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!

the legend of 9 suns - HKflowershow

This next display was based on a chinese legend about a warrior in the Yao Dynasty who shot down 9 suns, leaving just one to serve the earth and its people. when writing this story I found so many versions -  only one kept me interested...
It goes like this...


Long ago, during the reign of Emperor Yao, Di Jun, the eastern emperor of the sky and his wife Xi He had 10 sons--er, 10 suns. Each day the ten suns would travel with their mother, the goddess Xi He, to the Valley of the Light in the East. There, Xi He would wash her children in the lake and put them in the branches of an enormous mulberry tree called fu-sang.From the tree, only one sun would move off into the sky for a journey of one day, to reach the mount Yen-Tzu in the Far West. Much like a bus driver might tire of the same route after a few centuries, the boys grew bored and decided to take their celestial walk all together.
When Di Jun and Xi He found out, they were horrified to see their 10 sons in the skies. On Earth, crops were drying out, forests were bursting into flames, and the seas were boiling. If the ten suns persisted in their promenade, all living creatures on Earth would die.
To prevent the destruction of the Earth, the emperor Yao asked Di Jun, the father of the ten suns, to persuade his children to appear one at a time. They would not listen to him, so Di Jun sent the archer, Yi, armed with a magic bow and ten arrows to frighten the disobedient suns. However, Yi shot nine suns, only the Sun that we see today remained in the sky. Di Jun was so angry for the death of nine of his children that he condemned Yi to live as an ordinary mortal in the earth.


this display reminded me about why i started doing floristry in the first place - using everyday stuff, or stuff that we used to use everyday before microwaves and electric steamers and fastfood came in to our lives - to create design...
this was my style - IS my style - unfortunately in trying to build a business, sometimes not everyone's vision is the same, and sometimes I have to sacrifice my style for the sake of a happy client somewhat...


and the colours!!! sunset related colours - my favourite kind ;)


i love the use of the traditional steamers here - they have been modified a little and only the shell remains - better here than in the rubbish heap ;)

here come the doctors - part 2

this is the formal evening - where we used golds and bronzes to keep with the hotel's existing colour scheme and therefore work within the budget. we used a garden theme in the front to make a grand entrance and we got some material draped above the entrance. we were a bit late in completing the decoration, and when some of the guests came in on the dot of 6.30 for cocktails we were still putting the finishing touches - crap! oh well, live and learn - this is what I meant by it being difficult when I am not in complete control over everything - hmph -

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....)

autumn

these were done around halloween and autumn as the theme in london.