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...

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!

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....

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!

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!

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!