This gorgeous wedding I did in September was featured on Grey Likes, last week… The theme was spanish with a strong color palette of orange and blue.

For the ceremony I had a simple arbor built. Then I draped it with alternating strips of orange and blue fabric.

For the bride’s bouquet I used a mix of locally grown dahlias in various shapes and sizes mixed with muscari, orange garden roses, tulips and calla lillies. For the grooms’ bout I used a calla lillie and wrapped in the same striped ribbon as the bride’s bouquet.

For seating cards, I placed a single clementine to hold the card down which acted as a paper weight and a fun snack for guests.

For the tables, I used La Tavola‘s fun retro linen in blue. I love the fun geometric pattern. And for even more pops of color I painted cement containers in two tones. The tall rectangular containers were painted a red and orange while the star shaped container was painted with cobalt blue and turquoise.

For guest tables, I used large wood boxes surrounded by white tile I painted. I simply taped a triangle on one side of the tile and then spray painted the exposed portion a pretty orange/red. I loved, loved the bold color palatte of this wedding, would you be so bold?

I love  a wedding full of vibrant color, and this wedding I designed last year had one of my favorite color combos: turquoise, orange, and hot pink. For her bouquet, I used pink garden roses, orange dahlias, sweet veronica, scabiosa pods and maidenhair fern and then wrapped the stems with a deep turquoise silk.

Their ceremony was held under the oak tree at Gainey Vineyards. The bride had a thing for hearts (she actually wore a heart shaped necklace on her wedding day) so I created a big heart out of orange rose petals.

I used the couple’s bird and heart logo on their seating card chart (I actually printed a large copy of it and then used an exacto knife to make a stencil out of it). A collection of vintage fans were placed in wood boxes filled with more orange rose petals.

For her tabletop design, I used a burlap runner as the base to pop the colorful flowers off of. A mix of hammered containers, petite mason jars and aqua glasses from Anthropologie held an assortment of garden roses, cafe au lait dahlias, orange lollipop dahlias, orange roses, tuberrose, geranium, and a bit amaranthus. I bought a bunch of old books and tied with them with more turquiose silk, sort of like old book satchels. At each place setting I hand braided torn silk strips to use as a napkin ring. I also switched out the usually white plates for orange ones to add even more color. I love the vibrant, playful look! You can see more of this wedding over on Style Me Pretty, right here.

A wedding I designed last year was featured on Style Me Pretty last week. I loved the colorful palette and the vintage school yard theme we did. More on this wedding soon…

And The Rainbow shoot was featured on The City Sage. Enjoy!

Monday: I revisited the reception location and confirmed table layout, made sure my husband’s morning suit fit him (this was an English wedding after all), transplanted toparies, folded napkins, and basically banged through some of the more tedious tasks.

Tuesday: I hit up Alfie’s which is another antique market that ranges from 19th century up to the 70′s. Lots of glass, silver sets, vintage ad posters, and a post modern bench made of pencils,

Wednesday: My flowers arrived from the market and I cleaned and prepped them. The hydranga in England is seriously jumbo (each indiviudal bloom is like 2″ accross) and the garden roses were super fragrant. With flower prep complete, I met my dad and husband and we hit up the National Galley and British Museum. From there we met the rest of the family in Covent Garden and had a proper curry (after many proper pints to be sure).

Thursday: I met Kirsten and we went up to Cambridge and walked to the little village of Granchester to have tea in The Orchard. I studied in Cambridge for a summer when I was in school and I loved the countryside walk from Cambridge to Granchester. You walk along the river cam, the cows hang out with you on the foot path, there are weeping willows, white swans, its basically idyllic England.  Its one of my favorite places in the world and its been a hang out spot to just about every major English literary writer for the last hundred years (this is the spot called “Forever England” in Rupert Brooke’s poem.). Also, the scones there are so freaking good.

On Friday, I arranged all the flowers in the various containers we had collected over the last week, had my nails done (very necessary after you’ve been playing with flowers) and packed up all the decor.

Saturday, was wedding day! I got my hair and makeup done early so I can run over to the reception and set everything up. I met my sister over at the ceremony site and watched her marry her sweet husband. The English registry marriage service is short, but sweet. I loved the tradition of showering with confetti the bride and groom as they leave the register’s office. I might have to steal that idea. The reception was quite the party, the groom’s family is Irish and they are certainly not shy about their love of Jameson (but then neither am I).

Sunday, I flew home exhausted. I had a wedding that following Friday, 9/16, so needless to say I’m still quite tired. Its been a busy three weeks. Anyhoo, I’ll share photos of Cambridge and the wedding when I can. It was so much fun to design my sister’s wedding especially since we have similar tastes, the man she married is a total sweetheart, and  England is one of my favorite countries. A big congrats to my sister and her husband!

All photos by me and my crappy cell phone camera.

Thursday: We went to visit my sister’s ceremony location, scoped out some good photography spots for bride and groom photos and then we headed to Camden Passage. It was mostly closed, and the shops that were open were really expensive.

We wandered down a ways and happened upon After Noah. We found some awesome rusted vintage tea tins that they had a ton of and were also a good price.

Friday: We met my sister’s fiance, Mark, and had lunch at Borough Market which is an open air food market. I got steak and ale pie for lunch. From there, we hit up Portebello Road. We had really good luck at Alice, we found a bunch of pretty pottery, vintage tea tins, and I bought some vintage ink wells to add to my collection.

Saturday: We hit up Portebello Market which was mind blowing. Vintage coins, prints, more silver tea sets then you can shake a stick at, tons of letterpress type, vintage jewelry, doll house furniture… Let’s just say its reputation as the biggest antique market is well deserved. We finished out container shopping here and then I went to pick up my husband from the airport.

Sunday: I made reservations for us to have high tea at Fortnum & Mason’s. A department store that’s been there since 1700, its tea and biscuit packaging is gorgeous and their merchandizing displays are amazing. Seriously, the whole store is so darn pretty. Tea started with a few savory bites and then the staff brought out tiered trays of tea sandwhiches, scones, and madelines. The madelines were incredible, fluffy and light with a touch of lemon zest.  After that the staff came around with a dessert cart filled with rows of pretty bites.

All photos by me and my crappy cell phone camera.

I went to England for my sister’s wedding, Tracy, (she’s married a Brit, hence the location) but of course I couldn’t not design and plan her wedding. She did most of the leg work there, sorting out the venues for ceremony and rehearsal and booking most of the vendors on her own. I brought a photographer from LA, Kirsten of Beaux Arts Photographie to shoot the wedding. I packed one suitcase full of custom napkins, a runner, floral supplies, craft punches, paper, various forms of glue, ribbon, basically anything I could pack, I did. I landed on a Friday and the following day was her hen do (aka her Bachelorette). We drank Pimm’s Cups and danced to the Spice Girls.

Monday: I checked out her reception location so I can start figuring out what kind of containers to buy and how many. After that we went fascinator shopping at Oxford Circus and then hit up Top Shop. I got some awesome black oxford heels there, the shoe department is freaking huge and fabulous.

Tuesday: We went to Covent Garden Flower Market and figured out a flower purveyor (Alagar). I also ordered garden roses direct from David Austin (both vendors were very pleasant to work with).

From there we happened upon an architectural salvage store, Brunswich House, accross the street from the flower market. It was way too much fun in there, vintage hardware, old children toys, serious period clothing, awesome books, dollhouse furniture and so on. If you’re in the area definitely make a stop there.

After that we ran over to Sunbury Antique Market at Kempton Park Racecourse which is open the last Tuesday of every month. The website says its closes at 2pm, but it in fact closes at 12pm. We got there at 12:30pm and did a speed antiquing job second to none. In 45 minutes, we bought 25 containers for the wedding. There were swords, knights’ masks, (still regret not buying one, especially since they were asking only 55 pounds!) amazing furniture, I mean seriously, even half closed it was the best antique market I’ve ever been to and the prices were really good. We got a ton of awesome tarnished silver pieces, mostly from the 1890′s, goblets, these awesome brass urns that I’m totally obsessed with and which I lugged back in my suitcase.

Wednesday: We hit up the hardware store and got buckets for flowers, I found an awesome tool belt thingie, and of course, the most exciting plant ever: a venus fly trap. For 4 pounds, we had to bring her home.

All photos by me and my crappy cell phone camera.

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of designing a wedding for Amanda & Roy. How cute are they during their first dance?

For the ceremony, Amanda wanted a very simple chuppa structure. I used birch wood poles and sheer white chiffon to create a relaxed look. For her ceremony, the coordinator, my old assistant and friend of Amanda, Cynthia, used my oversized chalkboards for her programs (eco-friendly and you don’t have to rush around printing programs at the last minute).

For Amanda’s bouquet, I used cafe au lait dahlias, garden roses, white lisianthus, lavender, and lamb’s ear. For the bridesmaids, I used lavender lisianthus, peach roses, peach dahlias, lavender, gomphrena (those funky purple balls) and lamb’s ear. The groomsmen’s boutonniere were made of gomphrena with lambs ear and wrapped in burlap.

For the seating card table I created a fruit stand with peaches and plums. I used bittersweet to ground the back of the table mixed with white hydranga and olive leaves. I then pinned the seating cards to the peaches. For her cocktail tables, inkwells from the 1870′s held garden roses, tall medicine bottles held freesia and  galvanized bucket held even more peaches.

For her tabletop design, I found cool wood boxes and draped the table number from it. Containers were a mix of patina copper containers from Jamali Garden mixed with vintage brass and pewter goblets. At each place setting, a hemstitch napkin was tied with lavender baking twine and a piece of lavender tucked in. This wedding was so much fun to design, I loved the seasonal fruit we used (I gott the peaches from a local farmer) and how elegant, but not stuffy, the whole vibe of the wedding was. Special thanks to Cynthia for her coordination skillz and One Love Photography for the amazing images!

Remeber my inspiration for the peach wedding I was working on?

Well you can check out the final design for this wedding right here. Enjoy!

Photo by One Love Photography. Floral and event design by Kelly Oshiro Design.

Photo by Kirsten Ellis of Beaux Arts Photographie.

For the reception, La Tavola’s sequin New York linens added some serious glamour to the tables. The bride and groom sat at Town & Country’s fun domed Montecito love seat.

For table decor, a mix of birdcages filled with moss and candles, alternated with clusters of lanterns and tons of flowers. For the table numbers, wood plaques were painted a coppery gold and a custom decal was applied.

Tucked into the flowers little birdies perched (the bride loved birds).

Around the menu a sequin belly band added even more sparkle.

For the cake, we used the groom’s parent’s cake topped. It was such an adorable heirloom touch.

And then for the groom’s cake, his favorite guitar was recreated.

Special thanks to all the vendors who helped create this fabulous event!

Photographer- Beaux Arts Photographie

Rentals- Town & Country

Linens- La Tavola

Lighitng- Ambient Event Design

Location- Doubletree Resort

Ceremony music- Aurora Ensemble

Cocktail music- Anthony Ybarra

Reception music- Nova Jazz

Wedding Cake- Montectio Confections

Planning/Design/Florals- Kelly Oshiro Design

For this wedding I incorporated the bride’s favorite colors and the play her sister used to read her as a child, A Midummer Night’s Dream.

For her bouquet, I used Magnolia leaves (from her home state of Missippippi), ranunculus, peonies, lavender, lilac, hudranga, and a touch of lily of the valley.

Pink ranunculus with lavender and geranium were pined on the groomsmen.

The twin flower girls carried copper buckets filled with lavender rose petals and gardenias in their hair.

For the pre-ceremony welcome drinks, I found this cool wrought iron piece that looks like a gothic window. I love the chippy paint and the color!

The ceremony aisle was lined with rose petals and sherperd’s hooks filled with flowers. I loved the Versaille chairs we used, such a nice change from the usual chivari chair.

For the ceremony arbor, I used magnolia leaves, lilac, hydranga and lavendar roses. I wanted to make the lilac drip down similar to wisteria which was another of the bride’s favorite things.

Up next.. the reception!

Photos by Beaux Arts Photographie. Full wedding planning, event design and florals by me. Location is the Doubletree Resort.

Fabulous hot pink Kate Spade shoes from my Glamorous Midsummer Night Dream wedding! Photo by Beaux Arts Photographie.

Super excited to (finally) be able to share this wedding! You can see all the details on Style Me Pretty, right here. Enjoy!

Photos by the lovely Kirsten Ellis of Beaux Arts Photographie. Shoes by Kate Spade. Flowers, design & planning by me.

…Is just as gorgeous as everyone says. Happy Monday!

Photo by Michael Costa.

Location: Gainey Winery

For the reception, we used a khaki linen (a nice neutral to pop all the colors off of) and red napkins. I tied red gingham around the napkins and tucked in cornflowers and nigella.

Doesn’t nigella look like fireworks?

For centerpieces I used mini watering cans, quilted mason jars and terra cotta pots. Flowers included dahlias in red, white, and yellow, daisies, yarrow, blue thistle, and cornflower. Alisa’s mom made the quilting squares for the tables which she later turned into a wedding quilt.

For table numbers, I spray painted the terra cotta with chalk board paint and wrote the number in red chalk.

At Alisa’s and Tim’s seats I placed petite blue bottles and tucked in a red lollipop dahlia. I got the bottles from the Pasadena flea, I think they originally held bitters.

A few oversized ballooms marked the sparkler table and kept the little ones entertained.

For dessert, Enjoy Cupcakes came and brought their delicious and adorable treats.

Seriously, the prettiest and tastiest cupcakes know to man.

And of course, it all ended with a heart! Congratulations again to Alisa and Tim!

Special thanks to all the vendors:

Photography: Beaux Arts Photographie by Kirsten Ellis

Venue: McCormick Home Ranch in Camarillo, California

Month-of coordination: Cynthia Beard for Kelly Oshiro Design

Bride’s dress / shoes: Paloma Blanca / Angela Nuran

Bridesmaid dresses: J.Crew

Suit rentals: Friar Tux

Flowers: Kelly Oshiro Design

Officiant: Rabbi Rochelle Robins

Catering: DJ’s California Catering

Cupcakes: Enjoy Cupcakes

DJ: Ian Gotler for Red Shoe LA

Sparklers: Sparkle