I was googling for new sites featuring DK designs or clay flowers and came across another surprise giveaway contest that Estilo Weddings was doing on the Hostess with the Mostess blog! They featured all of Estilo Weddings' new 2009 collection of product offerings and Estilo was giving away a $100 shopping spree. I red through over 220 entries of people wanting to win and I got a chance to read what people thought about the clay flowers. I was really happy to see such glowing comments and how they thought it was such a great idea. :) I'm glad that I was able to work with Maria to find products that brides would deem a stylish addition to their wedding! 
As I was making a garden rose for my client for a favor box sample design, I realized that it would make a perfect hair flower for weddings. So I experimented a couple of times and decided that I liked it enough to offer it as a hair flower. So these are the two that were just posted on my Etsy site about 10 minutes ago! I think these might be a big hit along with the gardenia flowers. :)
A client found me via my Etsy site and asked if I could create a fuchsia pink poppy cake flower for her wedding cake. She liked the hair flower I made, but obviously that was made for the hair and she needed something on a larger scale. She asked me if I could create one for her. I asked her to give me the size of her cake layers and the top layer is going to be 8 inches. So I suggested to her so the flower would not get lost in the cake, to go with a 6 inch diameter poppy flower. Obviously at this point the poppy would be a little over the top, but the key was that it be part of the cake versus lost in it. 
So... this is how it turned out. My recommendation to brides who want custom clay cake flowers when asking for a quote, please provide me with as much information about your wedding cake (# of layers, dimensions of layers, shape of the cake and where you envision the flowers to go). This will help me determine how best to create your cake flowers and also to make sure that the flowers are large enough!
I pondered as to whether I should sell the items I displayed at the Ralston Hall Bridal Faire to sell on my Etsy site. Although the items look spectacular in my home and I could use them potentially for another bridal event coming up, I decided to make them available for purchase to my Etsy fans! So everything from the little vase arrangements, favor boxes, bouquets and boutonnieres are now for sale on my site. Check it out!
I've been working on some samples for an upcoming May wedding. My client has been so patient while I've been getting through all my orders. I finally had time to sit down and get her samples done. Mokara orchids are such a hard one to create because the texture on the petals is so hard to achieve for me when I hand paint them. The first one I did which was the larger version didn't appeal to me as much because it was too dark. The tone on tone however looked more natural and more subtle. I love this color combination of copper brown and fuchsia pink. The client sent me her swatches that she used for her wedding invitations and I tried to match the colors in the cardstocks and the ribbons and although they aren't exact matches, it's pretty darn close. We did decide however to go with the copper double faced satin ribbon instead of this metallic ribbon shown in the image as it gives it a richer feel.
The copper brown and fuchsia pink are so rich, vibrant and beautiful. I'm excited to see the photos from her wedding. I'm sure it's going to be beautiful.
I had the great opportunity last night to meet some new wedding professionals at BAWN (Bay Area Wedding Network) at the Marine's Memorial in San Francisco. I'm so not the social butterfly and I always find it hard to talk to people (believe it or not, but it's true). I did get to meet Ashley Dicksa of Creative Events by Ashley as she is good friends with Lea McIntosh! She said she thought she did a wedding where someone used my flowers but I didn't put 2 and 2 together until I decided to read her blog! Viola... my cake flower. It's funny how you can just recognize your own work no matter where you go. Isn't this a SPECTACULAR cake? I love the teal and aqua blues with the fuchsia-reddish peony. Very beachy which was the topic of Ashley's blog post. You can read more of her blog at: http://www.nuptialnuances.com/. I'm excited at the possibility of knowingly working with Ashley in the future. :)
Part of Elisa's order were last minute centerpieces. Due to the lateness of the order, I suggested going with one centerpiece instead of 3 smaller ones and she expressed interest in the silver mint julep cup. She wanted orange, lime green and brown to be the predominant colors since the linens had those colors as well or some element of those colors. So I suggested the monkey tail ferns to introduce brown and still keep with her bridal bouquet flowers and colors. There are 6 centerpieces in all.
Next up is the boutonnieres and the corsages which I will hopefully finish tonight and ship everything to Jamaica on Thursday!
Today was the Ralston Hall Bridal Faire event that I participated in. Let's just say, it was raining and dreary but lots of couples, brides, bridesmaids, parents of the bride and groom came out to see what the Ralston Hall Bridal Faire had to offer. I arrived at 11:00 to set up and everyone was pretty much already there getting their displays ready for the show. 
Although I feared that I wouldn't have enough to display, it turns out I actually only used 95% of what I had! Most florists who came brought a handful of bouquets and some gorgeous centerpieces. I am always amazed at what floral designers can do and all the latest embellishments that are being used. Because clay flowers are new to most people, I wanted to give a vast array of possibilities to showcase the clay flowers. I had everything from little centerpiece arrangements, bouquets, corsages, boutonnieres, hair flowers, favors, etc. I didn't showcase my invitation line because there simply was not enough space on the table. Plus my passion truly is the art of clay flowers. 
I met some wonderful vendors today and some of whom I think I have an opportunity to work with. Everyone was so kind and blown away by what I do. I think that's one thing I find in the wedding industry, everyone is so positive and encouraging and although it is a competitive market, you really feel like its a community of professionals.
The Ralston Hall is a BEAUTIFUL location for weddings and events. The ballroom is gorgeous. I honestly have not been there since my brother got married there over 10 years ago. Lovely chandeliers and old world charm. The architecture inside is stunning.They had a bridal fashion show with dresses galore. I think they literally had over 40 dresses shown. Bridal gowns, bridesmaids and flower girl dresses and mother of the bride fashions from Papers and Petals Bridal Salon in Burlingame. These are some of the shots I was able to get it of the various models with my flowers. I love the fact that they showcased different models of different shapes and sizes, because we're not all a size 0! LOL. They all looked gorgeous. I saw some gowns and wished I was getting married again just so I could wear one again. LOL.
I have to thank Denise Winkelstein at the Ralston Hall who invited me to participate. She's been asking me for 2 years and I finally could say "yes". What a great opportunity for me and I sincerely appreciate her asking me to be part of a wonderful event. I also want to thank my wonderful friend Stacie Tamaki of The Flirty Guide. She was so gracious enough to come out in this nasty winter weather to help me at the show. She was a great marketer of my work. She'll have better pictures to share with you since she was like the roving blog reporter! Thank you also to Jean Marks who came out to support her friends in the industry. Check out her wonderful blog post at www.jeanmarksweddings.blogspot.com!
I've been a little stressed out with everything going on this week and all that's due in a matter of a week's time. So I've been working on flowers today (not as much as I had wanted to). The current order I'm trying to finish is a Florida bride who liked a previous bouquet I did for a bride, Megan, but she wanted modifications. Her colors are ivory/white, light blue with hints of purple. She wanted a bridal bouquet, 2 tussie mussie bouquets for her bridal attendants and 2 mother of the bride & groom wrist corsages. Today, I wanted to share the wrist corsages I made for her and her fiance's mom. Champagne ivory roses, light blue hydrangea with hints of purple bud-like fillers and light purple ribbon on a white pearl wristlet.
So spring like... I LOVE IT! Like I said, I'm so ready for spring to arrive! Pictures of the tussie mussie to follow tomorrow!
Here's one more bouquet that I finished today. It's green cymbidium orchids, ivory roses, tuberose buds and tuberose flowers finished off with a shimmery ivory ribbon and a rhinestone buckle. I always like to call this color combination, Tropical Elegance. It's got subtle greens and ivories with just a hint of color in the mouth of the orchid in the rich yellows and magenta pinks. Stylish and sophisticated. These types of bouquets are so popular for destination weddings. Cymbidiums are my all time favorite flower, especially the green ones. :)
Here is another bouquet that I finished this morning for the Bridal Faire at the Ralston Hall for Sunday. I have one more that I hope to post about tonight or tomorrow morning. This one makes me think of tropical punch and rainbow sherbet. The colors are so vibrant and beautiful. I think the green, pink and orange color palette are one of my favorites of all times. It's such a happy color combination. This bouquet has green dendrohbium orchids, orange ranunculus and fuchsia pink roses with some greens to finish off the bouquet. The ribbon is a luxe fuchsia pink iridescent ribbon with a fuchsia and green iridescent criss-cross overlay. 
This bouquet makes me happy. :) Today I start working on my bridal bouquet and centerpiece orders for 2 of my brides, one is getting married in Jamaica and one in Florida. Let's just say, the next two weeks I'll be making flowers every day and night until it's all done. Call me the flower making machine! LOL.
After a wonderful evening out listening to Pasquale Esposito, I have been busy all day today working on flowers, flowers and more flowers... My pedestals finally arrived and they are the perfect fit for my favor vase arrangement idea for the Bridal Faire this Sunday! I'm so excited now. I have about 10 bouquets in the works right now and I hope to have some boutonnieres, corsages and hair flowers as well. I wonder if I can get it all done by tomorrow. LOL.
Anyway, I took these great shots today as I was so anxious to see how they would fit. I needed some height between the pedestals so I had to improvise, but looks good!
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I was googling for new sites featuring DK designs or clay flowers and came across another surprise giveaway contest that Estilo Weddings was doing on the Hostess with the Mostess blog! They featured all of Estilo Weddings' new 2009 collection of product offerings and Estilo was giving away a $100 shopping spree. I red through over 220 entries of people wanting to win and I got a chance to read what people thought about the clay flowers. I was really happy to see such glowing comments and how they thought it was such a great idea. :) I'm glad that I was able to work with Maria to find products that brides would deem a stylish addition to their wedding! 
