Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

I know I have been pretty quiet of late on my blog. Honestly, I've been busy teaching another student, visiting me from Texas. She's finishing up class 5 of C2 tomorrow and doing last minute review. I've really enjoy meeting Elizabeth and spending time with her. She's a very good student and I'm very proud of all that she has done in 2 weeks.

Other than that, I've been making lots of custom ornaments for friends and just taking a step back. I can't say that I've been relaxing, but I guess not pushing myself to make things since I don't have orders to complete right now. This coming year, I have decided to cut back on some things so that I can focus more time on my son, hopefully also find some time for "me".

I will be sharing more things in the near future, but I wanted to wish you and your loved ones a Very Merry Christmas and a Healthy & Happy New Year! Thank you for always reading my blog and stopping by!


Monday, December 13, 2010

My Last Big Wedding Order for 2010 - Completed!

(Bride's bouquet)

Today is a day of happiness and relief. I finally finished the last big wedding I had booked for 2010. This order consisted of 60 favors, 9 large centerpieces, 4 small centerpieces, 4 bouquets, 6 boutonnieres, 5 corsages, a cake topper and a ring pillow. My 12/30 couple had booked me to do their entire wedding florals (minus the leis and the arch decor).
(Bridesmaid bouquets)

One of the reasons why Asuka hired me is because she could not get half the flowers she envisioned for her wedding. She had wanted peonies, cherry blossoms, hyacinth, wisteria, Japanese iris and hydrangea. Lots of these flowers are not in season in December.(Brother's boutonniere)
(Groom's boutonniere)
(Groomsmen boutonnieres)
(Ring bearer boutonniere)

I could not have done it without the help of my dear friend and very talented student/instructor, Myrna of Petal Chic and my business partner for gofigurette!. She agreed to help me make the cherry blossoms for the centerpieces as well as the cake topper. She did a phenomenal job on both items I tasked her to do. She literally made hundreds of blossoms and buds for this order.
(Corsages for the mothers and grandmothers)
I also could not have done it without the help of my aunt, who has been a true blessing, helping me roll stems and other elements of my business. For this order I asked her to help me with wiring the hydrangeas for the centerpieces and there were hundreds of them. She also made the mini buds on the cherry blossom branches for the centerpieces. She also cut the styrofoam bases for my centerpieces. Without these two people helping me, I wouldn't have been able to get this order done in 1.5 weeks.It was truly a team effort. Literally hundreds and in total maybe a thousand or so went into building in this entire order. So in a nutshell, you can now see why I haven't been blogging for the last week and a half. I've been swamped every day trying to make flowers, flowers and more flowers.
Now I can breathe a sigh of relief and pack this order to ship out! This week and next I'm teaching accelerated classes to a wonderful woman from Houston. Things are going well, she's a quick learner and we managed to get through 3 of the 10 classes in Curriculum 1 in 5 hours! I'm looking forward to teaching her through the 23rd as well as focusing on some Christmas gifts, some small orders, and samples that need to get done.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Post Wedding Images - Melissa & Jake

I'm so very honored to have been asked by one of my past brides, Melissa, who if you recall asked me to express mail her a gardenia hair flowers 2 days before her wedding, to create a gardenia wedding bouquet for a post wedding photo shoot with none other than Critsey Rowe! Their wedding day was a wet one so they had to bring their planned outdoor wedding indoors. Regardless of the weather conditions the wedding was gorgeous and nothing could spoil the love that these two people share!
Critsey Rowe flew out a couple weeks back out to Florida to do a post-wedding shoot. The forecast said clear skies. Well, it sprinkled and it wasn't sunny, but honestly I think for Melissa & Jake, the rain is a sign of good luck.
These are some amazing photos from the after shoot! One word... AMAZING! Thank you to Critsey Rowe and Melissa for allowing me to share these photos with you. So honored to have worked with a very sweet couple and photographer!
I'll have 3 more blog posts coming up of real wedding photos from my past clients! So stay tuned!