The rose(s) and the thorn

I'm channelling President Obama today and picking out the rose and the thorn from last weekend's expo. Good news is that it's impossible for me to pick just one rose, since I was blessed with so many in the span of three short days. I'll blog about the biggest bloom in a separate post, but for now here are some of my favorite roses:

#1: My linen fairy came to the rescue again and dressed my tables in gorgeous blush pink linen and beaded overlays. I wanted something feminine and flirty, and was over-the-moon happy with the overall look. Need table linens or chair covers? Contact Naomi Lee @ Les Saisons and she'll hook you up with something beautiful.

#2: Just before the holidays, I discovered Bit of Sugar at a local craft fair. Thought their deco jewelry and accessories were so adorable and made it a point to file away their business card for future gift ideas. Few weeks after that, I read Melissa Chang's blog on Nonstop Honolulu and saw a photo of their miniature wedding cakes that could double as place card holders...*click*...lightbulb moment. Lost no time in contacting company owners Lei and Brad, and asked if they might be interested in designing a few custom cakes for me. Sent them some rough design concepts for my place cards along with color schemes, and this is what they came up with:


"Lovebirds" place card in Tiffany blue and red



"Amelie" place card in black and white



"Kathryn" cherry blossom place card in tourmaline and fuchsia

Prices for the cakes shown above range from $8-12, but Bit of Sugar is also happy to work with your budget and custom design specs. A big mahalo to Lei and Brad for the lovely cakes (and a shout out to Stacey Lee of Stacey Lee Designs for introducing me to their work!).

#3: Ah, rose #3 is a big one, but I can't really take credit for it. I planned on creating a display board to show off our favor box line and our custom designed favor tags. I knew exactly where I wanted to position the board, but had no idea that directly across the aisle would be my friends at Menehune Mac! I've been designing custom favor tags and wrappers for Menehune Mac for about a year now and it truly was serendipitous that I could take advantage of their favor display and they could bring customers over to look at paper swatches. Not to mention, Susan and Jana are just a joy to be around!

#4: I may be the only one who appreciates this rose, but the fact that no one tried to pull on or tug at my plexiglass display was a GOOD THING. I've had the display for many years and have considered removing it because of the time involved in setting it up, but brides really like seeing everything at a glance.

#5: The thorn. In retrospect, this isn't such a huge thing, but maybe if I get it off my chest and release it out into the "interweb," I can just let it go. So, in the booth photo at the top of this post, the #5 marker is sitting just to the right of a large, 6" x 9" invitation. I printed the text on a really pretty pale gold metallic cover stock, covered the top third of the invitation in a pale pink cherry blossom print washi paper, and finished it with a special trim using a basket weave material that I purchased in Japan. It was (was, as in past tense) a sample that I created especially for my booth display because I LOVED the washi paper print (another material purchased in Japan) and I've had a lot of clients asking for really large invitations recently. Anyway, at some point on Sunday, this oversized, not-so-subtle invitation walked away from my booth. Maybe it left me in search of cake samples? I'd hate to think that someone swiped it...and what would someone do with ONE invitation, anyway? Maybe someone picked it up inadvertently and dropped it into their swag bag. I'm hoping that's the case so that this thorn won't be so "thorny."

Tomorrow, I'll wrap up the week with a post on my biggest rose of the expo. Here's a hint, her name starts with a "J"...and ends with a "essica."