Exihibt: Roz's Wedding Jewelry

Back in 2008 when I was home for the holidays, Roz asked if I would design her wedding jewelry for her upcoming wedding in June. YES of course I would! Wedding jewelry is incredibly fun but you also have to worry about pleasing the end wearer. Thankfully Roz knew what she was looking for and is completely easy going so that took some of the stress off. She sent me a photo of her dress so i could start brainstorming.

The request was something that flattered a sweetheart neckline. Possibly a pendant necklace with some beads evenly positioned throughout the chain. A combination of white pearls and clear crystals. Preferably imperfect pearls, not the precisely round ones. Earrings that were about an inch long.

It was harder to bounce ideas off of Roz because she was in northern CA and I was in southern CA. However, after a solid month and a half of brainstorming and email exchanges I came up with some initial sketches (only showing some).

Roz liked the lower middle set the best. Time to fine tune the design!!

She also requested:

For the necklace: what are your plans with the chain part that goes around the neck?

For the earrings: would it be possible to have the pearl at the end and crystals adorning it?

I’m not sure how this will work out, but my makeup right now is probably going to be plum/purple based… would it be possible to introduce a little bit of that into the jewelry, too? Not too much, but a tiny bit of color here and there

After narrowing it down even more to the images above, I went to the store and stocked up on some supplies. Off-white coin pearls of various sizes for the earrings and necklace, a variety of clear swarovski 3mm - 5mm bicone crystals, and off-white imperfect freshwater pearls of various sizes.

I was able to show her some samples when I was up in northern CA but we really finalized the designs when she came to LA. She wanted all of the clusters to be really full so you couldn't see any of the chain. I finished it up and dropped it off the next day. I told her to try it on with her dress to see before claiming it was perfect.

Roz tried it on and liked it, but the feedback from her friends was that the earrings and necklace were both too heavy together and one or the other needed to be lightened up. She asked for my opinion as the designer and after staring at the photo for long enough I agreed. We both liked the necklace exactly as it was but I felt the earrings could be shortened and have a few crystals and pearls removed.

She was back in LA in a few weeks and we spent a Saturday morning finishing everything up. At some point I needed a break because I couldn't tell the difference between any of the changes anymore. We walked down to the cafe down the street and Roz treated me to a lovely lunch and coffee. After I was re-energized I finished it up and sent her off with her wedding jewelry!

On the day of the wedding she kept telling me she loved it which was exciting because there is nothing worse than a bride wearing something she doesn't really love. Roz's decision to add extra pearls and crystals and not go with bare chain really helped draw your attention to her neckline. The purple crystals were a nice touch as well. I'm really glad we lightened up the earrings because the combination worked much better after the change. All in all a successful creation! Thanks for trusting me Roz!! Congrats again!!

The photo was taken by Lynn Kai Chao for Stephen Anthony Photography. Check it out!!! http://iamlkc.com/