yellow yellow lovely flower

was at my suppliers today, and early in the week it is usually quiet - and i love it - cos it means i can spend my time with the flowers, get to know them - walk around multiple times and not worry about getting in anyones way.
it means I can linger with new flowers and foliage and think of ideas in my head and experiment with the broken flowers on the ground just to file away in my head for another day.

so anyway - today they had the loveliest golden yellow calla lilies in stock - imported of course but it is so rare to see them so beautiful. really they were almost singing!!!
found some field daisies going cheap (this is singapore everything costs money ;) ) and got some for my dining table.

created some napkin rings - these are perfect for a garden wedding, and you can dress it up as much or as little as you want. you can virtually do this with any flower - just the greens you have to get something sturdy like bear grass or acorus (which is just a fancy name for local bear grass) - dont use wild lalang you will cut your hands and it will tear when you knot it.

you will recognise the biscuit tin from charlene's book launch - the yellow of the callas really pop and the pink just brings out the psychadelic in me ;)

purple fever

Some work i recently did after learning some important lessons from an event i covered -
always always go with your first instinct and colour matching...

dont you just love the purples yellows and greens!

October wedding

Hi all
I know i know I have been lax in updating this - but was looking for inspiration and waiting for photos and then and then... forgot that I had not updated you!!!

Okay, so October 2009 was like the event of the year for my family - my sis in law was getting hitched - after a whirlwind courtship. G was lovely and they looked lovely together on a regular day - what more on the wedding day ha!

ok so of course she put me in charge of the deco - i dont think i would have let her rest if she did not! so really she did not have much of a choice. And because my outfit is not as big yet, I needed to rely on other providers for some of the items of the decoration.

The concept was to be very simple - we used gold white and green to complement the wedding card, and also so that it would match all the bridal outfits - of course the groom was always in theme as he wore a regal white and gold number the whole time ;)

I wanted to use the concept of birds to symbolise freedom and beauty, and used banana leaves in the table arrangements - which were kept simple and unfussy to aid the high table turn over at the dinner. I used the motif from the card to make paper birds to hang along the bannister, to include in the table arrangements. I also used glass birds on the trees that were placed at the foot of the stairs to the hall and also the hall foyer. I also got a large print out for the backdrop at the stairs. 

We used the same motif paper to make cones for the jasmine we offered to the ladies - traditional at an indian/ceylonese wedding.

On the bride's suggestion we used hanging palm fronds done specially by a specialist provider for the entire eating hall. These same suppliers created a palm leaf border for the jasmine at the entrance to the hall. In the eating hall outside we hung indian cloth lanterns to add to the marry-ment ;) The

While i designed the look, I had to work with one other wedding decorator who was used to larger weddings, to provide the stage and the frame for the backdrop to the wedding and also the floral arrangements and hanging jasmine at the entrance to the hall.

I wanted to step away from the traditional Ganesha statue and since we were already including the kolam of ganesha (from the card motif) we decided to use the Shiva and Parvati statues that were the bride's mothers. These statues usually sit in a little window in the house, and oversee everything in the family home, and it was so fitting that they too participated in this wedding.

To match the black statues, I used these black standing lady statues, which were borrowed from my grandmother's home!

The wedding dais was also designed by me, but completed by the wedding decorator that we worked with. It as a simple frame with greens and white roses, with a simple cream backdrop. 

the rest of the decoration was completed thanks to family who pitched in on the night before!

I was also in charge of the bridal car and also made up her bouquets - one for the wedding and one for the reception that was hosted by the groom's side - unfortunately this photo was only taken at the end of the night - which accounts for the nicks in the anthuriums :( - but it was a beautiful combination of anthuriums and cymbidiums the colour of light salmon inspired by the bride's outfit on the day (its the one on the left!).

All photos courtesy of Jon Pinto.

Tribute to a storyteller full of grace

Yasmin Ahmad... the late Yasmin Ahmad. it still feels really strange to think and refer to her as the late.
but passed on she has - and we are the losers. If the afterlife had movies I bet she is busy creating her next quirky, truthful, sentimental take on life in heaven and how it used to be.
watching Talentime that night at her tribute in Cathay Cineleisure in Singapore, found me (other than being in tears) missing all those things that made my childhood fantastic - the peeling walls of the school corridors, the stage stairs that we used to run up and down all the time rehearsing something or other and the piano... the piano that I never wanted to practice on at home, but somehow the one in the school hall had a magnet-like attraction.
yes - of course my mates - all the colours of the rainbow - some of whom thanks to facebook I am back in touch with again - as usual in her casual grace she reminds us of all the things we want back in this Malaysia.

I had volunteered to do a couple of arrangements for the gala night - and I chose tuberoses as these I was told were her favourite bloom. I also used elements from all other cultures - like the chinese wedding basket, and the banana leaves for the table arrangement...


thank you Thomas Chia for allowing me the opportunity to contribute.

and most importantly thank you Yasmin, if you are listening - for allowing me the opportunity to reminisce, and hope...

rIp Yasmin Ahmad

Simply September in Singapore

This was my second gig in singapore which is nice - because I did not have to travel to malaysia just to meet the bride and deliver her flowers!!
and of course trying to operate in two countries all the time does get a little tiring, and I really would like to get a little more business in singapore.

the ceremony was very simple, and really was a gathering of dear friends. the bride carried a single white lily, and  I managed to find a beautiful slipper orchid for the groom!
I loved the fact that I could work with such a rare gem - hope you like the simple designs!

Panjang gets married!

V aka Panjang ;) finallllly got hitched - and what a quick romance this was. One minute she was telling me about all the hits and misses she kept being subject to, and the next thing you know she sends out this photo and the caption reads the love of her life??!!! in true form V had to be rather dramatic, and yes the love of her life is now her husband for life...
I was given the honour of taking care of decoration arrangements in the bride's hometown.
We were definitely both on the right brainwave when I sent her a picture of my ideas and she had happened to be thinking along the same lines!!
V decided on fuschia pink, orange and brown for her Sangeet ceremony, and the wedding was to be a red and white affair. The Sangeet colour theme kept making me think of lollipops!!! SOOOO... we used lanterns and a lot of wood and then more sedate arrangements for the Gurdwara (sikh temple) the next morning.

This was my first wedding of doing multiple events, what a learning curve!! and I had all V's aunts and cousins helping - they probably hate me by now, but hey! I pulled it off...V and N heres to an eternity together.

Some photos are courtesy of Chin Aik Lee, who was official photographer for the event - some are mine (the less polished looking ones ....sigh....)