2011 press features

we are SO HONORED and grateful to have been included in the following magazines this past year...in a day and age where print publications are struggling we feel super blessed that we had so many features in 2011...

what i love about this past year is that the press has been so varied...real weddings, bridal showers and rehearsal dinners...bouquets and tablescapes for styled shoots...florals for home and office features...being hand picked as "best of the best" and "trendsetter"...it's so important to show versatility and i feel that JL DESIGNS has really done that in 2011!

the "euro-cirque" wedding of erin and brent...

the florals for a romantic, pink bridal shower (which i will be blogging soon!) plus an air plant cake collaboration with sweet and saucy...

white + metallic florals, gold succulents and our signature balsa wood bouquet, seen here collared in black feathers...

chosen by brides magazine as one of the best of the best in southern california...only 3 floral designers were chosen so this is a BIG honor!

bouquets for the quarterly fashion spread in the national issue...

bouquets for the quarterly fashion spread in all of the regional mags, as well as the nautical wedding of alison and chris in the southern california edition...

oh and don't worry, YES THAT IS BOSSY GRACING THE COVER OF ALL 16 REGIONAL ISSUES!!! bossy was about 3 months old and when i showed up to the shoot with the bouquets, the knot girls immediately asked if i was okay with her appearing in some of the photos...i had no idea they would choose one for the cover shot! this is probably one of my proudest moments to date ;)

a "desert mod" tablescape for 944's wedding issue...

soft, classic florals for a private home feature...

a rehearsal dinner in los olivos...

a "vintage garden" bridal shower and an indian inspired wedding in malibu (which i will be blogging soon!)...

a fuschia and periwinkle wedding in palos verdes...

2 avant garde bridal bouquets...the first is a white metal orb accented with green succulents and the second is hot pink protea and black ti leaves...

another appearance of our white + metallic florals...

and we can't forget the features in some of our favorite online mags, like utterly engaged and rue!

soft, feminine florals for a "sew in love" fashion shoot...

chosen as a 2011 trendsetter...

a "darko-weirdo" dinner party...

florals and decor an office makeover...

we know that all this press has partly to do with our designs but ALSO partly to do with our amazing publicist, leila khalil from be inspired pr...she goes above and beyond for every one of her clients and i cannot thank her enough for her loyalty and support this past year - we love you leila, ashley, lauren and the rest of the be inspired team!!

an "urban loft" tablescape for utterly engaged

this tablescape has to be one of my favorites...ever...it's like nothing i have ever done before...or even seen before...

the online e-zine, utterly engaged, held a new years party back in january and part of the event was a "design challenge" where anyone could enter in teams of 2 or more to create a tablescape...the only guidelines were:

1. the tablescape has to be MODERN

2. the focus of the tablescape should NOT revolve around flowers but rather some other element - paper, wood, metal, etc.

3. we had to spend $150. or less (not including rentals - we could use whatever rentals we wanted but no chairs)

i was asked to join forces with courtney from joyful weddings and events, then we immediately pulled in jane from olive hue paper to round out our team...from there we started brainstorming...we definitely knew we wanted to take it REALLY modern...like stark modern -fitting for an NYC loft wedding...so we called our theme "urban loft"...

in a industry where it seems nothing is new under the sun, i REALLY wanted to do something different that NO ONE had ever seen before on a tablescape...so i turned to one of my favorite interior retail companies, design within reach, for inspiration...me and my husband have always been obsessed with their "pendant light fixture"...so i thought, what if we created a bunch of those and grouped them on the tablescape, accented with a couple big headed blooms to add a pop of color? and with that, the tablescape was born!

here is our inspiration board:

and here is what we came up with!!!

those string pendants? i took it old school (like elementary days!) and did the whole "blow up a balloon, wrap it with string, slather it in fabric stiffener, let it dry, then pop the balloon" thing...pretty time consuming but SUPER cheap and SUPER different...

gorgeous dark fuschia peonies added that pop of color we needed and their ruffly effect kept it all pretty and feminine...

jane created these adorable glass tags that were attached using fuschia yarn...of course the initials were "U" and "E" in honor of our party hostesses...

courtney wrapped all the votive candles in fuschia yarn to add even more color and also keep the "string" idea running throughout the whole look...

we just had to ask melody of sweet and saucy shop to contribute her delicious cake pops! they were dipped in white chocolate and the little lines on each pop emulated the string orbs on the table...perfect right?

one of my favorite things on the table...jane's menu card...she did a "blind press" where it's letterpressed with no color (look closely to see all the font on the left side of the card) which i thought went perfectly with our whole "stark modern" vibe...then she flooded the right side of the card with a massive fuschia peony bloom...i loved it so much i kept mine and saved it :) we added more fuschia string to the napkin treatment, keeping it clean but adding texture...

how exciting that we tied for 2nd place at the party!! to see our feature in the e-zine, click here...

thanks to the utterly engaged girls for hosting a fabulous party and to jasmine star and jd for taking all the great photos! to melody for her yummy cake pops and to wildflower linens and classic party rentals for their contributions!

and thanks a million to my fabulous team mates, courtney and jane! i am so proud of what we came up with and i LOVED collaborating with you two! big hugs!! :)