Oscar de la Renta Forever

Oscar de la Renta, a man who's name is synonymous with what it means to dress like a lady, passed away at the age of 82 yesterday.  In honor of his legacy we would like to share some of our most favorite of his designs.

The First Ladies

Oscar de la Renta has dressed every First Lady the United States has seen since Jackie Kennedy.  Even though he scolded her for wearing a J. Crew sweater to Buckingham Palace, First Lady Michelle Obama finally wore one of his gowns at a White House cocktail party earlier this month.  We loved it.

The Celebrity Brides 

Many a celebrity has chosen Oscar de la Renta for her wedding day (Kate Bosworth wore two!) but we're most taken with his most recent design for the new Mrs. Clooney, Amal Alamuddin; so classically beautiful, so very perfect. 

The Sarah Jessica Parker 

SJP a style icon of her own can never do wrong in our eyes, but some of our favorite looks of hers both on and off screen have been courtesy of Oscar de la Renta.  

Fashion magnate.  Cultural icon.  Design legend.  Mr. de la Renta you will be missed. 

Cleveland Wedding Planner | Golden Woodland Winter Wedding | Featured on Elizabeth Anne Designs

We are so honored to be featured on Elizabeth Anne Designs today for the sparkly rustic wedding we designed for Kelsey & Matt!  Kelsey & Matt were married in January and wanted a golden woodland vibe which their venue, The Club at Hillbrook, lent itself perfectly to.  We used elements like gilded pinecones at each place setting to hold guests' place cards, shimmery gold striped linens, and uber-textured florals to complete the cozy winter look.  And we were so happy Kelsey took our advice and worked her heirloom fur over her wedding gown - she looks stunning doesn't she?  For the full feature on Elizabeth Anne Designs click here and check out a few of our favorite images from Lane Baldwin Photography below:

Cleveland Wedding Planner | Easy DIY Holiday Garland

Our easy DIY holiday garland is the perfect way to dress up your mantel, holiday party, or wedding!  We love how festive and sparkly it is!  You can choose any phrase you'd like - we loved "all is merry & bright" for the Christmas season.  Here's what you'll need to complete the project:

> Photoshop or any word processing program with fun fonts
> Printer with plain paper for creating letter stencils
> Card stock for creating garland letters (we chose a sparkly red sold in 12"x12" sheets)
> Pencil or pen
> Scissors
> Ribbon (any width/fabric - we chose a super thin double face satin)
> Permanent glue dots
> Large flat surface on which to work

STEP 1: Create Your Letter Stencils

Once you've chosen your phrase and font use your printer to individually print each letter you'll need.  Our tallest letters are about 5" H and our widest letters are about 4" W to give you a gauge.  Use your ruler tool in whatever program you use to help you keep your letter sizes consistent.  Print the letters on plain printer paper then use your scissors to cut them out.  Your end result should look something like this:

STEP 2: Create Your Card Stock Letters

Use the letter stencils you just created to trace and cut out your card stock letters for your garland.  Use the back of your card stock to trace the letters.  You'll want the pretty side of the card stock to be the face of your garland.  Flip your letter stencils over before tracing so they're backwards on the card stock when you trace them.  This way, they'll be facing the right direction once they're cut.  Here's what this step looked like for us: 

STEP 3: Cut Out Your Card Stock Letters

We chose a super scripty font for our letters so cutting them out, both for the stencils and garland letters, was time consuming.  If you choose a block font it will be a much easier project!  It's helpful to cut around each letter first so you can work with them individually and you're not having to hold the entire 12"x12" sheet of card stock while cutting.  It's also easier to maneuver your scissors around the curves of each letter this way.  Be careful not to cut through the thin areas of the letters or you'll have to redo them.  We definitely had a couple to redo!  After your letters are cut, lay them out in your phrase and make any necessary edits.  We chose to trim the left side of our "l"s after seeing the completed letters all together.  

STEP 4: Attach Your Letters To Ribbon

Now you want to cut a length of ribbon long enough to accommodate your phrase plus some generous extra on each end for hanging.  Flip your card stock letters over and place a glue dot (or two or three whatever you find you need) at the top of each letter then press the ribbon to the letter.  Check after each letter placement that your letters are hanging the way you'd like.  Space your words evenly along the ribbon.  

STEP 5: Hang Garland

You're all done!  Now all you have to do is find the perfect spot to hang your garland!  We chose over the mantel and tied the garland ends to our curtain rods.  Here's our final result: 

From all of us here at Shi Shi to all of you - we wish you a holiday season that is merry & bright. 

Joy & peace, 

Gina Shi Shi