Bridal Shower Favors (White and Black Theme)

My cousin's daughter asked me a couple months ago if I could help her with a bridal shower she is throwing for her best friend. She wanted to do favors for a white and black themed shower. Crafty isn't her thing so we discussed ideas while I was visiting them back in April what would work. She really liked the idea of doing the flowers that would serve as decor but also gifts for the people attending the shower. 

We agreed upon anemones, roses, gardenias and ranunculus. I did a black favor tag to look like chalkboard material and printed the text in white. They came out so lovely. This would make great bridal shower or even wedding favors.

Ivory, Yellow and Green Wedding Bouquet

The first week of January was spent working on this bouquet. My client is not getting married until later this year, but she is having a bridal photo shoot with her photographer and she wanted to be able to have it for that shoot. When we talked about her flowers she wanted hints of coral in her bouquet. We hadn't talked much via Facebook so there was a bit of confusion. So the first 2 photos are of the original bouquet.

The subsequent photos are of the final bouquet design as she only wanted a touch of coral in the bouquet as it better matched her color palette. While both are very beautiful, the original one adds a pop of color while the final version is more of a muted color palette, but also quite nice.

 The flowers that the client chose were, ivory roses, white ranunculus, green viburnum, coral hipericum berries, plumerias, yellow calla lilies, white and yellow tulips with an ivory ribbon wrap.

 Best wishes to Lien and her fiance!

Replicating a Holy Communion Celebration Cake

A couple of months ago, one of my long time clients asked me if I could replicate a cake she had created for her daughter's Holy Communion. She sent me the photos and I said I could do it. I procrastinated for some time making the cake because for one thing, laying clay on a styrofoam cake form is not my forte.  I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised that I managed to do it and it turned out pretty well. Granted, not as smooth as fondant on a cake, but as close as I could get it with what I had to work with.

It gives me hope that I can create some more of my own faux cakes to show off new cake flowers in the future. Although if you were to ask my husband and son they would say that I was in such a bad mood while I was making the cake. I stressed about it more than you know. 

My client's cake was a greyish lavender with a pearl trim at the base of each layer with dogwood branches. She decided she wanted the cake to be bigger than the actual cake was at the celebration. She was so impressed with how it turned out that she "mistakenly" thought it was the actual cake. She is so sweet to say that she thinks that if she can imagine something that I'll figure out how to create it. I'm honored that she has been one of my clients since 2008.  I'm definitely way behind in blogging, but will share some of the other pieces I created for her recently.

Tropical Wedding Bouquet for a Destination Maui Wedding

It's been a busy week of getting flowers done in between being a mom. Today, I finished this beautiful tropical bouquet for my client, Malia. She's from Canada and is planning to get married in Maui next month. She shared with me a photo of a silk floral arrangement that she really liked. This bouquet contained plumerias, Asiatic lilies, calla lilies, 3 different colored roses and greenery.

We made a few modifications to the original bouquet, but overall the color scheme and flowers were included. We added pave rhinestone button accents with a cranberry ribbon wrap and bow.  It's definitely vibrant and full of color. It makes you long to be on the islands smelling the beautiful plumerias and enjoying the beach! Congratulations to Malia and her fiance!

White Lily with Rhinestones

This bride requested a white lily for her hair, but instead of the clay stamens and pistil, she really wanted to have some "bling". So I replicated the look of the stamens and pistil with the handwired rhinestones.

Custom Bridal Hair Comb

 I've been in a bit of a creative lull, but trying to get back into the swing of things. Thought I would catch up on a few blog posts today and share what I've been making. 

 An Etsy client/bride of mine requested me to create a bridal hair comb that included a mini coral peony with green leaves and lily of the valley blossoms wired with rhinestones to go with her veil. I'm pleased with the way it turned out.

Blush Pink and White Wedding

I finally finished a bouquet, boutonniere and corsage order for a client. It's been hectic juggling home life with work these days so this order seemed to take me forever to finish. 

My client, Gretel is having a destination wedding in San Francisco in a couple of weeks. She had a bouquet she wanted me to model hers after. It was filled with blush pink peonies, light pink ranunculus, David Austin champagne ivory roses, white hydrangeas and white freesia.  She wanted a boutonniere, 2 pinned corsages and a peony hair flower as well. I love the subtle shades of pink, ivory and white in this bouquet. There are no fillers in this bouquet either so lots of freesia and hydrangea were needed to fill in the spaces. 

We decided to do an ivory ranunculus with white freesia for her fiance.

The mother's of the bride and groom will be wearing a blush peony bud with pink ranunculus and white freesia corsages.

Gretel decided several weeks ago she also wanted to have a matching peony hair flower. The next order I'm working on has lots of anemones. Stay tuned for more on that...

Gardenia bouquet and a bit of sparkle

I worked on this order a while back, but just haven't found the time to blog about it. My client contacted me via Etsy and originally her order was for the gardenia bouquet that was listed on my site, but with the slight modification of adding some sparkle. She asked for my handwired rhinestone sprays that were in one of my gardenia hair flower listings. 

Part way through the process, she decided she also wanted to gift her mother and grandmother with some special flowers. She decided on a single peony bouquet with handwired pearls and seed beads in the center for her mother and a shrub rose corsage pin with a rhinestone center and vintage leaves.

 There is something very beautiful yet simple about all white or all ivory flowers.

White and Black Bouquet for a Southern Wedding....

My dear friend Amy is getting married! Mind you I have never personally met Amy, but we have become friends over the last few years thanks to Spirit Jump and Facebook. She and her family have gone through A LOT with regards to their health and while I don't want to go into all the details, I have to say this, Amy and her kids have a heart of gold and have so much faith and strength. They always rise above.

Amy is getting married to her high school friend, Geoff. This will be their second marriage and they both have kids - almost like the Brady Bunch 6 kids, ranging in ages of 7 to 22! Since I have known her, I have never seen her as happy as she is right now. 

She asked me to create her wedding invitations and her bridal bouquet. Amy never had an official wedding the first time so Geoff is giving her the wedding of her dreams but on a smaller scale. She wanted a white, black and silver color palette. She was worried that a white & black bouquet would not look stunning. Granted, I've only made a white and black bouquet once prior, but it was simpler. I suggested anemones, gardenias (being that they are getting married in Georgia and it adds a bit of Southern charm), stephanotis with rhinestones, lilac, lily of the valley, English roses and sweet peas. I also added black velvet vintage leaves and a silvery vintage leaf vine to accent the colors she wanted. 

I decided to add subtle but natural hints of color with light greens, yellows and a very blush pink/champagne. The bouquet is wrapped with black satin ribbon and had a beautiful rhinestone buckle. 

 Congratulations to Amy and Geoff!

Lilac Boutonniere to Match the Bouquet

This morning I finished working on Andrea's fiance's boutonniere. She wanted an all lilac boutonniere with no greenery and matching periwinkle blue ribbon. It's simple but lush. 

I love making lilacs but also dread it at the same time just because it's so many flowers and buds, but once I get into the groove of making them it doesn't seem so bad.

 One more bridal bouquet left to work on for a very special friend of mine. Hope to share photos next week.

A Lovely Bouquet of Blooms...

It's been insanely busy trying to crank out all my work before vacation (I know I sound like a broken record). My husband has made me promise to get my orders done a week prior to when we leave so I can wind down before vacation. Those who know me well, know that I turn into a stress case when I have orders to fill and vacation is coming. 

I just finished 1 of 3 bridal bouquet orders. I have 2 more to work on. My client Doria originally asked me for a bouquet of whites, yellows, greens and aqua blues. Initially she was thinking she wanted flowers that were aqua blue. After she gave it much thought, she agreed that going with more natural colored flowers would be best. About a couple months ago she informed me her fiance's daughter would be part of the wedding and they wanted to get her a petite bouquet. Her dress is white with little flowers in shades of coral, yellow, lilac purple, and some green. I suggested since she wanted something small for her, that we go with a single 6" peony in creamy yellow to compliment the yellow peonies in Doria's bouquet. She also asked to add these colors into the bridal bouquet. 

So, we decided on creamy yellow peonies, white callas, white plum blossoms with hints of coral, stephanotis flowers with crystal AB rhinestones, white freesia, lilac purple hyacinth, and ranunculus in oranges and corals. I like how the bouquets turned out. 

Hopefully by the end of this weekend I'll have pictures of another bouquet/boutonniere that I'm working on. Lots of lilacs to focus on in the next couple of days. Can't wait to share!

Peachy Pink Peony Bouquet

  Last week I got an order for my peachy pink peony bouquet listing that I had on Etsy. I made this bouquet probably 2 years ago and had it as a made-to-order item. I was excited to see that someone wanted it again. I love peonies and I love this bouquet. It's simple but is beautiful with subtle shades of peach to pink. Each peony is roughly 6 inches in diameter with lush greenery.

Mother's Day Tea....

 My mini teapots are such a hit, that one of my repeat clients asked me to make a trio of a teapot and teacups for her mother for Mother's Day. She really liked the vibrancy of my all ranunculus teapots, but wanted teapots and teacups. She later saw my mini daffodils and asked if I could add that. So I decided last night to make them and instead of doing all ranunculus to have the yellow flowers be daffodils. I think they came out super cute.

 I'm not sure I will have time to make more arrangements for Mother's Day, but maybe this weekend I might squeeze out a few. I've been trying to maximize my day which means less time on Facebook and more time in the studio. Lots still to accomplish but feeling less stressed as I accomplish more throughout the day!

Lots of hard work and multiple tries....

 I am not sure if you recall my mentioning that I was working on an order of 10 bouquets, 11 boutonnieres and 3 corsages. Well, that order is finally all complete. Sometimes between what the bride wants and what I understand what her needs are might be two different things. I think the lesson learned is I need to ask my clients to be more specific about what they want. 

At any rate, lots of hours of adding additional flowers to make my client happy. Granted, in the end, they bouquets look so much better than the original ones. Just hoping the bride is happy with the end result. I know she was very happy with how her bouquet turned out after all the changes and additions and I'm happy and relieved about that. :)

Here are some photos of the boutonnieres...

And the wrist corsages...

I still have a lot of orders to fill and new orders coming in both for summer weddings and wholesale orders. Lots to do...