Thursday, May 1, 2008

Designing Bridesmaid Necklaces for Kim's Wedding

Trying to find the perfect necklaces for Kim's wedding and this was the best way I could find to share ideas with the Cutler girls. Ignore this unless you're interested in the jewelry possibilities in India . . .

First, here's Marcia, our designer (and a great friend and superpowered woman). She's modeling the shortest length you can do without having to have a clasp (which increases the price).
She didn’t have anything that seemed just right, especially if we need the same thing for everyone. But we discussed different stones we thought could work and she’s willing to custom-make things for us if we want. She plans to make one this week to show us and then she can sell it to someone else if we don’t like it.

Here are photos of some of the stones she could use:



Here's some stones she has put together to make a necklace--not quite the right colors for us, I think, but it gives you an idea of the sort of thing she puts together to make a necklace.
And here's another necklace in the making:
Here's one that's already made. Note the v-neck shape. Do you like it? This style with the metal chain can only be done in China so it can't be custom-made for now. But she can make ones with a v-neck shape without the metal chains, just stones and pearls throughout.
Here's a really fun one with lots of strands of tiny freshwater pearls with stones mixed in. She can custom-make one like this for us. This one shown here is pricey--about $80, but if we do fewer strands and cheaper stones it could be closer to $25.
I really like this style with the different shapes and sizes and colors of stones all mixed together. She can custom-make ones like this, maybe with less yellow, more peach, and lighter greens.
Here's some peachy pearls we could get as long strands and twist them, knot the end in the front or use a clasp to make it two shorter strands.
Here's those peachy pearls twisted.
Here's some "smartie" peachy pearls.
Here's another one in the v-neck style that might look nice with a t-shirt. Probably too hot pink, but again the colors could be worked with if you like this style.

More peachy one with a slightly longer length and dark green stones in it.


Gotta love it that I'm wearing the shirt I think I inadvertently talked everyone out of for Amy's wedding. I promise I didn't plan it!
Now here Marcia and I started pulling stones and pearls together that could work for her mock-up. The green in the middle is a nice seafoam green. Some of the oblong and tear-shaped ones have the holes on one end of the stone so they stick out sort of like a Flintstone necklace. Fun look.
And here's some colored pearls we picked out that we could add as accents.


Unless we tell her otherwise, she’s going to make a medium-length necklace with some chunky stones in orange, peach pearls and some green and blue bits sprinkled in. If we tell her to she could do a longer v-neck style with the strand crossed on the bottom or something, which might look fun with a t-shirt. She thinks she can keep the cost around $25.

Some questions:

Do we want the same necklace for everyone, or different?
Or same general style but different lengths and/or sizes of stones and pearls?
Or same general colors but different styles and lengths?

1 comment:

Katie said...

My favorite is the combination that Marcia has on in the picture just longer,(but I am really into the longer look right now.) I also liked the red orange v one. I think that we are going with a peach instead of straight orange (Kim will have to weigh in on that one). I don't think they have to be exactly the same...it could be really cute if they had some of the same elements in them, but were different lenghts or combinations. You're amazing Merinda!!!!! Love you