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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Urgent: Need local (Seattle) "first year of wedding" stories

Want your name in print in a beautiful, glossy magazine in town? (seattle) I received an email from Laura, the fabulous editor at Seattle Met Bride & Groom . She is looking for "quick, thoughtful, funny, light" stories about the first year of marriage for their next issue.

"Short, witty, clever, thoughtful, and otherwise meaningful lessons, realizations, successes, and failures to share and keep in mind from the first year of marriage. These “lessons” don’t have to be deep and spiritual, in fact, I prefer that they’re off-the-cuff, casual, and fun. "

So, leave a comment below and we'll pass them on to her ourselves!

Daniela

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Bella Signature Design in Seattle Bride

After a much needed Holiday break, we are back in swing here at Bella Signature Design! Angela, Tom, Sara, Jessica and I enjoyed our break, and are excited to be working on the 2009 Wedding Show, which is next weekend, January 3rd and 4th at the Seattle Convention Center. We've been busy creating and designing our booth, and those of a few others...if you are in Seattle you'll have to come see!

It was a wonderful surprise to find an advance copy of the Spring/Summer 2009 Issue of Seattle Bride in our mailbox, and to see the stunning feature on "Color theory." We had a lot of fun creating a golden/orange hued bouquet for the photoshoot, and I loved how it came out in print! I have been working on adding some different couture details to our bouquets, and for this particular bouquet I first bound the bouquet with Midori ribbon, and then created a ruffle out of the same ribbon by sewing in pleats, and then sewed the ruffle onto the stem-covering ribbon - what do you think?

Be one of the first to see the full issue of Seattle Bride, premiering at the Seattle Wedding Show, and on newstands thereafter. Be sure to see our other features in the Spring /Summer issues of Seattle Metropolitan Bride and Groom (also premiering at the Seattle Wedding Show) and Grace Ormonde Wedding Style (on newstands in January).

Daniela

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Bella Signature Design featured in Bride and Bloom Magazine!

The latest issue of Bride and Bloom Magazine arrived today, hot off the press - and we are featured as a "Featured Coordinator"! B&B is an amazing design magazine read by both brides and those in the trade, and while based out of Los Angeles, they have gone nation wide and are found at Barnes and Nobles and all major book stores and magazine shops. We extremely honored when they chose us a few months ago to be one of their featured coordinators!

I was asked how I would interpret the theme "Hollywood Glamour." Since I knew two other Planner/Designers would be interpreting the same theme, and always of course trying to do something new, I wanted to mix the more typical "old Hollywood glamour" that brings to mind black and white, with the new Hollywood of today which is just as glamorous, but in a more contemporary way with clean lines yet overflowing lushness...

I dreamt up a color palette of gray (the new contemporary "black"), lacy nude (Old hollywood glamour) and fuchsia (Fresh color in Hollywood right now). This immediately brought to mind Wildflower Linens, with whom we had worked previously on a photoshoot for Grace Ormonde, and whose linens we have utilized at some of our most luxurious weddings here in Seattle. We used a silvery gray duppioni silk linen, fuchsia napkins and Chiavari chair pads and a fabulous nude "Empress Lace Linen" chair cover. Stunning! We wrapped our vases in a slightly darker slate gray silk, to really make the Fuchsia "Milano" roses pop off the table (and of course used them in reckless quantities!!). The bouquet featured fuchsia Peonies and exotic Aranda orchids, wild Sweet Peas, Astilbe, Tulips and Garden Roses, bound by a slate gray double satin ribbon. Pedersens Event Rentals is our all time favorite rental company here locally, and naturally we went there to pursue their newest choices in stemware and flatware. We ended up using their brand new platinum and gold rimmed glassware which really fit in with our gray and nude palette, and fabulous square gold chargers and white square china. Fabulous! Even the flatware was intriguing, with an almost sparkling yet contemporary design.We invited Jen of Jen's Desserts to create a glamorous cake, and she surprised us by bringing two! Her first design was her sparkling sugar cake, which I think is absolutely exquisite - clean, simple, yet ultra glamorous. It was the one Bride and Bloom chose too! Her second cake was also very creative, and featured a gigantic fuchsia/purpley flower (Jen said she was inspired by the Sex and the City movie!) For invitations, Brown Sugar Design created fabulous menu's, placecards and table numbers to go with a rich letterpress invitation they have in their line, on ecru paper and gray letterpress. The menu's and other table designs featured thick dove gray stock with yummy ivory writing.Check out Brown Sugar website (above) for some fabulous designs! Favors, which unfortunately weren't shown in the magazine (they only have so much room on one page) were by Glassybaby, and if you've followed my blog, you've read my previous blog about these great votiveholders!

And of course, none of this would have been possible if we weren't allowed to shoot in the fabulous Sodo Park, one of my very favorite new venues, and had it all captured by one of my all-time favorite photographers, Bradley Hanson (who is all over this blog!). I can create all the beauty in the world, but if it's not captured in an artistic way, it is lost forever.

Thanks to all the vendors who allowed me to bring them together in the very short two-week time frame we had, and thanks to Bride and Bloom for believing in us!

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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