Winter Weddings!

There is nothing cold about winter weddings when their brides ask for Bead Up jewelry! 
First up, my high-school classmate, Liz, a veterinarian living in Georgia. Liz has a heart for all things animals and was planning a winter wedding. She first ordered a Birds Nest necklace for herself to wear for her engagement photo session!

Liz reported that the necklace received so many compliments from her friends that she decided to custom order them for all the gals included in her wedding (including a lime green egg)! 

Not only that, but she also commissioned Bead Up to create her wedding jewelry! The instructions were simple: a necklace and bracelet set for herself and necklaces for her bridesmaids in gold, champagne, and taupe colors to match her champagne-colored dress. Working together, we agreed on pearls and crystals on gold wire for both the bride and her maids. After ordering the supplies, we finally had these (I especially love the filigree clasps!):

(click on the photo for a better close up)

And not only that, but Liz's mom wanted some jewelry for herself, too! She commissioned me to make a broach, which I admittedly had never done before, but since I am always up for a good challenge, I tried it out and made this set (a sewn combination of Swarovski crystals under taupe-colored pearls with matching earrings on brass findings):

Put it all together and you have one lovely bride and M-ot-B

(with her broach worn on her collarbone)!

Liz was kind enough to share some of the professional shots from the big day:

Thanks again for being such a great customer, Liz!

Second winter wedding belonged to my sorority sister, Alwynn. This crazy lady and I have many stories from our college days which, well, let's just say that they are confidential ;) Alwynn was planning a January wedding in blues and silver and wanted some bridesmaids jewelry to match. She literally said: "Christyn, just go for it. I trust your judgment." Sweet! Her invitation was beautiful and a great source of inspiration:

Hoping to incorporate the swirls, navy and light blue, creamy white and silver, I used Swarovski, gemstones, and pearls to come up with these:

 (top bracelet is a little something something I threw in for the bride herself!)

Each bracelet and earring set were unique, and of course finished with a little heart clasp. Photos from Alwynn's big day to follow!

Congrats again, Liz and Alwynn :)

Weddings: Fall, Y'all!

Though Bead Up has been MIA on the blog scene, she's been making up for it by being equally and steadily busy making custom creations! (And I do apologize for being blog MIA - it's not you, it's me)! I hope to fill you in little by little with recaps of some custom pieces and wedding ensembles -- here's the first of hopefully many!
You know how in Project Runway the contestants are often given a client-based challenge, but afterwards chastised for not incorporating enough of their own "voice" into the final design? I will admit, this is often the case when I create wedding jewelry - I do what the bride asks and often tone down the Bead Up flair so as to keep it wedding respectable. 
But when my dear friend and sorority sister Regan asked that I not only make her wedding jewelry, but also consulted for my Bead Up design itself, I knew this would be a different kind of wedding job :) Regan started with the basics: she planned to wear a white wedding dress but wanted to accessorize with dark greys and charcoals with a bracelet, earrings, and a broach. After a few more series of questions, we agreed that making a dangly charm-crystal bracelet of sorts would be great, but an exaggerated one would be even better! Though as for the broach - she was leading that all up to me! Lastly, she asked for some matching dangle earrings - but not dainty bridal... funky bridal! LOVE IT. So, after showing Regan some hues of crystals and findings, we agreed on these: 

I have never purchased so many crystals for one piece of jewelry in my life! You can also see the materials I bought for the broach at the 3 o'clock of the photo. I am not going to lie - I had never made a broach before, but I love a good challenge. So I finally found a random pin holder thing, and along with some unique oversized Swarovski crystals and floral wire, I twisted and tied up this:

 And when I applied the base to the form, we had this:

Next was making the charm dangle bracelet. I wire wrapped over 200 Swarovski crystals and, one-by-one, bound them to a gun-metal chain. I loved how the crystals reflected the sunlight!  

After 200 rounds of measuring, clipping, wire wrapping, applying, and arranging, we had this bracelet!

 I sent Regan a photo of the earrings as seen above, though we both agreed that they needed a little "umph!" So...!

Regan's was the first wedding I was able to physically attend this year (that whole moving across the country thing got in the way of traveling across the country again)... and best of all - she got married in the exact same Garden Court where my hubs and I married nearly three years ago! It was a great "homecoming!" As for the jewelry, the trio was the perfect finishing touch to the already perfectly beautiful bride!

http://www.angiewilsonphotography.com/

She and Matt looked so chic and modernly romantic!

And though I had a hard time initially conceptualizing the dark grey accents to this wedding outfit... 

That not only did it match the men's color pallet...

But it even matched Regan's shoes! PERFECT combo!

http://www.angiewilsonphotography.com/ 

Oh, and let's not forget the Bridesmaids (and many of my other sorority sisters)!

...which were a combination of some gold leaf charms from LA's jewelry district and small orange crystals (which included a clip-on version, too!). 

...which, I must say, went very well with the orange fall leaf theme. Who would have known it would have gone so well with the dark grey?  

And when I wasn't helping with the jewelry at the wedding, I was busy taking photos of the guests at the photo booth! Regan's wedding was so well planned and Bead Up is still thrilled to have been a part of it. Thank you for including me, Matt and Regan - you are loved!