I love this photo captured at one of our weddings at the Fairmont Olympic this last summer – the light coming through the Phaleanopsis Orchids is amazing. Marsio Photo out of Indonesia captured some wonderful shots! Still waiting to see all of the photos from the wedding – what an incredible wedding this was – Indah’s three gowns alone were stunning! Definitely one of my favorites of the year – the centerpieces were SO much fun to create!
This summer I had the extreme pleasure of designing and helping plan my cousins wedding. Now, I’m usually not a huge proponent of mixing work and family, but I couldn’t help but jump in and help Jessica create her dream wedding. I come from a VERY small family – there are less then 10 people that I am related to on this half of the world!! I’ve known Jessica since the day she was born, and (now) fondly remember those nights when I would babysit and she would cry for hours on end…suddenly, she’s all grown up and getting married – and she tells me the design and flowers (besides the getting married part) are one of the most important parts for her. NO PRESSURE. Not to mention that she wants a very gardeny (yes, I made that word up) romantic wedding, and my designs tend towards the lush and modern. Despite my aunt’s look of worry, I tell them that yes, I can indeed do romantic and gardeny. Oh, and of course, I LOVE to use bold color – and Jessica wants what I termed a “tea-stained look.” I assure them that I can indeed, design to the bride and her wishes and we designed away, ending up with a fabulously collaborative mix of my designs and the bride’s DIY touches.
The beautiful bride and her romantic “tea stained” bouquet of garden roses, sweet peas, jasmine, gardenia and Metalina roses. Oh, that sweet flower girl?? That’s my daughter, Isabella. I’ve never ever my kids on my blog or website – that whole family/work separation. But, since Style Me Pretty has posted These stunning shots by the amazing Stephanie Cristalli, I figured it was time!
The pin on the ribbon was the bride’s and mine grandmother’s….very, very special. I hand-pleated the dupionni silk ribbon to complement the pleating on the bottom of Jessica’s delicious Melissa Sweet Gown.
The ceremony…
The four ADORABLE ringbearer’s – although I’m biased – the little blondie is my son, Mateo. I know, his tie is crooked and he didn’t want his pocket square (gasp!) One of the drawbacks of being the florist/designer/planner, wedding attendee, mother of the ring bearer – still cute though.
The centerpieces – yum!
Hanging escort cards, designed by the bride
Love this shot – it was so nice to work with Stephanie again!!
What pure joy to have been such an integral part of Jessica’s wedding!
So, there you go, readers – Over the last few years I’ve shown you my work, my passion, and now my family, and even my children…Hard for me to be so personal, and show so much of myself. However, the more open I am, the more you can see what drives me to create and how passionate I am about creating a wedding that truly reflects who you are. It just gets better everyday!
I LOVE to create drama. I want the bride, the groom, the guests, the pastor, even the the servers – to walk in, catch their breath and say “WOW.” My favorite comments we get from vendors who have seen their own space or a popular venue over and over again?
“Wow, this place has never looked like this! ”
“It looks like a different space!”
“i’ve never seen the Spanish Ballroom look so modern”
“I didn’t know this room could look like this”
Do I love these comments? YOU BET!! A space SHOULD look different. It should be, in my opinion, a true reflection of the bride and groom – an entire atmosphere created for the couple, the family and their guests. This can’t be done by simply putting some pretty flowers on 60 inch rounds (standard tables) evenly space through the room or even adding a colorful tablecloth. To create an atmosphere, a designer must collaborate with the client, get to know them, almost better than they know themselves – at least in the terms of what they like. My best weddings have been those where I have had plenty of time to get to know the couple – and then been given the freedom to create.
Play around! Create different sized tables by putting tables together, or at least play with the layout (while still being cognisant of the flow needed for guests and serving staff). Use color, texture, and scent. Use professional lighting – HUGE impact. Don’t be afraid to mix it up. You don’t need all the same table shapes, all the same linen colors! Too many variations and you have a circus effect, but the right amount? Drama – the good kind.
When I started the process of designing Laura and Billy’s Wedding (yes, with a four week timeframe) I never saw it as an “Anthropologie Wedding,” but so many people have commented that it felt this way to them when they viewed the amazing pictures shot by Jasmine Star! What I felt more than anything as I stepped back and viewed the pictures was that it was really a reflection of Laura and Billy. Everything from the mismatched vintage chandeliers we strung, the hanging windowpanes as people walked in, the caramel/taupey colors of the blooms in her bouquet- it just felt SO LAURA (and Billy – but I definitely got to know Laura better in the time we all spent together.)
I loved their story, how brave they were to allow a bunch of strangers to design and create their wedding in such a short time, and to broadcast it live for millions to see. They knew that all that really mattered was that they loved each other (and their impeccable taste, joy for life in general and great friends and family didn’t hurt.)
As I look over these pictures, I am struck by that process of “getting into a bride’s head” to help her design the wedding she wants. We spend hours, weeks, months together – and then it’s all done! Many of my brides and I have remained great friends, have worked on projects, and still check in with each other. I feel so blessed to be part of peoples lives in such a special way, and am grateful that I get to create, share and feel every single day. Laura and Billy – thank you – you are a joy, and I can not wait to watch your marriage and careers grow!
I LOVE this photo – It is the epitome of who they are – fun, joyful, sweet. And Jasmine, thanks for taking me with you on this crazy ride of a live broadcast wedding. I’ve loved your work, but now I’ve experienced YOU – what a treat. It’s always great to work with other great professionals – it’s even better to work with those that “get it,” get you, and get the client. JOY!
A while back the lovely Sally of Seattle Bride Magazine called me and asked me to design a 2 page spread for the magazine’s Unveiled section. ooo, what fun! I created about 5 color palettes and sent those, along with various concepts, off to Sally to review. The winner was the Pear Green and Cement color palette – modern & edgy – right up my alley!
As the article notes, I found this amazing fabric and fell in love with the colors and patterns – and as gathered vendors to help produce the designs, I sent them pictures of the fabric so they too, could use the same inspiration! Since I didn’t find any napkins that inspired me as much as the fabric itself, I decided to make my own, and balance it between two square plates, and my favortie chargers in the world, slate tiles from home depot. (LOVE this loo, but beware, they are HEAVY! – I once used 200 of these for a wedding – wow, did get a workout!)
The necklace was a GREAT find at Bainbridge Island’s boutique Ginger. I literally could buy EVERYTHING in this store – from the amazing hand-made jewelry to the stunning plates and sculpture – I adore their style. I of course, fell so in love with the necklace in this article, that I went back and bought it – it IS my signature color after all!
Sonal from Chocolaz Cakes blew me away! She took my piece of fabric and created this insanely amazing cake! I had such fun making the floral cake stand, but seriously, this cake was even more amazing up-close, with it’s 3 dimensional blooms. WOW.
When I first told Tara Bliven of Ephemera Press that I wanted to put a piece of steel under a letterpressed invitation, I think she thought I was a wee bit kooky. I love how her beautiful art came together with this piece of steel, which was actually quite light and could easily be delivered in a box. She ended up loving it too!
the LIGHT: I think this was my favorite piece of this entire design. I had found this yummy gray duppioni, and just really wanted to pair it with flowers and light – so I draped the fixture in the duppioni, and attached green cymbidium orchids and gray bersilia berries in a pattern form the fabric. Wouldn’t this be fun over a headtable or dessert display?
Thanks, Sally, and the Seattle Bride team, for having faith in me and letting me play!
Once we found our venue, all the design ideas for Laura and Billy clicked into place. I was in love with the venue, and quite inspired by it! I saw hundreds of chandeliers, windows swathed in silk..but of course, like most weddings, there is a budget to keep to, and so there was a limit to the chandeliers and the fabric draping and fabulous lighting I saw in my head. Ah, but how to help the bride SEE what is inside my head? That’s where our wonderful Nadia comes in – since I can’t draw, she reaches right inside my head and manages to sketch out my ideas for the client to see.
Laura loves color, and has a fabulous sense of style, yet had some difficulty articulating what she wanted. Over a few session and lots of color swatches (and a bit of help from the internet, who watched us plan this whole wedding live!) later, we picked a yummy color palette of brown sugar (a coppery brown), cobalt blue, metallic gold and cream. I loved how the brown sugar color worked well with the brick in the building! Stay tuned for pictures from the actual wedding, shot by Jasmine Star – how close will our sketch be??
Thank you again to Christy from Junebug for the FABULOUS photos!
I am so excited to be working with Laura and Billy! Laura and Billy were chosen as the lucky recipients of the “Jasmine Star/CreativeLive/Bella Signature Design Wedding” Phew – a mouthful – but what an experience! In just four weeks, we are planning and designing a fabulous, stylish, fun wedding for Laura and Billy, who not only get our planning and design services for free, but free photography from the amazing Jasmine Star and coverage from CreativeLive. See more information about the CreativeLive Wedding here.
Laura has been a blast to work with. She’s is absolutely sweet, hilarious, open-minded. She has some definite ideas on what she likes, which is actually very helpful to the process of planning and designing. It is hard for her to make the actual decisions, but with guidance from myself and her bridesmaids (and the urgency of our timeline) she has been crossing things off of our list!
Billy also seems very easy going and fun – they are obviously in love, and always full of joy and laughter when I am with them.
Christy of the uberfantastic Junebug Weddings Blog has been on hand to not only capture these amazing images but to blog her point of view on this experience on the Junebug blog. Follow our adventures on the Bella blog, Junebug blog, and of course, every Monday at Noon PST at Creativelive.com/live – where you can even ask questions as we broadcast live and discuss where we are planning process so far.
Wish Upon a Wedding Seattle held it’s Launch Party Thursday night at the fabulous Pravda studios. If you missed it, you missed a fabulous event, some ah-mazing delectables from our awesome sponsors, a roomful of wonderful people, SWEET swag bags and of course, the chance to hear all about Wish Upon a Wedding. (and of course, my amazing decor. But more on that in a minute!)
It’s no secret that I adore Pravda’s space – as a designer, a blank white loft space is creative bliss. We took the WUW logo colors of aquamarine and chartreuse (yes, I got to use my favorite color!), and so that our launch party didn’t look like every other WUW launch party across the country, I decided to add in a pop of tangerine. (especially since I refuse to use turquoise flowers).
Yum. Add in some great lounge furniture (thank you, Pravda), Linens from ABC Party Rentals AND Prestige Linens (who overnighted linens to us - at no charge. WOW.) and we had some great tables and seating.
As the owner of Bella, we of course had to be a major sponsor (since as President of WUW I’m not allowed to donate to the weddings), and I had a blast with the florals and styling of dessert tables.
Ah, the desserts. To be different and fun, we decided to offer a sumptuous selection of sweets. Where to start? Trophy Cupcakes (as seen on Martha Stewart) not only offered insanely delicious cupcakes like Red Velvet and Margarita, they matched them to the WUW logo colors. YES! Having worked with them many times, they know I’ll go as far as bringing in color chips to match the icing too…the right hue can be critical!!
Judy Tallant of Tallant House created an entire table of dessert bites of every concoction, Gourmondo Catering brought delightful cookies, and I even got to cut a WUW wedding cake from the generous Celebrity Cake Studio.
Many Seattle area vendors donated to the swagbags each new WUW wish grantor received, from Microsoft, to Bon Bon Confections, and event the Seattle Aquarium.
Thank you Tania at Azzura for the fabulous photos!! It’s always fabulous to work with you!
The best part of the evening was seeing Seattle Wedding vendors out in full force, ready to be a part of such an amazing organization. After a slideshow, my little speech, and a stunning video by Edit1Media, our registration table was abuzz.
Thanks, Style Me Pretty, for featuring our work!
To read the rest of the Style Me Pretty feature, click here. To see our post on this fabulous New Years Brunch, look down a few posts! We had such a great creative team on this one…
We are so honored to be a new member of Style Me Pretty’s Little Black Book.
Ah, lovely Christy and Blair over at the fabulous What Junebug loves asked me for one of weddings where we had sketches and photos, and to share the story behind the wedding – and I couldn’t resist sharing one of my favvorite weddings from this last summer!
Here is the sketch:
come see what they posted here!
and view some of the great photo compilations Christy did of Lifemosaic’s fabulous shots! (reception shots on Junebug’s blog)
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