Love is in the air – Float Balloons

February is THE month for romantic celebrations – VALENTINES DAY!

There are still true romantics out there and some of you are planning ahead, going that extra mile, to make this Valentines Day a mark on your timeline with that someone special. Proposals are numerous, kisses are many, and the words ‘I love you’ may be announced for the very first time.

To help you and your valentine float away on cloud nine, allow Float Balloons to add the “WOW!” factor to your heartfelt sentiment.

couple balloonThe simple round gigantic balloons for the classic cool cats come in all kinds of colours. When fully inflated they measure over 90cm and come tailed with a decorative fancy frill that has been hand crafted from delicate tissue, ribbon and metallic sparkle. This is a stunning gift idea for male or female.

tassels

For that added touch of romance, the limited edition love heart balloons are surely a gift that makes a statement. You won’t be sending the wrong message with these gorgeous balloons.

float heart balloon

love heart balloons

Float’s high impact designer balloons are wonderful for any occasion; and photo shoots of any kind.

wedding balloons

It’s no secret that we love them here at A Darling Affair. Float balloons will be decking the halls at our Celebration Fair, on March 16th as an official sponsor. Come along to see them in all their glory.

Until then, let us be the first to wish you a Happy Valetines Day!

Love, Carrie & Emily xxx

Celebration Fair float

Images: Summer Lovin Photography, Design Queen Photography, Anna Gilbert Photography

Pops of Colour for our Celebration Fair with our newest Sponsor

It’s a great week for it…we have yet another exciting sponsor to introduce to you. We have our first sponsor for our Celebration Fair. Nothing says party like balloons – and no balloons are quite as spectacular as Float Balloons! Toni from Float Balloons will be decking out the Lake Kawana Community Centre with her balloons, in all their floaty, colourful glory!

Float is a designer balloon studio based in Brisbane. We take a completely modern approach to balloons for any event or special occasion. Our aim is to bring whimsy and joy to any celebration.

Float balloons are not your ordinary balloons. Our balloons are perfectly round orbs that provide an explosion of colour. When fully inflated they measure over 90cm and come tailed with a decorative fancy frill that has been hand crafted from delicate tissue, ribbon and metallic sparkle.

Inflated with helium, our sprightly creations float around at celebrations such as weddings and birthdays, add whimsy and magic to photo shoots and bring smiles to kids and adults alike. 



The Celebration Fair!

Hello there darlings! We have another announcement for you…

Well, you know that we are lovers of all things celebratory, and our Wedding and Events fair in September had a lovely line up of vendors that cater to all special occasions – indeed “something for all occasions”. Coming into 2013, we are taking our love of weddings to two locations, and two lovely venues – but we felt we simply couldn’t fit our BIG love of a good ol’ party along side our wedding vendors in such lovely intimate venues.

So, at the beginning of October, we made a decision to take a leap and create an entirely new kind of an event – A Celebration Fair! Our celebration fair is dedicated entirely to all the party people out there! We have booked a BIG lovely venue – the Lake Kawana Community Centre, and we plan to have a BIG number of vendors, BIG entertainment, and a BIG crowd of party people to enjoy the day!

Did we mention it will be BIG???!!!!

We are so excited! So party people and party suppliers alike, SAVE THE DATE: March 16th 2013. Be there or be square.

What a fantastic way for A Darling Affair to kick of a new year!

Hessian printed table cloths – Inspired by Socially Circled

Project: Hessian Printed Table Cloth

From: Socially Circled

DIY Doer: Carrie

A month before our fair I was asked to do a table set-up/display for a women’s healthy eating day. It was about getting back to basics. I love simple things. So I love, love, loved being asked to do this.

I have a sewing machine but do not know how to sew (my mum was a fashion designer, one day we’ll sit down and she can teach me). So I found this lovely gem of a project! Cutting and printing. Just what I like…simple yet effective.

What you need: 

So, sourcing the products: Bunnings for the hessian (they sell it on big rolls with different weaves), and a newsagent or post office for the lettering stencil. Then grab your permanent marker and a pair of scissors.

I chopped up the stencil..not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing….to help with spacing. Then with my trusty marker went for it, the whole while with my mouth salivating.
mmmmm…cranberries, dark choc, almonds………..

Here is the finished product.

Some more lovely pictures from the day.

Result: Success!

Difficulty: Simple

THE DARLING DAY!

A wrap up of our first event – Saturday the 8th of September, 2012.

It was late in the evening on Friday the 7th of September and despite spending the evening lifting, hanging, directing, arranging – and being entirely exhausted, we were both far too amped up to sleep…in a few hours it would be time to open the doors for our very first Wedding and Events Fair! We crossed our fingers and toes, hoping for all to go smoothly, and tried desperately to get a good night’s sleep.

As 10am rocked around the next morning the stalls were set, the beauty parlour was humming with activity and people were peering in through the windows at the amazing displays our wonderful vendors had pieced together. The doors opened and the fun began!

We had a line up of over 35 lovely local businesses showcasing their wares and services in the most spectacular vintage inspired displays. Each and every stall-holder had gone above and beyond and the venue looked amazing. The atmosphere was welcoming and inspiring, and the events that followed were full of fun and excitement. Prizes galore were given away through stall competitions, a piñata bash and a dance off (for those of you who missed it, Carrie well-and-truly busted a groove!).

DIY workshops buzzed as our patrons learned how to make tissue paper pom-poms and paper flowers. Darling patrons looked on as our Beauty Parlour professionals worked their magic on our stunning models. At 2.00pm our resident bag-piper heralded the commencement of our ceremony-style fashion parade. The parade topped off the day in the most spectacular way and, as the bouquet was tossed, we could not believe how well the event had come together.

As 3.00pm arrived, and the fair drew to a close, our feet ached but we could not wipe the smiles from our faces. We had welcomed over 250 gorgeous guests through our doors including brides- and grooms-to-be, bridesmaids, parents, children, mums-to-be, grandparents, DIY-ers, and vintage enthusiasts. Our stall holders assured us that they had all had a great day (and are already lining up again for next year!). In short, our first fair was a success, and we simply can’t wait to do it all again!

I could tell you more but as they say, a picture tells a thousand words, and we all know that’s what you’ve really been waiting for. So here are a few of the highlights of our darling affair…

[slideshow]

THANK YOU!

Just a quick post before we pass out after a fantastic first event…

Thank you to all of our Darling Stallholders you are all so amazing! We couldn’t have done it without you!

Also thank you to all who attended, participated in our daily events, and made it a fabulous day – We love you all.

Please excuse us now while we take a little time out – we will return after a few days (possibly a week or two even). We will then be back in full force, sharing photos of our event and gearing up for our next one (yes that’s right, we’re going to go and do it all again!!!)

Carrie and Emily xx

Vendor Feature: The Wedding Writer

If there were ever a perfect match, it would be Lahnee and Pablo Pavlovich. Lahnee is a talented writer, and event stylist, who is the talent behind today’s vendor feature: The Wedding Writer. Pablo is a fantastic photographer, and the focus of tomorrow’s feature. Today’s featured images are taken from their own wedding day, styling courtesy of Lahnee, and photography of Pablo – of course.

The Wedding Writer: The scribe to your very own fairy-tale

Once upon a time a boy met a girl.

From a simple smile their hearts grew with love

A question, an answer and a walk down the aisle.

This is a tale of love; your love.

You dreamt of the big white dress, the fairy-tale with a happy ending. You read enchanting stories of how snow white met her prince charming. Your wedding is almost here so why not have your own love story captured on crisp white pages between Once upon a time… and Happily ever after….

I am The Wedding Writer; the scribe to your very own fairy-tale where you become the princess and your groom is prince charming. Think of me as a professional wedding guest, notebook in hand writing about your special day; adding a unique layer to your wedding memories.

When you read to your kids, grandchildren, nieces and nephews – why not read them your love story, not Cinderella’s.

The Wedding Writer is a couture service and your love story and can be written to express your wedding and your tale to the altar as in depth or as simply as you want.

Relive your love story with a hard cover book complete with enchanting images by Pablo Pavlovich Photography to compliment your literary legacy. Alternatively you can opt for an E-book that you can view online and print out yourself.

And they lived Happily Ever After….Part Two.

As promised…Part Two of our double feature, a little about my special day and the events that lead up to it.

Emily and Blake – A Waterfall, a Tree, and a Song

It was 2003, I had greasy hair (new hair product gone wrong), a very large wooden beaded necklace and showed up to Wappa Falls with some other guy. Blake took one look at me and decided, then and there, that one day he would date me. I had other ideas. It took 3 years, but I finally realised what a catch he was; and as he announced his long held feelings for me, late at night under a street lamp, I knew it was a pivotal moment for the both of us.

About 10 months later Blake took me to our favourite park in Buderim, we climbed our favourite tree, where we’d shared our first kiss, and he proposed. Of course I said yes, and with only 3 months until the big day, planning kicked into gear.

Mum and I, working in the same office, started researching venues online and we found Poets Cafe in Montville. I loved it instantly. Such a quaint, intimate venue, overlooking the hinterland. The decor left little else to be done to create a lovely atmosphere. The food was to die for. Unlike the usual alternate drop situation, no swapping was necessary, no option was disappointing.

In the first week of planning I looked in a number of Bridal boutiques, but found nothing. So I found a dress in a magazine and headed off to a dress maker. I still love my dress, simple and just a few vintage inspired touches. Although nowadays the lace jacket look has been done a few times over, back then it was unique. Like Carrie, I am also a tom-boy (two brothers) and not a heels kind of girl, so custom-made allowed me to get away with wearing ballet flats (and sometimes no shoes at all).

Unlike Carrie – I had four bridesmaids. We had ZERO off-the-rack options. Hoorah for better retail options in dresses today. Besides, these days the maids don’t even have to be wearing the same style or colour. So dressing the bridesmaids wasn’t easy, but it was fun having a party of people to goof around with.

My flowers were tulips, simple and no fuss – or so I thought. Despite being winter flowers, probably the most stressful moment was the day prior to our wedding day, when the florist informed me that none of the tulips were opening due to the cold weather! (If you ask Blake what the most stressful moment was, he’ll probably say something about chocolate milk, but that’s a story for another time). Long story short, the tulips opened, crisis averted.

We sourced our favours from a candy store just down the street from Poet’s, we had strawberry flavoured blue and pink personalised rock candy, it was a hit with all of the guests. We killed two birds with one stone and had our favour boxes double as our place cards, which my Mum hand-scribed all of the guests names on using her calligraphy skills.

We had two songs that were “ours” to which we danced, “To be with you” by Mr Big, and “Such Great Heights” covered by Iron and Wine (originally Postal Service). But one of the highlights of our evening was the song written and performed for us personally by my younger brother Wade. I believe the final verse of the song included these lines

“and when the years have gone so fast, and yeah we know its gonna last. When the baby’s crying and Em is sighing, that’s when Blake comes home and Em no longer feels alone, and that’s the way its gonna be, yeah that’s the way its gonna be…the little Tredrea family.”

And that’s how it is! To continue quoting the song, 5 years later and we’re still “in love, sweet sweet love.”