Showing posts with label Gifts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gifts. Show all posts

Saturday, 5 February 2011

Tea for Christmas

One of the greatest things about being in this family business is the opportunity to meet people like Anis, who shares our love for beautiful gift-giving.

From our brief meet, I found her to be very warm, generous and utterly full of life. She loves giving so much, even I got a beautiful gold Harrods mug and a warm hug from her when I delivered her Xmas orders last December! That was totally new for me and boy was I touched! :)

Anis wanted to give her friends our personalised tea favors for Xmas...so I suggested giving a set containing matching tea bags and swivel sticks, all nicely packaged in matching reusable tins. She loved them all and practically swooned over them non stop. I felt bad she didn't get one for herself though, and told her so....to which she replied "But the joy of giving surpasses that of receiving". How inspiring.

So Anis, this post is for you babe. Enjoy YOUR gifts :)


I customised them in different designs and colours
English Breakfast Tea and Earl Grey Tea inscribed with Anis's message
Another tin design, seen here with french floral wreath, just perfect for Xmas.
Ouh and notice the blue striped background...another Mariah & Sham hallmark.





Monday, 6 December 2010

More Designer Isles by Mariah & Sham

When we met up with Yana, her sis and her then fiancee almost a year ago, I suggested creating something different, new and special for their wedding hantaran and wedding cake.

Instead of just doing up the cake for instance, I decided to create a Wedding Cake Designer Isle. And so with a serving size of 100 - 200pax, I suggested breaking up the servings into one cake centrepiece and the rest all pre-packed as favors, and aesthetically presented on our Isle.

Thing is, we love designing and creating favors - for which we were first known for - and we love gorgeous arrangements of anything beautiful. So we suggested this Isle idea to our many other enquirers, thinking we were doing good service...by being forthcoming and generous with new ideas during our non-obligatory discussions / consultations. Some politely declined cos they were understandably not ready for this, considering they've had budgets set aside for other wedding expenses...but some actually abandoned us and got other vendors to build up on this idea :(

It was heartbreaking...but in retrospect, we're all the wiser now. Moving on, we've taken it in our stride to accept all these as part and parcel of business, and hence to continue evolving.

Whatever it is, we're lucky to have many other great clients and fans who have kept us going
and encouraged us on to strive for the best.
In this light, we're grateful for Yana's and Akhbar's trust and loyalty.
So here's one specially decicated to you newly weds, and of course, sis Ezsra. :)
 
  
This Designer Isle featured our wedding cake centrepiece of fondant covered rich chocolate cake, with matching favors, decorative accents and bespoke monogram.
The 'two tiered' cake was actually made up of four layers of  real rich chocolate cake. We had to make it this high cos our groom is one tall young man! Doing up a 4 tiered cake however would make the cake look too 'overbearing', what with the motif design and all. So yup, we made it 2 tiered but 'tall' instead :)

                            
  And then we designed the favors to match our cake. Notice the rosette design on the favors and on the TOTALLY EDIBLE rosette icing.

 We didnt have any inspiration boards cos most of the time, our inspirations are conjured up in our imagination, some of it 'at last moments'. But we knew what colours we wanted to work on....so here, we married the two colours used by our newly weds. (Bride chose blue with dashes of pink for her Hantaran, and groom chose purple with gold for his Hantaran)

        
 And for the all-important harmonized look, we placed a matching bouquet of fresh flowers to balance the whole set-up.
And now, another special dedication to the newly weds.
Presenting the totally revolutionary Wedding Hantaran Designer Isle by Mariah & Sham....


All the gifts for exchange were presented on our Designer Isle. Bride chose a blue-pink colour scheme to present her gifts to her husband. After the solemnization ceremony, the gifts from both sides of the families would be exchanged, and the groom's gifts for his bride (purple gold!), which we designed to match, will be placed on this same Isle. Lucky for us, both Yana and Akhbar have got a keen eye for colours. The gifts they bought were all of the right tones and designs, making our work way much easier :)

 For Him gifts were all placed on our gorgeous slick white stands, as opposed to the more traditional 'dulangs' or trays.






 Notice the backdrop rosette motif which was reproduced in their Wedding Cake and Favors previously mentioned.

Loving the fresh peony in full bloom.
                    


 We designed this bespoke monogram for them to match their get-away car signage.



For once, featuring camera-shy Mum in action!

And so now, here's a look at the groom's gifts for his bride...

They chose romantic purple for this. And so to up the glam and grand factor, I decided to match the look with champaigne gold.


The groom was a bit apprehensive about handling fresh flowers...so we used faux ones instead.
Luckily, we had a whole year to scout around for the highest quality faux flowers, and we're delighted to have had worked them well.

Mariah's gorgeous frame in action...for the customary 'mas kahwin' cheque due to be slotted in, complementing the bride's gorgeous Tiffany bracelet.


Ok so that's all for now. A very big thank you to Haz Workz for all the help rendered, and of course, I'd personally like to thank mother-in-law for helping with everything else while I got busy with projects, work and house moving. And to Mum, great great job as always! And to my four cheeky kids...Universal Studios here we come!! So now, on to our next project. Stay tuned! :)

Sunday, 13 June 2010

11th June 2010

It was a significant date. We handed over our keys to the new home owners. It was an emotional experience I must say, and I surely didn't expect the kids to cry...but they did. Too many fond memories we had there, in our small and humble but cosy and fun white castle.

"We're moving into a bigger and more comfortable home" I explained to them.

"But I love this home....." Fazli retorted wailingly.

"I love this home too. But this is a happy home because we love and cherish one another. So no matter where we go, even if it's a mud hut, we'll always be happy as long as we share and care for one another k....we'll remember what we had here, but move on and make new fond memories together" I promised the kids.

It was quite painful, but their innocence gave me comfort...cos maybe we've brought them up right after all...

So anyway, we're currently recuperating from all the house moving hassle and rush, and despite the lack of updates, we're still doing business as usual.

We had the pleasure of preparing the wedding hantaran for a beautiful couple - Norhafizah and Khairul Anwar on 12th June.

It was understandably rushed, what with all the moving and birthing happening at Mariah & Sham, but Mum was admirably well-composed as always. And we're glad we took Fiza's order in too, cos she's just warm, nice, happy and gorgeous like that.

So here, with a For Him hantaran, we did a more masculine design. No doubt, our clients love our fresh floral arrangements, but used inappropriately, the type and colour of the flowers may negate the mood and purpose of the presentation. So after meeting up with them and understanding their preferences, I suggested using only dashes of purplish light pink and white hydrangea instead of having the whole hantaran in white and purple ...since most of the items come in black, brown and maroon anyway. Then to add in more dashes of purple to the design, we added in personalised tags in that shade...amidst the maroon velvet ribbon, champaigne velvet covers, black roman vases and green masculine pine leaves. We've never seen hantarans with personalised tags before, but the idea was welcomed by Fiza. So we're glad for that. Let's see if our idea catches on.











 







Wishing Khairul Anwar & Norhafizah a blessed life together.

Saturday, 6 March 2010

Saturday, 16 January 2010

Tuesday, 29 December 2009

Xmas

This year, Hazrin decided to give personalized presents to his maternal nieces and nephews for Xmas...

He's always been very involved in our projects, but he's never really designed anything for us thus far. This time round however, probably inspired to chart his own name, he decided to design a new line of personalized stationeries.

With the resources available, he painstakingly worked on his project...and in the process, helped increase our pool of resources too.

I must admit, I've never fully realized this potential of his before, and am pleasantly surprised by what I discovered....

We now have a new designer on board, and that can be nothing but advantageous for Mariah & Sham :)

So, here's introducing his excellent work...






He even prepared the packaging box for the personalized notebook and pencil...



For the young adult cousins, he gave them something chic...



For the aunts, uncles and married cousins, he gave them the newly designed Mariah & Sham favors...



And finally, for the newest member of the clan - Baby Deborah, a Mariah & Sham gift set....

Hope they love the gifts!