Sharon & Ryan's Wedding Featured in Pacific Rim Weddings Magaine

I have been dying to get a copy of the Winter/Spring 2010 issue of Pacific Weddings magazine. It came out a week or so ago, but has not hit the mainland stores just yet. I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek from the Mauna Lani's director of Weddings and then my bride told me it was also featured on Toby Hoogs' blog. Thank you Toby for allowing me to use your copy of the images from the magazine.
The above image is of the phaleanopsis cake flowers and bamboo I created out of clay for Sharon and Ryan. This was a recreation of an inspiration photo that Toby himself took of another wedding that Sharon fell in love with. The Mauna Lani pastry chefs did a great job recreating the cake and look.
The above image of the starfish place card is another element I helped Sharon with. I did her wedding invitations, table cards, place cards and wedding programs for her beautiful Hawaiian wedding. Her brother officiated the ceremony. Their story was very touching and you could feel the love they share not only from the words but also from the beautiful images Toby captured.

I'm so blessed that my work has yet again been highlighted in another magazine. Sharon and Ryan are such a wonderful couple. They were fun to work with and it was nice to create what they had envisioned for their wedding day details.It's a true pleasure to work with wonderfully talented wedding professionals and equally wonderful clients. I'm truly honored to have my work featured in such a wonderful destination wedding magazine!

Real Wedding Photos - Sharon & Ryan

I'm so very excited to share these photos with you. My dear clients, Sharon & Ryan got their photos back from Hawaii photographer extraordinaire, Toby Hoogs. I've had the pleasure of working with Toby (meaning he's photographed many weddings I've worked on in the past) and he never ceases to amaze me with his talents.

Sharon and Ryan asked me to create their wedding invitations, place cards, favors, favor tags, table cards, cake flowers & bamboo, and program fans. These are the images that Sharon sent to me last night. Thank you Sharon and Ryan for sharing these with me and my readers! Sharon and Ryan got married at the beautiful Mauna Lani Bay Hotel & Bungalows on the Big Island of Hawai'i. A beautiful resort and the wedding staff is top notch.Above is the head table setting! Simply gorgeous! Sharon had table names of places they have been or want to travel instead of doing traditional numbers.These are Sharon and Ryan's place cards.

The below 2 photos are the place cards I created (Sharon assembled the starfish and ribbon onto the place cards and created her own menus) as well as the complete guest table look. Beautiful colors and I love the votives.
The last two photos are of the cake! OMG, can I just say this cake is picture perfect! I can't believe how well the Mauna Lani's pastry chefs recreated the image that Sharon wanted them to replicate and how well my flowers and bamboo look. Absolutely STUNNING!

6 White Peony Cake Flowers

Seems like my posts of late are all about cake flowers! LOL. This next one is about my client who found me via Estilo Weddings. Because Estilo Weddings is taking a short break while Maria has her first child, until Spring 2010, she told Elizabeth to contact me directly.
Elizabeth asked if I could make six 4.5" in diameter all white peony cake flowers. So this is how they turned out. I can't wait to see this cake with the flowers. Wishing Elizabeth and her fiance all the best on their wedding day!

I had to put my watermark in my flower images which looks a little obnoxious, but I had a little incident that made me stop and think that while I didn't want to do it, what happened reminded me that I need to after finding my images being used without my permission and my copyright information cropped out of my images on another website. Unthinkable that someone would do that, but it is what it is.
At any rate, I've been busy working on white anemone cake flowers. This one has 12 in all so I'm excited to share that, just wish I had a cake big enough to put all 12 on! LOL.

Blush Pink Anemone Cake Flowers

I love doing cake flowers and it seems to be my trend for the last few weeks, cake decor for weddings and events. I just finished 6 all white peonies each 4.5" in diameter which I will blog about soon, but the one I wanted to share was of my blush pink anemone cake flowers. I love these anemone flowers, especially the blush pink with the dark contrasting black center. Striking yet so delicate! Sara came to me via my Etsy site after seeing some of my anemone flower designs. She sent me an image of the cake that inspired her and this is the end result in clay form.
I've been playing around with my techniques and I have to say I'm liking my new secret tool more and more. Can't tell you what it is, but needless to say, it gives me some really great texture on my petals. Great find.... LOL!
Cake flowers are a nice change up from all the bouquets I've been working on, but as soon as I finish the last of these cake flowers, I have a lot of big orders behind it for lots of flowers, printed items and more. It's going to be a stressful but very fun filled month as I try to get all my orders done before we finally take our family vacation! It's been an entire year since our last one and I'm overdue. Working non-stop for over a year has been tiring and I need 10 days to just be a mom, a wife and spend time with loved ones we haven't seen since last year and relax on the beach! So excited! I'll be throwing in a little bit of work, but not much. I don't think I can truly ever walk away from my business 100%. LOL.

Sara's wedding isn't until October, but I told her I would get these to her before I left for my vacation so it's at least one thing she can get done early and mark off on her "to do" list! Congratulations Sara and I hope you'll share photos after your wedding!

Fuchsia Pink Poppy Clay Cake Flower

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!

Cherry Blossom Cupcake Flowers

It's been a while since my last post because I've been busy trying to fulfill multiple orders (both wedding stationery and flowers) as well as dealing with another winter cold. I wanted to show you some cute cherry blossom flowers. I only wish I had a Kara's Cupcake to use as my food model! The client contacted me via my Etsy site and originally she had ordered my famous gardenia hair flowers. She emailed me with some questions and also to see if I could make some flowers for her cupcake tower for her wedding. She sent me a picture and asked about pink hydrangeas or something like the picture she sent. I asked her if she would like cherry blossoms and she thought it would be perfect. So we did 4 dozen individual cherry blossoms half in a light pink and half in a more medium shade of pink. They will be inserted into each cupcake. I can't wait to see photos if the client wishes to share them!
I love cherry blossoms, yet they are so fragile and delicate. It definitely makes you feel like spring is on the horizon! :)

Fuchsia Pink Peony Cake Flower

The flower isn't even completely dry yet, but here's the next Etsy offering in my line of cake flowers. A fuchsia pink peony. Again 6 inches in diameter and bold yet stunningly beautiful. You can have peonies regardless of the season. That's the most wonderful thing about clay flowers. Whatever the season or temperature, you can have the flower of your dreams for cakes, bouquets and more!

Single Pink Peony Cake Flower

Yesterday was a VERY productive day in terms of flowers and other things. LOL. One would think that a normal person, when sick would be stuck in bed feeling miserable... Well... my fever and swollen glands gave me a boost of energy... who knew! I made 100 stephanotis flowers for a couple of bouquets I plan to post on Etsy by the weekend and made 12 gardenia hair flowers to replenish the dwindling inventory of my hair flowers on Etsy and of course another cake flower. The last couple of posts I have been doing sets of flowers. This time I figured I would do a single peony cake flower. Many of my brides are just looking for a single LARGE flower and peonies are one that many seem to like. This one is 6 inches in diameter and over 40 petals. It's beautiful all by itself.

Feeling much better today, so hopefully I will be able to knock out a few more cake flower designs to post later this week! Here's to a very productive 2009!

DK Designs Clay Peony Cake Flowers

Although, I'm fighting yet another cold or flu like illness today, I am still hard at work. Holidays and illness for the most part don't put a stop to my work. Sad but true. So even on New Year's Eve, I'm working. I've been so anxious to get my cake flowers done and up on my Etsy site. So far I have the large elongated petal style of gardenia flowers up and just now I posted the large 5 inch all ivory peonies. Inspired by the cake flowers I did for a cake designer in Florida. I'm planning to launch a few other colors in the coming days as time permits. I'm hoping to do ranunculus as well, since that's one of my favorites too. :)

So, I'm recommitting to getting my Etsy site loaded up with items to sell again. It's going to take a little while, but I plan on having some new bouquets and other items to sell in January. Until then, Happy New Year and may 2009 bring all of you good health and prosperity!

DK Designs Clay Gardenia Cake Flowers

So, this evening just before my clay class, I got a notification that 2 of my items on Etsy sold. I was so excited, so I went to see what the buyer had purchased. It was my hair comb with all the little mini clay flowers and one of my gardenia hair flowers. I guess I need to start making more clay flower hair combs in the coming weeks.

Well, my cake flowers aren't even completely dry, but I had to put up more items. This is something that a few clients had asked me to make and I've just been so busy that I haven't had a chance to make them available for purchase without doing a custom order. So here it is.... my line of cake flowers. The price is $140 and so if you break down 4 flowers comes out to $35/each. Which I have to say is reasonable considering that 1. sugar art gardenia flowers that are roughly 5-5.5 inches in diameter run $275/flower, 2. gardenias aren't always in season and if they are, there's no guarantee that the edges of the flowers won't brown by the time your photographer is able to take pictures, and 3. you can keep them to treasure well after your wedding and bugs won't eat them! :)
So, in the coming weeks, I'll be launching a few other cake flower offerings on my site... Stay tuned...

All White Peony Cake Flowers - For a Cake Designer in Florida

(Image Source: www.brides.com)

Several weeks back, Cindy of Cakes by Cindy and Glenn in Vero Beach, Florida, contacted me to see if I would be willing to work with them to create flowers for their cake orders. We went back and forth on what flowers costs. She did have an immediate need. She sent me a link to a cake photo from Brides.com, which you see to above.

She asked if I could do them in clay, but to make them off-white as I guess her buttercream frosting is slightly off-white. So this is how they turned out. I have a feeling I'll be making a lot more of the peony cake flowers and other cake flowers as time goes on. Which is great. They are stunning and you don't need very many to make the cake look beautiful! I can't wait to see what Cindy & Glenn's cake creation looks like when they are done and embellished with my clay flowers! I just got an email from Cindy and she said they look amazing!