Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Friday, June 26, 2009
How to make an interior designer happy at her wedding...
This is the Fairway Pavilion at The Hilton La Jolla at Torrey Pines...don't you wish you had been invited to this party?  check out this amazing wedding dress...so classy, and elegant, and clean simple lines...Jolene chose a great color combo to work with! Pinks, peaches, butternut and chocolate! I never 'kiss and tell' but this bride and groom rate in the top 10 of all! She 'spoke my language' and understood the value of color, not only for her bou  quet, but throughout the wedding! It was a gorgeous day at the Hilton Torrey Pines. A path of colorful rose petals and a wide cream colored runner created a simple path to the 'altar!' With a space this gorgeous, save your decorating dollars to spend in the ballroom.  The cocktail hour was in the foyer of the Fairway Pavilion, and out on the terrace...we chose to use a bright coral linen for these tables, again keeping the decor simple. This large table under the chandelier was used to hold the seating cards, which this crafty bride designed herself in the shape of shells, and we set into shallow trays of sand... Every time the door opened, the orchids fluttered in the breeze! It was so cool...  This look of floating cyrstals and candles and flowers has been so popular...here you can see it in close up!  Very pretty images, and very nice people!
 Cupcakes are everyone's favorites, right? We decorated these with fresh flowers and raspberries!
More great ideas...
I'm all about color, as most of you know...  and I'm all about different, as most of you know...here's a couple of tables that are both colorful and different. The blue and rust combo came alive in the green grass at Grand Del Mar (it's where everyone seems to want to do photo shoots this year! I can see why!) We paired the best of the best with linens from Wild Flower ( www.wildflowerlinens.com) , chairs from Chameleon Chair ( www.chameleonchair.com) and table top rentals from Unique Table Tops ( www.uniquetabletoprentals.com) Then I came in and created a table top that is a little unique unto itself...the manzanita branch has been made into countless trees by all the florists of the world...I still like the material, but I thought it might be fun to let it meander thru an iron base, and let the calla lilies 'be themselves'...check out the flatware...it matches the 'monkey tails' that are playing with the calla lilies!  I didn't mention him but I must...Paul Barnett shot this for us all, and we are thrilled. Wouldn't you love to eat dinner at this table?  I'm completely diggin' the glass candleholders...don't you love colored glass? If you've been to my house, and, or, my studio, you know I love it too! Have you had yellow raspberries yet?
Thursday, June 11, 2009
so do you guys remember the scene in Caddyshack, where the priest goes out to play golf in the driving rain, thunder and lightening?
  Well, that's how I felt last week at La Costa, where we were doing a photo shoot for a magazine... The thunder and lightening was crashing around us, but the shoot must go on! It's that time of the year again, when all the magazines start their round of photo shoots...I just wanted to do something very different, so I headed to the nursery, and found some awesome succulents...then I went to the grocery store, and found some crazy veggies, that made this table top a little more interesting than the 'norm'...then I went to my storage room (that would make Martha Stewart proud) and found some wonderful vintage silver pieces in my own personal collection that created the perfect juxtaposition with the succulents...Carol Smith at Invitation Factory created the fun menus and CD party favors, and Wild Flower Linens supplied us with the beautiful linens in soft shades of taupe and mauve, that rocked with the natural beauty of the grounds at La Costa Spa and Resort... And best thing yet, my fate was not that of the priest in Caddyshack...I made it thru the lightening strikes!
Friday, May 29, 2009
The Grand Del Mar
 So I loaded these images a little backwards...we all know I'm a florist, not a computer chick... This was another event I was honored to create for the same convention that I just posted below. However, this WAS the grand daddy event of the week and what it made it so was the 120 or so in attendance were the cream of the crop of the event industry, nation wide, and it was held in the Capela of the most gorgeous Grand Del Mar. And I got to do the flowers! Wow, just amazing! So Paul Barnett shot this for me too...a 17' tower of purple orchids, purple stained glass and candles creating a centerpiece for an X shaped table, which was then strewn with candles, and flowers, and fruit, and stunning linens and exquisite chairs...Wild Flower Linens and Chameleon Chairs  Then a few weeks later, my next adventure at this beautiful hotel brought me, Paige and Charles (the catering pros at the hotel) to a whole new creation...a stunning bridal coordinators event, that featured dresses from M Bride, set in the Capela (room looks a lot different without that 17' tower of purple orchids, huh?) These images were taken by another talented photographer, Boyd Harris. Boyd's work is beautiful!  Carol Smith designed the most exquisite menu and place setting keepsakes for the coordinators that I have ever seen. I wish I could show you the invitation that she made for the party. Seriously they could have been sent to the Queen of England, they were that gorgeous! (I love her hats! Those of you that know me, know I tried to see her hats last year, but she wasn't there when I arrived...too bad! The queen that is, not Carol's hats...I don't think Carol wears hats?)  
I've been busy
   In January, I was invited to participate in an annual event, this year hosted in San Diego at the awesome Hard Rock Hotel...it was called The Wedding Lunch, and I partnered with a terrific team of event professionals...  Rachel Peniche of Plan It San Diego was my partner in design (and crime :) Holland Flower Market of San Diego and Petals and Petals of Miami came thru and saved us by giving us just spectacular flowers!
 The event was in concert with a week long convention hosted by The Special Event magazine.   Not only was it challenging in a creative sense, it was a great experience to work side by side with a fab team of designers who created other aspects of the event....  But this was my playground...a world of black and white...which, for all of you who know me, know I live far from a world of black and white....  My own world rocks in colors of the rainbow....  But not that day! Paul Barnett behind the camera
Frugal Fashionistas
 Are you a frugal fashionista? Do you love a good deal? Finding something that looks like it was more than it was? All of these images show affordable 'now' designs to enhance your table tops....  and they're all under $150 per table...(psst...a lot of them are well under that amount!)   Enjoy!
What makes it all work is a design sense and a desire to make your party stand out from the rest! 40 years of being at the top of my game has taught me it's not about the most showy or over the top...it's about the 'look,' something that says 'you' in the best way! I'm a frugal fashionista too! (ssh, don't tell anyone :)
Estancia
Who says we have to have dinner first?  Michele Coulon is the girl with the passion for cake, and chocolate...well, me too...but Michele is the cake designer...she created chocolate iron swirls and hand made chocolate dogwood blossoms, and calla lilies, to create this awesome work of art for Estancia Spa & Resorts' Wedding Coordinator Fete last weekend...And again...lucky me, we got to do the flowers and design of the event! We created a base for the cake that was created from many different  foliages and textures... Check out the frosting flowers mixed with the fresh flowers...I still wanna know how she made those dogwood out of chocolate!?  I'm on a "phal" fetish right now...they are so amazingly graceful, full of movement...the white butterfly orchid spikes, is  what I'm referring to, for those of you who don't speak florist... also, love, love, love the rich chocolate eucalyptus foliage...and do you see that little succulent floating on the wire? Details...  this is the seating card table...we used birch logs, which we slit with a small hand saw, and slipped the seating cards into the slits, to keep the cards from blowing off the tables...I worked with many natural elements on the table top to achieve this uber natural look...sand, roc  ks, beans, wood... Lemons and roses, and sunflowers, and sisal rugs and open panels filled with vases covered with interesting textures of fabric...fit perfectly on the lawn at the hotel!  Erika Hinshaw, the rock star at Estancia in the catering office, made sure everyone was comfy out on the lawn...pashminas for everyone! Paul Barnett, maestro photographer, shared his view thru the camera! You do me justice each and every time Paul!
  I'm a lucky girl, that's for sure...Bloomingdales Fashion Valley asked me again to provide the floral decor for their fab wedding show a few weeks ago...so here is my table...
I love earthy colors...but I also love peacocks...who knew?
I accented the earth tones with peacock blue napkins and other table top elements!  Check out these fun containers I found on the sale shelf at Bloomies...awesome!   Do you see why French tulips ulimately must be my favorite Spring blooms? And why I love Holland?  |
