Panida & Greg's Before and After Ceremony & Cocktail Video!

I'm so excited, as we have the photos back from jenn & matt's wedding (nov 1st), but while I'm working on putting those photos up here, I thought I would share real quick a before and after video of Panida & Greg's ceremony and cocktail from yesterday! I have been nothing but blessed so far this season with amazing brides/grooms and guests! So, for a little sneak peek while you are waiting, here you are.....

Colorful, Festive and Fun!

A big shout out goes to Jaclyn who was married yesterday at the Dreams Resort PV! Jaclyn sent me two pictures when she was talking with me about her maraca inspirations....

HER INVITE

DRESS INSPIRATION

Jaclyn loved the look of Britt's maracas, so we kept it fairly close to that design in her colors .... ALTHOUGH once again we had a turqouise problem, convincing me that I need actual ribbon samples or big blocks of turqouise samples because turqouise down here is not the same as up north! :) But, in the end, we fixed the problem and, of course, everything ended happily ever after!

Next week I will have photos of Jennifer & Matthew's Old World Rustic Charm wedding that you are not going to want to miss!

Mindi & Morgan's Candlelit Wedding

Photo Courtesy of Paulina Ulloa

Mindi & Morgan were married on a GREAT day to get married, October 23rd (which just happens to be my birthday!) ... in spite of a few hotel glitches, everything went off without a hitch - the bride was beautiful, the groom handsome and the guests all ready to get down and celebrate! With an extra added bonus that the iffy weather the week before coroporated and was beautiful beautiful!

Both Mindi & Morgan just wanted a more relaxed, elegant feel and, as they started sending me photos of the things they liked, it became apparent to me that they were more into a zen, simplistic, naturalistic feel with oodles of candles! This was Mindi's invite which I just loved!!

So, after talking a bit more with them, this was their design board....


Their requests were quite simple - colors of chocolate brown, green touch touches of fuschia, elegant, candlelit, .... The original idea was for calla lillies but we ended-up going with cymbidium and dendrobium orchids and grasses and I'm so glad we did! I loved Mindi's bouquet - we added a touch of green buttons with the grass from her invite painted onto them - a slight twist from the bouquet she loved with raffia and buttons. The one tricky aspect of this bouquet was that she wanted a hand-held look and not a holder - so, we did a little creative thinking and the before and after photos of the bouquet can be seen here.


They wanted their ceremony to be very naturalistic but, at the same time, have some sort of a romantic touch to it .... and, wa-la....




I chose mums and grasses to line the ceremony aisle and Mindi really wanted a rose petal aisle but it wasn't quite in the budget - I did some refiguring so we could surprise her with it when she walked down the aisle! I love the fuschia touched fans Omar painted as the pop of color on the chairs (and, yes, sortof insisted on the fans - but it was hot! plus they looked so pretty :) ....

After the ceremony, everyone walked up to the Seaside Restaurant to enjoy a cocktail (or two!) ... we chose to leave the sofas in the cocktail area and fill-it with hand-painted pillows and candles and oodles of orchids ....

Now it was time to start the reception - we decided to take advantage of the sunset and the view when you could really enjoy it, and placed everyone along the edge of the restaurant - it was truly breathtaking!

As I was in Canada this past summer, I came across the most amazing chocolate brown, green detailed fabric and brought some of it down for their napkins ... the centerpieces were hand-painted vases with the green leaf design from their invites, along with some grasses, floating candles and sumerged orchids - I wish I could take credit for the entirey of their creation, but Tamara and Patti of Incredible Weddings came in at the last minute when we were having a few little difficultites with timing with the hotel and gave us a lending hand! Good job ladies (and the deepest gratitude). We also had little vases with floating cymbdium orchids....

Some of the other details we had on the tables were place cards with the grass detail from the invite on the front and the leaves from the invite on the back, grass detailed hand-painted maracas and a sand dollar charm attached to the wine glasses. Mindi had told me that, when Morgan had proposed to her on a beach, she had found her first sand dollar as well as one of her favorite gifts from Morgan had been a charm he gave her when they moved-in together - so I thought it would be a great touch to combine the two things!

Still following along the theme with the sand dollars, we hand-painted some sand dollars we brought from the U.S. and accented the cake (done by Charme) with them (along with a few beautiful cymbidiums, of course!).

This Photo Courtesy of Paulina Ulloa

I would love to take credit for the sunset, as it was beautiful that day ... but, alas, am not nearly that great of a designer.... Although this is a perfect place to acknowledge our detail photographer, Soco, who took amazing pictures of this event for us!

The cocktail area didn't have oodles of candles for nothing - over 40 candle vases with sumberged dendrobiums were hung up above and later on the area became the dance/party area really lighting-up the night and ending the party in a romantic glow....

Next week we will have photos of Jennifer & Matthew's Old World Rustic Charm wedding in chocolate browns, reds and greens and detailed to the hilt!

FB - Before and After Ceremony for Jenn & Matt's wedding...

Pictures of Mindi & Matt's wedding will be forthcoming tomorrow ... but, until then, I do have a little video of Jennifer & Matthew's Rustic Charm wedding which happened yesterday - the decoration was beautiful but, must admit, was not nearly as beautiful as the bride - both inside and out! See you back tomorrow!

Hearts, Dia de Los Muertos ... what's there not to love?!

A big shout-out goes to Danielle who was married yesterday at the Palace Resorts in the Riviera Maya! Her request was simple - something pretty and festive! Danielle sent us three photos .... her STDS, her wedding cake toppers and a picture which inspired her color theme ....

Danielle's STDS

Wedding Cake Toppers

Inspiring Photo

Of course, me being me thought "Well, why don't we just combine all of that?" and I must admit I LOVE what Omar came-up with for the maracas and I just tied the "shake me tags" into it!

This week we should have the reveal photos for Mindi & Morgan's wedding design decor, this past Oct 23rd ... so stay tuned!

Become a Fan - Win Maracas - WINWIN!

The Scoop

Here's how this whole idea started ...

I said, "You know, it would be cool to do some sort of 'give away' to say thank you to our fans."

Omar said, "We could give away some maracas."

I said, "That's a great idea ... so, how to do it?"

And back and forth blah blah blah and here it is --- what will hopefully be a yearly tradition, the first ever "WinWin" drawing!

GRAND PRIZE: 20 of our simple, two-tone maracas! Like these pictured below (you do not have to choose one of these examples - we CAN design something based on your invites, your dreams, your doodlings)!

*Note: the awesome red and white maraca photo in the middle is from Elizabeth Medina's website!
RUNNER-UP: Your choice of either 20 "shake me" tags OR fork place cards (if you are not a bride, you do have an option of winning an original hand-painted fan!)!!

HOW TO ENTER

1. You become one of our fans on our facebook page

2. You send me a message - either comment on facebook or to my email. Let me know that you would like to enter your name in our "WinWin" drawing

3. If you're already a fan of our facebook page, just send me a message (or leave a comment on the facebook page) and let me know you would like to enter the drawing

HOW TO ENTER MORE THAN ONCE!

We thought it would make things more fun if you could enter your name more than once - so, you could have the possibility of winning both the maracas AND the tags! Here's how to do that!

1. Every friend, relative or stranger you grab on the street who becomes one of our fans on facebook only needs to send us a comment via facebook or a message to my email and let me know the bride OR the name of the person they are entering for.

It's just that simple!

We will draw names and announce the winners January 15, 2010!

THE FINE PRINT

1. You MUST be a fan of our facbook page at the time of the drawing but you CAN withdraw from being a fan right after the drawing

2. You are responsible for shipping charges, if you are outside of the Puerto Vallarta area

3. We must have 2 weeks to complete the order

4. You CAN add a fancier design, name/date/location, etc. for additional charges

5. You CAN order more maracas, tags/place cards, if you need more

6. If you've already ordered maracas and you are the grand prize winner, you can substitute hand-painted fans for maracas.

7. The maracas and/or the tags/place cards prize(s) can be claimed up until May 31, 2010. If you have not claimed the prize before that date, the prize(s) will be forfeit.

Before and After Video for Mindi & Morgan ... on Facebook!

I have a lot of goodies coming these next few weeks, my dear brides and one is a competition you ARE NOT going to want to miss! But, for now, what I have is Mindi & Morgan's Candlelit Wedding - a Before and After video ... just to tide you over until I get the photos back from Soco and Paulina!

And, speaking of Facebook, we now have a page all to our own self (Mishka Designs - From the Inside Out) and you may want to become a fan - as there will be more videos of events, how to videos, before and after photos, insight into getting married in Vallarta and oodles more! I told you we were in for a ride this wedding season!