Bridal Bouquet with a Vintage Look

A client recently asked me if I could create a bouquet off of a photo of another clay artist's design. That's always hard because each clay artist has their own style and look. However she liked certain elements of that bouquet and I tried to incorporate them but also make it my own design.

She wanted eucharist flowers but instead of the traditional green centers she wanted them to be pink. She also wanted ivories, pinks and greens with the vines and different types of greens. The bouquet had ranunculus, bouvardia, vines, hydrangea, tulips, roses and succulents as well. This bouquet I didn't use any plastic filler, it was all clay! The bride was very happy with the outcome.

Spring Inspired Bouquet

A bride via Etsy asked me to create a bridal bouquet for her. Being from the South she wanted some Southern flowers to be incorporated. Alexis' dress is champagne in color and wanted some hints of champagne. While her bouquet is predominantly white, there are pops of color with the vibrant pink centers of the stargazer lilies and magnolias. I incorporated champagne colored ranunculus since she wasn't too fond of roses. 

She said she also loves periwinkle and light blue so we did periwinkle blue hydrangeas. Towards the end she mentioned they also have lavender and teal in their wedding colors so I decided to add the lavender stock flowers as well. I love how this bouquet turned out. Pretty pastels and whites with pops of vibrant colors.

Alexis loved her bouquet so much that she decided yesterday to add on 3 magnolia corsages for the mothers and grandmother. So very grateful and blessed to have wonderful clients like Alexis!

Sympathy Gifts for a Fallen Master Sargent Marine's Loved Ones

It's not often, but on occasion I have been asked to work on floral arrangements to give as sympathy gifts. A couple weeks ago, one of our dear friends, who is a Master Sargent Marine lost another fellow Master Sargent Marine, who was killed in action by an IED. David asked me if I would be willing to create some pieces for his friend's grieving fiance and two little girls. I was happy to do this for this fallen Marine's family, who are missing him and are grieving his loss. No matter what you believe about the military, one thing our family believes is that these men and women sacrifice their lives to protect our freedoms and all that we hold true. We are forever grateful for their service and their ultimate sacrifice.

Our deepest sympathies go out to this Master Sargent Marine's family and we hope that these flowers will always remind them of all the wonderful memories they shared with him.

Boutonnieres and Corsages for a Destination France Bride

I have a destination France bride who contacted me after seeing the floral arrangement in In Style Weddings magazine via Estilo Weddings. She asked me if I could create her bridal party flowers and centerpieces. So since her wedding is in August but she and her groom are traveling back and forth before then, she asked me if I could do some of the pieces for her. Here's the first of the order, the boutonnieres and corsages. She asked her family and her fiance's family to decide what they wanted for their boutonniere and corsage so each one got to decide. It was my first time making a closed center camelia and my first time doing a carnation. Not bad.

Here are the pictures.. Enjoy... Now back to work on 110 wedding favors...

One More Bouquet Order Almost Complete
So I've been playing catch up again on the 4th of all days... I guess when you run your own business, there is technically no day off. Although I did go out to dinner with our friends and play the Wii Tennis game and basically came home with a really sore arm.... I know... PATHETIC! At least though I got some aggression out since it was a really tough parenting week.

I'm almost done with my second Canadian bride's order. She found me after seeing the post by Miss Pineapple on http://www.weddingbee.com/. She wanted apricot colored dahlias, but after she saw what samples I created for Miss Pineapple, she couldn't resist the same flowers. Don't worry Miss Pineapple, your flowers will be uniquely your own! :) Anyway, Laura started with just her bouquet, a maid of honor bouquet and a small centerpiece utilizing her flowers from her bouquet. It turned out she wanted the Victorian Elegance II arrangements (2 of them to be exact) and a toss bouquet (hopefully not really to be tossed) so the centerpieces are done and the flowers for the bouquets are drying,but I hope to have those built out by tomorrow.

Here are also some arrangements that I made using flowers that I had initially made for Laura, but wasn't happy with the colors or the way the ranunculus turned out. Midstream in the process of making the ranunculus, I found a new technique that I felt worked better and was able to give me the look I was going for and I wanted Laura to be happy with her flowers. So not that there was anything wrong with these flowers that are now being sold on my Etsy site, which by the way I think look fabulous, the way the ranunculs flowers came out the second time were much more what I wanted. Plus it's another addition to my ongoing "Ranunculus Series" of arrangements I'm selling on the site. I almost didn't want to post it and keep it for myself (the peach ranunculus one)! As in my previous post, I LOVE ranunculus flowers!

More, More, More...

I built two more arrangements this morning. One of my repeat Etsy.com clients asked if I would create a custom piece for her bedroom. She has peony envy because her peony garden suffered some kind of plant virus so she has no peonies this summer. Her bedroom is all blues and whites but she wanted a punch of color. At first I thought blue, pink and orange???? But I guess when you look at many fresh flower bouquets you get at the market there are tons of different colors put together. So she specifically requested pink peonies and orange ranunculus and to add whatever blue flower I thought might work. I picked the blue hydrangea, but in a very pale blue and with a hint of green in them. I think it works well. She asked me to put it in a mint julep cup so her little one and her pets don't try to play with them. So I found a 4.5 inch cup that worked really well given the size of the flowers. Granted they aren't the actual size of a real peony, but they are beautiful nonetheless!

The second arrangement was a product of me not being happy with the color of Debi's pink roses that Ed gave to her. I will write more about Debi and Ed after I finish her bouquet (hopefully by this weekend). Their story is truly amazing so stay tuned. Anyway, I had pink roses that were too dark, the extra ranunculus and peony flowers I didn't end up using for the etsy.com client and some of my dendrobium orchids and tuberose buds and flowers that I made extras of..... Well, I decided to build another arrangement. I call it Rainbow Sherbet. No... it's not edible and I'm not making frozen desserts now. The colors all put together make me think of rainbow sherbet - rasberry, orange and lime. Brings back memories as a little girl eating that stuff! Check it out!

Anyway, I better get back to working on flowers again. :)

Sample Flowers for Miss Pineapple of WeddingBee.com

Since I've been back, I've been working on samples and orders like crazy even with the HOT HOT temperatures we've been experiencing in San Jose. Anyway, I promised Miss Pineapple of http://www.weddingbee.com/ that I would provide her with some sample pictures of possible flowers for her bouquet and her bridesmaid bouquets. I'm still working on the bridesmaid bouquet sample flowers, but this is what I came up with for her bouquet flowers.

To recap, Miss Pineapple's colors are copper, creams, champagne, and muted tones. Kind of a vintage, but modern elegance. So I decided on gardenias or peonies as the main flower and then muted copper toned and champagne roses with some tuberose and stephanotis flowers and of course, creamy white ranunculus. I actually really like the way these came out. I hope she does too! :) I decided to arrange them so she could see what they look like all put together instead of just individual flowers.

I'm looking forward to what she has to say! Hopefully it's good.... :)

Okay, so I finished the bridesmaid flower sample as well. I think they come together quite nicely. I love the addition of the purple, it really adds a vintage feel to the whole arrangement. On this one, I opted for the peach peony with the a goldish copper center, the copper tone roses, peach ranunculus, mauvish purple roses, some copper filler flower clusters and of course the stephanotis and tuberose flowers.

New Arrangements Posted to Etsy.com
So, in the midst of my dozens of wedding orders I'm trying to wrap up, clay lei awards I'm making for the Hawaii Chamber of Commerce (Northern CA chapter) fundraiser event, I've had time to make more arrangements. These are some of my favorites. The colors are vibrant and very spring influenced. Plus I think the flowers are very popular right now. Who doesn't love ranuculus, hydrangea, orchids, and peonies? Some of my all-time favorites - Tropical Punch, the Green Cymbidiums, Pink Peonies with fuschia coral pink roses are back. Even the oh so popular Spring Flowers Arrangement is back in a smaller configuration!

Visit http://www.dkdesignshawaii.etsy.com/ to order your favorite arrangement!

I'll be away from the storefront from 4-29-5/15 so orders will be processed upon my return. I hope during my time away from the store to have A LOT of new arrangements to post for sale! Business is booming and I'm doing my darndest to keep up with the demand and give my 110% to all my wedding clients and clay flowers students! I think I can qualify for Superwoman! Ha ha... The last 2 nights I've been up until 2 a.m. trying to get all my work done... Boy do I need a vacation even though I'll be working my vacation!