really excited however about the new line of products I'm now offering on my Etsy site.
My aunt and cousin who work for me mentioned several times that my photography of my clay flowers was beautiful and that we should use that in some form and apply it to my stationery line. So this is what we came up with. I love the colors and the vibrancy of the note cards. I'm selling them in sets of 8. I have combined my photography with coordinating cardstocks that enhance the colors and the flowers in the photos and embellish with coordinating ribbons. I really think they came out really nicely. Anyone who would receive this card would smile and feel happy if you ask me. :) The ribbon band is a nice touch since many of us tend to give gift cards for various occasions. The band would nicely hold a gift card in place.
The cards will have various packaging concepts, but for those who want a simple packaging design that's reusable, I decided to use my logo muslin bags to hold 8 note cards in various colors. There are 8 different photos in each set! We're thinking to add other packaging concepts so stay tuned for that. We'll be adding some new favor concepts as well in the coming weeks as I get more time to build up inventory between all my orders.
I hope to add more card series as I build new pieces and take some photos that I've archived and see if they too would be a nice addition to the note card line. Check out www.dkdesignshawaii.etsy.com to see my latest offerings!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Bouquets to Art - zenatona & DK Designs' style (Part II)

I've been frantically working to get everything done for the Hawaii Chamber of Commerce of Northern California's Five Star of Aloha Gala tomorrow night! I can't believe it's already here! I just finished the donation piece that is going to be part of the silent auction. Pretty stressful since it was the last thing I had to really make that the committee was counting on, not to mention all the arrangements for display.
What I wanted to share with you is my interpretation of some of Debbie Friedrich's fine art that she creates through her wonderful company, www.zenatona.etsy.com! I LOVE Debbie's art and I've been encouraging her over the last several months to get zenatona off the ground. She has launched her company back in March and she continually amazes me with her eye for photography and beauty! She shoots with all heart! Since I wanted our display table to be complimentary, I decided to do my interpretation of "Bouquets to Art". So these are how zenatona images inspired me in clay form!
I will also be launching my new line of note cards at the event. Unfortunately I don't have pictures, but I will be photographing them over the next few days and posting them to my Etsy site so stay tuned for some exciting products, which are just an extension of what I do!I can't wait to see her tomorrow and share this journey together! What a wonderful opportunity for both of us and I know we'll enjoy it to the fullest!