Kirsten & Chris - Real Weddings (Fall Bouquets)

This morning I received a link from my bride Kirsten of a sneak peek from their photographer, Richelle Brown Weddings! It's absolutely STUNNING! If you recall from my previous posts earlier this month, I did these gorgeous fall bouquets with chocolate proteas, green succulents, ranunculus and two town orange roses. Richelle Brown's team did a fabulous job. A beautiful fall wedding. I love the pumpkin centerpieces!

Kirsten also had a really sweet "thank you" email she sent me about her wedding day and how happy she was with my bouquets and floral items. It really makes my day when I receive such wonderful thank yous from my clients.

Diane, I really can't thank you enough for the work you did on our flowers. They looked absolutely fabulous! The guests could not believe they were clay. We did have a *very* light sprinkle of rain on our big day---I didn't subject my bouquet to it, but the groom's boutonniere held up just fine during a few outdoor shots. Our families all loved them and everyone was thrilled that they get to keep them forever! I will send some pictures along when we get them back from our photographer! Thanks again,Kirsten

Click here to see the rest of the photos from Kirsten & Chris' wedding. Kirsten & Chris, thank you for sharing your beautiful wedding day photos with me and my readers!

(Images courtesy of Richelle Brown Weddings)

Aidan's 1st Preschool Halloween Parade

So yesterday, I had the opportunity to go to an industry function in San Francisco last night with Stacie Tamaki and Lea McIntosh. Click here to read Stacie's blog post. It's pretty entertaining. Everywhere we went, Stacie took photos, and she talked about all the things she was going to blog about. She was the guest speaker at BAWN (Bay Area Wedding Network) where almost 200 wedding professionals in the Bay Area gathered to network and listen to Stacie's presentation and a couple of other ones on how to successfully market your wedding business on the Internet via blogs and social networks (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc). The image to the left is courtesy of Stacie Tamaki (http://www.theflirtyguide.blogspot.com/).

The picture is Gabby of Cake Coquette and myself, showing her my clay flower samples I was giving to her to try out with her cakes! Gabby makes beautiful cakes and I'm hoping one day I can do a taste test and her shop. She does amazing work. She even worked for the CAKE DIVAS in Hollywood (if you've seen the reality TV show on WeTV, it's pretty interesting and entertaining). Gabby is excited about promoting this to her clients as an alternative to sugar and gumpaste flowers.

It was interesting because as I explained to over a dozen people what I do, they still couldn't get what I did. Next time, I plan to bring one of my arrangements so they can see firsthand what clay flowers are all about. I'm looking forward to the next one. It was a nice night out and it was nice because we were in my husband's old neighborhood as the Flood Mansion is two blocks up from where he used to live when we first started dating. I got to even buy my French Macaroons. :) YUMMY! This is what is left of the 8 delectable macaroons I bought.

So onto my other story for today. Today was my son's 1st Preschool Halloween parade! I will only share pictures of my son since I'm not so sure the other mommies and his teachers want their pictures on this blog. He was Buzz Lightyear. He did a great job and he actually helped his teacher and the class participate in a song. We weren't encouraged to stay for the rest of the party, but it was so cute to see my son and all his classmates dressed up in their costumes. Another first and special moment!

Elaborate Wedding Thank You Cards

So in one of my early posts back in February of last year, I blogged a lot about my "Everything Bride". Lorela used to work at the Hilton Waikoloa Village and saw my creations in the Wedding Atelier office and she decided at that point when her wedding day rolled around she would ask me to create her wedding details. I did EVERYTHING from the invitations, all the printed details, bouquets, centerpieces and bridal party packets.

We had talked about doing more mementos for her family and friends who couldn't make the wedding just because we ran out of time, so now almost a year later, we're getting back to working on the last part of her EVERYTHING order! She asked me to create her thank you cards. I thought, great, a simple 3.5x5 fold over card. If you knew Lorela, she doesn't do thing simple, she likes to go lavish. So over the last week or so, I've been working with her back and forth trying to create each element for her personalized thank you cards. We scaled back slightly from her original concept. The only thing missing in this photo is her CD label

The section where normally you would see an invitation in this pocketfold design is a faded image of Lorela and Ryan (note the bouquet she is holding is one of my creations). It's their wedding song, At Last by Etta James. The inserts contain a recognition of their gratitude to all their vendors who helped make their wedding day vision a reality, the 2nd insert is all their wedding symbols and why they chose those symbols and lastly, the 3rd insert is for a personal written thank you to her guests. The label is personalized to each of their families and friends.

This just happens to be the sample I worked on for her, but I still have 70 thank you packets to build out for her. It'll be nice to finally complete her original order. I'm so grateful to all the clients I have who continue to come back to order more stationery and flowers for their special events and needs.

Baby Shower Invitations and A Little Gift

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. I've been busy working on orders and doing a lot of paperwork. I did want to share a couple of new things I've been working on. One of my clients, Lorela (who I termed my "everything bride" contacted me a couple months ago and asked me to start work on her elaborate personalized thank you cards, welcome baby shower invitations and some other items for the baby shower and mementos we never got around to after her wedding. She's almost coming up on a year anniversary.

Anyway, she's throwing a welcome baby shower for her nephew who is due to come into this world any day now. She wanted a shell theme so these are how her invitations turned out.

As many of you know, I'm doing a giveaway on Melissa Smitten's website. So I decided as a "thank you" gift to her, I would create a design using the colors she liked most and send it to her. I liked it so much I had to take a picture and send it to her. She's so excited to get one of my designs and see my work firsthand! Who knows, I might just have to recreate this to sell on my Etsy site when I have more free time!

My posts will be a little light this week. An industry event tomorrow night, taxes to work on and of course Halloween and my niece's birthday party. So I'll have new pictures of Aidan with all his Halloween gear on.

Don't forget only a little more than week to register your chance to win one of my designs! Click on the picture below to enter Melissa's blog site to enter.

Because Love Should Be Celebrated - More Wedding Details

Last night I managed to finish the revised samples of Alyssa & Daniel's other wedding week and wedding day details. The other items as I mentioned in the previous post are the out-of-town guest bag tags, table cards, and place card/favor boxes and circular dinner reception menus . These are the photos of the samples.

Because Love Should Be Celebrated - Wedding Programs

A few months back (seems like several), my client, Alyssa found me via TheKnot.com Mae & Jeremy Real Weddings feature. She fell in love with my designs and asked me if I would work on her December 6th destination wedding in Wailea, Mau'i. I was really hesitant knowing my busy September/October schedule, but after meeting her, I agreed to take her wedding order. I finished her invitations and everyone has commented how lovely they are. Now we're headed into all of her printed items for her OOT Bags (which I will post later on during her wedding - they are super duper cool!), menus, place card/favor boxes, wedding programs, table cards, etc.

The funny thing is that Alyssa and Daniel live minutes from where I live. They are such a fun and delightful couple. I'm very fortunate that I get to coordinated their wedding for my best friend Cheryl of Orchid Isle Weddings & Events because she's due around their wedding date and can't physically make it. Cheryl and I have worked on a few occasions as I was her assistant wedding planner when she did weddings on Oahu. This will one of the first times that I get to see all my work on the day of the wedding! So exciting... I'm really excited about being an on-location wedding blogger for a Mau'i destination wedding! It's hard to believe there's less than 45 days until their big day.

Anyway, to make a long story short, here is a sample of the tri-fold wedding ceremony program I'm doing for them. More items to come later this weekend as I build them out. Beautiful color palette of deep navy blue, light blue and a hint of orange. A soft blue palm leaf print to carry their wedding invitation design element through to the wedding day to keep the theme consistent.

More to come so stay tuned...

3 Chances to Win DK Designs' Clay Flowers on Melissa's Smitten Blog!

I wanted to let you all know that Melissa Smitten is hosting a giveaway on her blog (http://www.melissasmitten.blogspot.com/)! You ask what the giveaway is for? Well, what else, 3 DK Designs' clay floral creations. If you want a chance to enter and win, visit her blog! 3 winners will be randomly selected and announced on Friday, November 7th! Good luck to all you brides out there!

Here are the details of the items we're giving away to 3 lucky winners! Below is the write up that is posted on Melissa's blog:

Diane of DK Designs is having an exciting giveaway of her amazing clay flowers on Melissa's Smitten Blog! Simply email info@smitteninvitations.com with your name, email and snail-mail address and wedding date to enter! Contest ends on November 7, 2008. One entry per person per day. Be sure to email all your friends to let them know about this fun giveaway!

Gardenia Hair Flower - $20 value: Gardenias are a very popular flower to wear in your hair on your wedding day. Why not try a handcrafted gardenia hair flower! This way it will last you through the ceremony, reception and beyond! The gardenias are slightly off-white, but not ivory. They are 3.5 inches in diameter and are VERY lightweight. The flowers are attached to a U-shape hairpin to fit securely in your up-do or low-do hairstyle.

Passionate about Peonies - $100 value: This arrangement is called, Passionate about Peonies. It measures 6 inches high by 7 inches across the top. It's filled with light pink and fuchsia pinkish-red peonies, both in full bloom and in bud form! The full bloom peonies have over 30 petals, all handcrafted one petal at a time. The flowers are arranged in a 3 inch square white ceramic cube vase. If you love peonies, you will absolutely love this floral arrangement.

Gardenias in Something Blue - $75 value: This beautiful light blue latte cup is brimming with gardenia blossoms! 2 buds, 2 half open and 3 full gardenias mixed with some light blue floral fillers finish this piece off. It measures approximately 6 inches in diameter and 4.5 inches high. It's clean, stylish and sophisticated. This would make a great gift for a bride or even a centerpiece for a bridal shower!

The flowers are all handcrafted by the artist featured on the Martha Stewart Show, utilizing Claycraft by DECO soft clay, which enables the artist to create lifelike flowers one petal at a time. Diane’s work has been featured in For the Bride Magazine, In Style Weddings Magazine (via http://www.estiloweddings.com/) and Pacific Rim Weddings Magazine. The bulk of the Diane's work is in custom bridal bouquets, corsages, boutonnieres and other floral decor.

Introducing Mr. & Mrs. Pineapple

Today is a busy blogging day for me. So much to talk about...

So this afternoon I started doing my daily blog reading and I wanted to see if Miss (or should I say Mrs.) Pineapple posted anything new on her blog! They took a little honeymoon getaway after the wedding. She had some photos of her wedding day and I found the link to her photographer's site/slideshow of their wedding day. It gave me goosebumps. It was so beautiful and I almost felt like I was a guest at their wedding. It looks like such a wonderful wedding and fun reception. I love her candy bar.. so festive and fun! (Image to the left is courtesy of Mary Mervis Photography)

Anyway, click here or on the image to see the photography done by Mary Mervis Photography! I can't wait to share more as Mrs. Pineapple provides more images! I absolutely loved the Pittsburgh skyline and city as the backdrop to their wedding photos. Modern and so beautiful. Emily was definitely a DIY bride and everything she did and worked on were AMAZING!

Congratulations again Mr. & Mrs. Pineapple! It was such an honor to work with you both on creating everlasting bridal bouquets and flowers for your special day! October 18th is truly the SWEETEST DAY!

Gardenia Floral Centerpiece

An Etsy client of mine bought one of my arrangements and although specified in my description the size, she had expected it to be larger. She still loved it and found a place for it, but she had a place in her home where she wanted a much larger centerpiece. So she sent me a picture of one of my Etsy arrangements (Gardenias in Something Blue) and asked if I could make it 3X the size. She wanted something roughly 10-12 inches in diameter and 15 inches high.

With that, I said, sure and she was flexible on the timing. So we did a custom order for her. and this is how it turned out. I was a little nervous since gardenias are so expansive to try and fit all of them in there, but it turned out quite lovely.

The blue really adds a great touch because of the vase also being white. I think there are probably over 40 flowers in this arrangement.

Thank you Melissa for asking me to create this beautiful custom piece for your home. I hope you enjoy it for years to come.

DK Designs Interview on Melissa's Smitten Blog!

A couple weeks ago, I read an article on Melissa Smitten's Blog about how to save money on buying inexpensive decorations for your cakes instead of going with expensive sugar flowers. I had made a comment to Melissa about whether or not she had heard of clay flowers as an alternative and she was intrigued. She was so intrigued that she asked me if I would be willing to do a vendor interview and I of course naturally agreed.

Melissa's company makes wonderful wedding and event invitations and stationery and I love her work. She did an amazing job on putting together all the photos I sent to her. Check out her wedding invitations if you're looking for some wonderful letterpress invites! She does fabulous work. One day that's my dream, to figure out how I can do letterpress. Like I have time... :) Thanks Melissa for the opportunity to share my love of clay flowers with your readers!

Destination Wedding Bouquet - Tropical Flowers and Tiffany Blue

Elizabeth came to me a couple weeks ago and asked me if I could do her hair flowers for her destination wedding in Mexico, Playa Del Carmen. So of course, I gave her a quote. Then she asked me to make her guest book because she wasn't happy with the one she had already purchased. So I agreed to that. Well, she then asked me if I could do her bouquet, boutonnieres, and corsages. It's funny how once brides see my work, it spirals into so much more. Which I love don't get me wrong!

She was very worried that the bouquet she was planning to get once she arrived in Mexico would not be to her liking and wanted to have something she LOVED. So her requests were gardenias at first and as she looked through my sites she finally just told me a mostly white bouquet, but with hints of Tiffany Blue and yellow. I thought the yellow rose was odd, but she's from Texas so maybe she wanted to tie in where she's from... The yellow rose of Texas.

At any rate, this is what I came up with for her destination wedding. I didn't think the yellows and Tiffany Blue would go together, but they somehow do. It's funny, I think not being from an art background I'm often pleasantly surprised at what colors work. I guess I should spend more time with the color wheel! LOL.

I still have her guest book to finish, but I wanted to share the photos that I took today of her order.

Best Wishes Elizabeth and I can't wait to see photos!

Clay Flowers Featured on Get Married's Blogger Brides

About a week and a half ago, Kate Harrison of the Green Bride's Guide asked if she could use some of my images for a post she was working on - clay flowers as an eco-friendly alternative. Kate is a contributing blogger to the wonderful GetMarried.com's Blogger Brides! She featured not only my work but of course the work of DECO Clay Craft Academy and some other clay artists. Anyway, click on the images to read the article that she posted today!

I'm always so appreciative and touched that others in the wedding industry find my work worthy of sharing with brides who are planning their wedding. Thank you Kate! I hope to have Kate in the near future as a guest blogger to share her thoughts on having a "green" or "eco-chic" wedding.

Stay tuned for more exciting news coming this week! :)

Coral Orange + Pink + Green = One Fabulous Bouquet

So I thought I was going to finish this particular bouquet tomorrow, but I couldn't help myself and had to finish it today. Just made the orchids this morning and they were dry enough to paint and assemble in the bouquet. So voila! My client, Trang also found me via my Etsy site (gotta love ETSY)! She's getting married sometime next year in Vietnam so another international destination wedding! She currently lives on the East Coast. She saw one of my Etsy arrangements and fell in love with it so she asked if I could use those elements to create her bouquet.

The bouquet is made up of orange cymbidium orchids, coral/pink roses, tuberose buds and pink hydrangeas (Trang liked another Etsy arrangement I did with pink hydrangeas reverse coral pink roses and tuberose so she wondered if it would work.) with some darker green filler leaves to finish it off. She asked for a orange ribbon to match and I thought the coral orange iridescent ribbon I had was perfect. This bouquet could be considered a fall-like tropical bridal bouquet. I continue to surprise myself every time I create a new bouquet.

Best Wishes to Trang and her fiance!

Gardenia Cake Flowers Going to the UK...

My clay flowers are going international again! This time to the United Kingdom. Another bride found me via my Etsy site interested in my hair flowers and had many questions. First her order started out with 2 gardenia flowers much like the one I did for my Magnolia Bride, Kristy. Dulcima decided to move forward and then she asked me if I could do her cake flowers. She sent me this picture (to the left) of her vision and the last pictures are what I came up with. I didn't have time to make my clay cake model (on my list of things to do), so I had to use my square vases as a back drop. :) Her cake flowers measure 5 inches in diameter.

I am excited about a possible client who's getting married in the south of France... We'll see if she can sway her fiance's mind this week when I send her a sample! If it works out, this order would be my LARGEST international order... bouquets, centerpiece favors, boutonnieres and corsages. I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed on this one!

Clay Flower Making Weekend

So what happens you ask when you end up making the wrong colored flowers for a client. Well, they end up becoming part of wonderful floral arrangements to sell on my Etsy site! This weekend, I have been focusing on several things. I have several orders I'm working on for wedding clients (bouquets, cake flowers, hair flowers) and some past clients who want larger arrangements. One of my clients asked for coral pink roses and I make them 2 different ways (one with an orange center and one with a more pink center). Well, I accidentally made the orange center with pink outer petals which is the reverse of what the order was. But I love these roses so much I decided to use them in some arrangements since I've been a little light on my Etsy storefront offerings. When I make flowers for my orders many times I have extras and I try to create new arrangements to sell. Anyway, these are a few new items on my Etsy storefront. I also have a lot of clients who want gardenias so I decided to create my Gardenias in Something Pink (original one was in Something Blue). Hopefully if I have more time I'll create more of these in different colored cups to match your decor. :)

Stay tuned because in the coming weeks and months, I'll be doing giveaways of my creations via other websites/blogs. I'll keep you posted as those come up so you can enter to win! :)

DK Designs Birthday Invitations

Yesterday, I received an email from the husband of one of my clients who ordered the cute high tea baby shower invitations I made a few months back. Chelsea, my client was so happy with them and because her husband was running behind on getting the invitations out, they asked me if I could help.

Initially I thought to myself after I heard they need them ASAP, is "there's no way I can do this order." However, after a little bit of thought, I decided to go ahead and do the order. Chelsea came to me by way of one of my other clients Laurie who got married a few years back in Maui and she told Chelsea about me when they were looking for baby shower invitations. Chelsea and the honoree, Eva, LOVED the invitations and they were fun to work with and the invitations were fun to make.

Jackson, Chelsea's husband liked the style, but asked that the invitations be more earthy and not so girlie as his mom is not a girlie-girl. She's into horseback riding and cooking. He gave me the link to the site where they are having her surprise party and asked if I could create something. So, this is the design concept I came up with.

The location is Costanoa - a beachy-rustic resort in Santa Cruz area and Jackson wanted blues, greens and browns. I think it came out really nice. Definitely earthy, somewhat beachy and yet very sophisticated. They really LOVED the design and are happy that I could help at such short notice. :) I have to say though, I have a really hard time turning down my loyal clients when they need help with a new event or celebration they are planning! Yes, I continue to have a problem saying "no" but for all the right reasons... Another happy customer!

DK Designs Wedding Details - Place Cards, Table Numbers and Guest Book

Back in early September, Stacey contacted me and asked me if I could do her place cards, table numbers and guest book. She had seen my work via the Real Weddings - Mae & Jeremy feature on TheKnot.com. Her colors were very similar to Mae & Jeremy's except that her blue was more of a Caribbean blue. She sent me images of the bridesmaid dresses and asked that I true to get close to that color.

Her flowers are going to be a flame/mango orange calla and she liked the starfish place card idea. So we incorporated the two. She also had to figure out some way to incorporate the meal choice, so the hotel agreed that we could change the ribbon colors to signify which meal selection without making things too complicated.

This was a nice change of pace and I was able to complete it in one day. I've been doing so many flowers that doing a print job broke things up! However, it's back to more flowers today for my next bouquet order.

Congratulations and Best Wishes Stacey & Josh!

Destination Wedding Bouquet - Orchids, Callas and Tuberose

Another bouquet complete. This particular bouquet is going to be travelling the globe! My client, Melanie lives in Ottawa, Canada and is having a destination wedding in Australia. She wanted a bouquet that was tropical and all white with a hint of Tiffany blue. She sent me some pictures of styles of bouquets she liked as well as how she wanted her stems wrapped. So this is the final piece.

I rarely do an all white bouquet except for obviously the stephanotis flower bouquet, but this one really is beautiful. I made varying shades of white/ivory so that there is some color depth and contrast, but at the same time not too drastically different. It looks like I just went and picked a fresh bouquet of callas, tuberose and phaleanopsis orchids from the garden! There are 11 orchids, 10 callas and 15 tuberose flowers in all.

I had some fun while taking my pictures of this bouquet with the lighting. I think it looks pretty the way the sun is hitting the flowers.

Next up a printed order for a bride getting married in Maui and then back to bouquet orders again....

Congratulations and Best Wishes Melanie and Darren!