DIY Wedding Video Seminar - Win 2 Free Tickets and Enter to win a Flip Ultra Video Camera!

Are you a Bay Area bride who is the ultimate DIY kind of gal? Did you decide that you're not going to hire a professional videographer to capture your most special memories on your wedding day? Then this is a MUST ATTEND seminar for you.
I'm the ultimate DIY kind of gal, but my honest opinion is hire a professional to do your videography & photography. #1 reason being, you don't want your invited guest or family member to be stuck filming when they were originally invited to be your guest and ENJOY your wedding. With that being said, if you just cannot afford to hire a videographer to capture your wedding day moments, then Chuck & Jewel Savadelis of Savadelis Films have created the MUST ATTEND seminar for you!

Also, Jewel has been so gracious as to offer my blog readers to free tickets to this event! So please email me at dk@dkdesignshawaii.com or simply leave me a comment on my blog if you're getting married and would love to attend this event. The contest runs from February 1 through February 15th!. That's a $49/ticket value!!!

Here are the Details:

Date:
Sunday, March 22, 2009


Time:
1:00-5:00 p.m.

Location:
Julia Morgan Ballroom, 465 California St., San Francisco, California

Ticket Price:

$49.00

Registration:

Visit http://www.movie-me.com/

Why you should register to attend:

It is a creative solution to brides and grooms who have chosen to rely on friends or family to film their wedding day and would like to have a quality wedding video. The seminar is How to DIY Your Wedding Video. If couples are going to do-it-yourself, we'd like to help them do-it-well. Now they can do more than just hope for the best.

There are four reasons it isn't a good idea to ask a friend to video your wedding: poor image quality, poor sound quality, they'll miss something important, and it will be B-O-R-I-N-G. But we have a solution. We will share very practical tips and techniques on how to frame a scene, shoot from the best unobtrusive angles and record better sound. We will demonstrate how to anticipate key moments and how to edit a compelling story so that friends who only wanted to "take a peek" will beg to see more.

What's more, you get to enter your chance to win an awesome Flip Ultra Video Camera! Plus you'll get to meet some of the BEST of the BEST wedding professionals in the industry!

A Gift for a Bride to Be

I received an Etsy convo from an interested buyer if I could do a custom order with a flower in a shadow box. Upon further discussion with the client, we talked more and decided to do a memento vase arrangement instead that her sister (the bride) could have as a memory of her wedding day flowers to treasure always. The client sent me photos of the centerpieces and bouquet concepts and this is my interpretation of what she sent me without the crystals since I figured this would be more of a floral arrangement to decorate their living space. I think she plans to give this to her sister on the day of her bridal shower. I love the colors and it kind of ties in with Valentine's Day. LOL... The client needed it for April, but because of my schedule I had to get it done now if she wanted to have it at all.

I really like this arrangement. So pretty!

Starfish Themed Wedding Invitations - Light Blues, Metallic Cream and Browns

You must wonder how I have time to blog and work at the same time. Don't ask... LOL.. Sorry for the multiple daily blog posts, but I figure once I get a project done, I send images to my clients so I might as well blog about it and share it with potential clients. You never know what might inspire a bride-to-be!
This client was originally going to get married at the SeaWatch Restaurant in Mau'i but due to some extenuating circumstances, they decided to have a wedding closer to home. Although they aren't having a destination wedding in Mau'i, they are having a "beach" wedding in Half Moon Bay which is also very beautiful!
At any rate, Lisa and Sean wanted to keep with the ocean theme and they had liked another invitation sample I had done for Kerri (which ultimately Kerri didn't go with), so I reworked the sample using Lisa and Sean's color scheme of a slate blue, cream and some brown tones via the font color and also the basho weave paper. I like the color combination a lot. It definitely exudes the ocean theme not to mention the starfish image in the background. This is not the final version, but only a sample that i just emailed to Lisa so we'll see what happens when we work through the changes. It is however a nice first sample. :)

Green Cymbidium Orchid Cake Flowers

I've been busy with lots of little orders such as these, but sometimes small orders are nice too because they are quicker to get done. My clay cake flower alternative seems to be taking hold. My single light pink peony cake flower sold over the weekend and now my set of 3 ivory peony cake flowers also sold today! I'm so excited.
At any rate, Megan found me via my Etsy site through Miss Pineapple's commentary on my work while she was getting married. Her cake artist actually contacted me before Megan did and asked if I would create some cake flowers for them. So they ordered the 3 ivory peony cake flowers like the ones I sold on Etsy today and the bride liked them so much she decided to place her order for the cake flowers.

This is how the cymbidium orchids turned out. She's wanting it for the top layer, but I think it also looks nice to have them graduated down the cake in various spots. She ordered 7 just in case so she may opt to do something like this as shown in my pictures. :) Either way, I think she'll be very pleased with the flowers. If you remember the ranunculus hair flower I posted about yesterday, Megan also ordered that for her hair to wear on her wedding day.
Okay, back to work on flower orders and invitation samples!

Thank You to All Who Participated in the Crafter's Throwdown Challenge!

Congratulations to Orla who was randomly selected by Stacie's random integer generator! She won the beautiful centerpiece that Stacie and I created together! Thank you for all your votes and kind comments. So who won the Throwdown you ask???? Surprisingly enough, the clay flowers won! Thank you to all of you who voted for my clay flowers. I really expected more people to vote for the beads. I know that I would have! LOL.

Anyway, check out http://www.craftersthrowdown.com/ for the next challenge to come! For now I get to be the recipient of the Kara's Cupcake of my choice on Tuesday and the coveted Golden Glue Gun award! LOL. Thanks Stacie, this was so much fun! Can't wait for the next challenge to see what you create. :)

Kara & Rob - Wedding Programs and Jack & Jill Invites

My client Kara is absolutely in love with my work. I'm not trying to sound conceited or full of myself. It's to express a point, which is that when I have a client who loves what I do, they tend to find more things for me to create for them. The fact that they can just go to one source for everything is even better for the bride.
Kara asked me originally to do her invitations and her favors. She recently asked if I could do her wedding programs and her invitations for their Jack & Jill bridal shower and pigroast event. It's funny that this is the first time I ever heard the expression for a bridal shower called "Jack & Jill". Thanks for educating me Kara! LOL... ;)So I told her I would create something and I've been so busy with trying to get orders done that she asked how it was going and I committed to her that I would get it done tonight. So...here's what I came up with for her programs and her invitations. I just love these two colors together. Well, I have to get moving on another invitation sample, but I promise this will be the last post for today! LOL..

Plumeria & Cymbidium Orchid Centerpieces Complete!

I have to say, when I get a big order such as this one where I was hired to do cake flowers, 50 favors and 10 centerpieces, when it's all done, there is a huge sigh of relief and a sense of accomplishment. I was expecting not to finish them until tomorrow, but once I get something in my head and I have a deadline, I need to finish it and call it done before I can move onto the next thing. Granted I have 3 weeks until the bride's wedding, but I have so many other orders and samples to work on right behind it that getting this done was a big deal to me.

I've done 40 centerpieces for a client once before a few years ago, but this is the first time I've done centerpieces this large. Granted they are probably 12" high and 6 inches square, but the process is very involved. Making 80 plumerias, 60 fern curls and 50 cymbidiums is no easy task and then letting them dry, painting, attaching wire, preparing the base and then arranging. I think I started this order early last week and between other things going on, I managed to finish in a week's time.

I'm so excited to send this order to Carol and Shaun. Carol and her mom have been a JOY to work with and so appreciative. They have loved all the pictures I've sent them along the way. I think that's the one thing that gets my clients excited, the fact that I share photos of their orders as I complete the items. I think it helps make their wedding day a reality and that the day is fast approaching and they look forward to seeing all these things on their wedding day. Best wishes to Carol & Shaun!

Mahalo for entrusting me to create the elements of your wedding reception in clay! :)

Custom Clay Hair Flowers

A couple of brides contacted me to make them custom hair flowers. One client just so happens to be getting married on February 8th and she contacted me late last week. She's having her wedding in Florida and her honeymoon in Hawaii and asked for either a lily or a plumeria. She wasn't sure which one she would like so I told her if she had the budget for it, why not try both and she can wear one for the wedding and the other on her honeymoon. These are the photos that I took of her hair flowers.
I had another client who ordered cymbidium orchid cake flowers but she also wanted a hair flower. Originally we talked about a peony, but based on what she was doing with her hair for the wedding day I suggested maybe doing a ranunculus instead as it wouldn't look so large. She has ranunculus in her bouquet so it works out great! This is how that turned out.

Well, back to work on my orders and samples....

Ivory Peony Cake Flower

A couple of weeks ago, I had an inquiry from an Etsy buyer asking me if I could do a custom peony cake topper. She sent me a gorgeous picture of a Tiffany Blue and ivory multi-tier cake with beautiful piping and asked if I could make her an all ivory peony cake flower to go on the top of the cake. I only had the fuchsia pink and light pink peony cake flowers for sale in the size she wanted.

So.. I agreed. I told her it would probably be a few weeks to a month before I could get to it and granted her wedding is in May, I still decided to get it done a couple of days ago. So I just posted it on my Etsy site to sell and it'll be shippable on Wednesday. Just thought I'd share again what I've been working on.


Actually, I have been working on multiple orders today, lots of hair flowers, cake flowers and I had to finish the cymbidium orchids for the centerpiece order I blogged about yesterday. It's as busy as ever and I still have yet to finish a couple more orders, samples and get ready for the Ralston Hall Bridal Faire! Back to work...

Plumeria & Cymbidiium Orchid Centerpieces

I'm almost done with Carol's order. This is the last component of her order, 10 table centerpieces! She definitely wanted plumerias but also wanted green cymbidium orchids. We originally had talked about a 4x4 glass cube with the flowers coming out of it, but I remember that Carol wanted some height to her arrangements. So I found these 6x4x4 glass vases that seemed perfect for what she wanted and still within the budget. So I intermixed the plumerias with green cymbidiums and instead of doing a lot of green filler, I thought the dark burgundy brown fern curls would add a nice earthy element with the grass fillers by giving it some height at the same time.
I'm really happy with the way these came out and I am sure the bride will be too. Thus far her and her mom have been very pleased with the items I sent them photos of today! I'm still working on the centerpiece flowers, but by Monday, I hope to be completed with the order, let dry and ship on Thursday! Best wishes to Carol and Shaun!

Plumeria Themed Weddings Revisited - Plumeria Favor Boxes

As part of the wedding that I'm working on, I just finished the plumeria favor boxes that the client had ordered. They are going to ship to the Big Island tomorrow. I hope to have images of the centerpiece design on Sunday. It's such a beautiful, yet simple wedding favor but will definitely be well received by my couple's wedding guests. They look so real you want to smell them. LOL..

This particular client ordered Big Island Candies shortbread cookies and they had a custom tea made for them with a note, "The Perfect Blend, Shaun & Carol, February 15, 2009). Let me tell you the tea smells AMAZING. Very tropical and I have a feeling it has pineapple and passionfruit hints in it. Cookies and custom teas... what a great wedding gift to give to their guests! Even better, Arna Johnson of Arna Photography is the wedding photographer!

Baby Shower Invitations - Butterflies, Crystals, Apple Green and Pink

One of my loyal clients contacted me last week and asked if I could help her out again with some baby shower invitations for another one of her good friends that is expecting. If you recall several months ago I did a Baby Shower Tea invitation with pinks and browns. This time they wanted something to match their friend's personality and style. Chelsea sent me a website to her honoree's baby room decor and I thought that this combination would be perfect. It had a light pink with a patterned apple green print as well. She said her friend is girly and is more of a "princess" style thing.... I take that to mean all things pretty, beautiful and elegant. :)

So, I thought about the design and I did a few concepts. The first one was a floral pattern again with the pink and green. The second was the one that the client and her co-hostesses picked, but I suggested to embellish it with pink crystals. We still decided to do the pocket design with the label attached to a ribbon. This is the end result. I think it's pretty, modern but yet girly and baby shower related with the butterflies and dragonflies!
Again, it's so wonderful to have clients like Chelsea. Even today I got a call from another interested bride who was at another client's wedding over a year and a half ago and she loved my favor so much she wants to talk to me about doing her wedding favors. Gotta love referrals!

Last Chance to Vote & Win This Amazing Centerpiece! Contest ends 1/25!

This is your final chance to vote on the Crafter's Throwdown Challenge and win this amazing centerpiece that combines The Flirty Bride's amazing bead work with DK Designs' beautiful lifelike floral creations. Even if you are a fan of my clay flowers, but LOVE Stacie's bead work, just vote. I honestly would vote for her beaded flowers over my clay flowers. LOL. EITHER WAY, JUST VOTE AND YOU MAY WIN!

Anyway, CLICK HERE to vote and enter your chance to win!

CONTEST ENDS SUNDAY, JANUARY 25TH!!!

Wanting Plumeria Cake Flowers? Choose Clay Plumerias!

Plumerias are one of my all-time favorite tropical flowers. I remember my cousins and I used to pick them off the tree in Hawaii and make leis for one another for birthdays and special occasions. Their fragrance is mild but intoxicating. My favorite perfume that I wear is a plumeria scent and I love it. :)
Plumerias are such a fragile flower. Once picked, they become easily bruised and the petals turn brown rather quickly. However, there are many brides out there who love plumerias probably as much as I do and want to have them for bouquets or even cake flowers. Florists or hotels could charge as much as $15/flower because they have to remove all the milky sap that's inside the base of the flower once it's picked. It's highly toxic and must be thoroughly washed out. Because they have to go through this long process, this is the reason why they charge so much for a flower that grows everywhere in Hawaii.
Alas, you can have plumerias on your cake, pay a little less per flower and have plumerias that will be "fresh" looking the entire wedding day and enjoy them even after your most magical and memorable day has passed. These flowers can also be scented with plumeria perfume or oils as long as it's on the top surface of the flower and not the bottom so that it doesn't come into contact with the cake itself.

These are some images I photographed this evening of cake flowers I did for my client who is getting married on February 15th at the Hilton Waikoloa Village. Favor pictures to follow on Thursday and centerpieces to follow hopefully this weekend! I'm really excited about this wedding because it's my first centerpiece order for 2009! Carol ordered 10 centerpieces. We're doing plumerias with green cymbidiums and "monkey tail" fern curls and some tropical grasses in a 6x4x4 inch glass vase.

So, considering plumerias for your wedding? My honest suggestion is that you can have them in clay form and no one will be able to tell the difference. I've done several clay plumeria bouquets and all my clients said how everyone thought they were real!

One word of advice to brides ... BEWARE... If you wish to take these clay plumeria cake flowers home as a keepsake, assign someone to take care of cleaning and packaging them away before your guests start taking them home with them. Believe it or not, I have had several brides tell me that their guests took them and were so disappointed they didn't have any left to keep as a keepsake.

Carrying Your Color Palette & Theme from Your Invitations to Your Wedding Day Details

Many of my clients come to me solely for invitations. However, when it gets closer to their wedding day, they often realize that they need place cards, table cards and various signs for their ceremony and reception. I always tell my brides that it definitely adds a nice touch if you carry your theme and color palette from beginning to end because it tells a "story" in a sense. Granted, I've had brides who want to change the colors/theme, but it's important which ever theme, design or color palette you choose, be consistent.

These are some pictures from my client's invitations to her place cards, table cards and guestbook sign-in. Again, she gave no indication on whether she wanted any additional items, but she came back to me and asked if initially I could do place cards and then I asked her about whether she has table cards already taken care of and she decided that it made sense to be consistent.

I tell my brides, use wedding websites to guide their guests to a site where they can get more information on the wedding events versus spending a lot of money on 3 inserts on their invitations. Rather use that extra money you save on the invitations towards wedding day details.

DK Designs Website "Face Lift" Is LIVE!

So, for those who know me well, once I get something in my head, I have to finish it and I won't stop until it's done. I figured it would take me a week to get all my pages reformatted with the new look. Alas, it took me 3 days.. I decided to bite the bullet and just get it done. Besides, I need to start out 2009 with the right look!

Here are some of the other pages since you saw my landing page already! Still some minor tweaks here and there. I hope to find time before March to update my photo galleries with some new images. I won't include them all just because it would take too many hours to accomplish it and I need to focus on my orders.
Now that I have this checked off my list, I can now focus back on my big order. :)

Sneak Peek at DK Designs Website Face lift

To coin the phrase made by my industry colleague, Andrew Hsu of Studio_MSV, "why no bloggy?"... LOL, it's only been 2 days since my last blog post... I've been busy doing a couple of things, working on my client's big order and trying to give my website a face lift. So I wanted to give you a sneak peek at the new landing page. Granted the supporting pages will have the same look and feel and some updated text. The photo galleries will come much later when I have more "time".

I'm interested to see what everyone thinks. It definitely is a vibrant and fresh new look for DK Designs and also better brands what my company is all about! It's definitely a long time coming, and although I can't update the photo galleries for a while (believe me there are SO many pictures to choose from since the last update), hopefully this little eye candy will attract more potential clients!

DK Designs - New Look for 2009

My goal for 2009 is to give my website a fresh new look. Granted that will take some time since I do everything from my website, blog, marketing, accounting, sales, oh and not to mention making flowers and wedding stationery. Until that happens, I decided to give my blog and my Etsy site a new face lift. I realized that when people come to my blog or my website, they don't automatically know what I do unless someone has told them. So I fell in love with some images I took for my exclusive design work for a customer and decided to use it for my branding for 2009.

(www.dkdesignshawaii.etsy.com banner)

You'll see it in my thank you card stationery, business cards and postcards, blog, Etsy site and more. Since I finally have a logo that I am happy with, I will use that for my website header to establish branding, but I figured that just an orchid doesn't define my company. I want people to associate DK Designs with Clay Flowers and of course Wedding Stationery. My first love and passion however is the clay flower so that's why I chose that image over stationery.

(This is the front and back design of my 2009 postcard to give to potential clients.)

Anyway, I'll be interested to see what you all think of my "fresh" new look!

Modern Vintage Bouquet

Yesterday I spent most of my day focusing on my next big order. I managed to accomplish 50 plumeria flowers for Carol & Shaun's Big Island wedding. Last night before I went to bed, I looked at all the extra flowers I had from previous orders and realized that I had enough to create a bouquet. I am not sure if it's something I will sell on Etsy, but I thought it's a perfect piece for the upcoming Bridal Faire and the Ralston Hall in Belmont on February 22nd!
If my extra flowers are in good condition and I'm happy with the way they came out, I save them for another day when the inspiration hits me and viola, you get a modern vintage style wedding bouquet! This is more on the petite side of bouquets, but could easily lend itself to a bigger bridal bouquet. Although when I think of vintage, I almost think of petite and demure for some reason. It's modern in the sense that I used the "monkey tail" fern curls to give the bouquet some added dimension and flirtiness! The tuberose is also on the more modern side as I don't think this flower was used in vintage bouquets. Obviously the vintage part to me are the English roses, ranunculus and stephanotis. When creating the bouquet, I wondered if I should use rhinestone centers or pearls, but with the look I was going for I felt that the pearls were much better suited for this bouquet. It adds a softness. I finished the bouquet off with ivory ribbon and a sheer woven metallic organza.I just love the soft color palette against the striking dark brown coloring of the fern curls!