Cake topper, butterflies, flowers and a BIG BLACK BEE!!!

I've been working on some fun little creations the last couple of days. My super duper fantastic bride Alicia is having a big soiree in Maui at the Grand Wailea next week and she asked if I could recreate or create should I say a clay version of butterflies and flowers to match the cake picture above. I so struggled with this one, but I finally found a burst of creative energy and found what I wanted to do. So here are a few shots of the things I'm working on.

You might be wondering, where does the BIG BLACK BEE come into play. Well, Alicia said it's a lucky bee. I guess the story goes that on her wedding day 2 years ago there was a big black bumble bee following her around and her wedding coordinator, Cheryl Shoemaker of Orchid Isle Weddings & Events told her it's a sign of good luck. Well, when Alicia went to Maui to do her site visit and food tasting with the Grand Wailea yet again a big black bumble bee was following her around. So, for her anniversary cake she wanted me to create a cute, sparkly BIG BLACK BEE! :) Talk about being a little nervous, but it was actually kind of fun and even my husband thought it was pretty cute.The inspiration photo had initials on it, but I didn't trust myself to make a Swarovski crystal "A" so I ordered an acrylic mirror style A from a great Etsy artisan, www.justtoppers.etsy.com. They were super helpful and got it out to my right away! I decided to embellish it with some flowers and a butterfly since Alicia said she didn't think she would re-use it and need it to be plain.

Tomorrow I will be finishing the final touches on the flowers and butterflies and packing it up to send to the pastry chef at the Grand Wailea. I so wish I could be the big black bee at this event watching it all because it's going to be FABULOUS!!!

A Day in the Life of a Fill-in Wedding Planner (Day 1)

I am on location in Maui helping my best friend and colleague Cheryl Shoemaker of Orchid Isle Weddings and Events. She would have been here herself to coordinate the wedding, but she is expecting any day or week now so she asked if I could help her out. What an honor to represent her company and to be able to fly to Maui for a short trip to help my client and her's to make sure she has a flawless wedding day. The bride is Alyssa and as many of you might remember, she chose the theme "Because Love Should be Celebrated".

At any rate, I made it to Maui around 3:00 and got checked into my hotel around 4:30. I met with Daniel and Alyssa to take some boxes off their hands and got ready to meet my good friend, Evonne Wong of the famed Events by Evonne. This was the first time I met Evonne, but we have been conversing back and forth via email and Facebook. It was truly like meeting an old friend I hadn't seen in ages. We just talked and talked. If I didn't have an appointment we probably would have just kept talking. If you're ever planning a wedding on the islands, you can't go wrong with Orchid Isle Weddings & Events and Events by Evonne. Two very talented and successful wedding planners/designers on the beautiful Hawaiian islands!

She introduced me to Cafe O Lei in Kihei. OMG, such delicious food. I highly recommend this restaurant if you want a good place to eat. Prices for an entree run between $18-35. I had the Blackened Mahi Mahi with papaya salsa. FANTASTIC!

From there we headed back to the Grand Wailea to have my meeting with Alyssa and her mom to discuss any remaining items that were critical. The meeting went great and we got a lot of things ironed out. From there Evonne and I went to Dennys (it's the only place open after 9 p.m.) and had dessert and talked until 12:30 a.m.! I think if we both didn't have things to do the next day we would have kept talking.

So Evonne has an iPhone and I just bought the BlackBerry Storm so we took pictures of the iPhone vs. the Storm... She didn't tell me she had a cool green case cover... Unfair advantage Evonne!

So, it's actually Friday, and I'm getting ready to start the day. We had an unexpected crisis occur this morning. Alyssa's custom chocolates got mailed to their house in the Bay Area and not to the hotel so we brainstormed some ideas on what we could fill them with. I suggested Honolulu Cookie Co. shortbread cookies. She talked it over with her mom and I'm headed up to Lahaina to get them after my meeting with the SeaWatch Restaurant!

More pictures to come, but here's a shot from my room at the Grand Wailea (the place where John and Kate plus 8 was filmed!)

Krewe of Kamehameha - Mardi Gras Meets Hawaii

One of my dear clients who I befriended via Cheryl of Orchid Isle Weddings & Events when we worked on her wedding a couple years ago contacted Cheryl and I to help her with another big milestone event & celebration. It's a combination of anniversaries and milestone birthdays. Alicia wants a fun and festive but chic event. Since some of the honorees live in Louisiana, they thought it would be fun to have a New Orleans meets Maui kind of concept. These aren't the final save the dates, but just concepts we came up with. Obviously not Mardi Gras colors, but she wasn't tied to them, she just wanted bold and festive. So I decided to use her direction of fleur de lis with a tropical twist and go with vibrant colors. I think I like the orange and teal combination the best.

I used a Hawaiian Aloha font which is kind of resonant of vintage signage you see all around Hawaii. Still waiting to hear back from Alicia, but it'll be a FUN and FESTIVE event because Alicia and her family go all out for these events. Alicia is such a joy to work with. She's so appreciative of everything and it's nice to know that clients such as herself come back to do other events with the vendors she enjoyed working with 2 years ago.

Believe it or not, many of her guests at her wedding haven't been back to the islands since their wedding which was over 2 years ago so this will be a fun way for everyone to get together and have a good time and celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. Life is short, so having fun with those you love and care about is very important and what's better than having a big bash to celebrate love and friendships!

Because Love Should Be Celebrated - Wedding Programs

A few months back (seems like several), my client, Alyssa found me via TheKnot.com Mae & Jeremy Real Weddings feature. She fell in love with my designs and asked me if I would work on her December 6th destination wedding in Wailea, Mau'i. I was really hesitant knowing my busy September/October schedule, but after meeting her, I agreed to take her wedding order. I finished her invitations and everyone has commented how lovely they are. Now we're headed into all of her printed items for her OOT Bags (which I will post later on during her wedding - they are super duper cool!), menus, place card/favor boxes, wedding programs, table cards, etc.

The funny thing is that Alyssa and Daniel live minutes from where I live. They are such a fun and delightful couple. I'm very fortunate that I get to coordinated their wedding for my best friend Cheryl of Orchid Isle Weddings & Events because she's due around their wedding date and can't physically make it. Cheryl and I have worked on a few occasions as I was her assistant wedding planner when she did weddings on Oahu. This will one of the first times that I get to see all my work on the day of the wedding! So exciting... I'm really excited about being an on-location wedding blogger for a Mau'i destination wedding! It's hard to believe there's less than 45 days until their big day.

Anyway, to make a long story short, here is a sample of the tri-fold wedding ceremony program I'm doing for them. More items to come later this weekend as I build them out. Beautiful color palette of deep navy blue, light blue and a hint of orange. A soft blue palm leaf print to carry their wedding invitation design element through to the wedding day to keep the theme consistent.

More to come so stay tuned...

DK Designs Favor Boxes on TheKnot.com Homepage!!!

So this morning I received an email from my good friend, Cheryl Shoemaker of Orchid Isle Weddings & Events. She happened upon theknot.com and found my favor box photo on the home page!!! It's amazing out of the 550 plus photo gallery images they have on the site, they picked the one I did for Mae & Jeremy's wedding as the one they would show on the home page! I'm so happy, delighted and honored! :)

The nice thing too is Cheryl is the person who referred Mae & Jeremy to me so I think we both get some publicity out of this one as well as the wonderful photographer who shot this great wedding, Stewart Pinsky! So not only was it featured on the home page but also on the Favor Section of the Wedding Planning Resource part of the website! It's also pretty amazing how many people see this color combination and want to have it repeated for their wedding!

It's a wonderful way to end a great day! Today, also ended the full 5 days of teaching accelerated classes to Tracey and Vista. They learned a lot and we got a chance to build friendships and I look forward to seeing them back again in November and see how far they've come with all the practice they have to look forward to before then.

I wish I could offer more accelerated courses to interested individuals who want to be instructors, but for now, it's once a quarter based on my busy schedule. If you live out-of-state and are interested in the DECO Clay Craft Academy courses, please contact me and I can give you information.

Because Love Should Be Celebrated...

One of my clients fell in love with this saying and wanted to somehow incorporate it into her wedding invitations. Alyssa and Daniel came to me by way of TheKnot.com Real Weddings Feature where my items were part of the photo gallery. Alyssa fell in love with my work and asked if I would do her wedding invitations and other printed items. I was reluctant at first just because my plate is pretty full, but after talking to her, I agreed to do the wedding.

We finally met today for the first time as her mom is here helping her with wedding planning items (turns out Alyssa lives 6 minutes away!). It was such a pleasure to meet them and they were so sweet and so friendly. Open to ideas, but at the same time they know what they want. So I had hoped to come up with more samples for them, but with my schedule this week and trying to make sure I got my orders completed on time, I had to work on Alyssa's samples between 1:30 and 4:00. I got a lot done, but was hoping to provide her with all of what she wanted to see.

Anyway, during a previous phone conversation with her and her mom, Linda, we talked about other ideas. She wanted the colors to be navy blue, light blue and just a hint of orange. We discussed the pineapple, palm fronds, cymbidiums, plumerias and even phaleonopsis orchids. I think personally I'm a little tired of doing cymbidiums even though I LOVE them! I think the 190 cymbidium orchid favors did me in. LOL!

For some reason during the design phase today, I was really drawn to the subtle nature of the palm fronds. The fully justified block font with the "Because Love Should Be Celebrate" was something she saw in a bridal book and fell in love with it. So I found a copy of "Style Your Wedding" by Susie Coelho and figured out what she wanted. Initially I had put it in a script font. This saying now becomes the theme or motif and it's actually quite nice! The navy blue when it sparkles in the light reminds me of how water glistens as the sun hits it. Very appropriate since they are getting married overlooking Molokini Lookout on Maui! Who wouldn't want to go to this wedding just to celebrate the love of to people becoming husband and wife. What better way to celebrate than a wedding in paradise!


The other wonderful thing is that Alyssa, Linda and I hit it off, which is a good thing because Cheryl of Orchid Isle Weddings asked if I would help coordinate her wedding for the rehearsal and the day of! I'm really excited. They are a fun bunch and I hope to meet Daniel soon too. It's going to be a beautiful wedding I can already tell. They're talking about a malasada station as the midnight snack! YUMMY! :) An island favorite - hot off the oil vat, rolled in sugar... zero calories (ok.. that is if you dance it off)! Even my husband was saying how really nice Alyssa and Linda were.


Anyway, these are some shots of the comps I did for Alyssa and they instantly fell in love with these. They are pictures of her invitation, table card and OOT tag and itinerary. She wanted to keep with the theme of their save the dates, but I think they're finding that they want to maybe just start a whole new theme which will carry through from the invitations to the wedding day! This'll be the first time that I get to help coordinate a wedding where I did a lot of the wedding details myself so what a treat it will be!

New DK Designs Save the Date Concepts

So before I begin my 190 cymbidium orchid favors for my early August brides, I have been working on some sample save the date cards for a couple more clients for their upcoming weddings in 2009. The plumeria design was the easiest sell of them all. I made two samples (one with a phaleonopsis orchid and one with a plumeria design) and sent them to the client and they made the decision in like 45 minutes of me sending them the samples via email! Courtney's colors are the tiffany blue and chocolate brown. These are images of her save the dates that we are going with. Both brides found my items on TheKnot.com.

The second came to me via Orchid Isle Weddings & Events, although Erin had seen Mae & Jeremy's wedding and fell in love with all the elements. So she came to us with her possible color palette. White and black with punches of bright pinks and purples. She sent me a design of an invitation she liked and I found an image that I could use to recreate something very similar to what she wanted and this is what I came up with. I normally don't do a lot of color blocking because it's so much printer ink, but it definitely looks nice! :)

I have one more set of samples/designs to work on today for Alyssa so stay tuned for that.... Her color palette is navy and light blues with a hint of orange. Lots to do today...

Another Great Real Wedding Feature on TheKnot.com!
Alicia & Crash - Mauna Lani Resort, August 4, 2007
Last night I was surfing the Internet as I do on a weekly basis to see where my company comes up in the search engines (yes... I came from a marketing background, can you tell???) Anyway, I had found a link with a description on Yahoo, "Casual Beach Elegance Wedding". I clicked on it because it had DK Designs associated with it. Well, to my surprise, I found one of the weddings I worked on - Alicia & Crash DeSario! It is in the section of TheKnot.com's "My Real Wedding" portfolio! Alicia and Crash were one of my favorite couples because they were so sweet and so wonderful to work with. We still keep in touch now and then.

This wedding was a lot of fun more so because Alicia was so great to work with. She loved the celadon/sage green and my pineapple design. So we did items for her rehearsal dinner (escort cards, place cards, table tents), thank you cards for her wedding presents and of course favors, programs, guest book, and a reserved sign for the bridal party for the wedding ceremony and reception. This was one of the first weddings we did the different favors for the men and women at the wedding which was well received.

You can see more of her wedding photos on TheKnot.com. Here's a few images from their wedding in my style sheet format. The photographer for this wedding was Bob Brown of Eye Expression Photography and the wedding planner was Cheryl Shoemaker of Orchid Isle Weddings & Events. The other great thing is Cheryl told me that today Mae & Jeremy's wedding was the featured wedding of the week on TheKnot.com! :) Anyway, I just wanted to wish Alicia & Crash a Happy 1 Year Anniversary! :)

More Magnolia Bride Photos...
This morning I got an email from Brooke at Brookelyn Photography with a link to the photos from Kristy & Hector's wedding. I was so excited to see the rest of the images she and Mimi Gubser of Luci Lyn Photography had taken of the wedding. I put together another style sheet from the photos Brooke shared with me so you can see their amazing work! I highlighed of course the items I made for Krisy & Hector, but also the work of the florist (Bliss in Bloom) and of course the wedding planning services of Orchid Isle Weddings & Events. Annie did an amazing job on the florals. The great thing about this wedding, it was a mixture of anything pink - dahlias, roses, peonies, plumerias, orchids... Feathers and different textures to add a different element. I love the Candy Buffet station with the letters spelled out "LOVE IS SWEET"!

I miss working with Kristy & Hector on their wedding, but who knows, maybe when they decide to start a family I will get a chance to work with them again. :) I hope you enjoy the style sheet as much as I do. I never get tired of looking at the images Brooke and Mimi took. I wish I could have been there because it looked like an AMAZING and ROMANTIC wedding! Gotta love the pinks and browns!

Kristy & Hector (Magnolia Bride) June 14, 2008 Style Sheet
The wonderful Melanie "Mimi" Gubser of Luci Lyn Photography sent me some photos from Kristy & Hector's wedding (this is the wedding where Kristy wanted magnolias and gardenias). I created a style sheet of some of the pictures Mimi sent to me today. She's a wonderful up and coming wedding photographer on the Big Island of Hawaii. If you forgot, Cheryl Shoemaker of Orchid Isle Weddings & Events planned this wedding and also referred Kristy to me for all her wedding details.

Anyway, more pictures to come, but since style sheets seem to be so popular, I thought I'd give it a whirl. :) Kristy and Hector were such a wonderful couple to work with and I wish them all the best for a happy and loving marriage! Maybe this style sheet will inspire your next wedding inspiration board....

New Order via TheKnot.com Real Weddings Feature

I was fortunate to be a part of Mae & Jeremy's wedding as a referral through my best friend and wedding planner extraordinaire, Cheryl Shoemaker of Orchid Isle Weddings. I recently found out that Mae & Jeremy's wedding was being featured on TheKnot.com's Real Weddings site!

The feature had lots of great pics of my detail work! Great exposure and the favors I did for their wedding made it into the Wedding Favors photo gallery! The photographer for this wedding was Stewart Pinsky Photography.

Cheryl called me earlier this week to let me know that a bride down in Southern California had contacted her because she LOVED the favors from Mae & Jeremy's wedding and wanted to know who did them. Veronica saw the slideshow pictures from Real Weddings - "Mae & Jeremy, Maui, HI.

I contacted the bride and she LOVED the wedding details I did for Mae & Jeremy. Her colors were green and orange but she was torn because she loved the Teal and Orange I did for Mae & Jeremy. So I created two comps for her over the weekend. Even though I already have a hectic next several months, I felt that I had to do my best to accept the order. The order has now gone from a wedding favor order to wedding favors, reception programs and water bottle sleeves. The bride is trying to convince her fiance to let me do the table cards too!

Anyway, we ended up changing a few things - switching the names so the groom's name is first and then the bride's, switching the cardstock so the green is more predominant. Veronica's flowers are green cymbidiums and white roses, but her centerpieces are orange cymbidiums. Her bridesmaid dresses are green as well. They got engaged in Hawaii so naturally she wants to bring a little bit of "Hawaii" to her wedding day!

Which one do you like best teal and orange or green and orange? Either one is nice, but it is a tough call! In the end, Veronica had to go with the color scheme of oranges and greens

Photos from Sayaka & Jeff's Wedding

I received these photos from Cheryl Shoemaker's Wedding Assistant, Ruth Powell, of Orchid Isle Weddings & Events. These wonderful images are from Sayaka and Jeff's wedding on May 2, 2008 at the Kona Plantation! Thank you Ruth for sharing these wonderful images with me. :) To recap, I did the OOT bag tags, OOT itineraries, wedding menu/program, and wedding favors.

Sayaka also expressed interest in replicating her bouquet since she was not able to preserve it after her wedding.

Things have been rather hectic while I have been away from the studio. This trip to Oahu was jam packed with classes, but at the same time it was a good chance to get away! Believe it or not, I didn't even make it to the beach this trip! How sad is that! Oh well, the good news is that I am now officially 100% focused on DK Designs!!! I decided that my part-time job was becoming too much to handle with all the increased business I've been receiving. I don't think I will ultimately feel the effects until I get back to the studio and start on all my wedding orders for the balance of May-July! It feels like though that a weight has been lifted and I am pursuing my life-long dream of clay flowers and wedding invitations/details!

OOT Bags for Big Island Wedding

So I had pictures of some comps I did for a client a month or two ago. The wedding is almost here. Sayaka and Jeff tie the knot on May 2nd! Sayaka's family is flying in from Japan and Jeff's family is from the East Coast so it just so happens they are kind of meeting about half way! They are getting married at the beautiful Kona Plantation.

I asked Orchid Isle Weddings & Events if they could take some snapshots of the OOT bags since typically the photographer who shoots the actual wedding doesn't get to take these pics unless the bride remembers to make it part of the details to shoot. So thank you to Ruth Powell (Cheryl Shoemaker's assistant) who took these great pictures for me!

Sayaka requested all of the items to have the phrase "Makana Aloha" which losely translated is "gifts of Aloha or gifts of love". They wanted plumerias for the OOT items and the wedding day details use the orange cymbidium. It's kind of fitting because the favors we did are tiny wooden turtles with mini white plumerias for the men attending the wedding and the women get orange cymbidium orchid favors. I hope to share in the coming months pictures from the photographer who is shooting their wedding! Until then... enjoy!

Creating Custom Designs With Special Meaning

From time to time, clients ask me if I'm able to create something custom, meaning a sketch or illustration of where they are getting married. For these types of clients I enlist the help of my brother, who is the true artist in the family. This illustration is of Hale Kai Estate, where I also believe King Kamehameha used to stay there and the image is of the canoe landing off the water and near the main house! With the help of my brother, who did the drawing, I was able to do Noelani and Albert's wedding invitations and they asked me to do their program fans and hair flowers for the bridal party. Noelani is an up and coming pastry chef at Cake Rack of Kona. You definitely should check out their little pastry shop as they make tasty pastries, cupcakes and wedding cakes!

You can pretty much bet that no one else will have the same invitation as her's. I also did in the past (again with the help of my brother who did the artwork) the invitations, programs and guest book for another client who got married at the historic Mokuaikaua Church and her reception was outside of Hulihe'e Palace. Talk about another great historical landmark to tie the knot! Both of these clients were referrals from the awesome Wedding Planner Extraordinare, Cheryl Shoemaker of Orchid Isle Weddings and Events! She's a wonderful, proactive and really pays attention to the details to help create a beautiful wedding day for her clients. There's not a lot of Big Island based wedding planners so if you're looking for good ones, check out Orchid Isle Weddings & Events at http://www.orchidisleweddings.com/.

An invitation that embodies a couple's personality!

I recently was asked by a client of Orchid Isle Weddings & Events (http://www.orchidisleweddings.com/) to come up with a wedding invitation for them. Their colors are ivory,pink and brown. These are very popular colors, but what makes this invitation truly special is the motif they chose and how it embodies who they are as a couple.

Kristy's friend searched on Wikipedia the meaning of a magnolia flower - its one of the oldest and strongest flowers around. Its species, which is millions of years old, was around before bees! It has continued to bloom season after season with exquisiteness that looks so delicate but is actually so sturdy it refuses to give up.
Kristy became fascinated with it and a friend of mine looked it up on Wikipedia for me and wrote me this...."Kristy, this flower embodies you in all your beauty and strength. You are so gorgeous, inside and out, with elegance that appears to be fragile but like the magnolia you are strong, unwavering and can endure anything." I really took it to heart and decided that it would perfect to represent the relationship that hector and I have. So this is why I love this flower so much and it would be great if we could carry it throughout the wedding.

This story really touched me and I think it goes to show you that it's important to pick a motif/theme that incorporates your style but more importantly who you are as a couple if it's relevant! :)

Cool Pics from a Orchid Isle Weddings Photoshoot!
My good friend Cheryl of Orchid Isle Weddings and Events (http://www.orchidisleweddings.com/) did a photoshoot today for http://www.destinationweddingstyle.com/. She asked me if I would be willing to design a sample invitaton and menu to go with her English Country Garden meets Waimea... So naturally I agreed to do it. Her photographer/friend, Mimi Gubser took these photos. She did an awesome job! I can't wait to see the new article on the webzine... :) Thanks Cheryl for the opportunity to be a part of this photo shoot and article you're doing for the webzine!

Here are a few more pictures from that photo shoot! This invitation and menu was fun to make although I wasn't sure how it was going to look for the photoshoot and with the tablescape that Cheryl and her team were envisioning. The end result is that it looked fantastic against the tablescape they created! If you're interested in hiring Mimi at Luci Lyn Photography for your event or wedding on the Hawaiian Islands, you can email her at mimigubser@earthlink.net.