I worked for this wedding this past weekend, It was quite a wedding I have to say…  Usually when work for a wedding, my part is usually just bridal mehndi on one evening and the mehndi party the next evening at the most( for a Indian wedding).  But Carrie and Ajay’s wedding was a lot more than that, they are a gorgeous looking couple with style for sure and quite successful!  they do have it all!  Carrie found me online in the beginning of the year to do henna for her wedding and she also expressed her immediate needs, help with her wedding invitation(which was mentioned in this blog in Jan).  So I was able to supply the henna design portion of the invitation and she loved it .

So, this past weekend was the wedding.  Friday morning they had a photo shoot in the photographer’s studio in both white gown(Oscar De La Renta) and Indian outfit(Choli and lengha).  I was there to apply Luxe Glow to go with her Indian outfit(aqua/silver) after she is done with the white gown shoot.  Then the plan was to go to her Luncheon and change the color to go with her maroon sari that she was wearing for the evening henna party. but, we were running so behind we they needed to go straight to the rehearsal after the shoot.

This is what she looked like for the shoot!! so gorgeous!!

her lengha was so amazing too, I loved it.  but It’s quite heavy, it felt like about 25lb.. I helped them pack and I lift this up :O

I applied Luxe Glow on both arms in silver with crystals and teal glitter gel.

She looked like she just walked out of a magazine!

since I didn’t have time to fix the color during lunch for the evening, I arrived early for the party and waited…  However, the UN convention traffic held up everyone and most people were late including the bride who was supposed to arrive early (  so it was a many waiting moments on Friday.  But the party was a lot of fun, many people were excited about Luxe Glow and really beautiful saris and dresses I saw there!

Had a couple drinks, after work and went home with a good buzz

Lisa is a friend of mine who proof read my Newsletter every month without her help my newsletter would not be the same..  but since she is moving back to Florida, she came to see me before she leaves.  We caught up a bit and hennaed her arm as we talked.

So the first 2 weeks in July I was really busy with henna gigs and getting ready for my trip to Brazil.  Yes, my trip to Brazil I’ve been waiting for 2 years!!  Spending 2 weeks there was just amazing, fortunately I have many friends from there and I was able to travel with one of my friend to Itaunas where the forro festival was. ( I dance forro in NYC and few of us met up there to enjoy the festival to dance there!)  It’s a small village where Brazilians go to for beach and forro vacation.

I met some girls who went crazy over Luxe Glow

girls getting Luxe Glow on the beach!   ah… the fun time i miss…:)))

I just had a bridal shower and a mehndi party for Allie and Vilas this week.  Friday was a Allie’s bridal shower hosted by her sisters Fiona and Joanna at Allie’s apartment.  She was really looking forward to her mehndi and was looking for henna artist with her sisters and they came across my site and fell in love with my work.  It’s always flattering when I hear something like this.  Allie was only getting her palms done since she was wearing a white gown but both of her sisters and her friend was able to enjoy henna and I had lovely time meeting them.

Her fiance side of the family hosted their mehndi party on Sat afternoon, this was a larger get together since children weren’t attending the wedding on Sunday.  So I attended the children first.   Little girls are always so cute, they get very excited and if they are old enough they know what to do and very well behaved.  I always get scared with boys what they are going to ask for (since sometimes I get request for something complicated like a tiger or a cartoon characters..) I was able to convince them to do dragons and all I was asked to do was a dinosaur which I was able to make it up.. phew.. and the boys were happy with them.  Evey one was all dressed up and place was beautifully decorated, it was such an honor to be part of their celebration.  They  told me later on that even though they were looking for henna artist separately,  they both loved my work and Allie told her mother in law about my site and turned out they were both looking at the same site!  How flattering is this!!

Allie looked so Beautiful!!  her red hair looked so good with the green!

Akiyo is an artist extrordinaire. After pointing out which of her designs I was most drawn to, I had the pleasure of sitting back and watching her create. And for me, the experience continues as the pigment changes over time.
This was the perfect way to celebrate and acknowledge the the birth (and sale) of my first novel– which among other things involves a woman’s quest for her artist self.

Rebecca Land Soodak

Every year around Valentine’s day, I get a few clients who wants their BF’s or GF’s name hennaed to surprise them..  being a bit playful and have fun with it.  I guess my email newsletter is starting to work in someway..  I’m trying not to send it too often that they get irritated.  One of the client who is on the list looked at the email and made and appointment and wanting to get something on her side of lower back.  Usually anywhere on the torso is a hard place to get good color so I explain that they need to keep the paste one for at least 10 hours for the best result.  I also wrap the area with Hypafix (dressing retention tape used in hospitals) to secure it.  she sent me a email with the photo to show me how the color came out and also how much she loved it and her BF liked it  ahh.. another girl who was touched by Akiyo’s henna magic..

Anyways, here are the photos:

Before.

After.

I met Goussy at a pool party “Agua” I often go to since I know the organizer.  I have offered Luxe Glow at the party couple of times but it didn’t have a consistent business for me and also I wanted enjoy the party so I stopped offering and just enjoyed the party for the pat few month.  Months later, I got a call from Goussy who held on to my card for her maternity shoot and she wanted to get her belly henna   I met her at a beautiful space Metropolitan Building in LIC for her shoot last Sat.  It’s an old building with antiques.. such a wonderful space to do a shoot.   I don’t have any photos from the shoot but I’ll share my henna work..

and the space looks like this, it has different  sections and also have smaller intimate rooms.

Don’t mind my henna mess on the table.. stay turned for her photographer’s real work

Only a couple of days left for this exciting year or 2009..  looking back this year, I’m sure as many people I went through a lot.  Until beginning of this year I’ve always had a full time job and henna was a side business for me but I always wondered if it’s possible to have this as a full time business and do it well.  it was a unfortunate/fortunate thing for me to get laid off in Jan this year to explore my dream to have my full time own business.  Of course it wasn’t easy and it wasn’t the right timing either since it was Jan and it’s cold in NY for henna, and I knew nothing about running a business since I was just a graphic designer working in fashion. After a while I soon realized for me to be able to run this as a full time I need to do things differently than before then I came up with 3 great ideas this year.

1. Blissful Belly

Maternity henna for moms to be to get henna on the belly for a good luck and also for the pampering experience.  I was lucky enough to work with an amazing photographer who specializes in maternity portraits.  We are now offering henna and portrait package as well as individual service.  we also offer gift certificate as this make a wonderful baby shower gift!

2. Luxe Glow

It’s a waterproof glitter that lasts for few days to over a week.  This service was developed by the request of Indian bride who was able to use henna for the wedding( personal reason) and I came across this technique and prefected it  for her wedding. I’m looking to offer this to a western brides as well as South Asian brides and i have been offering it to parties and special occasions.  i have been getting such a great feed backs and everyone loves it.

3. Henna Therapy

Last but not the least, this is slowly taking it’s shape..  I’ve had this idea to offer henna workshop for cancer patients and this year I accomplished to get a site up, formed a group on FB, started talking to few people across the country to somehow do this nation wide.  It still needs a lot of work but I’ll make it happen to make many women smile in the near future.

www.hennatherapy.org

Over all, it was a great year for me to grow and looking forward to growing together with wonderful people I connect with this year!

Have a Wonderful New Year everyone!

Henna design T-shirts for Holiday gifts!

I Just set up a Henna T-shirts on Zazzel : http://www.zazzle.com/akiyohenna check these out and let me know what you think!

the 1st batch are all hand drawing of henna inspired designs, I think i’ll be adding another batch in multi color, a bit more stylized in Illustrator. stay turned.