NEW: Elizabeth Collection

Our newest collection, Elizabeth, is perfect for the upcoming summer weddings.  With bright colors, fun typography and gorgeous floral graphics - this collection will surely set the tone for your event!

Ready to purchase? You can find the Elizabeth collection here or to get a quote and more information contact us!

xoxo!

Wedding Bouquet Twist - Nic's Button Buds

As a proud member of Smitten Soiree, I have the opportunity to come across some of the most talented artists I have ever met.  Meet Nicole (Nic) from Nic's Button Buds.  I fell in love with her unique twist on traditional wedding bouquets and, of course, had to share her bouquets with you!

I WANT ONE SO STINKING BAD!!!!! AMAZING BROOCH BOUQUET!!!

Gorgeous colors!

For the whole bridal party!!!! What a great souvenir for your ladies to keep after the wedding!

I love pink.  Light pink, hot pink, neon pink, baby pink, blush pink... it doesn't matter to me!

Aren't they positively drool worthy? *Sigh* Well... Of course I had to ask her how she got started making these beautiful pieces of art.  I also wanted to find out: why a button or broach bouquet instead of a traditional arrangement?

How did you get started making your bouquets?

I got married in the country where I grew up (Marysville) and with no nearby florist, I didn’t want to have to organize on my wedding day for someone to do a 1 ½ hour round trip to a florist so started looking at alternatives.  I found that decent quality fake flowers weren’t in my budget (with fresh I was just going to go with something bright, cheap and in season)  So I stumbled across loads of alternative bouquets on the internet that being a craft person and having a DIY wedding really appealed to me.  I loved the way  could express my personality and that of my Bridesmaids through the bouquets.  I will admit I spent double the amount on buttons than I had budgeted on fresh flowers BUT I had something unique that really represented me!  After making mine I made a few for fun for others before things really just snowballed to where I am now.  Aside from the button bouquets I am also now making brooch bouquets, button and brooch accessories and hand painted fingerprint tree canvasses (another DIY project I had at my own wedding).

Playing devil’s advocate – why get a button bouquet as opposed to a more traditional bouquet?   

I actually really love and admire beautiful fresh flowers, I wish my husband bought them home a little often (or at all…. Lol) – but the fact is they aren’t for everyone.  Reasons brides look for an alternative bouquet really do vary – some have allergies to flowers and have not developed a connection with any particular flower so like the idea of the bouquets being unique, some brides enjoy the way they can customize and incorporate personalities.  They are great for destination weddings and also for brides like myself who’s weddings are not located near a florist.  The biggest reason if people just want something a little left of centre that they can keep for ever.

I can just picture her telling me this in her cute Australian accent.  I love Australian accents - but I guess that's not the point.  Isn't she adorable? Can I keep her?  Maybe stick her in my basement with a bunch of brooches and buttons and force her to make me a bunch of bouquets? 3 for every room in my house? :)

If you're like me and totally feel like you need one of these, here's where you can find her:
Etsy Store
Website: My Button Bouquet
Facebook

Okay, okay... just one more:

xoxo,
Tara

Wedding Shadow Box

I am trying so hard to get rid of all of the "extras" that have accumlated since our wedding. I am so afraid to throw stuff away because I keep thinking "what if I want to scrapbook/display/reuse that in future?" I decided that another way for me keep some of the momentos from our wedding was to make a shadow box to hang up in my studio. (Doesn't "studio" sound so much more official than "craft room"? I think that's what I will call it from now on!) Anyway, I put this together and I think it all turned out SO pretty!
This flower with the rhinestone brooch in the middle was from our gift box. It was so pretty!

I got a little bubble happy and had tons of leftover bubbles. So I threw one in there... compete with the tag.

Also included was an invitation and our monogram cake topper. Lots of shine and sparkle in this little box!

Overall, it was an easy but fun project. I loved making it and found the perfect place to hang it up. How did you go through your wedding stuff and decide what to keep?

XOXO,

Tara

Halloween Birthday Surprise

After we got back from our honeymoon - I needed to do something crafty and creative. Lucky for me, my new husbands Birthday was only a couple days after we got back. I decided that I needed to do something special for him (and fun for me) so I planned a little Happy Birthday Halloween Themed Dinner for the 2 of us. I had a blast putting it together. But I was so busy putting it together I didn't get many great pictures.

I made cupcakes for dessert. Chocolate with chocolate icing. Added a few plastic spiders for some fun and put them on a pretty fall tray. Wala!



Please ignore all of the extra stuff! This was during set up!!!
The black candles have a bit of sparkle to them. I got them at Party City for only $5.00 for all 10 of them. (They came in packs of 2 and were on sale!)
I wish I could remember my original inspiration for my arrangement but I became obsessed with putting together a red and purple arrangement. I couldn't find any real purple flowers so I just bought a dozen roses and then went to Michael's and found a bushell of purple flowers for 70% off! Score! I then bought wet foam (with a 40% off coupon) and put the arrangement together myself.
The green was in the roses I bought. I already had the silver pot that I put the arrangement in.
Of course I had to creep it up a bit so I put some spider webbing over the arrangemet with some plastic spiders. (Both on clearance at Party City). I also added a couple of fake rats. I dimmed the lights and lit the candles right before hubby came home.

I'm not a great cook but I was pretty proud of the delicious dinner I made!!! We had:
- Italian Bread
- Spagetti
- Pesto Sauce
- Marinara Sauce
- Chicken Parmesian (The Parmesian Shake 'n' Bake was SOOOO good!)

I also made a pitcher of Sangria. I used 4 different bottles of wine, Sprite, 1/2 cup of Sugar and frozen berry assortment. It was DELICIOUS! We drank the whole thing! The great thing about Sangria is that you it is pretty fail-proof. Just keep dumping and tasting - eventually you come up with something delicious!

When Hubby came home, I had the lights off, the candles lit, and a cd playing of theme songs from some of the most famous horror movies of all time. It was a wonderful evening! I can't wait for my next surprise dinner!

Flowers & Cakes ... Oh My! Wedding Week - Part 2

I am exhausted! We had SO many things to get done this week that I don't think we are going to be able to since we are nearing the end of the week already. BUT - 2 of the bigs things are done: Cake & Flowers.

We visited 2 florists and are waiting for price quotes for the bouquets, corsages, boutenniers, alter flowers and cake table (you'll see that below!). Our centerpieces are silk flowers and in my honest opinion - I don't think I saved a dime going this route - but at least the stress of hoping our arrangements turn out right won't be weighing on my mind. I, however, picked the flowers based on their shape and colors without even thinking that my wedding will be in the FALL and I picked all SPRING flowers! So with my main flower being the blush pink peony - I am dreading the price quote to have 300 blush pink peonies imported in from Holland in October. I fell in love with peonies, anna roses, cabbage roses and hydrangeas. And, of course, I have to have cream-colored roses to represent my sorority, Delta Gamma. Below is some examples of the flower colors and styles of flowers I am going with.

We picked out my cake this week! I am so excited! We picked a delicious white cake with whipped buttercream frosting. At first I was 100% sure that I wanted a fondant, ornately decorated cake. We went our first taste testing and I was immediately overwhelmed with the choices. We designed our cake, got our price quote and hopped in the car to figure out what in the world just happened! I wasn't sure if I like the design, the fondant tasted horrible and the cake was too big. (it fed 256 - we are only inviting 209 and have lots of out of towners that won't be able to come!)

My mom and I went home and scoured the internet to look at cakes. After about 2 hours we came across "the one". Sitting on a bed of flowers was a gorgeous rhinestone box and on top of the box was a plain, white cake trimmed with rhinestone cake bands. I LOVED IT! So the next day, we hopped in the car - went to the next cake tasting we set up and fell in love with the soft, spongy cake and airy, not-to-sweet icing. We booked it on the spot!