It’s so fun to see one’s work on the cover at the Newsstand!  A up and coming floral designer I met the other night asked me about the inspiraiton behind the bouquet….  The savvy Laura Cassidy, Editor at Seattle Metropolitan Bride and Groom sent over some runway fashion inspirations, and of course we picked one with a ton of color!  The day before the shoot we not only grabbed some amazing blooms we had ordered at Northwest Wholesale, but longingly gazed at the yummy large orange poppies in our neighbors yard.  Luckily I have been doing my “random acts of kindness” by bringing by small arrangements here and there to said neightbor over the last year, so despite the neighbors grumblings of “I don’t like to cut my poppies” I was able to land two incredible orange beauties!  Off to my garden for some fuchsia garden roses, and a random tree down the street (shh! don’t tell) that held the fabulous long cascading locks of evergreen.  I loved the blue of the thistle and the pops of pear green viburnum.  Thanks, Laura for entrusting me to create your vision again, and for letting our creation jump off the cover. Totally honored.

I had the incredible honor of attending and speaking at the Engage10 Symposium over the last few days – what an amazing experience!  Each one gets better than the last.  Engage is a symposium aimed at luxury wedding professionals, and has the most incredible attendee & speaker list.  I feel it is incredibly important to learn from others in my industry – the best creative process comes from learning and being inspired by others, and who better to that with than those at the top of the industry?  From Marcy Blum’s musings to Mindy Weiss’ s advice, technical advice from Todd Fiscus and practicalities from David Beahm….the last few days was absolutely filled to the brim with inspiration, advice and tips – not to mention the chance to spend time with some of my favorite people in the industry. Speaking in front of everyone was quite daunting!

From connecting with industry friends all over the country,  making new friendships and learning a ton, I feel blessed to have attended my third Engage, and feel incredibly inspired and re-energized.  Are you ready Seattle?

Here are a few pictures of the opening night soiree – what a fabulous night it was!

Yum!  All photos from the talented Mel Barlow – who was a pleasure to meet!

Mel Barlow Photography and Allan Zepeda
www.melbarlow.com
www.allanzepeda.com

Thank you, Simon, for asking me to speak, and thank you Rebecca and Kathryn, for creating this amazing experience for all of us, and for giving me the opportunity.  I’m still awed, energized and incredibly inspired!

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!

We are so excited that the wedding we worked on on May, as part of the Wish Upon a Wedding team, was featured on Thetodayshow.com! Shelley and Jay’s wedding was truly an amazing wedding to be a part of, and as the President of Wish Upon a Wedding here in Settle, I am super excited that the Today Show Feature will bring this incredible organization even more exposure – which means we get to grant more wedding wishes.

To see more about Jay and Shelley’s Wedding, see our Wish Upon a Wedding  blog post.  Read the TODAYSHOW.com article by clicking the link.

Did you hear the exciting news about Wish Upon a Wedding?  We are now granting wishes to even more deserving couples!  Although the organization started out granting wishes to couples facing terminal illness with three years or less to live, we have now expanded to granting wishes to couples with the following:

* Couples where at least one individual has terminal diagnosis of less than FIVE years to live

* Couples faced with situations that have caused serious emotional, physical or financial stress (approved on case by case basis)

* Married couples seeking vow renewals, who have faced serious life-altering circumstances including but not limited to terminal illness (approved on a case by case basis)

Stacie  Francombe, national public relations chair and founder of Get Married Media, said it best:
“By partnering with Wish Upon a Wedding, Get Married’s goal is to help connect talented, local wedding professionals in order to offer couples in their communities with a dream wedding and turn tragedy into triumph. By opening up new doors to more deserving couples with a variety of life-changing challenges, the wedding industry is sharing their commitment to their profession, to these individuals and to the idea that dreams do come true for any couple in love.”

french anemone bouquet

Months ago the lovely  Laura Cassidy of Seattle Metropolitan Bride and Groom invited me to design a bouquet based on fashion!  You all know how I LOVE to design when given a piece of inspiration, so to be given some photos of floral fashion seemed like a ton of fun!  I was the first to pick, so I of course picked bolf, lush, colorful – not knowing that Laura wanted ALL those colors in there.  Here at Bella, my designs are known for amazing.  One fo the things that makes us stand out is HOW we use color – playing colors off of each other to make them  almost luminescent!  I prefer analogous color palettes, (color next to each other on the colorwheel), so when the specs for this photoshoot came in (blue, purple, fuchsia, orange and green – all in ONE bouquet!) I have to admit, I was a bit worried!

The morning of the photoshoot, as I was creating the bouquet, it all fell into place…I found the most stunning orange poppies, the coolest blue thistles, and this amazing green pine that had the most amazing cascading feel to it…The neat things about photoshoots and designing something based on purely an inspirational item is that you get to allow creativity to come in naturally, and that because if this, you see things around you differently.  Had I been given a picture by a bride with the instructions “replicate this”, the creativity , and therefore the piece itself, would undoubtedly been less innovative.  What do you think?

It was such a pleasure to be a part of Wedding 360’s Academy of Planners and Designers (TAPD) a few weeks ago in San Francisco!  This last year has been a whirlwind of symposiums and conferences for me, and each of them has added something new and essential to my company and way of doing business. ( For a look at the Engage!09 Symposium’s, look up Bella’s blog posts about Engage09.

It was so fun reuniting with the hilarious Ali Philips from Chicago, and sweet Stephanie Frazier-Grimm from Newport, Rhode Island.  I first met these two amazing planners at Engage, and we’ve formed a friendship that endures the long distance! Some great collaborations coming up!
Image by Orange Photography

Wedding 360’s gathering of wedding planners and event designers was fabulous – not only to hear some amazing speakers such as David Beahm and Tara Guerard of Soiree, but to also be surrounded by like-minded individuals from all across the country, many of who were willing to share everything from tips to sources.

As always it was incredible to hear Rebecca Grinnals and Sean Low speak, they are ever so inspiring and give me an incredible amount of motivation to get my business model the best it can be. Rebecca is  one of the smartest business people I have the pleasure to know, and for her to call me out in front of my peers and talk about  my business and what she liked about our website was an honor!

Overall, the greatest thing was hearing several amazing designers, from Tara Guerard, to David Beahm to Todd at Todd Events talk about their businesses; they are all very successful, yet not only came about it in entirely different ways, but even currently run their business in very different ways.  SO, lesson learned, there are more ways than one to be successful in this industry, and success can be defined in various ways!  How do you define success? For me, it is finding the right balance of work and family/play, and working with clients that I enjoy, and that enjoy me and my work.  To get to use my craft, to create and design my client’s special moments – what a blessing! I love nothing more than to be incredibly creative, taking my client as inspiration and creating an event beyond even their expectations!

Follow us over the next week as we share more pictures from the Wedding 360 Conference, all shot by Orange Photography!