The Renegade Craft Fair - Fort Mason

Hi All, so I am super excited about this upcoming craft fair. My Planted designs were chosen to be a part of this awesome event. I'll be in booth number 107, so please come by to say hi and perhaps get a terrarium for yourself or someone special for the holidays. I went to this fair in the summer, and the crafts that the vendors were selling (all handmade) were not your great aunt's knitting project... beautiful jewelry, hand-thrown vases, photography, bags, clothing, all super creative stuff. I'm honored to be a part of the group. December 19th and 20th! Mark your calendars.

The Craft Fair is approaching!

The Renegade Craft Fair Blog

From Chandra Abel Designs

I thought I'd share a blog with you that is full of cute, creative stuff. This is also the blog for the craft fair I'll be participating in in December (Fort Mason in SF! The 19th & 20th!) Anyway... enjoy the fun hand-made stuff.

Dahlias, Mini Callas, and Ranunulus Bridal Bouquet

From Chandra Abel Designs

Here's the final outcome of the bouquet I was showing how I made. I love it.

Hey Look!

From Chandra Abel Designs

From Chandra Abel Designs

It's my fancy new flyer!

The PLANTED site is here!

From Chandra Abel Designs

Hey all!

Thanks again to the wonderful Ms. Fuller, I've finally got a website to go with my terrarium designs. I'm SUPER excited about these designs, they are a great alternative to cut flower arrangements. Not only to they last MONTHS longer, they require little care and are more unique than your typical floral arrangement. They are great, sustainable alternatives to wedding centerpieces too! People so easily spend 100 bucks on a cut arrangement that lasts a week, why not put that money toward something you can enjoy for months? I don't have a way to sell these online just yet, but I'm happy to do custom orders. Keep your eyes peeled for them in boutiques in LA and Orange County.

www.ChandraAbelDesigns.com/Planted

Eggplant callas, orange cymbidiums, and green hydrangea

From Chandra Abel Designs

This is a bouquet from one of the first weddings I did way-back-when. The gorgeous color combos were the bride's ideas, and she knew she wanted a bouquet with a garden-y feel and loads of texture. Here's the finished result shot by yours truly.

Terrariums, oh how I love them.

From Chandra Abel Designs

Here's another shot of a few terrariums. Photo credit: Melissa Fuller

Sunflower Bouquet

From Chandra Abel Designs

This bride showed me a photo of a bouquet that she liked that included sunflowers, but she wanted to add shades of purple. Other than that, she pretty much left the design up to me (which I loved!). Here's what we came up with.

Planted Designs

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From Chandra Abel Designs

Hey Peoples. Its been a while since I last showed you some of my work. Here's a photo (again by the amazing Melissa Fuller) of the Planted designs I've been working on. Right now, these terrariums are only available for custom orders and weddings, but keep your eyes peeled for them in boutiques and craft fairs in California.

My favorite bouquet

This bouquet is my absolute favorite out of all the ones I've made. The beautiful bride, Laura, wanted to include feathers in her bouquet, and is also very into things that appeal to her senses, especially smells. We wanted to incorporate materials from the location (the wedding was at the Tourists Club in Muir Woods - BEAUTIFUL!) so I gathered some geranium and branches of bay leaves. We also wanted to use other local materials (go sustainable!) so we used lots of wonderful smelling lavender. Her favorite flowers were ranuculus and peonies (a personal favorite for me too!), so of course I used those as well. Here's the finished product!

Orange County Register

Hi All! As some of you might know, I'm in the process of expanding my business to Southern California. A writer from the Orange County Register heard about me and contacted me about pricing for doing weddings more affordably. She did an article listing ways to save, and quoted me as the florist. Its just a small note in the graph section of the article, but I'm still pretty excited to be noted on there. Check it out if you have time, or if you know anyone getting married in Orange County.

Here's the link: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/wedding-people-economy-2413310-beckelman-year

My yelp reviews!

My yelp reviews are back! Yeah! They disappeared for a while for some reason (yelp is weird like that), but now they are up again. I've found yelp to be one of the best resources for finding businesses and service providers, so I am stoked to be on there. If you'd like to check out my reviews, you can view them here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/chandra-abel-designs-san-francisco

Hot Pink & Green Centerpiece

Here's sample for a May bride this year. She's on a budget, but wants something lush and full. Tulips are great for sticking within a budget, without looking cheap. I also used green hydrangea (great for taking up space/adding volume), green cymbidiums, waxflower, spray roses (a personal favorite!), hot pink ranunculus, button mums, and geranium leaves (which smell amazing). Enjoy!

Someone's blogging about me!!

Oh man I feel so special! I was google-ing myself tonight (Don't judge! I know you've done it!) and I saw my business name pop up under a photo credit for someone's blog. After clicking on it and checking it out, I found I'd been talked about for some of my designs! How exciting!! Just thought I'd share my thrill with you. Here's the link:
http://divineoccasions.blogspot.com/

Pomander Centerpiece

Howdy. Here's a sample centerpiece I did today for a wedding coming up this season. This bride is looking for a garden-style centerpiece, that is not too structured but still has a finished look. For some of the pieces, we'll be placing the pomanders on the small vases pictured here, others will be placed on top of tall cylinder vases to give the pieces height, and a third set will be placed among manzanita branches on the tables (that style should be amazing). When the big day comes, I'll make sure to take lots of photos so you can see how it all comes together.

What I've been working on.

Sorry for the delay in updates! I've been working on my sustainable line for wedding and event centerpieces; which will eventually be available for retail. I'm SUPER excited about these guys. Every piece is uniquely designed and (perhaps overly-) thought out by yours truly. They'll be available in little boutiques and shops in SF and Oakland soon, but for now, feel free to contact me if you want one of my existing designs, or if you're looking for one custom made. I don't want to give away too much just yet, but here's a novice photo by me for a preview.

ChandraAbelDesigns.com

The new website is finished! You can check it out at ChandraAbelDesigns.com. It's a much sharper design, and is categorized by color, so its easier to navigate through designs that work for your palate. You can contact me directly through the site (give me your feedback on the design!), and there's a friends page where you can check out some of my extremely talented homies in the wedding industry. I owe a huge thanks to Melissa Fuller for designing the site, and to Alexandra Aldica and her fabulous marketing company, Avant Garde Marketing for realizing it for me.

DavidLuraschi.com

Hello Everybody! Here's another awesome photographer I've worked with. He's super artistic and great at making people comfortable in front of the camera. He's in the process of updating his website, but the current site is definitely worth checking out:

www.DavidLuraschi.com

A simple mum and hypericum boutonniere

This boutonniere is super simple; just a few green button mums and some hypericum berries with a brown satin ribbon wrap. Sometimes simple is the way to go, especially for boutonnieres as guys don't always love wearing something particularly feminine.

An oldie but a goodie.

Here's a super simple cocktail piece from a couple of seasons ago. Its just roses with some horsetail, but grouped together it makes for a very contemporary and elegant piece. Sometimes simplicity just works best.

New website soon!

No photo today guys. I'm just really excited about my new website and wanted to share it. If all goes as planned it should be up and beautiful by the end of next month. I'll let you know when its been prettified.

Green and Brown Bridesmaids Bouquets

Photo credit: MelissaFullerImages.com

These are a couple of bouquets from a wedding in November. Her colors were very earthy greens and browns, but we were able to keep it elegant as well. I used jade roses, chocolate cosmos, and green hypericum berries.

Succulent Wedding Bouquet

Here's the bride and bridesmaid's bouquets that went along with the succulent, aquatic-themed wedding from this weekend. The wedding was at the St. Francis Yacht Club, so the bride had the idea to wrap her bouquet in rope to keep with the boating/water theme.

Geranium Wedding Bouquet

This bouquet is themed around its geranium leaves framing. It was a summer, garden wedding, so the dahlias complemented the geranium leaves well. There are a few peonies in there too to add some playfulness in pink, and by only using a few we were able to keep within the budget, too.

Aquatic Garden Wedding Centerpiece

This is a centerpiece I designed for an upcoming wedding this weekend. Please forgive the photo quality, I had no other cameras except for my phone. This wedding has a nautical theme, and the bride and groom really wanted to play up the water factor in their floral pieces. We had to come up with something that would withstand being under water for a long period, without disintegrating, so succulents (my current favorite) were a hardy option. I also chose begonia leaves and lily grass for their kelp-like qualities. After the bride saw the sample, she realized how much she loved succulents, and really wanted to keep with their unique theme. So, we will be doing her bouquet out of succulents too. Check back after this weekend to see how her bouquet turned out!