Red Black and White Drama - is there any other kind....

So this was major - my largest wedding party and in a verrrrry prestigious hotel in Singapore, and for a partner of weddingfavours who have been very kindly sending business my way.... Talk about pressure!

In addition to all that, the hotel had a wedding luncheon on the same day which only ended at 4.30pm - which gave us realistically only 2 hours to set everything including chair sashes and candles and aisles and entrance pieces up - stressed - YOU BET!

I had four little elves this time, and my husband who were very helpful on the day, and put up with my stressed out self and we pulled it off! the ballroom looked fantastic - and the couple walked in decked in white - verry dramatic ;)

So - we had RED chair bows (yup the kind Mini Mouse wears) on every other chair - all chairs were in white, and the table cloths were black. For the centrepieces, we used jars with the wedding card motif on and the wedding favours in the jars. The wedding favours were red pens with a silk flower and feathers on the end. This way once every guest claimed their favour, the jars could be removed in time for the chinese dinner to be served.

(TIP - this is a great way to save on your flower spend - usually for chinese course dinners these table arrangements get removed, so if you are on a budget, try and come up with other ideas for the table centre that you won't feel so bad when it gets removed - get your florist to help ;) )







The couple had in mind roses and cage like arrangements, and so i worked on a style that was in the same vein but with different touches - mainly black feathers, tall willows spray painted in black, lanterns instead of cages etc...

The stage and the entrance pieces were the same, while the aisle were smaller pieces - rattan cage balls with red roses clumped together all over - i loved this effect. It was the first time i had attempted something like this, and was very pleased with the effect.

The two main tables were tall arrangements with roses and other red and black foliage, with beads hanging down - I kept tables simple with candles and minimal petals for a clean look.

There was also a candy table for which the main arrangements was done in feathers, and a few small rose blocks - there was so much candy on offer there was hardly any place for flowers!!!
I was pleased with the effect of this, and pleased we pulled it off in such a short time for set up - complete with a few transport dramas!!
Photos by yours truly ;)

step right up - next sept 18th couple

The second couple for this auspicious day was M&S. M is Malaysian and I met her on my very first assignment with Shangri-la hotels. Those were the days when i worked for the hotels, and i used to drag anyone who would care to come along (usually M was the poor unsuspecting soul) to all the ballroom deco days to see what they were doing for the events happening at the hotel.

So when she called and asked, how could i say no... the only problem was because I work with a small number of people, i could not do as much as she wanted (ie the car etc etc etc). But it all worked out.

M met S on the internet, and it worked - he came to visit her in Malaysia, and was hooked on both! They both looked so happy and filled with joy that night it was a lovely sight to see.

So, their theme was mainly green and white, with a touch of pink - and the venue was Bangsar Seafood Garden and Restaurant. The garden was the main thing that we had to spruce up. I did the wedding accessories and the venue deco.

The bride wanted big bold lilies in her bouquet, and thats exactly what she got for her morning tea ceremony. I did not confuse the bouquet with anything else but some huge dark green foliage- unfortunately the photo does not do it enough justice...or at least so i say ;)

The corsages were lisianthus with christmas greens, and we even had mini corsages for the mini members of the wedding party ;)

As they had the tea ceremony in the morning, and then the dinner in the evening, and given her choice of flowers were lilies, i did not trust the flowers to last the day - so i made a smaller bouquet for the evening - still with lilies, but this time with a few lisianthus thrown in.

The staircase up to the garden area was decorated with tea light candles, and the bannister had little test tubes of flowers hanging on them - i used lisianthus and roses for this - and the origami birds from a previous wedding made their appearance here. When you got to the top of the staircase you were greeted by the huge lanterns with the tall reeds ala balinese style - I know i know you are thinking you have seen these before - well yes, i did re-use the arrangement from the first wedding, but made it slightly different with the ribbons, colours and the bird cages in the styling.

Unfortunately I did not manage photos of the bannister and the entrance, but got the rest - so i hope your imagination is running wild!

the aisle was decorated with the same idea as the morning pews, but with the benefit of time, we managed to add more foliage to the cups and finally achieved the look that I was happy with - my hardworking team really pulled together for these. Sadly some children thought it was fun to knock them over - thankfully only after the happy couple walked down the aisle - note to self - don't forget to secure the cups to the ground!!!

The signing in table borrowed from the birds hanging at the bannister and on the trees in the garden, and so included the bird cages with lilies and roses in them.

the table arrangements were simple and pretty - unfortunately they were removed by the time the second course was served - a lot of the reason why I usually discourage couples to have something on the table for a chinese dinner, cos it is a displacement of your precious budget.

This was a great experience and i was so pleased to be doing it for someone who was there when the seed was planted (excuse the pun) with my flower and deco stuff -

congrats M&S - I really hope you had a lovely day.

Photos courtesy of YouStudio and yours truly.

the first sept 18th couple...S&J

So - as you have probably already read in the last post, in a temporary moment of insanity, The Flourist agreed to decorate two weddings in the one day.
One was booked WAAAAAAYYYY in advance all the way from London, and the other was slightly last minute but was a close ex-colleague whom I used to drag to all the ballrooms in the hotels were were auditing to check out the decoration ideas.

The first couple for the day were S&J - they had contracted me to the church wedding, a wedding cake for the luncheon, all the wedding accessories, car decoration and the main table centre-piece for their dinner.

S&J were stunning on the day - not to say they were not stunning otherwise (hole getting bigger here - help!) but really they looked like suave movie stars of yesteryears. S's dress was so unique and beautiful - i have done a lot of weddings and this dress has to be up there in dream dresses category - and J in his suit cut really a dashing figure.
they were so stunning in fact, that for the first time in a departure from my usual philosophy of keeping the couples anonymous, I am putting up a picture of them at the end of the day - now who would not want to get married after this shot!

S&J seem to have been together for longer than most people which is a fantastic achievement in itself if you ask me. Stories I have heard of J paint him to be the cutie pie that all the girls flocked to, but he only had eyes for the husky long haired beauty, S. And their friends and family are amazing - fun loving, supportive and very creative judging by the video that was created for their dinner ;)

The first call was mainly to make their wedding cake for the afternoon of the luncheon after the church wedding. This was going to be my first commercial wedding cake - not counting all the practice sessions and simple one that I have done in the past! Go to www.theflourist.blogspot.com for more stories on this one. I started on the sugar flowers for the cake a month in advance!!! definitely a story you will want to hear.

The theme - red, pink and white.

We did the car the night before - usually my car designs are very simple - mainly because my couples are on a budget and rather than wasting flowers on a car that people see maybe for for 15 minutes, I tend to go for the less is more -
in this case it was quite a BLAM effect with a white car and red ribbons and tulle.

The church pews were meant to have branches but at the last minute, my supplier pulled out - which meant I had to invoke plan B of tall green foliage - I have to say I was a little disappointed with the pews - the lack of time meant I did not have time enough to check them, so they ended looking a little meagre on closer inspection, and I should have used a different ribbon - hmph not pleased. but with the pedestal pieces at the entrance stealing the show, I think everything looked good.

The altar and crucifix pieces stayed at the church, so were done quite simply to keep in line with the budget.

The pedestal pieces at the entrance to the church were huge pieces set in lanterns with tall foliage tipping the height at 7 ft!

The bride's bouquet had a centre cluster of red roses, surrounded by white and red anthuriums. I loved the way it turned out. the bridesmaids were her lovely sisters, and had lovely lisitanthus posies dotted with red hypericum berries. sweet!
The corsages were simple within the red and white colour theme for the groom, groom's men and parents.

The Flourist also provided the centre piece for their evening dinner held at GlenMarie Resort - the original design that the couple wanted had flowers going down the entire length of the support, however given the budget that they wanted to stick to, i compromised with a little gap and flowers are the base. By sheer luck the hotel had thankfully used similar flowers and stands for the aisle so it all looked lovely.

and the bride and groom? just stunningly, happily married!

photos courtesy of Alan from 'photoz' and yours truly

celebratory lanterns

January was a bonus job ;)
I spoke to LH after being referred from a mutual friend (it turned out we actually had several mutual friends and even worked in the same firm though different states...we had never met!!!)

LH was getting married with all the ceremonies thrown in, from two different cultures. She needed help organising, decorating, and managing both sides of the families - and was weighing up doing it herself or engaging a wedding planner... After having a chat, quote etc LH decided to just go with a wedding planner and said thank you very much but no thanks.

So it was a pleasant surprise when I got a call from LH closer to January asking about the possibility on renting my lanterns for her dinner party for the same wedding she originally called me for!
So there we were, the three of us, one hot afternoon putting up lanterns and baubles on these trees that were installed for us at the Hotel ballroom. The theme was fushcia and orange, perfect colours to reflect the couple's happiness.

Some of my lanterns were also used by the hotel flourist so we tied the look inside and outside together.

I love these colours - they just look fantastic!

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....)