Yes, we’ve all talked about how the Color experts at Pantone have chosen Turquoise as THE color for 2010, and  many event designers and florists are cringing on how to use this hue appropriately (there are NO turquoise flowers!)

Not one for fake flowers or anything that’s been tinted, I have found that colors such as Turquoise, Aqua and Sea-green are best left to linens, ribbon, fabric treatment and luscious paper details.

Here is a table that has a modern sea-inspired feel with Turquoise Sequin pattern from Wildflower Linens.  We set lush white bundles of hydrangea, callas and roses into modern square glass containers – clean and simple!

How perfect are these succulents as favors/place card holders??? (I am LOVING succulents still – the texture, the form, the mixture of hues…)

Close up of my beloved Succulent

White plates and flatware from Pedersens

I loved the ribbon treatment on this bride’s seaside wedding, her color palette (Aqua, pear green and coral) was SO refreshing!

Cupcakes by the infamous Trophy Cupcakes.  Seriously, I gave them a swatch of the linens from this wedding, and they MATCHED the cupcake icing to the linen (which was from the fabulous La Tavola).  And, of course, they tasted divine (Yes, I had one – how could one possibly resist?)  LOVE this company! (and no, they do not feed me cupcakes to make me say that.  THAT could be fun, however, my waistline might need adjusting.

Hopefully that will give you some fun ideas on where to start with this hue that doesn’t know whether it is blue or green.  All the fabulous photos in this post were from Bradley Hanson (@bradleyhanson on Twitter).

See our Pantone 2010 post on Pantone colors for 2010, and Bella Signature Design’s interview with Lee Eiseman, THE Pantone color expert for more information on Pantone!

I am so excited to help bring this AMAZING opportunity to Seattle!  As President of the Seattle chapter of Wish Upon a Wedding, I’ve been super busy this last week working on filling up our Board of Directors with fabulous people, and looking for vendors who want to be a part of this great cause.

Haven’t heard of Wish Upon a Wedding, or want more information?  Read below! Having been in the medical field in a prior career, this cause is very close to my heart, and I am so excited to have found something that marries my two passions!  Now I get to make beautiful things AND help/give back.  What a blessing! For more information, see below or visit www.wishuponawedding.org.  Feel free to contact me about being on the board, fulfilling a wish, or wanting a wish

Wish Upon A Wedding was founded in San Francisco, CA, in January of 2010, by a group of wedding and business entrepreneurs and is America’s FIRST nonprofit wedding wish granting organization, producing weddings and civil union ceremonies at destinations across the United States for individuals facing terminal illness, regardless of sexual orientation.

Chapters:

Wish Upon A Wedding is now boasting twenty chapters nationwide, headed by some of the industry’s most renowned leaders with plans to expand to over 40 chapters worldwide.

Presidents:

Sasha Souza, National President & SF Bay Area President

Kevin Covey, LA/Orange County

Stella Inserra, New York

Ivy Robinson, The Carolinas

Eliana Baucicault, Atlanta

Mary Alice Sublett, Tennessee

Mark Kingsdorf, Philadelphia

Heather Hamilton Sims, Houston

Shelby Tuck Horton, DC

Elisa Delgardio, Orlando

Ali Phillips, Chicago

Daniela Isabella Ferdico Fagét, Seattle

Forming Additional Chapters:

Other chapters opening soon include Boston, Colorado, Arizona, Portland, Miami, St. Louis, Ohio and Nevada.  We are also planning to open to chapters in other areas depending on need including international chapters.  If you wish to start a chapter, please fill out the online form for consideration.

Who Is Behind Wish Upon A Wedding?

Many influential people in the industry are beginning to endorse Wish Upon A Wedding & you can find those endorsements on the website.  There are also amazing people sitting on the Boards and Advisory Panel throughout the US such as Dana Larue Stiebel “Broke-Ass Bride” {LA Chapter PR Chair}, Leila Khalil {National PR Advisor}, Beth Helmstetter {National Outreach Director} just to name a few.  They would love to have you join as well either as a board member or wish granter!

How We Grant Wishes:

To qualify for Wishes, applicants must be unmarried legal citizens of the United States, over the age of 18, who have been diagnosed with less than three years to live.  Couples can be granted wishes either in the chapter where they live or in a chapter of their choosing as long as they are able to make the trip.

Couples can simply apply online to request one of three wedding types:

URGENT (Up to 10 guests, in hospital or at bedside);

BOUTIQUE (up to 25 guests, in home town of applicant);

ROMANTIC (Up to 50 guests, at any WUW destination)

How Can You Grant Wishes?

As the organization is building, Wish Granters are needed in all locations. Please apply online today to start helping Wedding Wishes come true. In two weeks, Wish Upon A Wedding will be granting the very first wish.  To read more about that wish and the couple please visit the website.

fulfilled!

wish upon a wedding

Pleased to let our readers be aware of a new non-profit organization that will be helping people who are terminally ill. I’m so pleased to announce/promote:

Wish Upon A Wedding was founded in San Francisco, CA, in January of 2010, by a group of wedding and business entrepreneurs and is America’s FIRST nonprofit wedding wish granting organization, producing weddings and civil union ceremonies at destinations across the United States for individuals facing terminal illness, regardless of sexual orientation.

Chapters:

Wish Upon A Wedding is now boasting twenty chapters nationwide, headed by some of the industry’s most renowned leaders with plans to expand to over 40 chapters worldwide.

Presidents:

Sasha Souza, National President & SF Bay Area President

Kevin Covey, LA/Orange County

Stella Inserra, New York

Ivy Robinson, The Carolinas

Eliana Baucicault, Atlanta

Mary Alice Sublett, Tennessee

Mark Kingsdorf, Philadelphia

Heather Hamilton Sims, Houston

Shelby Tuck Horton, DC

Elisa Delgardio, Orlando

Ali Phillips, Chicago

Daniela Isabella Ferdico Fagét, Seattle

Forming Additional Chapters:

Other chapters opening soon include Boston, Colorado, Arizona, Portland, Miami, St. Louis, Ohio and Nevada.  We are also planning to open to chapters in other areas depending on need including international chapters.  If you wish to start a chapter, please fill out the online form for consideration.

Who Is Behind Wish Upon A Wedding?

Many influential people in the industry are beginning to endorse Wish Upon A Wedding & you can find those endorsements on the website.  There are also amazing people sitting on the Boards and Advisory Panel throughout the US such as Dana Larue Stiebel “Broke-Ass Bride” {LA Chapter PR Chair}, Leila Khalil {National PR Advisor}, Beth Helmstetter {National Outreach Director} just to name a few.  They would love to have you join as well either as a board member or wish granter!

How We Grant Wishes:

To qualify for Wishes, applicants must be unmarried legal citizens of the United States, over the age of 18, who have been diagnosed with less than three years to live.  Couples can be granted wishes either in the chapter where they live or in a chapter of their choosing as long as they are able to make the trip.

Couples can simply apply online to request one of three wedding types:

URGENT (Up to 10 guests, in hospital or at bedside);

BOUTIQUE (up to 25 guests, in home town of applicant);

ROMANTIC (Up to 50 guests, at any WUW destination)

How Can You Grant Wishes?

As the organization is building, Wish Granters are needed in all locations. Please apply online today to start helping Wedding Wishes come true. In two weeks, Wish Upon A Wedding will be granting the very first wish.  To read more about that wish and the couple please visit the website.

Please use this info on your own blog and during the course of this week…if you have the time and the room on your blog this week.

It will help build a network of very important people in this industry whose main goal is to help these very deserving couples.  After all, if you are in the business of creating lifetime memories, we are now asking you to help us create memories for those who are left behind because these couples do not have a lifetime together.

I have always had a love of strong color – I have these memories of this beautiful emerald green wool duffle coat I had as a child growing up in Berlin (yes, I’ve always loved green, just the hue has changed over the years)….probably the only 8 year old loving dark green, but whether it was that coat, my chocolate brown blanket or ruby hued dress, color spoke to me.  It still does, and a lot of my work allows me to use color to set a mood or create an environment.  Today I had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with a kindred soul, Lee Eiseman, a world renowned color expert who not only serves as a consultant for Pantone but teaches classes on color theory, has authored books on color, and is absolutely fascinating when it comes to discussion how color trends come about.  Yes, this is the woman who is responsible for 2009’s “Mimosa Yellow” and the 2010 color of the year, Turquoise (which would not have been a color most floral designer would have chosen, but heh, I’m always up for a challenge.)  And as Sasha Souza so aptly pointed out in a symposium she gave in Seattle this evening, it usually takes two years for colors to drift down to the event world from when they first hit the fashion runway.  As Eiseman explains, the original owner of Pantone first developed the Pantone system for printing – graphic designers, sign makers, anyone in the printing system NEEDED a system that could translate “I want an ad with this color green” into “I want a flyer with background in Pantone  x and copy in Pantone Y.”He saw that someone Fuchsia was another’s Purple, and that we needed a system to objectively classify color in order to discuss it accurately.

This brilliant color system caught in quickly in the make-up, interior design and fashion world, and soon Pantone expanded their systems to include more than just printing. Today, you see such companies as Dessy Bridal working with Pantone to create a easy color system for brides and bridesmaids, and even J. Crew selling Pantone hued sneakers.

When interviewing Lee, I wanted to know how the color forecasts are made, how colors of the year are chosen.  Is it random or is there a formula?

Lee explained that many different factors go into the forecasting of color trends of any particular year, from the socieconomic climate, the historic implications of a color, the psychological aspects of a certain hue and everything from what she sees in the European fashion world (which we know is always a ways ahead of what happens here in America) to what is in the midsts of production in Hollywood films.  The last two years (2009, 2010) have brought us bright, happy colors: Mimosa Yellow and Turquoise.  I queried Lee about Turquoise, and she explained that she not only had seen turquoise springing up in everythign from Eur0pean fashion to small hip  boutiques, but also that people in general felt a need for protection (Turquoise has long been seen as a talisman in many cultures) and a sense of escape (an overwhelming response from people included the ideas of tropical island & tropical waters).

What does that mean for the event industry?  Well, event designers may embrace this hue and show it to their clients currently if they want to be ‘current”, but it will likely take a bit longer  for brides themselves to see turquoise around them in the fashion and home decor industries and request it as a hue to use in their wedding.  At Bella Signature Design we do have have two weddings this year with turquoise as a main element, and two of our clients for 2011 weddings are playing around with “aqua.” Is it because this hue is popping up more and more?  Whatever color you choose, it should be something you love!  Most of us have colors that make us happy, makes us smile, colors that catch our eye whether it is in a paper clip or a wall paper. THOSE should be the colors that you use for your wedding.  Most of my clients can’t help but notice the chartreuse walls of my studio or my favorite purse, and my friends know ANYTHING in that hue will make me brilliantly happy.  What is your favorite color?  (Psst, Lee’s favorite color of the moment?  Periwinkle.)

Then there is the question of what to do with this hue in terms of floral and event design (let’s face it, turquoise is not a floral color, and besides tropical waters and peacocks, can rarely be found in nature.)  See next weeks post on how to incorporate this hue into event and floral design (we loved Sasha Souza’s suggestion of turquoise and a marigold hue – yum!).  And you can always look back on our original post on Pantone’s 2010 color trends