How Cute Are You!

I know you have seen me write about the too terribly cute graphics that friend of the Dish Holly Hatam over at Tear Drop Weddings creates for her stationery line. Well now is your chance to be just as cute.

Like any good designer, Holly is looking for inspiration and who better to inspire her than all the lovely brides and groom out there in Wedding Dish land.

Holly is looking for 20 brides to inspire her. All you need do is tell her your story about how you met your fiance, how you fell in love, your creative ideas and details for your wedding. Then she will choose the 20 brides that inspire her the most and design an invitation around that story. And in return, you will receive a custom designed invitation, but for the price of a design that you would choose out of her ready made collection! That is a savings of $1500!

I love that: Couture at Ready to Wear prices.

Hop over to the blog at Tear Drop Weddings and tell my girl Holly your story: then you can be too terribly cute too!

On another note; congrats to Holly. The boy just popped the question. I can’t wait to see those invitations.

Franklin Bridal Ball

Last night was The Franklin Bridal Ball. I was there to see what was up and catch any trends I could. As you can see I was in great company. Those are two really good friends of the Dish, Vicki Sanders of Branching Out Event Florists and Ashley King-Carter creator of Ashley’s Bride Guide. Yes, we apparently all got the memo: Green is tonight’s color!

There were many beautiful things there but I was inspired by some of the tabletops and centerpieces. It seems that ‘Shiny” is in!  I’ll have more dish on the people and things for last night in the days to come. Stay tuned.

Wedding Jewelry Inspired by YOU!

Good friend of the Dish, Mandy Greenan is at it again. This time she is designing a line for her company Tigerlilly with YOU in mind.

Mandy is looking for 20 brides to inspire her; send her your story and your ideas and you may just be one of them. Ladies if you are at your wits end finding the right pieces to garnish your wedding day look, here is your chance to have one of the best custom design your dreams.


I find inspiration everywhere – in nature, music, fashion…
But one of the things I enjoy most and find most inspiring is working with you.
Brides have so much passion and excitement,
I just love to collaborate and come up with custom pieces that are the perfect
accent for you, your style, your day.

With that in mind, let me introduce the first season of the Inspired Collection,
a group of 20 designs that are created for 20 brides. Tell me about you, your
wedding, your gown, your style, your dream accessories, send me pictures,
and we’ll come up with your signature piece.

You’ll be part of our first ever Inspired collection – you help me design it,
name it, and even model it if you’d like!

We’re starting this collection with 20 designs, 20 brides. If you’d like
to be a part of it, please email me at mandy@tigerlillyjewelry.com!
We’re working with all budgets, and we’re looking for a wide
variety of designs, from simple to over the top statement pieces!

I can’t wait to hear from you!

So give Mandy a shout and tell her I said Hi.

Wedding Cake Topper to Make You Go awwwwwwwwwwwwww

As a former cake decorator I have never been too keen on cake toppers. Most of the one I have seen are tacky. Then of course there are the new breed that are just offensive. I always tended to lean toward using sugar sculptures to match the rest of the artwork on the cake. But this one just makes me go awwww. I would actually use this. In fact now I want to design a cake to go with it.

Let’s see. 3 tiers in fondant with classic curved top edges. Make the fondant on the base tier the faintest robin’s egg blue, fade the middle tier down to almost white and make the top tier a pure white to match the birds. For a base border, in a dark straw/light tan combination pipe random woven bits with maybe a number 4 round tip to resemble a band of birds nest. Do a board to match in just the next shade darker robin’s egg blue and add maybe a tuft of grass or a two as an accent on the base.

Inside, hmmmm…oh I know! The vanilla pudding pound cake I used to make with a passion fruit ganache filling; add a touch of Le Grande Passion liquor to the soak and the butter cream base coat. Oh drool. Love it. Almost makes me want to bake again!

Pretty Hair Jewlery

I received an email update from Lonni Tanksley to highlight these adorable new hair coils. Wouldn’t they look like tiny stars tucked into an updo? The coil design will see that they stay there no matter how much you dance the night away.

Lonni is an indie artist that with a shop on etsy.com. If you haven’t checked out her work you really need to give it a look. Her pieces are so light and airy that they make a perfect addition to not only your summer wedding look but for any time you want to add a little sparkle to your day.

DIY Cake Stands

A pet peeve of mine is seeing a beautiful wedding cake sitting on an ugly cake base. Oh come on, you’ve seen it: a board covered in aluminum foil that some poor florist has had to try to hide with greenery. Yuck Oh!

Well not any more! Martha has come to the rescue with a fast easy solution that you can do yourself and just take to your cake designer to use on your cake. You can find all the details here. I do have one caveat: add an additional foot in the canter of the stand. Wedding cakes are very heavy and if that board bows at all it can destroy your cake. Been there done that—been scrambling to find something to support the center of a sterling silver cake stand. Thank God for chefs that love me!

You have just got to love the people at MS Weddings; they come up with the best ideas

Wonderful, Whimsical Invitations

I don’t often talk about one of my clients on the Dish but Tear Drop Designs has me so tickled pink I just have to share!

The wonderful Holly Hatam has created the most unique line of stationery products I have run across in a long time. An artist in the true sense of the word, Holly creates for her couples wonderfully whimsical caricatures for their stationery. Adorable little couples that her clients become so taken with that they want to keep them for ever.

In talking with Holly I encouraged her to let them do just that. Today she has launched a whole new idea called LifeCycles. Holly will take your characters and create invitations and announcements for all the moments of your life.

“At TearDrop we realize that your wedding is just one experience in your cycle of life. That is why we have carried our character designs from our invitations to our baby announcements. Now you can carry your illustration of you and your spouse into the next cycle of your life! We will customize the characters to follow your unique personality and physical changes throughout the years. We make customized changes like adding glasses, making your hair shorter or longer, even adding a cat or a dog. We want our designs to totally reflect you and follow you throughout your life.”

Way to go Holly! I think you have a winner.

Angel Sanchez

One of the things I love about where my career is right now is the opportunity to meet some very wonderful people in a more intimate setting. Such was the case Monday at the bloggers luncheon hosted by Brides.com to celebrate the launch of their blog Wedded Bits.

Michelle Preli, Editor-in-Chief, invited Angel Sanchez to join us. Unlike meeting him at market or hearing him speak from the Runway, in a setting like this his true passion shines. Angel began designing bridal strictly as couture, one on one with each of his bride. He would most often attend the wedding. Hearing him tell about how he would watch the groom’s face as his bride walked down the aisle was amazing. Here is a designer that is in love with each of his brides and wants to make their day the one they have dreamed of.

He is passionate about fabric, hating satin; loving instead silk gabardine for its softer more subtle shine. Rather that lace, he prefers embroidered organza, calling it his favorite fabric. A true romantic, he favors veils over tiaras; saying “A veil adds the aura of bridal to a look.”

Some other things that have Angel excited are the upcoming move to his new 7200 square foot studio and show room as well as the launch of his new line Angel by Angel Sanchez for October 2009.

Enjoy the slide show of the Angel Sanchez collection for Spring 2009

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