Rosette Designs & Co: Classic Chic Styling Part II

On one fine day, in Rosette Designs & Co compound, when we are feeling a little nostalgic and romantic… we decided to roll up our sleeves and dress up, by digging up our black and white collection and do a little styling.

Here in Rosette Designs & Co, we have a common obsession. We love Black and White. Stripes, checkered, chevron.. love love love…Black and white can’t go wrong. It is listed in one of Kate Spade’s 20 Inspiration Yearbook.

But of course, only the brave ones embrace it for a wedding. Please see our works in our website here.

“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast” - this quote by Ernest Hemingway might be one of the thousands reasons why everybody adores the idea of Paris. While the city itself might not be as romantic as the mental image, we are still spellbound by the idea of eloping to the City of Love.

If you are keen to do a Paris-theme wedding, please focus on one specific era of the Parisian life. Whether it is Belle Epoque, the Chanel-era, Renaissance, they have distinct characteristics that separates them from each other. Another way, is to focus on the city itself and it’s beauty.

We created this lovely arrangement that housed the silhouette of one of our couple. Love how it turns out.. graphically poetic..

Introducing our best steals yet, emerging from one of the vintage flea market in Singapore.. this mellowing fellow has been a regular resident in our decor line up.

There’s something romantic about the idea of writing letter on a typewriter, which leads to the trend of having it on a wedding. Although this trend was popular around 2-3 years ago, people still loves it. I used it for my own wedding and for my clients. Vintage won’t go out of style.

What puzzles me is the fake-all metal-China-made-typewriter that actually mimic real typewriter…

But having a typewriter is good just for the display sake… because when I tried to type a letter using my retro Olympia, it frustrates me! Where’s the backspace key??!

Guess I’m not ready to give up my digital life.

Now, lets step aside from the mellow zone to an after party of Minty Dessert!

We love seafoam or minty of tiffany color.. they are look-alikes.. and they bring the same feelings.. coolness personified.

Check out our Facebook page here.

She Says: The New-Fashioned Wedding is Here!

I’m super-excited when I received the long-awaited book, The New-Fashioned Wedding by the ladies of Bash, Please, Paige + Kelly. I have been a fan of their works since pre-Diary & Design Wedding and I thought we could model after their wonderful synergy and creative collaboration. Cut a long story short, I believe God has a better plan for us, now that we are branching out into 2 companies. Hence, Rosette Designs & Co is born!

Anyway, Bash, Please has been spearheading new kind of weddings, I’d say this is the hipster wedding! Check out their opening lines:

“… We weren’t starry-eyed little girls who day-dreamed about our wedding days. We weren’t peppy college ingenues aspiring to be party planners. We weren’t twenty-something job seekers sending resumes to David Tutera and Mindy Weiss. Nope. Until we met one fateful day over coffee in Los Angeles, we were on very different paths…. 

We’re on a mission to create what we like to call “new-fashioned” weddings: banyard over ballrooms, linen over polyester, wildflowers over red roses; seasonal cuisine over standard catered fare. After all, our clients are modern, hip and design-conscious – they’re “new fashioned” themselves. “

Those opening lines represent what’s in my heart and my direction in Rosette Designs & Co. I didn’t grew up thinking one day I will become a wedding designer. Nope. I simply love design and party. Growing up in a closely-knitted neighborhood and having a super-welcoming-mom made my home a favorite hangout place after school. My life is always filled with parties & gatherings. Having being blessed with designers’ eye, made my transition from motion & graphic designer to an event designer effortless. I knew the gift and ability that I possesed from such a young age and now I am fortunate enough to make a living using my gift. I am super grateful for that!

Anyway, enough sidetracking about myself, now back to the book. Although I really love the weddings featured there, their philosophy doesn’t entirely fit in to our culture here in Asia. For a start, we don’t have banyard, at all! Never seen one, either. We still love the comfort of our dear air-con-ed room and we don’t have the chance to experience the beauty of four seasons like in the States. But that doesn’t mean we can’t create beautiful & gorgeous wedding here in Singapore. As much as I love my whimsical lovely outdoor wedding, I still love my sophisticated ballroom wedding. Instead of trying to mimic the States wedding entirely, we have to be true to ourselves and create something genuine.

So fret not, we are on the right path to change the climate of standard-template and bo-chap (translation: heck care) wedding in Singapore. In fact, I love weddings in Singapore. It is so diverse and creative, our limit is only as far as our own imagination. You can have a wedding in the garden in the middle of the city, like Garden by the Bay or cool-hip ballroom like Conrad Centennial. Although, if you ask me, I’d prefer outdoor and unusual places for wedding venues than the typical ballroom. Simply because the outdoor or unusual venues have more characteristics to manipulate than a warm-colored grand ballroom with pattern carpet.

The bottom line is: do something out of your own taste & preference, but mix it with your personality and just trust us to design it for you. We’ll make it even better!

She says: Baby Shower + House Warming – The Inspiration

After a year of highs and lows, it’s finally time to party! We will hold our first party soon. It is a very tight timeline as we only have 2-3 weeks to do it. Usually it is enough to hold a baby shower or baby’s first month party, because all you do is hire a caterer. But knowing myself, I could never resign on having an usual looking or regular looking party. I can’t accept any less than my usual pretty party. So begins my first quest of holding a party as a mother [Winston's edit: what about father??].

Having been to a few baby showers in Singapore, I realized decoration or the outlook of the party is not a priority. There are usually very minimal decor or none at all. If it does have, it mostly will be children kind of decoration with lots for bright and colourful balloons. I am not sure if this trend will change, I hope it does. Because you will only have 1-2 (or more!!) baby showers in your life, it’s another reason to have a pretty party aside from your own wedding. Like what I’m doing right now!

I made an illustration for this party to represent our new family :

Let me share with you my inspiration board for this event.

The main item of the baby shower is the dessert bar, so it will be Amy Atlas style of dessert bar..

Here’s some of my inspiration on dessert bar :

The last one is a very cute idea for baby shower cake

She says : Full time Mom & Full time Biz Owner.. me!

It’s been ages since I blog!!

*…and somehow that line becomes a default opening line on my every post recently..*=p

Our life has been moving faster than we thought. My house is finally fully renovated and ready to be decorated. I love how gorgeous it turns out to be and the theme and color just perfect for me.

Another thing that happen to us recently is… We are expecting!

A baby girl name Savannah Grace is coming our way. There’s a meaning behind that unusual name and I will tell you next time when the baby arrive.

Anyway, I’m so excited to share with you about this book, Mom’s Inc by the darling of blog world, Meg Mateo Ilasco & Cat Seto.

Here’s the description about the book and authors (taken by Chronicles’s page)

So many women dream of having it all—being kickass mothers and running their own successful businesses. This book helps them take the leap with confidence. Serial entrepreneurs (and moms) Meg Mateo Ilasco and Cat Seto draw on their own successes and missteps to reveal exactly how to choose the right business, find clients, write a business plan, launch a blog and Web site, stay focused at home, and more. Insightful Q&As with enterprising mothers like fashion designer Cynthia Rowley and Style Me Pretty blogger Abby Larson demystify the many nuances of balancing work life with family time. It’s not easy. But this practical and inspiring guide helps make it possible.

Meg Mateo Ilasco is a mother of two, freelance artist and writer, and a serial entrepreneur who started her first business in 1999. She is the author of several books, including Craft, Inc., Creative, Inc., and the Craft, Inc. Business Planner, and is also the cofounder and creative director of the home and lifestyle magazine Anthology. Meg lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Visit her at http://www.mateoilsaco.com. 

Cat Seto balances design, illustration, writing, and motherhood in her San Francisco studio and boutique. Her stationery products and custom wedding line are carried by retailers around the country. In addition, Cat received an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan, and her writing has appeared in publications such as the first edition of Best New American Voices. Visit her at http://www.catseto.com and http://www.momincdaily.com.

Having read Meg’s previous book, Creative, Inc (co-write by Joy Cho, the writer of Oh, Joy! blog) I am fully convinced that this book is gonna be super inspiring too! The first book is so informative and inspiring as I always been contemplating to give up my day job and focus on my creative business.So the book helps growing that seed.

I’m not sure how many of you, have desire to be a full time mom and full time business owner, but that’s always been my goal. Although I truly love my day job as full time designer, but deep down in my heart I know I can do so much more with the time I spent sitting in front of my 2 giant Mac screens and 2 TVs in my office.

I am one restless creative dynamo.

By the way, I just made reservation in Kinokuniya for this book and I’ll dig it on my Krabi holiday in June! Yay!

 

 

She says: Rekindle my Fire

With all these weddings coming up in October, November and December, sometimes I feel numb and a lack of excitement. Too much of a good stuff can backfire on you. It’s hard to keep the fire and passion going, and it might fall into the dangerous area of dead routine. I detest doing something without passion and inspiration. I almost forget how anxious I was preparing my own wedding, how delightful it was to find an amazing deal online for my wedding favor, or when I finally found the vendor for my tiffany box. Every wedding is immensely special. I will try my best not to fall into the cycle of vendor-client related complacency.

That’s why I’m so thankful when I saw this wedding video of Danni & Chris from one of my favorite blog, Oh, Hello Friends. One year after their wedding and it still takes my breath away.

I always love personalized, laid back weddings and where the couple’s love takes center-stage. That’s what wedding is all about.

One advice I can’t stressed enough is, invest in a good videographer & photographer! The moments can easily pass you by, but the feeling come back rushing everytime I watched my own video.

Thank God we splurged on Alvinadeline.

She says: Deja Vu in our Paper Year

Can’t believe that we have passed our 1st year wedding anniversary! Seems like yesterday, we are still preparing our wedding and folding those rosettes. Now, one year later, we are still preparing a wedding and folding those rosettes. Under Diary & Design Wedding, we were designing & coordinating a wedding which uncannily bear resemblance to our wedding. The date is exactly the same: 19 June 2011, and the venue is also the same, except that it was in Fort Gate instead of shady OMSQ. The bride is also a really hands-on one, the night before the wedding, she decided to make flower wrist corsage for the bridesmaids. The color theme was also somehow similar, tiffany blue, pink & peach.

However, as always, no wedding is the same.

The couple really go all out with the decoration & personalized item. When the bride spoke to me about having handmade wedding arch as part of the decor, I knew we are unto something  creative and fun! Under our direction and tutorial, the couple opted to do the paper flower themselves, which saved us a lot of time and saved them money too! We arranged the flowers  and styled it on our white arch.  That’s what I called perfect collaboration.

You might have seen the sneak preview here.

Here’s the inspiration board of the creative couple. I really love this color combination.

and this is how the actual wedding was! I’m so thrilled with the actual floral arch. It’s a perfect photo backdrop for outdoor wedding. Enjoy the pictures!

Check out our tips to do a creative wedding here

He says: Wedding and the Social Media

After seeing how Hellen is helping the various couples who engage her, I do see a general desire for a couple to do something creative for their wedding. I guess it’s not about couples not wanting a special wedding, but couples generally have problems conceptualizing and executing their wedding. With the recent General Election in Singapore, it seems that social media is playing a huge part in the outcome. A recent website that was given to us by a couple gives me further ideas of how we can do wedding the ‘Social Media’ way. Using this website as an example, I will propose some ideas that couples can integrate in their own wedding!

[Some disclaimer here though: As this is a US wedding with overseas guests, some of the ideas here may not be applicable for all.]

Welcome to the Wedding of Adam and Kari Smith!

Welcome one and all!

 Idea #1: Webpage as your invite

Rather than paying for envelopes and printers for the official invite, why not make your webpage the invite itself? Of course the limiting factor will be the less tech-savvy relatives and friends you may have… The more traditional guests will definitely prefer something more solid, but I believed in a few years’ time, this will become more popular with (almost) everyone going online.

Idea #2: Programmes and Itinerary

This is especially useful for overseas guests, who may not be familiar with what to do in town when the wedding is not the focus anymore. In this example, the couple proposed different options for the accomodation, food, shopping, leisure activities and nightlife. Another suggestion will be putting the actual programme in there (if it is not too much of a surprise).

Idea #3: Directions

Thank God for Google Maps and all the other map websites out there! After going through a wedding myself, I know that other than hotels and famous landmarks, some outdoor wedding venues are quite hard to get to (ok, I admit… including mine). Having the online map such as in this example, makes it much easier for the guests to find how to get to the place.

Idea #4: RSVP

Having a form online to do your RSVP is both convenient and easy. Of course we cannot depend on just the online aspect for RSVP, as normally, a vast majority of the guests still need the phone to prompt them. Websites such as evite is popular in garnering online RSVP as well.

Idea #5: Well Wishes

It is also possible to provide a space on the webpage for the guests to send in their well-wishes. Contemporary ideas nowadays include the always-reliable guest scroll and wishing trees. We can make full use of the internet by letting the guests add in their comments of well-wishes and even video wishes. Well, we still have all these, don’t we…

The Whole Social Media Gang

A wedding is still one of the most beautiful day of your life, don’t let social media take away the intimacy!

 

She says: Inspired Me!

I haven’t blog for a while now and I know I should do it more often. Juggling many tasks and wearing many hats has been a routine now. Although I might sound like a workaholic, I enjoyed the busyness and long working hours I have to put up with. Torn between 2 worlds, I need to stay afloat. It is the desire for beauty and it is the eagerness to transform dream into reality that keeps me going. Currently I am doing a few weddings that involved creative juice and handiworks.

I blogged in Diary & Design Wedding and put up the boards there. Check out the full post here.

These are some of the boards for projects I am working on. March- April have been a peaceful months and soon it will be the bustling seasons again.

Fancy solemnisation at a hip bar

Lovely theme for an overseas couple

Grandeur Islander for lavish dinner

Whimsical Paper Flower in Turquoise Tone

I always love to engage non-wedding color and I am so happy to find couples who are game to do it!

She says: Can’t Get Enough of Doilies!

Last October, we were featured by the popular blog, Ruffled on our doilies envelope post. That post gathered so much comments and drive good traffic to our blog. Today I saw one of my daily reads featuring my post! The writer blogged about doilies and featured our envelopes. Although it didn’t mention my blog, I’m quite happy that the tutorial still inspired people.

Check out the post here.

Another doilies idea from this blog :

I like how this simple & inexpensive idea enhance the tablescape. Love it!

This dress looks gorgeous for bridesmaids!

He says: The Community

While Hellen links a lot of wedding-inspired websites and blogs in her posts, quite a few websites link to ours as well. In the course of looking through those websites, there are several cool sites out there that I believed will interest and inspire the BTB and GTB for the preparation of their wedding. I will like to share some of the interesting and quirky ones, so that YOU can be inspired and believed that the perfect dream wedding that you want is absolutely within your reach.

1. DIY Wedding | Craftgossip

Craftgossip is a wonderful network of sites that touches on different topics. DIY wedding is one of the newer sections and the sharing ranges from event decoration, invitation, cake toppers (my favourite!), table settings, guest books and wedding accessories. Very cool and in a way, quite minimalist as well. Highly recommended to check out!

2. The Urban Bride

This site is manned by a team of cool ‘urban’ ladies (well, seriously, there isn’t a lot of ‘rural’ gals in Singapore right?), showcasing cool, unconventional wedding, for gals that loved the ‘Sex and the City’ lifestyle. The only downside of this site is that, it has not been really updated for a few months… maybe it has been relocated?

3. Pinterest

Rather than a regular blog, this is more of a pin board for the entire internet community. See what you like from anywhere online and pin the picture and link on the wall! As simple as that, you can share your love out there. When you just need some inspiration, you can go there and check out the random stuff pinned. Hellen’s dollies envelopes are pinned!

And finally something that has nothing to do with wedding whatsoever…

4. Do Nothing for 2 Minutes

Are you panicking and your mind going all over the place with wedding preparation? Maybe you just need to calm down in this fast-paced world and the lead-up to the most important day of your life. Take 2 minutes of your life to take a deep breath and enjoy a moment of solitude and calm. One of the greatest joy in life is to enjoy doing nothing, don’t you think so?