Our Styled Session is featured!

The styled session that we did last year is featured on the Utterly Engaged blog today! You can check out more amazing photos captured by Gerald Carvalho here.

It was a lot of fun doing that shoot and that was thanks to an awesome team of vendors who we collaborated with:

Photographer: Gerald Carvalho Photography 
Floral Designer: Pretty in Pink Events-Chic Designs
Cake and desserts: La Vie Douce Design
Hair and Makeup: Skyla Arts: Makeup | Hair | Skincare
Models: Garett Knight and Emmalee Froehlich

Guest Blog: Beau-coup

Today I am very excited to introduce our first ever guest blogger Beau-coup! They are a local online company (based in Mountain View) offering high quality favors, gifts and supplies as well as exceptional customer service so that every celebration can be a once-in-a-lifetime event. I have personally used some of their products for my business before and can attest to the excellent customer service and quality of their products.

Beau-coup:

Spring is nearly here, and it’s time to start shaking off the winter weariness in favor of sunshine and sweet-smelling flowers. It’s a great time to get outside and revel in the sunshine, and what better way to celebrate than with a tea party? Tea parties are one of our most popular themes, and here are a few suggestions on how to make this theme your own!

Classic Tea Party

·        Bridal Showers – spring is the season of love, making it the perfect time to celebrate your upcoming wedding with those you love most. Getting outside in the garden with the girls gives everyone a chance to play dress up while daydreaming about the wedding details.

·        Baby Showers –spring is also a season of rebirth, which makes it an ideal time to take advantage of the warmer weather and celebrate mom-to-be’s blossoming belly and growing family.

·        Girl’s Birthday Parties – what little girl doesn’t dream of a tea party at some point? A tea party themed birthday party is a great way to celebrate a special day while making a childhood dream come true. Don’t forget the cute, frilly costumes and fun hats!

Customize it:

The classic tea party set up is essentially the same for each of the above parties, with some minor changes to make it more relevant for each occasion. For example, you can decorate for each celebration with colorful criss-cross paper lanterns, but make sure to show your appreciation for your grown up guests with heart-shaped tea infusers, while you delight little girls with bite-sized and scrumptious little petit fours.

{ Image credits clockwise from top left : Beau-coup, Beau-coup, Celebrations at Home,Beau-coup,Sweet Designs by Amy Atlas, Beau-coup, Beau-coup, Beau-coup, Good Girl Style, Sweet Designs by Amy Atlas}

Alice in Wonderland Tea Party

·        Themed Weddings –the bride and groom are already mad for one another. Why not show it with a whimsical Alice in Wonderland theme? This theme comes complete with colorful costumes and all kinds of bite-sized goodies.

·        Adult Birthday Parties–who doesn’t dream of escaping the world in favor of a more magical place? A themed birthday party is the perfect way to make that happen.

·        Masquerades–sometimes the best reason to party is simply because. The coming of the spring after a long, chilly winter is reason enough to hose a springtime bash! Why not use it as an excuse to throw a masquerade with an Alice in Wonderland theme?

Create it:

 Decorate the tables with whimsical topiary place card holders and encourage guests to get into the theme with colorful parasols. Beyond that, the sky and your imagination are the only limits!

{ Image credits clockwise from top left : TRUECONNECTION on Etsy, Beau-coup, Design You Trust, The Cupcake Blog, Tradesy, Beau-coup, Magic Mirror, Adrienne Gunde Blog, Beau-coup }

These are just a few ideas to keep you occupied while you countdown to that first glorious jacket-free day in the sunshine. What creative twists on a tea party can you dream up? Tell us in the comments!

Fun and Whimsical Table Design

Since I am loving the Tangerine Tango color more and more these days, I decided to design my next Stuart Rental table with it as the main color, with accents of pink and green, based on the inspiration board I posted earlier this year.

I wanted to take a more fun and casual approach this time, in comparison to my previous design table. In addition to using Stuart Rental's Harmony Orange table linen, I also selected their Tafetta Chardonnay napkins to complement the yellow circles in the table linen. The rest of the rentals used are the Cheers China, Erte flatware and the Sphere glassware.

The centerpiece is made up of paper flowers using a variety of origami and scrapbook paper. Since I used clay flowers last time, I thought why not do something different and decided to try my hand at making those. They turned out to be relatively easy to make! Besides, I think it adds a nice touch of whimsy to the entire design.

For the stationery, I collaborated with Cards de Luxe again and Susanne came up with the lovely design for the table number, place cards and menu cards that are too cute for words!

I love the end result and I hope you do too!

Much thanks to Stuart Rental Company and Cards de Luxe for their collaboration in this table design!

Inspiration Board ~ Cherry Blossoms

Happy first day of Spring! I love cherry blossoms as they always remind me of Spring and they are so pretty. Cherry blossoms have already started to bloom in Washington this year so I like to share with you the inspiration board I have created to welcome Spring :)

Etsy: Cherry blossom photo, pocket mirror, glass pendants

 Butterfly Cakes: Cherry blossom wedding cake

Beau-coup: Cherry blossom pillar candles

Yahoo: Cherry blossom cupcakes

The Knot: Invitation, centerpiece

Dior: Vernis nail polish in Sienna

You can also check out my Cherry Blossom pinboard on Pinterest for more images.

Inspiration Board ~ Tangerine, Pink and Green

Etsy: Tangerine flower photo, hair comb, glass pendant, felt ring and dinosaur cake topper

 Brides: Bridesmaid dress, mixed flowers bouquet

The Knot: Invitation, green mums pomander

Saks Fifth Avenue: Tangerine pumps

Elegala: Gerbera daisies bouquet

Pantone's color for 2012 is Tangerine Tango, a vibrant red orange. Since it is such a bold color, I like to pair it with softer pastel colors like blush pink and light green for a balanced look. I think this color combo lends itself very well to spring and summer weddings, don't you think so? Enjoy!

My day at The Wedding Symposium

Last Saturday, I had the honor of hearing celebrity event designer Preston Bailey speak on event design at a workshop at The Wedding Symposium held in conjunction with The Wedding Faire at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Like a giddy schoolgirl, I was star-struck with the sight of Preston and it felt really surreal to be in the same room as him. Listening to him speak, I realized that he is a really down-to-earth, funny kind of guy; no celebrity attitude, just a normal expert telling us stories about himself, his business, his past, current and future projects. It was very enlightening to hear about his sucesses and failures and how his business grew into the conglomerate that it is today. The one thing I love about Preston is his over-the-top designs; all the design slides he showed in the workshop generated oohs and aahs from us, they were so amazing! What can I say? Preston Bailey, you are truly an inspiration!



Mr Fabulous himself!

After his workshop, I had some spare time before The Wedding Lunch, so I went to check out the Design Gallery in The Wedding Faire.


ACPWC booth at The Wedding Faire



Classic Party Rentals and Pico Soriano Designs



Amazae Special Events and Nicole Ha Designs

Hartmann Studios



Napa Valley Linens

The next event I was looking forward to that day was The Wedding Lunch. We were able to view table designs by celebrity event designers Sasha Souza, Bryan Rafanelli, Nikki Khan, and Preston Bailey too. Sasha Souza also gave a presentation on her Favorite Things for brides, wedding professionals and weddings in general. I had heard her speak last year at the ACPWC EPIC Conference and it was interesting to hear how she runs her business and deal with her clients. She didn't disappoint again, I walked away with useful tips that I cannot wait to try.

Rafanelli Events with Amazae Special Events



Nikki Khan from Exquisite Events



Poppy's Petalworks (recreating a Preston Bailey signature design)



I also bought a copy of Preston's latest book, Preston Bailey Flowers, and got it signed by the master himself! All in all, time well spent on a beautiful Saturday...

Modern Romance Table Design

Last month, I posted the inspiration board for the table design I am doing for Stuart Rental. Last week, I went in to Stuart Rental's showroom in Milpitas to set up the table design and will like to share with you photos of the completed design.

My goal is to create a design that is contemporary, sophisticated and elegant. I used the colors of blush pink, wine and silver with splashes of sparkly accents to achieve that look. The Crinkle linen and Lamour napkin were chosen to provide a contrast in texture. Square place card holders, votive holders, centerpiece vase and flatware with a square motif are used to reflect the contemporary aspect.

Overall design:

Close-ups of design elements:

What do you think of this table design? Feel free to let me know in the comments below!

I also want to thank my awesome team of vendors for their collaboration in this table design!

Rentals: Stuart Rental Company
Stationery: Cards de Luxe
Clay Florals: DK Designs
Cupcake Wrappers: Sugar Cat Studio