A Maraca By Any Other Name...

I hope you are all getting your beauty rest as September winds Vallarta down before gearing back up for next season! I know I've mentioned before that we here at Mishka Designs don't just do an all-over design, but we also handle special favors (i.e. fans, picture frames, magnets, etc.), place cards/escort cards/table markers, etc. Well, Omar and I have a little treat for you - we came up with some ideas of example maracas to show you just a sample of what we are able to do to customize a common favor here in Vallarta to something truly special for your brides!!

PAISLEY

This first maraca was inspired off of a couple of brides I've designed for the in the past who really liked paisley and wanted it incorporated into their wedding - of course, this design can be modified to be darker, other colors, other style of paisley - the sky's the limit!

Photo by Paulina Ulloa

LACY ROMANCE

Inspired by Spanish lace, again this is just an example of what we can do while, at the same time, we can change the colors, change the flower style, whatever it is your bride (or you!) might want!

Photo by Paulina Ulloa

WHITE FLOWERS

Still in the floral theme, this maraca was more inspired from the frequent request of the color combination of orange and fuchsia. On any of these maracas, the bride and groom's name can be placed and date of wedding, or perhaps you would prefer to use the maracas as place markers and we can paint individual names on each one.

Photo by Paulina Ulloa

SEAHORSE

Inspired from that which Vallarta is famous for - the seahorse statue on the Malecon - there are many many different ways to paint a Seahorse and this is just one of them, with a myriad of color choices available.

Photo by Paulina Ulloa

TALAVERA

As we all know real Talavera is expensive but what a great favor! However, for the bride who likes the look of Talavera and might not be able to afford the real thing OR for a bride who just would love to have the look of Talavera in her maracas, here's a Talavera themed maraca. Again, Talavera has many different patterns, many different colors and this is just an example as any and all of them are possible!!

Photo by Paulina Ulloa

CALLA LILYS

Another common favorite, the calla lily, is represented in this image. We wanted to show a more "natural" look to the maraca so we choose a wooden maraca and burned the calla lily artwork into the maraca itself. I love this maraca! Again, any flower or design can be burned into a wooden maraca!

Photo by Paulina Ulloa

CLASSIC ROMANCE

Years ago we had a wedding where we utilized this profile image and it was really beautiful! This was Omar's favorite maraca, so I saved it for last - a male/female pair. Again, we can do any sort of graphic, any sort of idea with all different colors, depending on what your bride (or you!) is/are looking for!

Photo by Paulina Ulloa

MADE TO ORDER

As you all know by now, we aren't a cookie-cutter kindof company. So, everything we do is made to order. Even if your bride just knows she wants something in keeping with her wedding but doesn't know what she would like on the maraca, we do that too... we'll just ask a few questions to get a better feel, perhaps ask for some photos of the invites, save the dates or other material, and we can create something which would be perfect and in keeping with the event and will be a delightful surprise for the bride and groom and their guests!

Mid-month I'll be dealing with the color combination of blue and orange, filled with amazing ideas and eye-catching photos, so you won't want to miss it!

Favor ideas especially for Vallarta...

Favor ideas! Who doesn't love that?! What I love about favors is the opportunity to personalize a gift from the bride and groom really specific to them as a couple - the options are endless (and fun!). I really prefer to try to stick to favor ideas which are either a) something the guests will really use or b) something that is more artistic or interesting so that the guests might be more likely to display it. I don't see favors as simply another thing someone has to throw into their suitcase and hide away somewhere!


First, I wanted to address favor ideas which are used often in Vallarta, but I wanted to share a way to look at these with a different "spin" on them! For example, maracas are a crowd favorite but by personalizing them with a hand-painted touch representing the bride and groom, makes them even that more special.

MARACAS

Another popular favorite is the famous Puebla Talavera (or the other various "knock offs" which are still beautiful, but as we know not quite up to Puebla standards). Something I like to do sometimes is to integrate the favors into the design decor. In this example, the water glasses were replaced with talavera favor cups!

TALAVERA FAVORS

On a similar theme of integrating the favors into the design, we've taken logos which are very important to the client (without them knowing it!:) and integrated them into useful favors such as embroidered handkerchiefs, embroidered napkins and hand-painted fans!

EMBROIDERED HANDERKERCHIEFS, NAPKINS AND HAND-PAINTED FANS!

Along with tequilla, sweets are also a fairly common favor requests. For these particular favors, we made specially designed labels with guest's name and dinner seating as well as incorporated it into the cocktail decor of the event itself!

SWEETS

Then there are the more "unusual" favors such as retro Puerto Vallarta t-shirts for a retro wedding, hand-painted carnival masks, silver butterfly charms and artistic scenes of Vallarta from local artists.

ONE-OF-A-KIND FAVORS

OTHER IDEAS
I also wanted to point-out a few favor ideas which I found while visiting two of my favorite websites http://www.favorideas.com and http://www.myweddingfavors.com/. Some of the ideas on these sites are really great ideas that won't break the bank and something which might be useful should it match the personality of your particular bride and groom.

LUGGAGE TAGS
I love the idea of luggage tags! Many's a time when I wished for a fun, creative set of luggage tags to really distinguish my luggage from everyone else when it came time to pick up my luggage. Of course, here in Vallarta, as we have a lot of destination couples, I think luggage tags even make more sense for their guests! Here are two very different ideas for luggage tags which I found online:

FLIP FLOP LUGGAGE TAGS

These luggage tags are under $3.00 a piece! I think, for a laid-back wedding, this might really work.

CRUISESHIP LUGGAGE TAG

This particular set is more at expensive but still comes in at under $4.00 a piece. I think these are pretty elegant and the price isn't ridiculous!

BOOKMARKS
I think bookmarks are also a good idea and there are so many options to choose from. We haven't made any yet, but I have oodles of ideas for just the right bride and groom. Meanwhile, I found these bookmarks with a seashell theme at BySerendipty for under $3.00!

MAGNETS
I know not everyone loves magnets like I do, but I'm sure you'll have some clients who do! I found these magnets at http://www.myweddingfavors.com/ ... of course, these are projects we can do here, but I think, at $2.00 a PACKAGE it's a hard price to beat!

COASTERS
Useful and great, especially if done well! These coasters at http://www.myweddingfavors.com/ are under $3.00 each.

So, that's all for April mid-month ... if you there is something about decor that you're interested in but just don't have the time, just let me know and I'll see what I can find and put it in a subsequent blog!