accessories

for those of you who know me, you know that i design jewelry and accessories.

and for my wedding i plan do do the ultimate DIY of creating my jewelry to accompany my wedding dress.... well tonight i found my one and only outside accessory, 

not made by my own hands!

they are however, made by some very talented hands though! =)

these are some custom orchids Myra of twigs & honey just posted on her blog

you can find her on etsy too

photo credit:  twigs & honey

twigsandhoney.blogspot.com

anyhow, i planned on wearing two live orchids in my hair, but i was honestly a little

nervous that they would look alive still by the end of the day... but ever since i found myra's goodies i've been hooked, however i hadn't seen any of her pieces that would "fit" with our wedding and my attire... and then i checked her blog last night and she sealed the deal for me.

mrya, the designer, recently took her business full time and is busier than ever!  she even posted that she can't fulfill any custom orders before the end of july... 

well with our august wedding date 

i might be in luck!

hopefully i will hear from her soon

i have to say, it's so inspiring to see a fellow wedding accessory designer with so much success in such little time, she followed her passion and has been reaping the reward of listening to her heart... i only hope that some day i can enjoy my passion as my full time business 

as Mrya does today.

centerpiece update

k, so today my mom and i did some major wedding agenda errand running... we hit paper source, crate & barrel, and cost plus world market....

while at cost plus we rummaged through their clearance area and found these beauties for a buck a piece, that's $1 folks:

Clear Fleur Stemware (Wine Glass)

in my last centerpiece post i talked about the IKEA stemmed votive option,

 but i wasn't sold on them.  then today when we saw these, they were way less contemporary, and a way more graceful shape. so we snapped up 15 of them, well actually 16 in the end... they weren't packed up very well and one went for a sky dive as we walked out of the store!  

oops... 

so they gave us a new one. 

 fyi: cost plus people were really eager and helpful, either that or just really bored! =)

so plan for these is to put water in them and a floating candle, which we will

hopefully find this weekend on our adventure around LA... 

we'll be hitting some of my jewelry wholesale vendors, then to see a designer in the diamond district, next to china town for more lanterns, and we'll end at Moskatell's

to look for some wedding goodies.  

i'll update later about our day trip!

more thoughts on centerpieces...

we met with our venue coordinator last weekend and it was confirmed.... she said NO more than 150 people! that leaves us with 15 tables, so i decided i wanted 3 different centerpiece variations.  let me introduce my 3rd element:

i pulled this right out of the winter 2007 issue of Elegant Bride.

here i plan on skipping the coral (too expensive) but using colors that look like this for the flowers.

then i will go get 15 of these stemmed votive holders from... gotta love it, IKEA!

GALEJ @ $2.99 (7") and $3.99 (9")

so i'll use 2 small and 1 big for each of these centerpieces

then i'll also have to hunt down white or ecru floating candles to put in these glasses, and the tray the floral foam and flower sit it is TBD also.... more on that when i find it!

what's the trend for everyone's centerpieces... are you using various arrangements at each table, or are you sticking to one consistent one for all the tables?

Waxing and Waning over my centerpieces...

prior to visiting my florist to see my manzanita mock up, i had visions of grandure when thinking about how amazing they would turn out.

well, here's the picture of how it came out -

i like the overall idea (minus the hydrangea in the branches), the only problem is, it goes straight up! most of the pictures i've seen of manzanita centerpieces the tiny branches have been removed and the substantial branches seem to meander outward while going up. not a complete vertical look.  

i took my dad with me, after all he and my grandmother are very talented with floral stuff, so i wanted his opinion.

he wasn't the biggest fan of the this centerpiece idea... so i might be going back to the drawing board.  my problem is i would like some variation in height on my centerpieces, so here's a picture i borrowed from photographer Stacey Kane, that my dad and i both like a lot.

this one is simple yet beautiful and i can either fill the bottom with shells (to suit the nautical theme) or leave it as rocks (since a rock was engraved for the proposal).

this is why i'm waxing and waning over these two ideas, i like them both but if my florist can't read my mind on the manzanita, then i don't feel its a good idea to push it.  not to mention the second centerpiece idea with be a heck of a lot cheaper, and it still looks fabulous too!

ugh, i don't know what to do... any suggestions?

The Bucket List

so i decided i want to use galvanized buckets as many of the small flower holders... i have a few places i'd like to use them for the ceremony and reception decor, here are my ideas:

this is from a wedding my photographer shot this past summer (Memories by Michael), i plan on using galvanized buckets to pot indigo, cream and purple hydrangea in them and hang them on every other chair along the back row of the ceremony chairs.  this way when a guest walks up the backs of the chairs look pretty, id rather do this than line the aisle with the buckets, i found the idea to hang them from the backs of the chairs in one of my many bridal mags

 i would like to hang buckets on the railing of the stairs at my venue, which is this left pic (photographed a la moi!)

the right pic is one more from Michael, with bucket list inspiration for my stairs also.  after the ceremony is over i plan to have the buckets taken from the chairs and placed on the bars and various tables for the guestbook and such. yay for multifunctional decor!

any creative ideas of ways to save on decor and make it go the extra mile for multiple purposes?

Blooming Inspirations

i found a great set of table decor/floral/color scheme inspirations, just in case anyone is wondering what our wedding colors are. we will pair these indigos and purple with light blue and ivory, but we will probably incorporate small hints of navy as well.

initally i was toying with the notion i wanted the colors to be bronze, gold and champagne 

colors, and boy am i glad i didn't go with that scheme! A: it would've looked too autumny B: it wouldn't have been nearly as colorful!

i'm especially glad because my FI loves blue, and it worked out well since we ended up having the wedding at a yacht club (whose color scheme is suprise.... white & blue).

sorry i'm not quite sure what mag to give the credit to on this pic, but i know the point of the article is that blue hues are making a comeback in wedding color trends.  horray, i'm ahead of the curve!

another idea i thought of to make some of the tables more visually interesting, was to use antique Edgeworth Chewing Tobacco tins on some of the reception tables.  i do not endorse the stuff, but my parents have compiled quite a collection over the years! =)

here's another example of how antique tins are used for a centerpiece arrangements. this is for sure an idea i found on martha stewart's website!

i think it's a fun and eclectic way to surprise your guests, since it is not a normal style one would usually see at a wedding.

anyone out there planning on using vintage/antiques to decorate? or care to share any unique floral ideas, color schemes, or arrangements?