Chinese New Year is a traditional Chinese holidays. In China it is known as "Spring Festival", marks the end of the winter season. It is not an official holiday in the United States, many ethnic Chinese hold large celebration with food, presents, red and gold decoration, new clothing, dragon show and firecracker.
simple yet elegant table settings
The red color is a must have in Chinese New Year celebration, it signifies 'happiness, wealth and longevity'. People dress in red to have dinner with family and friends. The youngsters wish the elders happy new year, good health etc and as return the elders give the youngsters red envelope with money. (sweeeeet)
Pastel version DIY table setting from Martha Stweart
Mexican Paper Flowers perfect for table decoration from Mad In Craft
Chinese New Year is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. This year is on February 3rd and lasted for 3 days. During my adventure to create an Inspirational Board for Chinese New Year, I came across many fancy and cool stuff; I decided to write series of post.
All this time, I am familiar with the nicely decorated fortune cookie. But today I was blown away by its functionality as keepsakes.
Two years ago for my wedding, I challenged myself to design a prototype for simplicity and elegant wedding. My mission was to buy less and re-use what I have had in my garage. Gold is a rich color, I had to use it carefully for it not to give it an old looks. Diamonds and crystals are simply expensive but I found a way to get the effects within my budget.
Everything began with my discovery at DollarTree Store …
Love at the first sight: I cleared their shelf right away when I saw these gorgeous mirror/picture frames. I accessorized it with peacock feather, ribbon and diamond buckle.
Labelling was next.
I used shiny antique gold paper, semi cloth paper with embossed flower print to cover the bottle original label. The greeting was printed out with laser printer and said: drink and be Marry, cheers !!!. Then our initials. I glued a cherry blossom flower for the accent.
The ceremony site,
I made individual strands of crystals and satin rose petals; then arrange them in a long wooden stick for easiness of installation on the D day. The whole gazebo was decorated with 9’ long strands of iridescent crystal curtains, individual made strands of crystals and rose petals, about 10 dz. of silk pink and off white cherry blossoms, 8 dz. of white dendrobium orchids and curly willows.
The cake,
Many hands got involved in the installation. Many thanks to my friends and fellow florist.Many people till this day loves my cake tower. It was inspired by Christina Aquilera’s wedding cake. Mine consisted of foam cake with real cupcakes. My parents made the cake topper, my husband assembled the cake pieces, I sew the beads curtain and decorated the whole cake with silk flowers, my friend baked the yummy cupcakes. What a team effort.
My cake was featured in Florists' Review magazine (March 2010)
Christina Aquillera's wedding cake
Cake tower
The bride's bouquet,
Originally I wanna use gardenia in my bouquet but due to the hot weather I didn’t or else I can say Ivanka Trump copied my bouquet (big smile).
Ivanka Trump's wedding bouquet
The royal candy buffet,
gold and silver wrapped candy for the candy buffet
These cones were small plastic cups wrapped with nice paper.
My one and the only centerpiece was also featured in Florists' Review magazine (March 2010)
Other treasures found in DollarTree, 99 cents Store and Open Air Market.
Other hand-made stuff,
Those are all DIY (do it yourself) I can think about.
