Guest Blogging on Sasha Souza!

I am so excited to be a guest blogger this week, starting today, on Sasha Souza's blog, Sparkliatti.

Sasha Souza Events was first established in 1995 and is a consulted expert wedding coordinator and event planner in several magazines including Modern Bride, InStyle Weddings, Elegant Bride, Martha Stewart Weddings, and Wedding Style. Sasha Souza's celebrity wedding clients include Amy Acker, Dayna Devon, and James Carpinello.

In 2004, Sasha Souza was honored by Modern Bride Magazine as one of the top 25 trendsetters in the wedding industry... being included with top industry pros such as Colin Cowie Lifestyle, Preston Bailey Event Design, Ron Ben-Israel Cakes and Jane Packard Flowers. She was also asked by Antonia van der Meer, the editor of now past Modern Bride Magazine, to take on a role in the prestigious Modern Bride Advisory Panel. Being considered among the top event designers and wedding coordination companies in the nation is a great honor as Sasha Souza is recognized for creating unique, fun and amazing event experiences whether they be extraordinary destination weddings or exclusive celebrity events.

If you are not already receiving feeds from Sasha's fabulous blog, you should! She's funny, shows great insight into this industry, and I love the eye candy on her blog.

Visit her blog today and next week to see my new series on "Inspiration to Design" the process of designing an event from various points of inspiration.

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Bella Featured on Gray Likes Weddings Blog

What a nice surprise today to be featured on the fabulous "Grey Likes Weddings" blog! This was a super fun, stunning outdoor wedding on Bainbridge Island I designed this summer, photographed by the brilliant Bradley Hanson - here are the images from Bradley that Grey posted...we'll post more images ourselves soon! Thanks, Grey!

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Green Your Theme!

We are so excited for Bella Signature Design to be a part of Green Your Theme Seattle, a fabulous B2B event that encourages vendors that offer green services to talk, connect, and support each other in continuing to provide green services (and hopefully encourage others to do the same). If your company does weddings, special events, or even meetings, this is a great place to meet others who do eco-friendly events, or for you to learn how to make your events more eco-friendly. If nothing else, come see the fabulous treats from Tallant House, Mt Townsend Creamery and of course, Herban Feast, whose home is right there at SoDO Park. We'll be leading a panel discussion all about how to green your events, from meetings to weddings, lighting to drinks. We have some great panelists, so come and ask questions!

Where: Sodo Park
When: 5:30 pm, Sept 16, 2009

For more details, visit the website.

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Honored

So excited to be nominated for King 5's Evening Magazine Show's "Best of Western Washington." Although we do so much more than floral, it's an absolute honor to know you love our work! I feel the love when I read all those wonderful reviews! If you want to see what all the fuss is about, write a review or even vote (Feel free! :) ) simply click here to view our nomination. Thanks to all our brides and clients who love us - we love you right back!

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Bella Signature Design featured in Seattle Bride Magazine~

Seattle Bride Magazine has always been a fabulous read for Seattle Brides, but I love even more how much the visuals have evolved over the years. Although always stunning, they have become more fashion forward over the last few years. We were excited to be invited in this issue's feature, which was described to us as "Elegant Decay" - edgy, fashion-forward florals to go with a stunning model and fabulous setting!

We picked a few different designs - the one pictures above was a super edgy black and chartreuse bouquet that featured calla lillies, "green success ranunculus", spider mums, Celosia, fern curls, brasilia berries, kangaroo paw and hanging amaranthus, as well as feathery Eucalyptus. The Photographer Jim Henkens did a fabulous job with the photography, his images are clearly better than mine! (below)

One thing I have learned over the years about doing magazine photoshoots - be prepared to lose control over your designs! This particular design was meant to be held down, cascading, towards a brides feet, very casual - as in, "I'm so edgy I don't even care about my bouquet" ;) but the image with the bride holding it upright was chosen - gorgeous picture, even if the bouquet is upside down! The composition of the photo above totally works.

The bouquet (shot by me - a photographer, I'm not!) cascading down...

Details of the "Green Success" Ranunculus - (love this flower!), fern curls and kangaroo paw.

Details of the Ribbon treatment

The photoshoot involves so many things, from the great make-up and hair artists, the gown designers, the stylists, the setting, photographer, the lighting, and of course the designers.

At the last minute I made an extra bouquet just because I saw the most gorgeous magnolia blossoms on a tree - alas, there were already too many bouquets to shoot at the photoshoot, but the stylists ended up using the blooms in the model's hair - perfection, no?

The Magnolia Bouquet

As a floral designer, we have to buy in bulk. So even in a floral shoot where we may only have 5 flowers of one kind, two of another, etc, we have purchased bunches of all of them! (The glorious editorials are totally worth the cost!) So, when I had extra flowers for this shoot, I made a beautiful centerpiece - ironic, since Bella Signature Design is mostly known for 'lush modern' work - but we can do romantic garden too! ;)

This would look fabulous at Jessica and John's August 1st wedding this summer! This fabulous romantic garden wedding in a tent by a pond will be stunning - I can't wait!

Daniela

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Cocktails with Preston Bailey?

Phaelanopsis tree created by Michelle Rago

I just had to write a headline that grabbed the attention of all those who love Preston Bailey's designs! This last week I had the most amazing experience: being part of the luxury wedding symposium, Engage09.

I have to admit, the first thing that caught my attention, was that by attending, I would get to meet one of my design idols, Preston Bailey. The lure of listening to panels by the incredible Marcy Blum, Sylvia Weinstock, and the editors of fabulous magazines such as Darcy Miller of Martha Stewart Weddings and Antonia Van Der Meer of Elegant Bride/Modern Bride made it that much more tempting, and when I took The Smart Planners' (now ThinkSplendid) Blogging Bootcamp a few months ago Liene Stevens made me realize that I could not miss this event. Thanks Liene, you were so right!!

What I hadn't expected was how much I learned from my peers who also attended - We shared information, sources, strategies...more about this on the next post!

The first day started out by a Welcome Party on Seven Mile beach at the Ritz Carlton, Cayman Island. The hotel is beautiful already, but the uber-talented Michelle Rago, with the help of staff from Celebrations, (a full service event decor company on Cayman), put together an AMAZING beach party, complete with a steel drum band on a boat and fireworks on the beach. The decor included cabana style tents, comfy and stylish ottomans, and an incredible manzanita tree created with 100 stems of Phaelenopsis Orchids. Swoon.

Day two was a full day of speakers. Marcy Blum was hilarious, blunt, and cut through to some issues we face as planners/designers of weddings. What a wonderful, warm, sharing person! Talking with her over the rest of the 3 days I was there I got an idea of how passionate she is about what she does, and how willing she is to share with those eager to listen. Thanks Marcy, for willing to share and teach - and being so direct! Daniela and Marcy Blum

Sylvia Weinstock was SO funny, insanely talented, and her story of how she started absolutely inspiring. Her husband and her were one of the sweetest couples I have ever met, getting up early to swim in the ocean, and staying up late to party with us into the night. An incredible amount of talent and personality all in one person. (she even learned to twitter at the conference!)

Michelle Rago, Daniela and Sylvia Weinstock

I had heard of Simon Bailey, but wasn't prepared for how inspirational his talk would be! Within a short time I was able to create my top ten goals for the next ten years, and rank them in order of importance. Through an AMAZING 30 minute coaching session I did with him later, I got a ton of perspective on how to start accomplishing these goals. Watch out world, because I am inspired AND enlightened! A dangerous combination for a passionate Sicilian/determined German girl. :) Thanks Simon, for taking the time!

Antonia Van Der Meer of Elegant Bride/Modern Bride spoke about the incredible Top 25 Trendsetter List and what it means to be a trendsetter. Nothing like being inspired to keep improving oneself!

Darcy Miller shared some fabulous insights into Martha Stewart Weddings, as well as sharing stories and images of her own wedding. What a woman full of humor, talent, and elegant tenacity. Oh, to spend a whole day working with just one of these women!

Darcy Miller and Daniela

And of course, seeing Preston Bailey speak and talk about his jaw-dropping talent was exquisite. Images from his events and his design philosophy were a delight to watch.

Daniela and Preston Bailey

And that was only day two! Kathryn and Rebecca of Engaging Concepts who put together Engage09 really outdid themselves with this symposium - it has changed how I see my business and how I approach it's daily workings and outcome, and utilizing all that passion that I have for Bella Signature Design to create stunning events for all my clients.
Thanks Kathryn and Rebecca, for letting me a part of something so wonderful - hopefully I can assimilate it all by the Encore!

More about Day 3 in the next post - the brilliant Sean Low (President of Preston Bailey Designs), fabulous Randy Fenoli of Kleinfeld, and practical and smart Liene Steves from the Smart Planner gave us a ton of advice over a course of four small panels - I'll go more in depth next post!

Daniela

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Engage09 here we come!

So excited to be headed off to the Cayman Islands for THE Luxury Wedding Symposium, Engage09.

I mean, honestly, what can be better than being on Grand Cayman Island with Preston Bailey, Marcy Blum, Sylvia Weinstock, Darcy Miller (Martha Stewart Weddings), Antonia Van Der Meer (Elegant Bride), Liene Stevens (The Smart Planner & Think Splendid) Lara Casey (Southern Weddings)...the list goes on!

Only 100 or so attendees get to go, so I am so excited to be going, along with Renee Metty of Its Eventful and Tania Sheppard from Azzura Photography - we are going to have a blast, learn a lot, and bring it all back to you!

Get ready for TONS of inspiration, creativity and who knows what else! I'll blog all about it next week when I return, and in the mean time, don't forget to follow me on twitter, where I will be updating moments and pics from Engage09.

Daniela

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Bella Signature Design Featured on Blog!

We're so honored to be featured on Modern Day Floral's fabulous blog!

Jenn has an amazing eye for design, and recently launched a new venture, Modern Day Event, a fabulous event design boutique in Michigan, where she also has her amazing shop Modern Day Floral. Jenn is super talented, with a sumptuous modern style to her work - yum!

We were excited to be one of her featured designers; Jenn and I actually met on Twitter, and instantly struck a chord with one another - yay for social media!

In Jenn's words:

"I have made some fabulous twitter friends from all over the country. It's amazing how the internet has made the world such a small place! Just a few months ago I started tweeting with an amazing floral designer out of Seattle and although this may sound funny I knew just after a few "tweets" and reading her blog, this girl was my kindred spirit. Daniela has honestly and openly offered her expertise and for that I'm so grateful. She is an industry leader, has been featured in Bride and Bloom, Seattle Bride, Seattle Metropolitan Bride and Groom, Elegant Bride and Grace Ormonde and has one of the most fascinating stories I have ever heard... "

Alright, I'm blushing! To see more of the post, click here!

And Jenn, thank you, and I feel you are a kindred spirit as well!

Daniela

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Ask the Expert - SeattleBrideMag.com

The Editor of Seattle Bride Magazine recently asked us to write a guest editorial for the online version of Seattle Bride; and of course, we were happy to oblige. Working as both a planner and a designer has it's definite advantages, as we are well versed in areas of planning, vendor selection and budgeting, as well as the design details takes to pull a wedding together as a whole. This allows us a unique perspective, and gives us the ability to give each client great advice on how to get the most out of the money they are spending. While not everyone can afford some of the more lavish things you see on Platinum Weddings or in Grace Ormonde, the article gives some hints of where to spend money for the most ROI (return on investment) so that you can approach decor from both a design AND a budget perspective. To read the article, click on this link for Seattle Bride Ask the Expert.

Daniela

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Grace Ormonde Wedding Style

A couple of months ago we were invited to submit a photoshoot to Grace Ormonde Magazine - such a fabulous publication! I've been enamored with Wedding Style's glossy pages for years, so this was a huge excitement. We were honored to be a part of it and had a blast at the photoshoot!

You never know what will actually get printed, but here is a sneak peek - two of our tabletops on Grace Ormonde's Wedding Style Website... (you can also go directly to http://www.weddingstylemagazine.com/ and look under "Featured Editorials"

Photography by the fabulous Bradley Hanson, linens by Wildflower

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