Carmita and I clicked immediately from the first meeting we had. I absolutely love her modern and chic ideas for her wedding! She wanted to create a chic, Miami lounge style for her wedding reception at the Brossman Center. She had a tight budget and she understood very well of what she can and cannot do with it. Therefore, she kinda arranged the degree of importance of each decor component. For example, to create that lounge feel, she would like to have a couch/love seat where people can, well, lounge around. ^_^ So a good chunk of the budget went to this lounge corner for renting the couches and decorative pillows from a local Rent-A-Center, getting the cool lamps and side tables from IKEA. Carmita bought her materials from Save-On-Craft (vases), Dollar Tree (the clear marbles, a few vases), and IKEA (lamps and tealights).

We looked into getting drapes for just that corner, but the cost did not concur with the budget, so she switched to using uplighting (provided by Tuxedo Caterers) and red bulbs in the IKEA lamps.

Here's the lounge corner...

 

The end table detail: clear marbles and fresh gerbera daisies petals spread


 

Across from this corner was a photo booth from Festive Foto Booths! What a fun reception! ^_^


As for her guest table centerpieces, we wanted to use tropical flowers to bring in the "Miami" feel. Since using fresh cymbidium orchids would overshoot her budget to the moon, we decided to go with silk flowers (Carmita got the flowers online from Afloral) combined with FRESH curly willows, bear grass and FRESH GERBERA DAISIES PETAL SPREAD (vs the traditional rose petals)! I'd say this combo worked out wonderfully!

   


The lovely wedding cake decorated by Tuxedo Caterers.

 

* Important Tip:
Now there are 2 kinds of Silk Flowers: One is made of plastic, the other made of fabric materials. To do a submersible centerpiece, you would need to use the fabric based silk flowers. 



I always love to learn new things from my clients and...Carmita shared a super neat idea with me: Wine Luminaria Shade from Neo-Image ! The price is excellent and the impact is simply gorgeous! All you need to get to make these awesome luminarias are wine glasses (IKEA is an excellent source for these) and tealight candles and...VOILA! Another bonus point...These shades are so easy and quick to assemble (I added double sided tape to make it more secure).

Check out the actual, real life result:

I had so much fun doing this wedding! And as you can see, the design is simple yet chic, so there are components that you can certainly do as DIY projects.

So...what do we learn from this?
1. Small budget requires a lot of Flexibility and Work (research and purchasing)
2. When done right, silk flowers are NOT tacky. So please give them a second chance; they will not disappoint!
3. Small budget does not mean you cannot have a gorgeous wedding!


For more pictures from this wedding, please visit Papertini's online album.


Congratulations, Carmita and Marvin!!! ^_^
Thank you so very much for
this awesome opportunity to be a part of your special day!!
Many happy wishes for you always!! ^_^

Kerith had initially planned to do all the personal flowers herself with the help of her friends. Then she realized the amount of work it entailed, so she came to me for help. She already bought the silk flowers and ribbons from Michael's Arts and Craft store and so that's what we used. I love the different shades of blue that she picked, particularly the smokey gray blue gerbers.  We mixed in some ivory and white flowers and I think everything turned out great!

photo courtesy of Entwined Studio, NYC

photo courtesy of Entwined Studio, NYC


photo courtesy of Entwined Studio, NYC


photo courtesy of Sara Parker Photography

Kerith and Jay's official photographers are Matt and Angie of Entwined Studio in NYC.

For more pictures from this wedding of Matt and Angie's works, please visit Kerith and Jay's blog:
Wedding Part I
Wedding Part II

For more pictures from this wedding, you can also visit Sara Parker Photography's blog.
** If you are in North Carolina area, I highly recommend Sara Parker.
Her works are simply stunning!

Congratulations Kerith and Jay!!!
Many happy wishes for you!!! ^_^
Thank you for the wonderful opportunity! ^_^


********************

A little note about using silk flowers...

In all honesty, nothing beats the look of fresh flowers. However, it does have a certain range of price tag and when you have a tight budget, silk flowers make absolutely wonderful subtitutions. I think silk flowers probably got a bad rep for looking tacky, but the truth is there are so many fresh looking silk flowers out there at reasonable prices. Even Walmart and Dollar Tree have few styles that are really nice (I personally find Michael's has the best quality and price for silk flowers and their biweekly sale always helps your wallet! ^_^)

Silk flowers are also good options for those who consider having exact color and shape extremely important.
There are not a lot of blue colored flowers out there and dyed fresh flowers can cost you an arm and a leg (personally, I am a supporter of flowers in their natural state). Therefore, if color is so important to you but money IS an object, then you may have to be flexible and consider silk. I would like to stress once again, when done right, silk is NOT tacky. Heck, you can have a tacky fresh flowers arrangement, too! Basically, in my most humble opinion, what comes down to it is the design. I believe that a good design should be able to convey emotions regardless the cost of the materials. I think Kerith's and Carmita's weddings can attest to that.

********************

Carmita and I clicked immediately from the first meeting we had. I absolutely love her modern and chic ideas for her wedding! She wanted to create a chic, Miami lounge style for her wedding reception at the Brossman Center. She had a tight budget and she understood very well of what she can and cannot do with it. Therefore, she kinda arranged the degree of importance of each decor component. For example, to create that lounge feel, she would like to have a couch/love seat where people can, well, lounge around. ^_^ So a good chunk of the budget went to this lounge corner for renting the couches and decorative pillows from a local Rent-A-Center, getting the cool lamps and side tables from IKEA. Carmita bought her materials from Save-On-Craft (vases), Dollar Tree (the clear marbles, a few vases), and IKEA (lamps and tealights).

We looked into getting drapes for just that corner, but the cost did not concur with the budget, so she switched to using uplighting (provided by Tuxedo Caterers) and red bulbs in the IKEA lamps.

Here's the lounge corner...

 

The end table detail: clear marbles and fresh gerbera daisies petals spread


 

Across from this corner was a photo booth from Festive Foto Booths! What a fun reception! ^_^


As for her guest table centerpieces, we wanted to use tropical flowers to bring in the "Miami" feel. Since using fresh cymbidium orchids would overshoot her budget to the moon, we decided to go with silk flowers (Carmita got the flowers online from Afloral) combined with FRESH curly willows, bear grass and FRESH GERBERA DAISIES PETAL SPREAD (vs the traditional rose petals)! I'd say this combo worked out wonderfully!

   


The lovely wedding cake decorated by Tuxedo Caterers.

 

* Important Tip:
Now there are 2 kinds of Silk Flowers: One is made of plastic, the other made of fabric materials. To do a submersible centerpiece, you would need to use the fabric based silk flowers. 



I always love to learn new things from my clients and...Carmita shared a super neat idea with me: Wine Luminaria Shade from Neo-Image ! The price is excellent and the impact is simply gorgeous! All you need to get to make these awesome luminarias are wine glasses (IKEA is an excellent source for these) and tealight candles and...VOILA! Another bonus point...These shades are so easy and quick to assemble (I added double sided tape to make it more secure).

Check out the actual, real life result:

I had so much fun doing this wedding! And as you can see, the design is simple yet chic, so there are components that you can certainly do as DIY projects.

So...what do we learn from this?
1. Small budget requires a lot of Flexibility and Work (research and purchasing)
2. When done right, silk flowers are NOT tacky. So please give them a second chance; they will not disappoint!
3. Small budget does not mean you cannot have a gorgeous wedding!


For more pictures from this wedding, please visit Papertini's online album.


Congratulations, Carmita and Marvin!!! ^_^
Thank you so very much for
this awesome opportunity to be a part of your special day!!
Many happy wishes for you always!! ^_^