~ Frosting Friday ~

In honor of Kathy's new Bella Blooms series, today's Frosting Friday features a cheerful cake beautifully topped with bright pink peonies. Be sure to read Bella Blooms every Monday!

photo courtesy of Martha Stewart Weddings

Featured in Ceremony Magazine 'Grand Ideas'

2010 is off for a bang for the Bella Girls! Susan and I were thrilled to not only have a real wedding featured in the 2010 Los Angeles Ceremony magazine, but to also be included in their Grand Ideas article. Ceremony magazine contacted what they consider to be the top planners in the area and to get some great ideas for couples planning their weddings, this is what we and our peers in the industry offered as 'grand ideas'!

Launch of Bella Blooms

I am so excited to announce the launch of a weekly blog post dedicated to flowers, flowers, flowers. Susan has her love of all things cake, which brings us Frosting Fridays. 2010 brings to life my love of all things floral, which I attribute to my Southern roots. (even here in LA where there is little green space I manage to find corners and nooks around the homestead to plant all sorts of flowers year round)

My goal with this new feature is to have a weekly post to discuss all aspects of flowers as they relate to wedding planning. We will showcase different types of flowers, talk about budgeting for flowers, seasonal availabilty, and much much more. Please be sure to visit frequently, and I would love to receive suggestions on topics you would like to learn about.

For my inaugural post, there was no question in my mind what flower to showcase. There is no more widely sought after traditional wedding flower than the peony. For the bride getting married in May or June, you are in luck, that is prime peony season. Peonies come in varying shades from whites to light pink to much brighter pinks and reds.

As we enjoy a 'winter' season here in Los Angeles with rain and 60 degree days...here are some gorgeous flowers that just say summer wedding to me.

Floral bouquet from FlowerWild for one of our May Bella brides

Image found on Style Me Pretty by Modern Day Design

Images found on Polka Dot Bride - Ivory Bouquet from Vogue Flowers bright pink peony bouquet from Brides

Image found on Style me Pretty by Blush floral designs

Note: It is becoming more and more common for florists to be able to purchase peonies throughout the year through international growers. Just be advised that with shipping you will pay quite a bit more per stem than when peonies are in season locally. If you are looking for the look of peonies but can't get them, you can try some different types of roses such as cabbage roses or even tightly bound carnations.

~ Frosting Friday ~

It's been rainy and grey all week in Los Angeles and this cake makes me smile. Happy Friday!

photo courtesy of Martha Stewart Weddings

Featured in Ceremony Magazine!

We are so excited to have a Bella Wedding featured in Ceremony Magazine for the second year in a row! Rachel & Jim's vineyard wedding celebration took place at Koehler Winery, tucked into the mountains of Santa Ynez. We shared all of the details of this wedding back in July - read about it here.

Ceremony Magazine is a great resource for brides at all stages of planning because it showcases fantastic vendors and features so many beautiful real weddings throughout Southern California!

~ Frosting Friday ~

Today's Frosting Friday features a very special cake from the wedding of Carissa & Brian and I feel so lucky to be able to share it with you! For those of you who don't know Carissa, I suggest you find a way to meet her ASAP! Aside from being an amazingly talented floral & event designer (learn more about Carissa’s company JL Designs here), she is one of the sweetest, most thoughtful people I know and a great friend!

Carissa & Brian’s cake came to life by the fabulous Amy Berman, Co-Owner & Executive Pastry Chef of Vanilla Bake Shop and another wonderfully talented wedding professional. Seriously, if you like dessert and you haven't been to Vanilla Bake Shop then you are missing out. My personal favorite cupcakes, Key Lime and Meyer Lemon, are available on Tuesdays and Saturdays, but really all of their flavors are amazing and I haven't tried anything that Amy has made that I didn't like!

Now, onto the cake! Here are all the details in Carissa’s words:

“ahhhhhh, the cake...this cake was COMPLETELY designed by my husband brian...being an architect, he wanted to come up with something really structural, geometric and modern...so he did a full 360 degree mockup in some architecture computer program of his and gave it to amy over at vanilla bakeshop...she re-created it and added on the white coral and green succulents i gave her a couple days before the wedding...

i designed the clear acrylic cake podium and cake stand and had them both custom made...we filled the podium with white crushed glass and sand blasted manzanita branches with green succulents attached...then we filled the cake stand with white crushed glass and white coral...”

Many Thanks to Carissa, Brian and Amy for creating this fantastic cake!

photos courtesy of Jasmine Star

~ Frosting Friday ~

Happy New Year!!! 2010 is off to an amazing start for the Bella Girls and we have very much enjoyed meeting with so many newly engaged brides and grooms over the past few days - lots of exciting things are in the works for the year ahead!

On today's Frosting Friday feature we are sharing a whimsical wintery cake from Martha Stewart Weddings. It's cakes like this that remind us we're still in the middle of winter, even though it's warm and sunny in Los Angeles!

photo courtesy of Martha Stewart Weddings