Clay bridal boquuets = Great solution for Int'l cruise weddings!

Miss Disney contacted me a few months ago and asked if I could create her bridal bouquet because she has run out of options. She's a big Disney fan and she and her fiance decided to a destination wedding on the Disney cruise ship that goes out to the Bahamas/Caribbean. Apparently the flowers available are very limited and you're not allowed to take the bouquet off the ship when you port back in the US.

So she send me some pictures of her ideal bouquet except that she wanted yellow roses (thinking maybe she wanted yellow roses since she's from Texas and that's their state flower).

At any rate, this is her completed bouquet before I add the ribbons (which I'm waiting to arrive on Tuesday). I love the color combination. So bright and cheery. We're not going with the ivory or white ribbons, but ribbons closer to the color of the deeper blue hydrangeas and also a yellow organza overlay. I'm excited to see the finished product once I receive the ribbons.

I created all the flowers yesterday, put it together this morning, and just finished painting the hydrangeas. So, if you're getting married on an international cruise, you might want to consider clay flowers as a great option if you want to be assured you can have the flowers you want and still be able to take them home with you as a keepsake!

Wedding Guest Books - Reinvented

(Image source: Inventing Weddings Blog, but all images courtesy of Cut the Cake Designs)

I wanted to share a great find for brides that's not flower related. As many of you know, I belong to the Etsy Wedding Team and we have a wonderful group of high-quality, talented artisans who create beautiful items for brides. One of the artists is Tara Lee who makes these cute guest book boxes. What a great idea and a different way to have a guest book at your wedding. So here's a little bit about Tara and Cut the Cake Designs.

Cut the Cake Designs by Tara Lee offers Wedding and Personal Stationery. Her signature items are Wedding Guest Book Boxes and Recipe Boxes.

Guest Book Box is a modern alternative to the traditional Guest Book. Each wooden address card box contains beautifully designed dividers and 200 address cards for your guests to fill in and leave a thoughtful note. And Cut the Cake can do custom designs for the dividers to match your invitation suite as well. And after the vows have been read and the dancing is done, you will have a very fashionable Rolodex all filled with your family and friends info and kind words. Love it! She even creates baby boxes and recipe boxes that I think would make great gifts for the bride-to-be filled with tried and true recipes to share with her husband-to-be!Who knows, you might just see some collaborative efforts between DK Designs and Cut the Cake Designs...
Stay tuned.... Thanks Tara for sharing your super cute spin on Wedding Guest Books with my readers. Visit Tara at http://www.cutthecakedesigns.etsy.com!

Red and White Bouquet - Gardenias, Callas, Roses and Stephanotis

Ruby is one of my Canadian Etsy customers. She asked me to make gardenia hair flowers in red and pink. I thought it was an odd combination, but she liked those colors and with the clay, you can do whatever color you want regardless of whether it exists. She recently contacted me again and asked if I could create her bridal bouquet. She didn't have too many restrictions, just that it had to be red and ivory and she gave me an idea of the flowers she liked. So we decided upon gardenias, white callas, stephanotis with rhinestone centers and red roses. I finished the bouquet off with ivory ribbon and accented with red.
Amazingly enough, I finished this entire bouquet in exactly one day! It took me 2.5 hours to make all the flowers and this evening I decided to work on putting it together. Helps that the weather has been very hot because it helps to dry my flowers faster! :)
I have a large order coming due, so I need to refocus my attention on my next bridal order. Lots of classes to teach tomorrow and Sunday as well. Never a dull moment. Best wishes to Ruby and her fiance!

Real Wedding - Joyce & Christian

One thing I love about what I do is obviously working with my couples on creating their unique style they envision, but I also enjoy working with some really wonderful and very talented wedding professionals. The photographers who capture my artistry who I have had the opportunity to work with over the years are truly amazing. Many of them I have never even met, but I'm grateful to them because they so kindly share the photos with me so that I can showcase them on my blog and website.
Joyce and Christian hired me to create the bridal bouquet, boutonnieres, cake topper and favors. They recently got married earlier this month at SeaWatch Restaurant in Wailea, Maui. The SeaWatch Restaurant is the place where my clients, Alyssa and Daniel got married this past December and the SeaWatch Restaurant does a great job with their weddings and special events.
Stewart Pinsky was their photographer. Stewart was responsible for getting Mae & Jeremy's wedding featured on theknot.com which has brought me a ton of business over the last year and a half! I was so happy to hear he also worked on this wedding.
Just a couple of days ago I received a package from Stewart with the photos from Joyce and Christian's 20's vintage style wedding. I almost feel like it's a "speak-easy" style wedding when I see their photos.If you are interested in hiring Stewart for your destination Maui wedding, you can see more of his wonderful photography at www.mauiweddinggallery.com. Thank you again Stewart for sharing Joyce & Christian's wedding images with me and my readers!

Plumeria Hair Flowers on Etsy

Today has been a busy day of catching up and finishing orders and of course posting more items on my Etsy shop. Today's listings are 3 different colored plumeria hair flowers - fuchsia pink, light pink and white! I ABSOLUTELY LOVE plumeria flowers, their beauty and fragrance are so captivating.
I think that's what I miss about not living in Hawaii, our plumeria tree in our backyard. Plumerias are quite fragile and delicate and turn brown and wilt rather quickly in hot weather. The clay plumeria flower alternative is perfect for the bride who wants to have plumerias and ensure that they will be beautiful the entire day through.Click on the images to take you to the Etsy listing. More items to come soon. Now back to work on lots of things as I got my shipment of clay today!

Ivory and Blue - Boutonnieres and Corsages

One of my clients from last year had referred some friends of hers to me for their wedding needs. Alessandro and Jamie emailed me to see if I could create some boutonnieres and wrist corsages. They had told me this would be for a same sex marriage so they wanted to keep it simple. The colors are ivory and blue. Based on their budget we worked out the details. The wrist corsages would consist of 2 ivory roses and 2 clusters of blue hydrangeas and ivory ribbons with some greenery. The 5 boutonnieres would be ivory roses with some greenery and some dark brown branches. Alessandro and Jamie's boutonnieres would be a little bit more elaborate with some hydrangea clusters.

I occasionally get requests for items for same sex marriage/unions. My philosophy is this, regardless of who you choose to marry, I always try to make the experience of working with DK Designs on a wedding an enjoyable one. Alessandro and Jamie told me that they had wished that all of their vendors were as helpful, responsive and just plain nice. That really meant a lot. I also feel your wedding day is the most important days in your life regardless of who you choose to marry! :)
Best wishes to Alesandro and Jamie for a very happy wedding day!

The Ever Popular Tiffany Blue and Orange - Save the Dates

Well, Tiffany blue and coral orange continues to be my hottest color combination by far. My client Christy is getting married on Oahu next year and asked me to create her save the date post cards and invitations. She is hoping to get the save the date cards out this month so I was able to find the font she used on her wedding website and created this.Just waiting for her to review so I can go to town on printing.

Gardenia Corsages

My client Tanja asked me to create a couple gardenia corsages. This is the same client who requested the lily of the valley boutonnieres. There is something so classic and timeless about a gardenia, much like the lily of the valley. Here are just a couple images that I took before I packed the order to ship.
More pictures to come in a couple more days of some more corsages and boutonnieres for another client.

White Orchid Hair Flowers

My client Mia purchased a gardenia hair flower from me several months ago and asked if I could make another white flower for her bridesmaids, but with hints of pink. This is what we agreed to. The reason for this post is just to share this one image I took that I absolutely love. I played around with my flash settings because I was trying to get the true color of raspberry pink (I always have trouble getting this color to show up and not look red). This is what resulted when I loaded it on my computer. BEAUTIFUL! :)

Managed to finish the baby shower invitations for my client Laurie, but tomorrow will be a busy day of working on flowers for 9 corsages and 7 boutonnieres for an upcoming October 4th wedding in East Hampton New York.

New Romantic Floral Arrangement on Etsy

I decided to make another arrangement for my Etsy shop. Initially I had contemplated making this one for my mother-in-law, but have decided that I am going to make her something different for her birthday that is in a couple more weeks. I had left over lily of the valley blossoms so I decided to use them with my pink roses and fuchsia pink and coral orange ranunculus. I think this is so dreamy and romantic. The lily of the valley really softens the volume of the roses and ranunculus together and the mint julep cup seems fitting for this arrangement.I definitely could see this as a cake topper!I will definitely be creating more floral designs soon, but I also have to tackle my wedding and custom orders at the same time. Visit my Etsy shop often as I'll be adding more items on a weekly basis!

Lily of the Valley Boutonnieres

I don't often receive requests for lily of the valley, but one of my Etsy clients asked me if I would make some lily of the valley boutonnieres for her wedding. She asked that the leaves be more of a silverish green color instead of a bright green. I always dreaded making these because they are so tiny and so time consuming, but this time, I enjoyed making them. I figured out what I did wrong the last time I tried to make them several months ago and I think more importantly they have become a flower that has meaning to me and my family.
My mother-in-law shared with me that lily of the valley was her parents' favorite flower and she grew up with them as a child. The original cutting was then given to her aunt after her parents passed away and she in turn gave some of the original plant cuttings to her eldest son. She had hoped to give us a cutting from the original plant, but had decided to buy a plant for us and have it shipped. The heat has not faired well on our lily of the valley plant, but we hope the cooler weather will help. My mother-in-law wanted us to pass this same tradition down to our son which makes it an important flower for me.

They are so delicate and so beautiful! I think they came out beautifully. Maybe the significance this flower brings to my mother-in-law helped me focus on getting the details just right!

Tiare Hair Flower Now on Etsy - As Seen on Proposal in Paradise!

Last week I did a post about Proposal in Paradise - a top notch video and photo production produced and conceptualized by Lea McIntosh. We were recently given the green light to blog about the project and I figured now would be a great opportunity to use some of the images from the shoot as a way to promote my latest Etsy listing. Granted, we don't yet have the high-resolution images from the photographer, but I was able to capture some of the images from his slide show. Michael Soo Photography is amazing and I'm so happy I got a chance to work with him.At any rate, tiare flowers are so abundant in places like Hawaii and Tahiti. You always see locals wearing the fresh ones. The unfortunate thing with tiare flowers is that they bruise and wilt very easily. That's another reason why I love CLAYCRAFT by DECO soft clay. You can now have the delicate tiare flower in clay form which with a little care, will last you a long time. :)
This tiare flower was seen in almost every shot of the Proposal in Paradise - Vendor Chic III production and I'm still so humbled by the experience and the fact that my work was featured so prominently in the production. :)
I digress..... Now you can have your very own tiare hair flower via my Etsy shop. I'll be adding more in the coming days, but there are currently 3 for sale. More hair flowers to come soon...

New items listed on my Etsy shop!

I've been working the last few days since my return on custom orders as well as replenishing my Etsy shop. It's been neglected lately because of my hectic wedding season which basically kept me extremely busy from March to end of August. The arrangement above is 3 coral pink/orange roses with cherry blossoms and even branches all nestled in a vintage style vase with a matching dish.
The above arrangement consists of tiare flowers (Tahitian ginger), white plumerias, yellow roses and tuberose in a cute, sleek boat shaped vessel.

Part of the items I'm working on is my commitment to listing lots of new items to my Etsy shop. Here are a couple of new arrangements that I just listed. I hope to post more items (hair flowers and floral arrangements) in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for that.

A few pictures from my vacation

We just returned yesterday morning from a much needed vacation. Granted this vacation was bittersweet because my mother-in-law is dying of cancer and doesn't have much longer to live. We thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to be able to travel back East to see her and spend some quality time together. We had lots of wonderful chats and she shared some great stories from the past. It was so hard to say goodbye the night before we left. She admitted to me that she was awake at 3:40 a.m. when we left for the airport, but didn't want to get up and say goodbye for fear of crying. We had promised to be strong and not cry even if we were sad. My heart broke every time my son asked why Grandma has to die and why she can't live forever. The innocence of a child is so precious. He loves his Grandma so much and I only hope that at the age of 4 and half he'll have cognitive memory of his time with Grandma. She has passed on some really great traits to him and we often see her features in his.The trip was 10 days long and part of me wishes we could stay longer and spend more time with her, but we had to get back to work and school. There was only 1 beautiful day while we were there and then 2 days before we left a Nor'easter arrived and let me tell you, that was my first one and experiencing 50 mph winds off the ocean and feeling the house move as the wind blew through was pretty scary. In all the years I lived in California and Hawaii, I had never experienced something as forceful as that! These pictures were taken the afternoon the Nor'easter had dissipated. The photo of 23rd street sign on the beach was something I had never remembered seeing in the 5 years I've been visiting the Jersey shore. We're not sure when we'll go back so I wanted to capture the sign this time around!
The flowers and shells seemed untouched by the 50 mph winds several hours before which is kind of crazy. Mother Nature is quite amazing!
I'm back at work and creating some new items for Etsy, as well as working on some orders for clients. Things will be a little less hectic so I'm planning to launch a few new things in the next couple of weeks! Stay tuned for that. :) In the meantime, cherish every moment you have because life is TOO short, live every day to the fullest and tell the ones you care about how much they mean to you and how much you love them. I only wish I could have 10 more years to tell my mother-in-law how much I love her, but I plan on calling her several times a week to chat and have a few laughs and smiles.

DK Designs Clay Flowers and Invitations Featured in Gentry Magazine

As many of you know, Lea McIntosh and Jodi Murphy of McIntosh & Murphy are both colleagues and friends of mine. These two talented and awe-inspiring women have no shortage of GREAT and INNOVATIVE ideas. Earlier this week I had talked about their latest venture, OmniBride.com, a dedicated search engine of blog articles of all things wedding! Lea and Jodi recently informed us that another project I contributed on last November was published in this month's Gentry Magazine. The premise of the project was Lea's creation of Ready to Propose - an over the top way for a guy to propose to the love of his life with the help of talented professionals.
The economy however didn't cooperate, but the idea nonetheless is ingenious! What better way to propose to the love of your life with a well thought out, over the top marriage proposal never to be forgotten. Lea brought together 17 amazing wedding professionals to create Proposal in Paradise. Lea had asked me to create a unique hair flower and a couple of invitations for the storyline and I was very fortunate that my flower was a constant in almost every shot of the project as well as my invitations served as a key piece of the surprises for the birthday girl and soon to be fiance!
Lea and Jodi have been so encouraging and supportive of my endeavors and have always tried to find ways to include me on their creative projects. I was so happy that the article was published. The angle of the story was modified slightly due to the economic climate we face, but it was expertly written. Basically, the article gives insight on how someone can create a memorable wedding proposal for his bride-to-be with a little help, whether your have a small budget or a big one!

Introducing OmniBride - what the wedding industry has been waiting for!

If you’re part of the wedding community, a bride-to-be, wedding or event planner, wedding blogger, journalist or avid enthusiast, you have noticed the amount of information available about weddings over the last few years. It’s incredible and overwhelming when it comes to trying to find it. That’s why my dear friends Lea McIntosh and Jodi Murphy created OmniBride, the first search-find-share destination solely for the wedding industry.

The mission was to bring the entire online wedding community together so none of us has to wander aimlessly through the Internet to find great ideas, inspirations and resources.

For brides: You’ll find that OmniBride is the most comprehensive destination for researching and planning your wedding.

For bloggers: Your voices will be heard by an exponentially greater audience. If the community loves your content, your stats will grow, and so will your fan base.

For industry: You have the opportunity to find out what the online wedding community is saying (or not saying) about your goods and services. You can engage in the community dialogues.

For journalists: This is your tool for researching and uncovering the latest buzz and resources.

You have the power to rate the value of a search result by either loving or trashing it so, unlike a general search engine, the community determines what rises to the top. So participate often and let your voice be heard throughout the wedding universe!

But there’s more to OmniBride…check out their feeds for the daily news and the most current wedding-related contests and giveaways. And if it’s being talked about, they’ll find it! This blog will point out trends, favorite topics, and industry news.

You may have noticed that this is their BETA version. This means that Version 1 is ready for take-off. But their vision doesn’t end here, count on an explosion of features and functions in the near future. For now, enjoy your exploration!

Cherry Blossom Corsages and Boutonnieres

It's been a crazy day, but I'm happy to say that I finished the 2 orders that had to get done before I leave on vacation. The morning started out printing my client's menus, place cards, water bottle sleeves and assembling everything. Then my aunt came over to help me put all that together. Then rushed off to see my son swim. That's always a joy to watch him. Then I finally finished the remaining boutonniere and corsage pieces of Sarah's order. I love cherry blossoms and the nice thing about clay flowers is you can have beautiful cherry blossoms any time of the year and they'll look gorgeous the entire wedding and well beyond when the festivities are over.
It's been a grueling 12 months and honestly, the last time we took an official vacation was last August/September. I'm so looking forward to a break from the daily grind of making flowers and invitations. I need to get re-energized for the coming year. I will be doing some work, but I'm excited about this one so I hope to share with you in the coming weeks what I'm planning.
But for now, my plan is to enjoy the time with my husband, my son and my in-laws. Family is so important and without them we wouldn't be who we are today. This trip is going to be bittersweet because my mother-in-law is dying of cancer. I'm going to make the most of my time with her and really treasure all the days we have together. She's been so wonderful to me in the short time that I have known her.

My son can finally not have to compete for my time and ask whether or not I'm done making flowers or working. LOL...