New Business Stems from TheKnot.com Wedding Favors Photo Gallery

Yesterday I was shopping with Aidan at Target and I got a call. I didn't recognize the phone number so I let it go to VM and finished shopping. It was a call from a bride who was interested in my clay flowers. So when I got home I called Joanne back and she told me she saw my favors on theknot.com.

It just so happens that when you click on the image, it does in fact say, "Favors - DK Designs Hawaii"! Joanne is getting married at the same resort that Mae & Jeremy got married at and she just had to have these favors for her wedding. The wedding is less than 3 weeks away, July 15th to be exact. Luckily it's only 40 favors. Anyway, we're working fast to get it done. I haven't created the flower yet, but I worked on her favor tag samples last night in addition to trying to work on my 1st Canadian bride's order that needs to go out on Monday next week.

Luckily Joanne had some artwork she's used for her wedding details so we used that. We're going to go with a pink hibiscus flowers with pink and green ribbons. I hope to post later this week with the actual sample to show all of you. Here's the favor tags, which one do you think works best. I think I like the watercolor hibiscus design. It screams "dreamy, tropical, island wedding"! I'm just amazed at how many people see the favors and the Real Weddings and contact me. I just wish I had more leadtime! I guess though life isn't perfect! I'm just very happy that I am able to support these orders!

Yesterday morning I also used some flowers I had made extras of from other things and put together a simple arrangement at a lower price point on my Etsy site. It sold within the hour. Just so happened a previous Etsy.com buyer of mine who purchased 2 arrangements after I was on the Martha Stewart Show. I really appreciate my repeat customers. I hope moving forward that I have the time to come up with some small token "Thank You" gifts for customers such as these!

I also worked on a sample yesterday morning for another client who saw me via my http://www.mywedding.com/ link. Funny how Lindsay came across my site because she's getting married on the dunes in Holden Beach, NC and my listing is for Hawaii, although I serve customers nationwide. Anyway, this is the sample I created for her. She wanted pinks and greens and she wanted the casablanca lily as her wedding flowers are titanic pink roses and white lilies. Pinks and greens are definitely very popular. They were the main colors for my wedding too! Hard to believe, we're coming up on 3 years! The only sad thing is we don't get to spend our anniversary dinner at the Orchids at the Halekulani Hotel and have my wedding cake - their signature Coconut Haupia Cake! :(

New Arrangements on Etsy.com

This week I've spent the majority of the time working on finishing up some of the June and early July orders. I've also been working on some of my projects (wrist haku lei) for the Tropical Course so that I can begin teaching that later this month.

One of the arrangements I posted on DK Designs Etsy site was a product of a client ordering the wrong flower for her bouquet. Good thing I sent her pictures this morning of what they looked like and then she realized that she made a mistake and she wanted hydrangeas and not hyacinths! I told her it wasn't a problem to make hydrangeas (after all.... it's become my specialty after the Martha Stewart Show!) and that I would use the hyacinths to make an arrangement to sell on my Etsy.com site! :) (Don't worry Debi - I still love ya!) So this is what came out of that!

I also made extra flowers because I wasn't sure what I was going to make for a wholesale client of mine. She's going to be selling some of my items at http://www.cccgifts.com/. Because I needed to make a couple of the same arrangement here's what I will be selling through her online store. Hopefully it's as popular on her site as it is on my DK Designs Etsy site! The citrus green orchid arrangement ended up on my storefront because I didn't have enough of the yellow roses to make two identical arrangements. I don't do much in the way of yellow roses, but I think this one came out really well. It's sunny and cheery! :)

The products you'll eventually see on CCC Gifts are below.

Red Ginger Wedding Invitations

The last issue of For the Bride magazine featured some of my wedding invitations. One of them had a red ginger on it. Ironically enough, this picture is one I took of a red ginger flower in my very own backyard in Hawaii because I couldn't find a nice image of red ginger that I could use for my invitation. I haven't gotten a request for this particular image in quite some time, but one of my clients found my invitations in the Winter 2008 issue of the magazine and asked me to create her 340 wedding invitations using this particular design but utilizing browns and greens. The color combination is absolutely stunning!

I'm in the home stretch of finishing this order. Anything above 100 invitations is a lot of work when there are multiple components. Thank goodness I now have help with the assembly part of the process! Here are a few snapshots of the invitation.

New and Improved DK Designs Business Cards!

I also spent some time redesigning my business cards with my California address and updating it with my new designs. I really wanted to feature more pictures of my flowers so potential clients ca

n get a sense for what I do! I really like the way they came out. They arrive tomorrow, I'm so EXCITED! :) Of course, I had to tout that I was featured on the Martha Stewart Show! How could I not! :)

New Pictures of Flowers

As many of you know, wedding season has kicked into HIGH gear! Although since last summer, I think it's been that way for me! I wanted to just share a few photos of some things I've been working on for my clients and Etsy.com. There will be more to follow in the coming weeks as I knock out all my orders! I'm excited though at all the bouquet orders I have coming up! It's amazing how many brides are SERIOUSLY considering clay bouquets! Keep them coming!

This first picture is of an arrangement I did for Etsy.com. I love the light pastel colors... It screams English Country garden! These flowers were ones I made for a client's samples and they were extras because the colors didn't work for what I was wanting for her bouquet so I used them in this nice little arrangement!

My new FAVORITE flower is the peony! I feel like I'm getting much better at making them look REALISTIC! This one arrangement was inspired by a Martha Stewart Show segment where they did these beautiful reddish pink peonies and viburnum. The one thing I didn't recreate were the pom pom mums they used to decorate the vase... I don't have that much FREE TIME! :) This one sells at http://www.dkdesignshawaii.etsy.com/.

The last picture I want to share are corsages I did for a client who found me via etsy.com. She wanted corsages from her mom and her mother-in-law to be. She wanted greens, pinks and oranges. I love this color combination! Just so bold and vibrant, but the flowers are delicate. I hope Amanda likes them! These flowers are also my favorites to make these days - dahlia, ranunculus and viburnum!

12 New Arrangements Listed on www.dkdesignshawaii.etsy.com!

Well, I worked hard all weekend long to post some new arrangements to my http://www.dkdesignshawaii.etsy.com/ storefront! There are now 12 new arrangements on the site for purchase! I hope to post more by next week. Some of the popular arrangements like the pink gerbera and coral pink roses are back, some new versions of the hydrangea arrangement show on the Martha Stewart Show - now in pinks and deeper blues, as well as some tropical arrangements that are really vibrant and colorful!

My favorite is the orange cymbidium and coral pink roses, but I do love the classic look of the blue hydrangeas with the light green tuberose buds in a glass vase and the base of the vase where the flowers attach are covered with a vibrant green flax grass.

Prices for these arrangements posted this morning range from $40-80/each, plus shipping. My arrangements have been selling like crazy so hopefully these 12 arrangements will carry me through at least until next week when I can make more!

Recent Arrangements & Projects

I know it's been a while since my last blog post. It's been to say the very least CRAZY BUSY with keeping up with the demand. Some of these photos are pictures of things I made for my husband's work. I have seemed to developed a fan club with the women at his work. They LOVE Martha Stewart and they LOVE my stuff. So I felt the need to make some little arrangements for them. Now they want class! It's nice just to see their enthusiasm.

I've even gotten inquiries from women interested in taking the classes all the way from Arkansas, Ohio and Maryland! If only I had enough hours in the day to do it all! Some of these arrangements are also items I made for Etsy.com which have already sold.

This one is an arrangement of a tussie mussie bouquet and a matching boutonniere I made for a special project I was working on. It's green cymbidiums, pink freesia, pink hydrangeas, stephanotis flowers with crystals and greenish white ranunuculus flowers. Can you see the pink/green/white theme going on!!!

Favors & Centerpieces for a Vow Renewal

Another Hilton Waikoloa Village referral came my way just prior to the Martha Stewart Show airing. This particular client is celebrating a vow renewal with her husband. She contacted me for her small centerpieces for her guest tables, favors as well as her place cards, table cards and thank you cards. She wanted pinks and greens and loved the cymbidium orchid. It's interesting, I think green cymbidiums will never go out of style. It's always been one of my favorites!

Anyway, these are the centerpieces and the favor box we're doing for her vow renewal celebration. Things to say the very least have been HECTIC! Please note that I may not be able to post new material as often as I want to. It's wedding season and I'm trying to keep up with all the wedding orders already on the books as well as the etsy.com demand! It's definitely been a great thing to be on Etsy.com to say the very least. I even got someone in Australia asking me if I would ship her an arrangement!

DK Designs gets Plugged on Etsy News... New Arrangements Posted to Etsy.com
I just found out that the people who write news articles for Etsy wrote about me and my little segment on Martha Stewart! It was a really nice little write up and so many people have commented that they saw the show and loved it! You can read the article at http://www.etsy.com/storque/section/etsyNews/article/dkdesignshawaii-on-the-martha-stewart-show/1547/

I also have spent a couple of days creating some new arrangements for my http://www.dkdesignshawaii.etsy.com/ storefront. I hope to continue to keep posting more items for sale week to week. There is a lot of interest and it's really amazing how many people really like my stuff! I've gotten so many glowing compliments and it's really an honor to be able to do what I do for a living! To be able to do something I enjoy and share it with others day in and day out! Here are a couple of pictures of the new items that were posted. You can now buy the arrangements I made for the Martha Stewart Show!

(Picture of Noel & Karen from the MarthaStewat.com blog)

DK Designs - As Seen on the Martha Stewart Show!
I arrived on 3/31 to JFK, definitely sleep deprived but excited! I checked into the hotel and got prepared for my 10:30 meeting with the producers. I got right to work with Kristen St. Clair who helped me get the swap outs done for the show. She and Robert helped with how things were going to look on the set and get the swap outs laid out for me the day of the show. They were all so impressed with the flowers and the clay! They had never seen anything like it.

After my swap outs were done Karen, the producer for the segment took me back upstairs and roughly went through the process and what was going to happen on 4/1. It seemed so easy and simple. I felt really good about the show and wasn't nervous by the end of the day. Everyone was so nice!

I went back to my hotel and just vegged out for a while and took a much needed nap. I was able to go to dinner with some friends from San Francisco who were there at the same time. Marc and Jennifer came to support me on 4/1. If you saw the cool and stylish necklace I was wearing on the show... well, Jennifer Erickson, designer and owner of Meditrina Designs (www.meditrinadesigns.com) graciously let me borrow that piece to wear for the show! It's one of my favorite pieces of her's! She has an amazing collection of necklaces, earrings and bracelets. If you're looking for classic, timeless and stylish pieces, check her designs out. You won't be disappointed and she her quality is top notch!

4/1 - What an amazing experience to be on the Martha Stewart Show. I woke up in the morning just so tired and a little nauseous. I think all the excitement and my nerves were finally getting to me. I didn't think I would make it through the day. But as soon as I got to the studio everyone on Martha's production staff was warm and very encouraging. I got the royal treatment with a make up and hair session with Debra and Nicole. They made me look good and hid all my imperfections!

(Deb and Nicole in the background courtesy of Marthastewart.com blog)

Karen Kinney and Noel Rosselli walked me through the entire rehearsal and even though I was nervous up until then, the reahearsal helped to calm my nerves. The production team is AMAZING!!! Every step of they way they were telling me how great I was doing and that everything was fantastic. I wish I got those pep talks every day of my life! :)

So, I didn't get to meet Martha Stewart until I got on the set to do my segment. I saw her during her briefing with her team, but was too busy trying to get ready for my "bump" shots (the intro piece to the show). Martha is so calm and is just like an "everyday" person. She asked me a couple of questions and the segment started. She asked me a couple questions not part of the introduction so I tried to roll with the punches and then the 7 minutes flew by in 1 minute! Literally. I felt like I wasn't getting all the steps down. Martha tried really hard. I think if she could have the whole show to do the flowers she would. She was so intrigued by the clay!

(Joey the Stage Manager who waved signs at me to speed it up! Photo Courtesy of the MarthaStewart.com blog)

The feedback has been ENORMOUS! I got to JFK after the show and I already got comments on the blog, emails of people interested in finished products for their weddings, interested in buying the clay and books. My page views for my website have been shooting through the roof! I average about 50-100/day, and today before I got on the plane was over 2,000 and not all West Coast cities had still viewed the segment.

I think I might have shut the etsy.com website down as I couldn't get on for at least a half hour. I think everyone who saw the show was going to check it out. I already sold all by 2 pieces on my etsy storefront. Not to worry, I will be trying to post more items for sale soon!

It TRULY was an AMAZING experience! Words cannot describe how awesome it was. The production team is TOP NOTCH! Hats off to them and I will forever be so grateful to have worked with such a dedicated, professional, helpful and down-to-earth team! THANK YOU MARTHA STEWART AND THANK YOU TO THE ENTIRE PRODUCTION, STYLE AND STAGE MANAGEMENT TEAM - especially Karen, Noel, Laura, Kristen, Robert, Joey, Debra, Nicole and Brendan!

You can view the whole show at :

http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.017db2225a7627b8510467a2b5900aa0/?vgnextoid=38f9cf380e1dd010VgnVCM1000005b09a00aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default