Ashes in the Light

It’s been a little while since I last wrote here.

Not because there hasn’t been anything to write about.

Quite the opposite, actually.

Work has been busy lately, and somewhere between preparations, setups, flowers, logistics and event days, September seems to be quietly passing by.

So before I return to my travel stories, I thought I’d leave a little piece of what life has looked like lately.

And apparently, it has involved quite a lot of flowers.

And lemons.

And, more recently, moons.

🍋 A Little Yellow, Green & White at CHIJMES Hall

One of our recent projects was a wedding showcase for Watabe at CHIJMES.

Our focus was at Alcove at Caldwell House, and the styling took on a fresh palette of yellow, green and white.

There was something about working with lemons that I really enjoyed.

They’re such an ordinary object, but placed among greenery and flowers, they immediately added colour and a slightly unexpected playfulness to the space.

For the photo gallery, we kept the styling low and organic, allowing the photographs to remain the focus while the greenery, flowers and scattered lemons framed everything around them.

The pillars carried the same idea.

Clusters of florals and greenery wrapped around the architecture, with little pops of yellow appearing throughout.

I think one of my favourite things about event styling is seeing how a concept changes once it enters an actual space.

You can have moodboards.

Measurements.

Reference photos.

Plans.

But there’s always that moment during setup when you stand back, look at everything together and start adjusting.

A little more here.

Something feels empty there.

Move this slightly.

Turn that.

And slowly, the space begins to make sense.

🌙 Then Came Something Completely Different

Not long after, we found ourselves working with an entirely different mood for a corporate event.

This time, the inspiration was Mid-Autumn Festival.

Instead of fresh yellows and greens, the styling shifted towards shades of blue, with moon-inspired elements incorporated throughout the tablescape.

And the tables themselves?

Serpentine.

I loved seeing them from above.

Rather than the usual straight rows or round tables, the curves created this beautiful flow through the room.

With the blue florals, greenery and glowing moon elements running along the tables, the entire setup felt almost like a river winding through the space.

It was very different from the wedding showcase.

One was bright, fresh and almost garden-like.

The other was moodier, more atmospheric and designed around an evening celebration.

And perhaps that contrast is what made these past few weeks interesting.

Somewhere Behind the Finished Photos
Event styling always looks very peaceful once everything is finished.

Perfectly placed flowers.

Straightened chairs.

Candles glowing.

Not a cable, carton or exhausted person in sight. 😂

But behind every finished photograph is usually a very different scene.

Things being carried around.

Someone looking for scissors.

Someone else asking where something went.

Last-minute adjustments.

Stepping backwards repeatedly to check whether something looks right.

And eventually…
everything settles into place.

Guests arrive.

The space becomes theirs.

And all the chaos that happened beforehand quietly disappears.

I suppose that’s the strange thing about this work.

We spend hours creating something that may only exist for an afternoon or an evening.

Then everything comes down again.

The flowers are removed.

The tables disappear.

The space returns to what it was before.

But for those few hours, it became something else.

And lately, somewhere between lemons, flowers and moonlight, that’s where most of my time has gone.

Busy.

Tiring, definitely.

But also filled with little moments of creativity that I wanted to remember before September disappears completely.

So yes…

I’m still here.

Just occasionally buried behind a pile of flowers. 🌿😂