Lily of the Valley Plants....

I've been busy making over 200 lily of the valley blossoms the last couple of days. My sister-in-law saw the original one I did for a client and asked me if I could make her one so she could look at it and always remember her mom, as this was her favorite flower and grew up with these in their garden.

Since I was making some for her, I decided it would be cute to make one for my son's teacher as an end of the year gift. Granted the class as a whole is giving her some special gifts but I also wanted to gift her with this lily of the valley plant nestled in a wooden stump style vase. The base needed something so I though this cute little chick I made would be a cute addition. Just makes you smile.

A few more orders to tackle and I'm officially on vacation! I CANNOT WAIT! :)

White and Black Bouquet for a Southern Wedding....

My dear friend Amy is getting married! Mind you I have never personally met Amy, but we have become friends over the last few years thanks to Spirit Jump and Facebook. She and her family have gone through A LOT with regards to their health and while I don't want to go into all the details, I have to say this, Amy and her kids have a heart of gold and have so much faith and strength. They always rise above.

Amy is getting married to her high school friend, Geoff. This will be their second marriage and they both have kids - almost like the Brady Bunch 6 kids, ranging in ages of 7 to 22! Since I have known her, I have never seen her as happy as she is right now. 

She asked me to create her wedding invitations and her bridal bouquet. Amy never had an official wedding the first time so Geoff is giving her the wedding of her dreams but on a smaller scale. She wanted a white, black and silver color palette. She was worried that a white & black bouquet would not look stunning. Granted, I've only made a white and black bouquet once prior, but it was simpler. I suggested anemones, gardenias (being that they are getting married in Georgia and it adds a bit of Southern charm), stephanotis with rhinestones, lilac, lily of the valley, English roses and sweet peas. I also added black velvet vintage leaves and a silvery vintage leaf vine to accent the colors she wanted. 

I decided to add subtle but natural hints of color with light greens, yellows and a very blush pink/champagne. The bouquet is wrapped with black satin ribbon and had a beautiful rhinestone buckle. 

 Congratulations to Amy and Geoff!

Lilac Boutonniere to Match the Bouquet

This morning I finished working on Andrea's fiance's boutonniere. She wanted an all lilac boutonniere with no greenery and matching periwinkle blue ribbon. It's simple but lush. 

I love making lilacs but also dread it at the same time just because it's so many flowers and buds, but once I get into the groove of making them it doesn't seem so bad.

 One more bridal bouquet left to work on for a very special friend of mine. Hope to share photos next week.

One Bouquet Inspires Another...

Months ago, I was contacted by a bride who is using Eclectic Unions as her celebrant for her upcoming June wedding. She fell in love with Jessie's bridal bouquet that I created and wanted one for her wedding. It's always hard to try and make bouquets look alike and I prefer not to as each bouquet is a symbol of each specific bride and they deserve to have their own unique bouquet.  

 Andrea's colors were slightly different she wanted hints of blue, so she found a picture of sweet peas in a periwinkle blue. She also wanted whites versus ivories and no greenery. So even though the flowers are the same in the bouquets, Andrea's bouquet is still very different from Jessie's. The bouquet has purple lilacs, lavender and white English roses, lily of the valley and periwinkle and light purple sweet peas.

 I still have to work on the boutonniere for her groom, which I'll share photos of tomorrow. Hope you have a safe and wonderful holiday weekend. Not much going on here except for tackling my list of orders!

Printed Details...

I'm in the home stretch, 1 week to get all my orders done so I don't stress my husband out before vacation. The last couple of days I've been working on some print orders for wedding day details. 

The first order was an add-on from a mother of the bride, who I've been working on favors for. Originally she had decided to make their own table cards and menus but after much thought, she and her husband asked if I would be willing to create those as well so they have one cohesive design. Plus probably a lot less work for them too. :)  The table cards are Hawaiian phrases and they wanted it to be a conversation piece for their guests during dinner to guess what they all mean. 

The menu sounds oh-so delicious doesn't it? I want to be a guest at this wedding because the food sounds ono-licious. :)

The other order is for another destination Big Island wedding. There are other pieces that go with this print order but I wanted to share this one as it's really cute. My client saw my wedding weekend itinerary that I did for another Big Island client and she asked if I would do the same for hers but it would be a week's itinerary. These will go in the welcome bags for their guests who are flying a long distance to share in their wedding day. I hope to share photos later on when they are available as I suspect this wedding is going to be AMAZING! :) 

I'm in the midst of lilac production, 510 lilac buds created yesterday. I probably have double that amount of lilac blossoms to create in the next couple of days.

A Lovely Bouquet of Blooms...

It's been insanely busy trying to crank out all my work before vacation (I know I sound like a broken record). My husband has made me promise to get my orders done a week prior to when we leave so I can wind down before vacation. Those who know me well, know that I turn into a stress case when I have orders to fill and vacation is coming. 

I just finished 1 of 3 bridal bouquet orders. I have 2 more to work on. My client Doria originally asked me for a bouquet of whites, yellows, greens and aqua blues. Initially she was thinking she wanted flowers that were aqua blue. After she gave it much thought, she agreed that going with more natural colored flowers would be best. About a couple months ago she informed me her fiance's daughter would be part of the wedding and they wanted to get her a petite bouquet. Her dress is white with little flowers in shades of coral, yellow, lilac purple, and some green. I suggested since she wanted something small for her, that we go with a single 6" peony in creamy yellow to compliment the yellow peonies in Doria's bouquet. She also asked to add these colors into the bridal bouquet. 

So, we decided on creamy yellow peonies, white callas, white plum blossoms with hints of coral, stephanotis flowers with crystal AB rhinestones, white freesia, lilac purple hyacinth, and ranunculus in oranges and corals. I like how the bouquets turned out. 

Hopefully by the end of this weekend I'll have pictures of another bouquet/boutonniere that I'm working on. Lots of lilacs to focus on in the next couple of days. Can't wait to share!

Peachy Pink Peony Bouquet

  Last week I got an order for my peachy pink peony bouquet listing that I had on Etsy. I made this bouquet probably 2 years ago and had it as a made-to-order item. I was excited to see that someone wanted it again. I love peonies and I love this bouquet. It's simple but is beautiful with subtle shades of peach to pink. Each peony is roughly 6 inches in diameter with lush greenery.

More favor box orders...

Here are a couple other favor box orders that I worked on the last few weeks as well. The first is an orange and green color palette with the orange cymbidium orchid and the pineapple theme for a Maui destination wedding. I love these fine weave hard construction core pandan boxes from Eco-Friendly Market.

The 2nd favor box design uses the same boxes from Eco-Friendly Market, but the colors are oranges, turquoise and teals. There are other wedding day details that go along with this order, but more on those hopefully next week.

Panna Cotta Favors

The last couple of days, I've been in the kitchen working on some edible favors. My best friend and matron of honor from my wedding asked if I could create the favors for her daughter's Holy 1st Communion. She had been drooling over my photos of baked goods and desserts for several months and asked me to do this.

 So a few weeks ago I shared pics of the packaging design. Here are some photos of the actual panna cotta dessert favors. I did 2 flavors: creme fraiche vanilla bean panna cotta with fresh strawberry mousse and macerated strawberry garnish. The 2nd flavor was honey panna cotta with coffee gelee with cocoa powder and cacao nib garnish. It's the first time I had to make 40 of them, but it was fun. I also did mini shortbread tarts with marscapone honey cream and fresh berries for the dessert table.

 Unfortunately we didn't get to stay since my son was feeling under the weather. The best part though was getting to spend time with her family and catching up.

Gardenias, gardenias, and more gardenias!

The last couple of weeks I have been making lots of gardenias for different orders. Most of them for favor boxes, bouquets and hair flowers. One of my orders is for a couple celebrating their 10 year wedding anniversary. They have been going to the Big Island every year for the last 10 years and had decided that this year they would do a vow renewal during their stay. Lisa contacted me to ask if I could make a small bouquet, hair flower, favors and some abaca envelopes with the gardenia flower to house the announcement about their vow renewal and that it would be webcast for their family and friends to watch and be part of their special day.

Lisa and I had a slight disconnect about the color sage, but she decided that for 10 of the favors she ordered she was fine with the color and didn't want me to switch it all. However for the bouquet and subsequently she ordered 5 additional favor boxes, she wanted the lime green and purple rather than the sage/celadon of the original favors. 

I also had another order of 40 favors inspired by favors I did several years ago. Gardenias again with sage, ivory and champagne gold.

3 more bouquet orders, a wedding details print order, a wholesale hair flower order and some smaller flower orders to finish before vacation.

Lily of the Valley Plant

It's been a challenging week trying to manage all my orders and staying on schedule. I have been getting a lot of last minute requests to work on things and sometimes it's really hard to say "no". One of the projects I just finished is for a woman in Maui. Her mother is going to be leaving early next month to undergo a surgical procedure and subsequent therapy in Switzerland. Her favorite flowers growing up were lily of the valley. Carmen asked me to make a plant that her mom could have on her nightstand to help her through this journey. 

This is the first time I actually did a lily of the valley "plant", but I was excited to do this because my late mother-in-law loved this flower growing up. I almost wanted to keep it because it turned out so cute! I definitely think I'll be making more of these soon when I get unburied from all my work.

Hawaii Chamber of Commerce of Northern California Five Star Gala

It's that time of year again when  I've got to crank out those little pikake and pakalana flowers for the 5 strand lei I make for the HCCNC Five Star Gala, Kulia I Ka Nu'u Award Honoree. This year's honoree is Allan Ikawa of Big Island Candies!

I'm always so honored to create this shadow box lei award. It's definitely something that's unique and not something someone is often awarded with. I have lost count how many years I've been making this shadow box. It's evolved over time but this is the design we continue to do year after year.

 Sorry this is a short blog post, but I have tons of work to do back in the studio. I just wanted to share the final look at this beautiful award. If you're interested in the Hawaii Chamber of Commerce of Northern California's Five Star Gala which is a great night filled with great food from local restaurants at the Westin St. Francis atop Union Square, visit www.hccnc.com for information on how to get tickets. This event benefits 2 very deserving students who want to further pursue their education who have Hawaii ties as well as honoring those who bridge the Hawaii and Bay Area together.

Sympathy Gifts for a Fallen Master Sargent Marine's Loved Ones

It's not often, but on occasion I have been asked to work on floral arrangements to give as sympathy gifts. A couple weeks ago, one of our dear friends, who is a Master Sargent Marine lost another fellow Master Sargent Marine, who was killed in action by an IED. David asked me if I would be willing to create some pieces for his friend's grieving fiance and two little girls. I was happy to do this for this fallen Marine's family, who are missing him and are grieving his loss. No matter what you believe about the military, one thing our family believes is that these men and women sacrifice their lives to protect our freedoms and all that we hold true. We are forever grateful for their service and their ultimate sacrifice.

Our deepest sympathies go out to this Master Sargent Marine's family and we hope that these flowers will always remind them of all the wonderful memories they shared with him.

Custom Panna Cotta Favors for a Holy First Communion

My dearest best friend is having her 2nd daughter's holy 1st communion next weekend and she had asked me to work on the invitations. We had discussed doing edible favors for the party since she was drooling over all my yummy desserts I've been posting on my FB page. So we decided to do small panna cotta verrines. She decided on the coffee panna cotta with coffee gelee and cocoa nibs for one and the other will be creme fraiche panna cotta with strawberry mousse and fresh strawberries. 

 We tossed around ideas for the containers and I finally decided on getting these small mason/canning jars that are 4 oz. I decorated it with pink fabric that has cute butterflies on them, tied them with green sheer ribbon, a custom stamped spoon and a favor label. Love how they turned out. Next week I'll be busy making 40 panna cotta verrines!