I am mildly afraid of sweets: a by-product of my fear of carbs, but what I am NOT is afraid of Gorgeousness!  And, while Amy Atlas’ new book “Sweet Designs: Bake it, Craft it, Style it” is CHOCK full o’ sweets and recipes bakers will fawn over, it’s more than anything choc full of inspiring ideas for any designer, baker or planner of parties large scale or small.  It’s desserts, but it’s more than desserts. It’s a book of ideas that will surely get your mind spinning.  It’s the PERFECT gift for a young mother embarking on planning her first birthday party, and a perfect gift to yourself if you love pretty things and love to take the simple and elevate it to the sublime.  I present to you, the table “Perfectly Preppy” as photographed by Johnny Miller.

So much to take in, and find inspiring!  The Pink and Blue color combo, the use of ties in the tabletop design, the fabulous mix of solids and stripes and subtle dots.  It’s just too much fun!  Of course, the book then goes on to offer all the recipes for the cake, cupcakes, the delicious cups of moose (the ribbon is used to affix little spoons to the glass cups!), the truffles and cookies (called Pocket Squares!).  It teaches you how to make the Argyle backdrop, the “Tie” tied favor boxes.. the works!  Amazing!

But, this next table LITERALLY took my breath away:  Forever Chanel.

What to say? Again, I’m not much of a baker, but I DO love amazing tabletop, and I saw this and thought: “Oh My Goodness, why hadn’t I ever thought of that before!?  “Chanel” tweed as a table linen, wrapping flower containers in the same “family” of fabrics as the line.. GIANT bow around the table!   And of course, Amy walks you through every dessert, display and detail.

I LOVE this book. I also just love Amy, and her personality and warmth shines through the pages of this gorgeous book.  At $28,(on special right now for only $17) it’s a must add to your library.  You can buy it at Amazon now, or at your local bookstore.  Or, better yet, buy yourself a copy and a friend a copy…. you will both have a lot of fun with it, I’m sure!

Happy Friday! Our office is in a flurry of activity today. We are putting all of the finishing touches for a wedding tomorrow and getting excited for our bride and groom! We are in such great spirits over here that we thought we would try to send some Friday cheer your way. And what better than bridal gowns to get us giddy??!

I thought I would wrap up some of our favorite Bridal Market dresses. Since we did not get around to getting to the shows this time around, I took a look through a few blogs (the bloggers that we always like to see at shows!) and give you our fave’s!

1. Seeing Red at Vera Wang-  The reds on the runway this season were spectacular! Stunning and dramatic without seeming dark (like the black trend we saw at the last market). Having seen so many South Asian and Asian brides in red throughout the years, this seems like something that I might actually see at one of my weddings. How fantastic if you want to walk down the aisle in red, to have this option! They are all great, but these two were our favorites. You can check a few more out on Merci New York who does a great job of showing large clear photos of all of these!

2. Rivini- This is usually one of my favorite shows. I love the glamour that they bring! I was looking through photos on Brooklyn Bride, and I couldn’t pick just one, but loved these photos that show you the range of dresses. Even the behind the scene shots are glam!

3. The Sparkle of Monique- I am IN LOVE with this dress. I have seen it all over the internet, but I loved that on the Glamour site they showed you a close up of it. I think that I would not have picked it on a hanger, but look how magical it looks on the model!

Thanks ladies for all of those fabulous posts! You made me feel like I was there!

What were some of your favorites?

I know most people love the weekends, but I REALLY love them. It’s not that I don’t love my job (I do!!!), it’s just that there were several years (like, literally consecutive YEARS) where Mayra and I worked each and every single weekend, often for weeks at a time with no days off. It’s all part of building a business, and we learned and grew a lot during those years. So, when we started to have weekends again, I began to cherish them, CHERISH, with all caps intended.

One of the things that I love to do on the weekends is to get my nails done. Friday afternoon I saw Rebecca from Scratch and Vane from Brooklyn Bride at Stone Fox Bride’s Foxy Friday event.  Rebecca had Ombre Nails and Vane had a neon green french manicure. I was admittedly a bit jealous of my “Saturday Special” : cherry red toes and a buff and shine. SNOOZIES!  So, I asked for a grey and yellow french on my toes. The ladies at my nail salon tried DESPERATELY to convince me that this would be hideous, while I tried to tell them about a wedding tabletop I’d done once for a photoshoot.  Ultimately, they shrugged their shoulders and did what I wanted and ultimately gathered around my little toes to remark on how surprised they were but it “actually looks really pretty!”

I, of course, wasn’t surprised because I worship this color combination. In fact, I’m putting it out into the universe that we can do a party with this color combo soon! And not really Yellow and Grey, I love the richness of the grey with yellow. The pop on the darkness. It’s just so appealing. So, here is my Grey and Yellow mood board to put it out into the universe.

From top left and then clockwise: Plate via Juliet Loves Romeo, Awesome living room with zebra chair via Rusty Hinges Blog, patterned shoes with yellow poufs via United with Love, Manicure (that I’m going to get next time) via Mis Renaissance, Wallpapered living room via Room Envy, Grey Room with Yellow and Hot Pink via Rusty Hinges, Stripey Ceiling via Room Envy (love it with the cow print!), Chevron clutch with flower via Etsy, Awesome sweets table via Juliet Love Romeo, Grey dress with yellow bouquet via Aisle Style.

I have never really gotten into social media. I think that part of the reason might be that I am not really that social:) I have been happy to have my other business half speak on our behalf. However, I have entered into a love affair with Pinterest! I love that I can keep things that I see online organized. I love having a way of tracking ideas without having to clutter my desk or desktop. Not only do I plan events for a living, but as a freshly minted newlywed living in a new apartment, I also am looking forward to entertaining a bit more at home. This is the perfect place to keep menu, drink, and decor ideas ready to pull up at a moments notice. For you as a bride, I think that this is a great way to keep track of ideas for your big day!

Now, one of my favorite things to pin has been drinks! I love to have a signature drink at events. It is a cool way to give people a fun drink, while at the same time preventing the bars from being slammed. Though I may not be so into fruity drinks on the day to day, I thought I would share a few of my favorites with you!

1. The Paloma- My absolute favorite! The drink of choice at family events, this combines tequila,  grapefruit soda, and a twist of line. Easy and fizzy without the sour taste of Margaritas that tends to make me feel sick. This is absolute summer perfection! Everyone knows that this is my favorite drink, and have had it whenever they have been over to my place for a BBQ, so when it came time to choose a signature drink for my own wedding day, the choice was obvious.

2. Sangria- Want something tame that will be well received by the crowds? Then Sangria might be just the thing for you. Light and easy, you can always make it a fruit variety to add some flair. A big hit at events both home events as well as weddings. You might also want to think about a nice Sangria for bridal showers. A punch bowl filled with this signature drink can double as both decor and fun cocktail! This recipe from Food and Wine gives you a Peach and Mango version. Also, this looks great in regular all purpose wine glasses which are commonly the glasses used at venues for drink service.

3. Spiced Cider- I know that the weather is starting to warm up and so we have started to thaw out and forget about winter. However, if you are planning a winter event, then a spiced cider might be perfect for you. What is better than walking in from the cold to a warm beverage? Exactly. You can offer both alcoholic and non-alcoholic options and still keep the look. I love this in a glass mug with a small cinnamon for garnish. However, this is one of those drinks that I think can tend to go awry. I would suggest you try a few versions and let your caterer know which one you prefer. This is one of my favorites from the Martha Stewart site!

4. Pinapple Cilantro Serrano Goodness- Now, are you looking for something a little more exotic and with a bit of a kick? Then you might want to taste this lovely cocktail. I love that the sweet base of the pineapple cuts some of the other strong flavors. Now, this is a harder sell for a large crowd, so make sure that your guests are adventurous before choosing something like this. You might want to whip some up when friends come over to congratulate you on your engagement and see how it goes over!Try this recipe from CookieandKate.com and test it out!

Are you thinking of having a signature drink? What do you have in mind?

For years, I wore blonde streaks in my hair.  They were very dramatic. I had an experience about a year or so ago where I went to get my hair colored and get rid of the streaks. The colorist asked me how long I’d had the streaks in my hair and I LITERALLY was shocked that I hadn’t noticed that I’d been wearing my hair EXACTLY the same way for 10 years. 10 YEARS!  Why didn’t someone send me to Oprah for a makeover intervention show!  I basically had given up on looking any other way AND, worse still, psychologically I clearly was “attached” to that look because I thought it said something about me. I thought it made me look “fashionable and edgy”.  Yikes.

Anyway, the other day when I was doing that post of our favorite moments, I realized that, as an event designer I am having a blonde streaks moment. My professional blonde streak is the farm table. You WILL be seeing it (YET AGAIN) in, admittedly STUNNING and gorgeous AND fresh ways, but once I share these two weddings with you I think it’s time that Mayra and I shelve the farm table for a bit…. Or,  if not shelve it, Re-Imagine it’s purpose.  I’ve had to put some serious thought into WHY our clients have loved it so much and why we ourselves have used it so much in our event designs and I figured it out:  As my streaks were a signifier of “edgy”, the farm table is a signifier of “Dining Environment” vs. “Wedding Cliche”.  With the wood table you are able to avoid a to the floor “classic” linen and have your guests feel much more like they are dining at your home or a restaurant than sitting having “wedding food”.  But, as with my hair, there MUST be other ways to create that vibe.  And I realized that I needed to re-evaluate my feelings about Linens.  Linens don’t need to say “ho hum”, they actually can say WOW, they can say “homey”, they can say “stylish” and they can be decidedly a typical.

Here are some fabulous linens meant to inspire fabulous wedding atmospheres, all from decidedly un-wedding settings.

Blue on Blue on Black. Love the Toile in the outdoors – from Tory Burch’s Hamptons House via CocoCozy.

This linen above has fabulous embroidery, giving the table a global and rich feeling. Love it. From The World of Interiors magazine via StyleCort

This shows how linens can be FUN and playful and MODERN.  I think typically we think chair covers and linens and it’s drab and dowdy, but this is fun and clean and chic.Via House of Anais.

So here’s to linens, inspiration and getting out of ruts!  It was a good reminder to me (and maybe for you) that it’s important to focus on the message we’re trying to convey for a client, because when we do that we keep ourselves open to lots of different ways to communicate it.