Merry Christmas!!

I had the opportunity to work with many wonderful couples this year. To congratulate them in celebrating their first Christmas and New Years together as husband and wife, I decided to make hand made Christmas cards for each of the couples. With each of my couples in mind, I made a total of 17 different cards. Each of them were personalized to their taste and style.

Making these cards were not an easy task for me. I have to admit that working with paper is not one of my strengths. However, with a huge stack of paper, lots of different kinds of glue and tape, and my trusty sidekick - my Cricut machine I finished this task!

Here are some of the cards that I made. Happy Holidays!

InStyle Weddings Magazine

I am sure a lot of brides will be just as disappointed as I was when I heard that InStyle Weddings magazine is closing up shop. Their last issue will come out on December 25, 2009. As indicated in one of my previous posts, I love reading bridal and floral magazines. InStyle Weddings is one of my favorites. I don’t usually play attention to the “stars” that get married because I don’t usually recognize any of them. I have so many wedding shows on my PVR that Entertainment Tonight just does not get a chance in my little world.

The thing I love about InStyle Weddings is seeing how a room can be decorated with a $100,000 budget. I strive to “reproduce” some of the wedding decorations for my clients at a fraction of the price. (I sometimes dream of having clients come to me with a $100,000 budget and tell me to make transform the venue into something absolutely amazing.) This magazine inspires me to design a grand wedding for pennies for my clients. I think my clients appreciate that.

Here are some pictures from InStyle Weddings website for some final inspiration. (Yup, they are all décor pictures!)

Calgary Chamber of Commerce Wedding

Melissa and David was another out of province couple that I had the opportunity to work with. During our consultation meeting, Melissa and David made numerous references to weddings that they been to. Not wanting to design a "copy cat" wedding, I had to dig deeper and ask them both what they envision their wedding to be. They both said they wanted a wedding that is clean, elegant, and not "too wedding like." The only color they wanted was in their red centerpieces. Fresh green ivy was also used throughout the decor to give the wedding some life and to coordinate the green drapes in the reception room. A personal touch that we did for Melissa and David's wedding were handwritten placecards on river rocks.

This wedding was fairly stressful for me because of two incidents. Prior to the wedding, Melissa had provided me the centerpiece vases in boxes. As I was moving the boxes the day before the wedding, I dropped one of the boxes....down a flight of stairs. Lucky for me, these vases did not break. At that moment, I felt like I had lost a couple of months of my life. On the day of the wedding, we had a beautiful 6x6x6ft chuppah decorated with chiffon, flowers, and ivy. As I was ready to pack up and leave, David came up to me to ask if the chuppah was off centered from the aisle. I ran into the ceremony room and gasped! The chuppah was off centered! After my mini heart attack, I smiled at David and said I will take care of it. I quickly gathered some strong (looking) guests to help me move the chuppah. This was a definite group effort as we moved the chuppah with no problems.

I don't think Melissa and David knew about my stress. I feel it is my job never to show stress on my face. Although, I may not be able to get back the months of my life I may have lost (from the box and stair incident), it was well worth it seeing how happy Melissa and David was at the end of the night.

Noteworthy Designs

Often when I get invited to a wedding, I only know either the bride or groom very well. Sometimes I haven't even met their significant other yet. So, when I get an invitation I have a ton of questions running through my mind. Questions such as: I wonder what her future husband looks like? How did they met? What does she like most about him? Why haven't I met him yet? Sometimes the invitation includes the couple's picture, but this only answers one of my questions. (After receiving an invitation, I usually call up my friend right away to congratulate her and to set up a coffee date to meet her significant other. I can't wait till the wedding day!)

Laura Hit of Noteworthy Designs made these wonderful custom wedding invitation that are similar to mini scrapbooks. These invitations/books included pages and photos about the couple, how they met, the wedding, and important people in their life. I would love to receive one of these invitations, they are so personalized and allows me to learn about the couple right away. (I would still call up my friend afterwards though.) Laura is a fellow Certified Wedding Planner with the Wedding Planners Institute of Canada. Check out these "mini scrapbook of memories" on Laura's blog.

Floral Bouquet Challenge

Maggie, the bride from the last blog post presented me with a challenge before her wedding. She asked me if I could make her wedding bouquet, bridesmaid's bouquet, and corsages for the moms and grandmas. I was hesitant to take on this challenge because it would be my first floral "work order" after receiving my Certificate in Floral Design. Initially, I declined Maggie's request because I was so nervous! As laid back as Maggie is, she responded to my email saying "No worries! I was going to do it myself but thought I'd ask you first." I responded to Maggie's email within three seconds saying that I will do it and thanking her for the opportunity.

When I was finally able to track Maggie and Aaron down for a meeting, Maggie and I also talked about what she would like her wedding bouquet to look like. She said she wanted a yellow bouquet in a semi circle; brown ribbon around the stems; no greenery; and two inches of the stems exposed. She said she hated yellow roses and chrysanthemums.

Based on what Maggie told me, I suggested yellow calla lilies as the main flower, white roses as the secondary flower, and yellow fressias as an accent flower. The bridesmaid's bouquets had white roses as the primary flower and yellow calla lilies as the secondary flower. The day before Maggie's wedding, I picked up 50 stems of white roses, 25 stems of yellow calla lilies, and 20 stems of yellow fressias. I thoroughly enjoyed the process of making the bouquets because my office smelled like wonderful from all the flowers.

I forgot to take pictures of my bouquets but was able to get pictures from a friend that attended Maggie's wedding. Lucky me! Now I have pictures for my "Wishahmon - Florals" portfolio!

Hotel Arts Wedding

Maggie and Aaron is one really laid back and easy going couple. As a matter of fact, I saw Maggie at another wedding I was doing one month before hers. I said: "Uhhh...Maggie, we really need to get together to nail down the final details of your wedding decorations." Her response: "Oh yeah, we should probably do that!"

We did meet up before their wedding and lucky for me, the previous design didn't change at all. They did throw in a little surprise task for me, which I will discuss on another post! Maggie and Aaron wanted a modern wedding with lots of fun. We accomplished this with lots of yellow cymbidium orchids and candy in their wedding colors. The overall look achieved was modern, fun, and laid back. Exactly what Maggie and Aaron wanted!

Images from top to bottom: Guest Sign In Table, Orchids All Over, Ceremony, Reception Entrance, Loads of Candy as Centerpieces, Custom Clear Cupcake Stand, Favor Boxes with Two Cute Dolls

Mission Impossible Wedding

The name "Mission Impossible Wedding" was coined by the groom, Daniel. He was trying to lighten the mood when I met up with him and his bride, Cathy, for a consultation meeting. During the meeting, they told me that the wedding is in two weeks, the reception is held in one area of the restaurant and they would like it closed in from outsiders, and the decorator has one hour to set up. As I sat there listening to them, I thought to myself "they are going to say "just kidding" very soon....."

Daniel and Cathy were both very serious and this was not a joke at all. They had planned to decorate the reception on their own with some friends but they ran out of time. I don't usually take on clients this close to their wedding date, but I really wanted to help them out. (I also wanted to take on this challenge!)

In one hour and 15 minutes (I squeezed in an extra 15 minutes), my crew and I set out burgundy and gold swirl organza table cloths on all the guest tables and head table; decorated the guest sign in table; decorated the cake table; decorated the cake (first for me!); set out centerpieces, menu cards, table numbers, and favors; set up a backdrop; and set up poster sized pictures on one side of the room. Time was tight but we managed to get everything done! Here are the pictures of the wedding!

Importance of Invitations

Many couples underestimate the importance of invitations. They think that invitation is just a means of communicating the details of the wedding. If this was the case, this can be done on a post-it by saying: "M/J wedding @ House on 09/26/09 @ 2pm." (Please don't do this!!)

Invitations is the first opportunity for couples to introduce their wedding color, wedding style, and set the formality of the wedding. As a wedding decorator, I often ask my clients to bring a sample of their invitation for me to see. After seeing the invitation, I try to design the ceremony and reception to mimic the style and colors of the invitation. This is done to have a cohesive design and color scheme.

The wedding invitation is also a good starting point for designing the rest of the wedding stationary. Stationary such as save the date cards, rsvp cards, seating cards, place cards, table numbers, menu cards, and thank you cards. (Yes, there is a lot of cards for one wedding!) These cards can be done by your professional wedding invitation designer or you can do it yourself.

I don't usually do wedding stationary but I did for a recent last minute wedding. For this wedding, I made a seating chart, table numbers, seating cards, and menu cards with leftover wedding invitations. The wedding colors were lilac, champagne and burgundy. I used the back of an invitation for the table numbers, menu cards, and seating card. (The thicker paper provided some stability.) The invitation envelopes were used for the seating chart. This is a really easy DIY project to tie in the wedding colors and to make use of leftover invitations. Just make sure you have a really good paper cutter!

(Friend's) Baby Sister's Wedding

I met Aimee when I was 12 years old and she was 10 years old. She was the baby sister of my elementary school friend. I haven't spoken or seen my friend or Aimee in many, many years. (Not going to go into details about my age!) Nonetheless, imagine my excitement when Aimee contacted me to tell me that she has meet the man of her dreams, Gareth, and is now getting married!

Aimee and Gareth currently lives in Ontario. During our meeting, they told me that they will be back one week before the wedding and most of the communications will have to be done by email or through her delegated assistant, her mom, Ericka. My friend was the maid of honor and had a lot of tasks to deal with already.

Aimee and Gareth's wedding reception was held at the Edgemont Community Center. The room was spacious and had a wonderful view. My only task (in summary) was to add their wedding color, blue to the room. In order to do this, I decorated the guest sign-in table, head table, guest tables, cake table, and provided floral centerpieces in a blue vase.

Daniel Tiu Photography

I have always gotten a lot of complements on the pictures in my hard copy and online portfolio. Clients always comment on how professional and pretty my pictures look. Each time I tell my clients that there is no way I could have taken these pictures myself with my point and shoot camera. (People still use these right?)

Most of the pictures in my portfolio have been taken by Daniel Tiu. He does all sorts of photography, including weddings, cars, landscape, and architecture. Daniel is a great photographer to work with and he is always able to get an awesome picture with his artistic eye. Check out his website, http://www.danieltiu.com/ if you are in need of a photographer!

Bringing your Decorating Plans to Life!

Last week I answered a SOS call from a couple that wanted to meet up with me for a consultation ASAP. Feeling a sense of urgency, I asked them when their wedding date was. The bride told me, in two and a half weeks. Nonetheless, I met up with them that evening to discuss their wedding decorating plans. Two days later, a contract was signed.

I don't usually take on clients this close to a wedding date but I felt the stress this bride and groom was feeling. Having signed a contract, I had to start working on their wedding right away. With this blog post, I want to share with DIY couples some tips on how I start a decorating plan. These tips should give DIY couples a good starting point on their decorating planning.

1. Write out a list of all the decorations that needs to be set up at the venue. These details should include big items, such as setting up a backdrop behind the head table, and smaller details, such as placing menu card on each place setting. Make sure you number each of these details for easy reference!


2. In the next column (beside this list of decorations), write out a list of all the items that need to be rented. For example, renting the backdrop.


3. In the next column, write out the list of items that need to be purchased. For example, purchasing decorations for the backdrop.


4. In the next column, write out a to do list. Including everything on this list. The list for making menu cards should look like: (1) Design menu card; (2) Buy cardstock; (3) Cut cardstock; (4) Print or write out menu; (5) Attach menu to cardstock; (6) Add final decorations and embellishments.


5. Prioritize these lists. Yup, all of these lists. Some of these things will need to be done sooner, while some things like menu cards can wait until you have decided on your menu.

Although this may sound confusing and overtop, I assure you that organization and lists definitely help with the planning process. If you are not convinced yet, imagine how good it is going to feel when you cross an item off your lists. If it helps, you might want to have "write to do list" as your first action item. By the end of this task, you will be ready to cross this first action item off. Yea!

For readers that don't already know me and think that I might be a little crazy, I assure you that my clients love how organized I am. (My decorating plans are usually colored coded too.)

Sirocco Golf Course Wedding

A truly stunning bride, Stacey came to me with a clear vision of her modern and purple inspired wedding. Stacey's handsome and soft spoken groom, Brian came along to the meeting to see why they needed to hire a decorator. (I am only assuming this since Brian would never say something like that!)

To answer the question that was most likely in Brian's mind, I provided them with some unique ideas for their wedding, custom made table linens, and physical labor to pull together all the decorating elements. I must have impressed them because they became my clients very soon after our meeting.

It was tons of fun working with Stacey (and sometimes Brian, he is really soft-spoken!) I told her that if she ever wants to enter the wedding industry as a decorator, I will hire her on the spot. If she wants to become a wedding planner, I look forward to future opportunities to work with her again. Here are some pictures of Stacey and Brian's wedding at Sirocco Golf Course.

Guest Sign in Table

Bride and Groom's Sweet Heart Table

Guest Tables

Custom Clear Cupcake Stand with Floating Orchids and Purple Lights