Beachy with Class!

A big shout out goes to Brit who was married last Saturday in Las Caletas! We did a whole set of things for her, as you will see - all super fun!

INSPIRATION

Brit did send us her invites but told me she didn't really want something based off the invites (other than the colors) - after discussing it a bit as to what she would like to see, I remembered an invite that I loved which was very colorful but super kewl - Brittloved it too and, thus, started our inspiration for her wedding sets!

Maracas

The first thing Brit ordered were the maracas. She wanted the colors of yellow, orange and an orchid/fuschia color. We decided to put the white tiger lily on it for the biggest effect and this is how they turned out!

MARACA TAGS & NAMES/DATE/LOCATION

The bride really wanted to have the names/date/location on the maracas but it was a little over her budget - so, instead, we offered to do tags on some and she decided to do the print on others. The inspiration for these tags (and, as you will see, the place cards as well) came as I was struggling to find something that would be beachy but not too "beachy" - I wanted something artistic, yet also classical when I ran across this graphic image and realized it was perfect! On the other side of the tags I put a tiger lilly water color and I really like the effect. Also taking oodles of time was the font - I must have looked at over 100 different fonts before deciding this was IT! And you thought picking a dress was hard! :)

PLACE CARDS

When I asked Brit how she would like her place cards she was really laid back and basically told me to just do something kewl!! So, I thought place cards on the forks would look nice (and as I knew the wedding was outside at Las Caletas, I thought that would ensure that they wouldn't blow away). I really liked how they came out - as I was playing with font colors I accidentally did the two-tone and decided there was some kewl factor there!

HAND PAINTED FANS

We were just going to do sandalwood fans with ribbon and accents but, when we went to order the fans, it turns out that they are stuck in Mexican customs right now and nobody in Vallarta had any! So, we had to do some quick thunking and we suggested to Brit that we could do some fans based on the same theme as the maracas with a slight twist and she agreed! I'm actually glad it turned out this way because I think they turned out awesome - actually a product of my husband, rather than Omar!

Next week we have Megan's maracas to share ... we've been so busy and I promise I've been scouting the web for ideas - but they have mostly been for my bride's weddings and, of course, must keep those under wraps until we unveil! If you are eager for me to get back to cool decor ideas I will be back to that at the end of April when we have a little break before we go into May and are oodles busy!

Lovebirds and the Tropics....

We've been incognito but not lazy! A big congratulations goes to Gilda and Jade - both of whom were married this last Friday the 13th! I'm very fond of Friday the 13th as it was also the day I got married!

LOVEBIRDS

Gilda first asked me to do some fans with the swirl, similar to previous blog postings, but in her colors of white and silver (white, silver and a touch of red were her colors!). But, then, she told us that lovebirds had a real meaning to them and they would like to include it somehow, if they could. This was the information she sent us....

So, Omar and I put our heads together and decided to combine the swirl idea with the lovebirds and this is what resulted!

Tropical Flowers

Jade sent us her invites and wanted to know if we could do something similar in her colors of fuschia and orange.

I told her that, when you put a strong color on top of another strong color you need a lighter color to balance it out. So, she decided to do half orange and half pink with a white design and this is what Omar pulled out of his hat!

Next week we have Britt's design - it's completely unique, not like anything I've ever done before, so hopefully you'll tune back in and see how it turns out!

Art Deco with a Touch of Glam...

Thank you for being so patient! It's been a very busy time for us here and I'm not blogging the way I would love to do!

A CHANGE
So, here's our February 15th creation. Before I walk you through the design, there was a change we wanted to note - a few days before the wedding the bride decided that she wanted to utilize the Hacienda's antique candleabras to really recreate a Hollywood Glam look and, as nothing we can make in Vallarta can replace $60,000 antique candleabras, the wedding table was changed! The Hacienda is a very beautiful venue and, as you can see on the left, the candleabras have a very distinct look. The photo in the middle was the actual look of the table on the wedding day and the photo on the far right was the Art Deco centerpiece that we created.

Art Deco

This was, by far, the most difficult wedding I have ever designed, mostly because the materials that we needed were not readily available here in Vallarta! Ostrich feathers were shipped in from Mexico City, Art Deco broaches were flown-in from the United States, crystals were sent via courier from Guadalajara! There wasn't a detail of this event that was easy - even the roses were carefully selected for their color and ordered months ahead of time (over 1800 roses!!). Sometimes working in Vallarta can be a very difficult process as often times I find something I love only to be told that they only have 7 and I need 30 and nothing can EVER be ordered (if you are a coordinator you are laughing because you know what I say is true - if you are a bride, ask your coordinator and give them something to laugh about ;).

Anyway, the task was Art Deco with a touch of Glam, colors of champagne with shades of pink and accents in gold and black. I spent months researching Art Deco to make sure that I would capture the look just right. This was our inspiration page:

And here's what we came-up with!

CEREMONY

The Hacienda is really beautiful and has many frescos, so we wanted to do something that would add to the ambiance and not clash. So, the bride wisely chose gold chiavari chairs and we accented the aisle with over 1,000 roses in shades of pink and cream. I realized that we had enough flowers to add a ceremony aisle that the bride had wanted but decided not to do due to costs, which made us happy we could do that for her. (all photos by Socorro Sandoval)

BRIDAL BOUQUET and GROOM BOUT

Not quite what I had in mind, but still beautiful, was a bouquet of cream roses and ostrich feathers, accented with a broach from the groom's grandmother and champagne ribbon.

THROW BOUQUET

We mimicked the bridesmaid's bouquet, only the broach was different - this was the original intended broach for the bride's bouquet. One of the prettiest throw bouquets we've ever made!

WREATH

The bride requested an orchid wreath for her departed father so we made one with over 30 stems of dendrobium orchids and placed on a seat reserved in memory of him.

COCKTAIL

The cocktail was to be super simple, so we strung and hung over 6 dozen roses from the water fountain. Escort cards were accented with swarvoski crystals which were later handed to host and hostesses to seat guests for dinner!

CENTERPIECES

I knew I wanted fabric for the centerpieces to bring-in a texture and give it a shine that paint could not do and to replicate some of the old Hollywood 1940/1950's film sets. The difficulty was finding just the right color, which I managed to do and was lucky enough to find just the right amount (we bought all they had!). To give it a bold statement and the leaning towards art deco, and also to empahsize the broaches, we added a stripe of black ribbon. Ostrich feathers accented the beautiful bouquet of roses at the top and pink crystals hung from the feathers. I based the centerpiece off the idea of a dress and the bride's bouquet! To light-up the crystals at night, we added candles which had accents wired with gold and crystals in black and pink.

ACCENTS

I fell in love with this fabric the instant I saw it for the color and texture, as it's not every day Vallarta gets fabric like this. Menus accented with ribbon, a feather and swarvoski crystal accents were to be placed inside. We found, quite by accident, gold accents which were very similar to the bride and groom's invitation. It seems an older couple who use to own a craft store decided to retire and sold some of their unique things to one of our vendors! Sweet! We utilized the accents with different color ribbon to indicate who was eating fish, lamb or vegetarian.

CAKE

Omar, the ever talented, spent days creating this cake topper which mimicked the insert the bride and groom had created for them from an artist in New York city. The final touch was, again, swarvoski crystals to accentuate the bride's dress and the groom's shirt. And Memo, from Charme, of course did an excellent job of recreating the art deco image from the invites and utilizing our special find of gold accents with black ribbon!

ON THE WAY OUT

We utilized over 220 candles, all accented with gold wire twisted by hand and black and pink crystals and placed in various nooks and crannies - one of which lit the way for guests as they ended their evening of frolic and fun!

Next week I PROMISE the inspiration board for orange, red and teal....and then we have some unique maraca and fan orders to share so tune in!