Twilight Markets

Come down and see us at the 

Twilight Markets @ Evergreen Lifestyle Centre

12 Discovery Drive, North Lakes.

TONIGHT!

Check out our gorgeous range of paper lanterns, LED lights, feather butterflies, cupcake wrappers and grab a bargain while you're there! Come for dinner, and check out the other beautiful displays of handmade goodies too.

SEE YOU THERE!

Spotlight on...Harah Designs

We're taking a break from our "Favourite Things" this week to bring you a spotlight on one of our favourite designers: Harah Designs.

Maria Smirlis and her family have been product developers and manufacturers in the fashion industry for 5 generations in Europe and for the past 50 years in Australia. Maria says she is totally inspired by fabrics, people, lifestyle and most of all comfort and originality . She dares to be different and feeds off her own creativity.

"I love to create pieces that are timeless and unique with a handcrafted edge." she says.

Where does the name Harah come from? According to Maria, it means happiness and new beginnings. All Harah dresses and accessories are made from fabrics and components collected from the 40s to the 90s, and are designed in unique vintage styles from these eras.

They also specialise in unique and eclectic custom-designs.

Harah Designs are having a giveaway at the moment to go in the draw to win a gorgeous nude blossom dress fit size 6-12.

All you have to do is:

1. Suggest their Facebook page to a friend
2. Subscribe to http://www.harahdesigns.com
3. Leave a comment telling them where you would wear this dress.

 Check them out today!

Website: www.harahdesigns.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/HARAH-DESIGNS

Inspiration Board - Sweet 16 Fiesta

We're excited about this party for a gorgeous Sunshine Coast girl later this year. Sweet 16 Fiesta - it's all about the mock-mojitos, pinatas, and turning sweet 16 under the magical glow of candlelight!

Enjoy!

 

VENDORS:

Shoes: http://thegloss.com/fashion/bright-high-heels-from-resort-collections/

Candles: http://entertainexchange.blogspot.com/2009/04/diy-mexican-or-cinco-de-mayo.html 

Bottles: http://styleunveiled.com/blog/2010/5/5/cinco-de-mayo-wedding-ideas.html 

Flags: http://hitchedsalon.typepad.com/from-hello-to-hitched/2009/11/pucker-up-by-smp-reader-jess.html

Dessert Buffet: http://www.amyatlas.com

Tissue flowers: http://freshandvintage.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/03/fiesta-ay-chihauhau.html

Banner: http://gordongossip.blogspot.com/2010/05/mexican-party-banner.html 

Shoes: http://www.etsy.com (no longer available)

My Favourite Things - Design Me Vintage

We're lucky to be working with Isabella from Design Me Vintage on an upcoming Photo Shoot. Bella creates the most dazzling and divine vintage-inspired brooch bouquets, is developing a stunning new hire range and has featured some truly inspiring works on her blog. And she's only getting started...


Bella writes:

"I find inspiration from a simple picture, or a comment, and idea. I absolutely love the invitations  in this board. (I do have a small obsession with birds, eggs, and nests). And this rolled out into a inspiration board which, I pulled different elements and styles together and bingo! I think for me its the feeling in the end that is evoked, the story of it. Not naturally leaning to these colours in my home, I love them when worked together in subtle tones. After all, we have red love hearts, blue skies and white fluffy clouds - sounds divine and delicious to me!"

Visit Design Me Vintage's website here and their Facebook page here.

We're evolving!

If you've been to our online store lately, you would have noticed that we're undergoing a few changes. We've shed quite a bit of our inventory and we've been concentrating predominantly on event lighting. Nothing excites us more than paper lanterns hanging from the most obscure places - and we want to share that love of festivity with our customers!!.

In the next two weeks (weather permitting) we will be returning to the Twilight Markets - and we'll give you details as they come to hand. We're also adding new and exciting lighting stock over the next few months - we think you're going to love it!

Of course we'll still be stocking cupcake wrappers, and DIY event materials and of course our ever-growing hire range is getting bigger than ever! We're also still taking bookings for wedding & party styling - and there are even bigger things in store that we can't WAIT to share with you!


We'll be back later tonight with another "My Favourite Things" installment and we also have a new inspiration board in the works.We also have some entries in the "Light Up Your Life" competition which we're dying to share!

P.S Never miss an update again - click "Follow" on the right hand side of our blog! And don't forget to leave us comments - we love to hear from you!

My Favourite Things - Bird's Party

This week, we chatted to the beautiful Bird - of aptly named "Bird's Party". Bird specialises in all things partylicious and fun and today she's sharing what makes her inspiration tick!

Bird writes:

"I’m Bird, designer and founder of Bird’s Party - I created Bird’s Party back in April 2010 as a result of my passion for entertaining, crafting and all things pretty and fun! 

At the moment I'm really into bright, vibrant colors and party themes that can be adapted for girls and boys of any age group. I draw inspiration from everything I see, including my two young children, who happen to be born on the same day. Planning a joint birthday party for a boy and a girl of different age groups is no easy task, so I'm very drawn to party themes that cater for both! This is why I'm so thrilled to share my latest printable party collection with you: A Little Monster Bash!

Totally inspired by my little monsters of course! :)"

Inspiration Board details:

• Little Monster Party Printables (cupcake toppers, banner, thank you postcards, bottle wrappers etc): Bird's Party
• Cupcake sprinkles and cupcake liners: Smidge and Pinch
• Spotted Favor bags: The Party Fairy
• Inflatable monster-ball favors: Oriental Trading
• Little Monster Cake Pops: BHG
• You can find some more of my work, tutorials and party crafts and inspiration in my Party blog, Facebook page, and my Etsy store.

My Favourite Things - Just Call Me Martha

Welcome to the next article in our "My Favourite Things" series. Today's guest post is by the super-fabulous Leoni...or as she likes to say "Just call me Martha!".

We are huge fans of Leoni's work - and we love the intriguing places that she finds her inspiration!

She writes:

"I love styling parties from start to finish, it gives me great joy to see my ideas flourish from pen and paper to reality. When a customer contacts me with party ideas of what they would like my brain kicks into gear and a hundred and one ideas start popping into my head, usually my inspiration can come from an invitation, a piece of fabric or just a simple word that captures the theme of the party.

Quite often I have to sleep with a notebook and pencil next to my bed and it isn’t unusual for my husband to wake in the wee hours of the morning to find me madly scribbling or sketching away by my bedside lamp."

"While I do enjoy looking at other people’s parties and being inspired by them, I find that I prefer to look at other industries for my inspiration. Often I find great ideas by reading interior design or wedding magazines, going to a garden show, looking at book illustrations or art drawings or looking at window and shop displays. You will be amazed at the amount of unusual ideas I’ve come across simply by looking at my local shopping centre window and shop displays, especially during festive seasons.

I try to stay away from “trends”, I do follow some aspects of trends especially if the customer has their heart set on something they have seen, but in general if a trend has been used to death I go in the opposite direction. I like my parties to be unique and different (which isn’t always easy to achieve) and enjoy it when people say, wow, I have never seen that before. Most of my parties are handmade, from the food to the decorations,  I love sourcing different items, textures and materials and coming up with new ways to use old ideas.

This year I see a big trend in printable parties (like last year) with decorations like paper medallions, paper garlands, decorative straws and ruffled cakes on top of the hit list, I’ve also seen a shift from using ordinary tables as dessert tables to using other furniture (especially vintage) as dessert tables, I love this idea!"


You can visit Leoni's blog at: http://www.justcallmemarthaa.blogspot.com/ or check out her Facebook page at  http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Just-call-me-Martha/135227659857933.


Have a wonderful, whimsical week everyone! :) xo

Inspiration Board - Bohemian Rhapsody

A little something I threw together for an upcoming shoot. Enjoy!

 

My apologies for not crediting these photos - most were sourced via various blogs and photography sites. I have no other excuse other than it's horrendously late and I had 4 hours sleep last night. If any of these images belong to you and you would like them taken down, please let me know. MW xo

Vintage...Boho....Shabby...y'know.

rachelgreig.typepad.com

Vintage. A word that is bandied around the Offbeat wedding world with much fervour.

How many times do you read new blog entries about "Vintage" weddings, decorations and shoes? Sometimes it's matched with other romantic descriptors such as "Boho" and "Shabby Chic". Sometimes genres are melded together and you hear people describe weddings as "Boho Chic" or "Vintage Boho". Sometimes when they're not sure, they say "Vintage...Boho....Shabby...y'know." Usually we know what they're talking about! But just in case you're interested in what these terms (and others) mean to different people - here's what we've turned up.

www.weddingbellsblog.com

Annabel from Love My Dress posed a similar question on her blog last December, which attracted considerable attention from other vendors: "There are many cases of blogs featuring weddings that are classified as ‘vintage’, which I’d rather call something more along the lines of ‘shabby chic’ or ‘eclectic country’ as I prefer to call it."

Vintage Fashion Club have a simple definition. "Vintage clothing and accessories are older than 20-25 years, but not more than 85. Those figures vary: sometimes vintage includes 1920s fashion, sometimes 1920s clothing and accessories are considered to be antique, mostly it depends on the actual garment."

With this in mind then, should we be specific in the way we label weddings? After all, there were such defining trends in each of the individual decades, particularly with clothing. Is it truly a vintage wedding if we are combining a 1920's style dress with 2011 style shoes? Or 1950's makeup with 1930's attire? Or if our weddings are simple affairs with few guests and hand-made decorations, and "antique (we think)" plates? Is small and predominantly DIY another word for Vintage"? Is it Vintage if we're using blush pinks and beiges? What if we use patterned teacups, typewriters, birdcages, chandeliers and photo-frames? What if our photographer simply uses sepia colouring effects on our photos?

The Wedding Decorator has a quick rundown of the trends in each decade - definitely worth a read if you are going for a particular look.

www.bakati.com

www.kaboodle.com

In all honesty, I don't think there's ever going to be a universally recognised definition. What most stylists seem to agree on is what a couple's intention is when they choose this look. Is it because it's trendy? Because it glorifies a return to "simple" weddings? Because it's cute? Chic? Or because you genuinely adore that style and it's how you envisage celebrating your relationship with each other and your closest friends and family?

Is it more accurate to describe a style by the decade? Or perhaps "Vintage Fusion" should be a more appropriate formalised term? Is Vintage still alive and well, or is the term so ambiguous now that it's no longer truly trending?

In the meantime, when I ask brides what they envisage for their big day, and they say: "Vintage...boho....shabby...y'know..." - I say: "Fantastic. Let's do it!"