Happy New Year !

Hi Everyone!

I have been notoriously out of touch blog-wise. Sorry about that. Just so many things to do. And it just seems that either me or my husband is falling sick by turns. Hopefully, we are over it by now :).
I hope you had a great Christmas! I am so looking forward to the New Year. I have been working and working to get some things in order. Hopefully, they will all fall into place soon.
This year, in January and June I participated in the Bridal Fashion Debut Show in Phoenix. It is the biggest bridal show in the country with thousands and thousands of brides attending it every year. It was such a pleasant surprise for me when Shannon from the Bridal Show contacted me first to do a custom arrangement for her newborn daughter's room and then for a photoshoot for the purpose of advertising the Wedding MBA which she also organizes. Of course, I said yes! :) And guess where I was when I got that call in a remote location in the Glacier National Park, Montana driving through the beautiful fall foliage of the Rockies. Lucky I had phone reception! :)

So anyway.... Shannon said she wanted a couple of bouquets and it could be anything I wanted. The design was upto me and it would be nice if one of the bouquets had fall colors - but didn't too autumn-y.

For that I created a Modern, Pageant Style Bouquet with Orange Dahlias, Succulents (for the Southwest Feel) and Off-White Chrysanthemums. The dried branches accentuated the modern feel and the brooch on the handle gave it a little bling and complemented it beautifully. 

The second bouquet I made was a more traditional all-white bouquet with Lily of the Valley, Ranunculus and Peonies. I gave it a platinum colored ribbon and again, added a brooch :). I so love this shot where it appears that the beautiful model can't resist smelling the flowers :).

The photos were shot by the fantastic Roy Bracamonte of Roy Bracamonte Photography. He was so easy to work with.... Not that I had much to contribute in the photography part of the photoshoot :), but he made us feel so much at ease with his effervescent personality! He even visited us at home and showed me a few tricks to get better photos. You can visit Roy's website here to look at some more shots that he took of my flowers.

Photo Credit: Roy Bracamonte Photography

Photoshoot for Wedding MBA, Bridal Fashion Debut

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KeepsakeBlossoms : Handcrafted Clay Flowers' Wedding MBA Experience

Photo Credit:Krystal Muellenberg Photography

I spent the past week absorbing all the knowledge I could absorb, at the Wedding MBA convention that was being held in Las Vegas. I have been in the wedding business for over 3 years now, with my alternative to fresh flowers - my CLAY flowers - but there's a lot of things I could learn about the business. My experience so far, had been try, miss, try, succeed :). The Wedding MBA convention gave me a lot of useful stuff to ponder and act upon. There were a lot of industry leaders as speakers. There were Timothy Chi and Sonny Ganguly - the CEO and CMO respectively of 'WeddingWire', there Carley Roney - the Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of 'The Knot', Shannon Underwood and Will Hegarty (both of the 'Bridal Fashion Debut'), Erin Brukhard (of 'Be in Love Designs'),  Kathy Ireland (Kathy Ireland Worldwide), Susan Southerland, Sasha Souza, Julia Markel (Association of Wedding Professionals International), Andy Ebon (of the Wedding Marketing Network), Laura Cave (Director of Marketing Intelligence of 'The Knot') among a host of other wonderful and knowledgeable people. 

My New Clay Hair Flowers : Soon to be offered on my ETSY store (sorry for the bad pic. Blame my iPhone 3GS)

Being who I am - a very reticent person who wants to go hide somewhere when she sees a lot of people - I was planning on spending a lot of time by myself. But thanks to my friend Jo Ann Grant of Apropos Creations, that was not to be :). She made sure that I spoke with people and I was glad I did. I met so many wonderful wedding vendors - all experts in their fields. I hope to share their work with all of you on this platform. Coming back to Jo Ann, I have never met anyone like her. If you need something, she will most likely have it in her purse :). She is friendly, resourceful and extremely organized. No wonder she's a wedding planner! Here she is, with Kathy Ireland.

Photo: Jo Ann Grant and Kathy Ireland

(I wish I had a chance to show her my clay flowers :), that would have been fun right?) We had a fun time driving to Vegas together. At one point, we were so busy talking and laughing that we missed the exit and had to keep going for more than 20 miles before we could turn back :). If you are in the Phoenix area and looking for someone to take care of your Wedding Day, do check out Apropos Creations. I truly believe (and I don't say this because she's my friend) she will take all the stress out of your Wedding Day and put you at ease so you can enjoy your Wedding the way you are supposed to.

The simple floral arrangement that I made for Jo Ann's association's booth at the Wedding MBA  Convention

Coming back to the Wedding MBA experience, it was wonderful. I cannot wait to do it again :). People who saw my flowers there, could not believe that they were made out of clay. Clay Flowers, I realize is a still a very new concept for most people and I am glad that I am able to introduce people to the beautiful world of realistic, lightweight and longlasting DECO Clay Flowers :).