Congratulations Delisser Photography!

Last night I attended the magazine launch of the new 2009 edition of the Newcastle Central Coast Wedding magazine.

Now when I was planning my wedding, this became my bible. It has so many vendors listed in the one place and I found it very helpful.

All of the magazine advertisers are invited to the launch so I dragged my hubby along and we actually got a lift up to the party from our wedding photographer - (who I have since become friends with) - Julie from Delisser photography and her husband Grant. This is the first time I have advertised in a magazine so I was pretty excited.

We had a bit of sparkly, some lovely canapes and then the formalities got underway.

One of things that I didn't find out until last night was that there is alot of secrecy about the front cover of the magazine. All of the photographers are invited to submit a random selection of their work that may be featured throughout the magazine. On the launch night, the front cover is revealed for the first time and the photographers find out who gets the prestigious front cover position.

Well last night as I was standing next to Julie, the cover was revealed, I heard Julie gasp and then the MC announce that Delisser Photography had won the front cover! Julie was genuinely surprised but to be honest, I wasn't surprised at all. I have always raved to people about how gorgeous my wedding photos are. Julie and her husband are an extremely talented team and they are so deserving of this accolade. I don't know how the publishers picked which photo would go on the cover because that particular wedding that Julie and Grant shot had so many breathtaking photos. Congratulations guys!

So it turned out to be a very fun and successful night in the end. We even noticed that two photos from our wedding were in the magazine!

Newcastle Central Coast Wedding magazine is released in stores today.

*These are the 2 photos from our wedding that featured in the magazine!

The Jane McGrath Rose

Take a look at this gorgeous new rose!

I know I am here to talk about weddings and wedding flowers but I just feel like this would be a very popular wedding flower if it was available to florists in cut form. Not only because it is so very pretty, but also because of it's association with breast cancer. Alot of people are affected by breast cancer in one way or another, and this rose could become a sentimental favourite for brides and an easy way to honour a loved one.

Glenn McGrath from the McGrath Foundation was at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden show earlier this month to launch this beautiful rose named in honour of his even more beautiful late wife Jane McGrath.

'In early 2008, rose breeders Ron and Barbara Inverarity, together with Treloar Roses, approached Jane and Glenn McGrath (co-founders of the McGrath Foundation and long term members of Australia’s cricketing family), to name a pale pink English style floribunda bush rose after Jane. Jane was both delighted and honoured to have the rose named after her and was looking forward to its release. Sadly, Jane passed away in June 2008'.

The Jane McGrath rose will be available for purchase from June 2009 from Treloar Roses (they are accepting pre-orders now). The best bit - is that eighty cents from every plant sold will be donated to the McGrath Foundation. It will go towards helping the charity realise Jane's dreams of having a McGrath Breast Care Nurse for every woman and her family affected by breast cancer in Australia as well as increasing breast awareness in young women.

For more information, check out the McGrath Foundation website, or Treoar Roses.

Bouquet Shapes: The Teardrop

The teardrop is a fully wired bouquet which means that every single flower and foliage stem that is used have to be individually wired first and then made into a bouquet. It has a full, round posy on top and has a thick tail dropping down to form a thin point. This is where it gets it's name the 'teardrop'.

Many different flower combinations can be used for this style of bouquet. Whether it be the rose, lily, tulip, orchid, lisianthus, freesia, anthurium, carnation, frangipani, hyacinth, sweet pea, gardenia, peony, ranunculus, many tropical flowers and many native flowers.

The date is set!

I caught up with my newly engaged best friend Mira over the Easter long weekend and was updated with some of her wedding plans. Mira and her fiance have set a date for this October and have selected two gorgeous venues on the Coast. It's six months away and I am bursting with excitement already! Then she asked me to make her flowers. I am so honoured to be able to contribute to her special day. Mira has great style and taste and I'm really looking forward to working with her and seeing what flowers she chooses.

The count down to Jenny's wedding

My friend Jenny is getting married in one month today. It's crazy how you can talk about a wedding for more than a year, you think you have all this time to plan and then all of a sudden it's one month! Aaauuuuggghh!

Jenny and I met many years ago when we were teenagers and worked together. Now she is a photographer and runs her own business called Pink Lily Photography.

I can't wait to make Jenny's wedding bouquet. She is having a small hand held posy of white freesias. The bridesmaids will have the same but a smaller version. Freesias are an extremely fragrant flower and are available most times of the year.

This is the picture that Jennny's bouquet will be based on. Beautiful, simple and fresh.

I'll come back in a month and show you how it turns out!

Home and Away Wedding

Something that happens quite regularly with brides, is that they will see a bouquet on a TV or movie wedding. They will love it, but they don't know what the flowers are called. So I have started a new topic called 'TV / Movie weddings' where I will show a picture of the flowers and let you know what is in them. (So keep in mind in this section that I have not made the flowers personally). To start it off:

After a previous failed attempt, Tony and Rachel were finally married on last night's episode of Home and Away. The bride held a small teardrop bouquet, and her bridesmaids small posies of pale champagne-pink roses and white lisianthus framed with camellia leaves.

*Flowers by Flower Avenue, Carlingford

Happy Easter

The Kissing Tree wishes you all a Happy Easter!

Cosmo Bride

I finally got my hands on the latest edition of Cosmo Bride magazine. I was suprised it took me so long to buy as it was one of my favourite magazines when I was planning my wedding. I loved looking at all the real weddings that are included in it and getting inspiration from real brides.

One of the weddings featured in this edition of the magazine (which also landed the front cover) is a Central Coast wedding. Karlee and Jonathan were married at the Holy Cross Catholic Church in Kincumber and followed it with a reception at the popular Reef Resaurant in Terrigal.

Karlee makes an absolutely stunning bride. Her dress is amazing and she carries a beautiful bouquet of pink peonies. Although I am a little biased as I had peonies as my bridal bouquet too. Gorgeous wedding.

Diggers Wedding Expo

The Kissing Tree has just had confirmation that we will be exhibiting at an expo next month. Here are all the details you will need if you want to come along to see us: What: Diggers at The Entrance wedding expo Where: Diggers at The Entrance, 315 The Entrance Rd, The Entrance When: Sunday 17th May Time: 10am - 3pm Cost: free entry and parking For all of the details, here is the website: click here Now to start thinking of what bouquets to show...............

Bouquet Shapes: The Posy

The Posy:

The posy is a round bouquet and comes in two different styles, formal and informal.

The formal posy is structured and looks very neat. It usually only has 1 or 2 different varieties of flowers in it that are spread evenly throughout the bouquet. Foliage can be placed neatly through the bouquet or as a frame around it. The overall look is neat, and balanced.

The informal posy is less structured. It can look loose, messy and like it has been just picked fresh out of the garden. This bouquet is not strictly round, and usually has many varieties of flowers or colours through it.

Stay tuned for more bouquet shapes over the coming weeks.

Twobirds launches in Australia

I heard a segment on The Morning Show this morning that caught my attention and I thought it may help some brides (and bridesmaids) out there.

twobirds is a boutique bridesmaid dress company that carries the multifunctional dress. The concept was created by Ariane Goldman, who was sick of spending money on expensive dresses that she could never wear again. The style of the dress means you can wrap it in different ways to create at least 10 different dresses. I think this is a great idea - I wish these had been around 6 months ago for my bridesmaids!

Bridesmaid dress shopping can be very stressful when you are trying to find a dress that flatters all of your girls. Even the current trend of having your girls in different styles but the same colour can be limiting because it means you have to get all the dresses from the same shop to make sure the colour will match exactly. So the multifunctional dress takes all the stress out of it and is flattering on all figures and pregnant bridesmaids too.

The best thing is that your girls can still wear the dress many times after your wedding. All they have to do is wrap it differently to get a new style and they can wear it over and over again.

The dress is available in 13 different colours and comes in a short or long length. If you are interested, it is available to try on at the new twobirds store in Surry Hills.

Flower Of The Month

Anthuriums are big, waxy, heart shaped flowers that last for weeks. Their leaves are also quite popular to use in wedding flower bouquets as a frame.

Flower: Anthurium

Botanical Name: Anthurium

Origin: Columbia rainforests

Season: Available all year

Colour/s: cream, lime, burgandy, brown, green, red, and pink

Meaning: hospitality

I love the use of Anthuriums in these bouquets.