Mar

11

Inspiration to Creation: Erica O’Brien Cakes (Part II)

Filed Under Food and Drinks, Inspiration to Creation, Vendor Spotlight

Top Row: Jeff and Melissa loved the clean lines and floral interpretation of their Kate Spade “Gwinnett Lane” china pattern that. They asked Erica O’Brien to translate the pattern into cake. Erica hand cut fondant pieces colored to match the china and appliqued them to the fondant covering the cake.

Middle Row: Michael surprised Jillian with a trip to Hawaii, where he proposed to her after years of dating. To commemorate their trip and their engagement, they bought matching Hawaiian print shirts. They asked Erica OBrien to create a cake inspired by their shirts.

Bottom Row: Ron and Sarah used elements found in an Indian painting (exoticindiaart.com) to represent Ron’s family’s Hindu heritage

See more of Erica’s brilliant work at Erica O’Brian Cake Design.

2 Comments

Mar

9

Inspiration to Creation: Erica O’Brien Cakes (Part I)

Filed Under Food and Drinks, Inspiration to Creation, Vendor Spotlight

The design success of our Jessica Claire ‘Voyage of Love’ workshop would not have been possible without the endless talent of the vendors that we worked with. We have expressed it many times before, but cannot emphasize enough the importance of working with vendors from cake designers, rentals, caterers, etc.. that are not only talented and reliable, but truly passionate about what they do.

Choosing the right vendors is so important that it is really worth the research. Because of this, we are going to be spotlighting the vendors from the Jessica Claire workshop. We asked Erica O’Brien about what inspires her cake designs, and she shared some great inspiration to creation stories with us.

Carl and Serena loved the vintage feel of their invitations, they asked Erica to recreate their invitations for their wedding cake.

Elizabeth and Marcus wanted the inspiration for their wedding to come from their invitation. They loved the idea of a single flower against a contrasting background. Erica OBrien created a handcrafted edible sugar flower to match their invitation.

We love seeing the insight and the inspiration behind the creation of our vendors. A truly talented designer will be able to brilliantly execute the vision and inspiration of the bride and groom into a design that exceeds their expectations. Erica O´Brien has accomplished this brilliantly with these beautiful cake designs.

We will be showcasing the photographs from the other photographers from the Jessica Claire workshop, to show the different points of view. We will also continue to spotlight the talented vendors that helped us to make it all come together.

5 Comments

Mar

5

Voyage of Love Part II

Filed Under Inspiration to Creation, Lollipop Events, Weddings

The dining table was reminiscent of a fine dining room on an old cruise ship with a tall candelabra perched in the center. The table linen was adorned with silver calligraphy that displayed famous love poems written in French, Spanish, and Italian.

Moroccan goblets were tied with tags that read ‘cheers’ in six different languages. Cheers, Salude, Kampai and Prost were just some of the international reminders to sip and be merry! Blue Italian dinnerware with multiple patterns was set upon a white French inspired table and surrounded by blue anemones that had a lavender glow.

The menus were designed for a time when dressing up for fine dining was part of the opulence of a stately dinner, and when food was taken as an art form not to be rushed. They were titled with ‘a night afloat on a wonder boat’. The actual menu of the titanic was incorporated and each course was labeled with ‘Bon Appetite’ in multiple languages from French to Japanese on top of a topographical map for added texture

Vendors: Event Design, Production, Vendor Coordination, Bride & Bridesmaid Styling, Graphic Design: Lollipop Events & Designs / Photographer: Jessica Claire / Floral Design & Groom Styling: Tam Ashworth for Isari Flower Studio and Stylish Silhouette / Hair & Makeup: Vivian Tran, All Made Up / Furniture: Fete Accompli / Dinnerware, Flatware, Flutes & China: Bloomingdales / Gowns: Joan Shum Bridal / Groom Suits: Bloomingdales / Cake Designer: Erica O’Brien Cake Design / Love Quotes Calligraphy Linen: Laura Hooper Calligraphy / Upcycled Vintage Bridal Jewelry, Accessories & Heirloom Jeweled Bouquet: Noaki Jewelry / Bridesmaid Dress: Swoon / Bridal Headpieces & Bridesmaid Bolero Jacket: Alisa Benay / Message Box Favors: Lucky Bug Handmade Paper Delights / Special thanks to Be Inspired Public Relations

3 Comments

Mar

4

Voyage of Love Part I

Filed Under Inspiration to Creation, Lollipop Events, Weddings

In case you missed Part I of our Jessica Claire ‘Voyage of Love’ workshop on Style Me Pretty, we have lots of detailed goodies coming your way. We started with the inspiration and ended up with this lovely creation…

For the couple who loves to travel, we were inspired by the lyrics of Frank Sinatra’s “We’ve got the World on a String” We wanted to transport guests onto a fine dining cruise ship from the early 1900’s as they traveled to the Orient, to Africa, to Europe and back again by mixing Moroccan goblets, Parisian tabletops, Italian dinnerware, and even Oriental shoji screens for a romantic trip around the globe.

The ceremony featured sky blue wooden chairs adorned with wreaths of baby’s breath and velvet ribbon while white baroque French loveseats served as the seating for the front row.

The bride and groom were married under an old navy blue nautical steering wheel dressed up with flowers, and stood upon a piece of batik fabric.

Vintage nautical elements inspired us to adhere our color palette to the hues of the azure seas. We blended shades of brilliant blues including sparkling sapphires, indigos and sky blues with metallic silver and high gloss white. Batik fabrics were combined with textiles of damask, ikat, and toile to maintain the eclectic ethnic feel of this worldly fete. Graphical elements were designed as circles to represent both globes and portholes, tying in the “World on a String” globe-hopping theme.

The programs served as a beautiful way to sum up the opulent feeling of globetrotting with your paramour. We pulled from the feeling of luxurious travel in a bygone era and used the lyrics of “World on a String” which were printed on the back of the programs that looked like small globes and even tied with strings to each chair. For the front of the programs we designed a classic nautical porthole. The bride and the captain had their ‘first mate’ and ‘first maid’ by their side as they took the plunge on the voyage of love.

The shiny silver croc embossed tea table was set with clocks displaying time zones from Paris, Toyko and New York. The table was labeled with a sign that said “time for tea”, guests were served teas from China, France and England in multi patterned tea cups.

The bride and groom sitting area, was created for them to have a moment to themselves, and was framed by an oriental shoji screen that had pieces of maps of where they had traveled together.

The map was labeled with flags that depicted the locations of their ‘first kiss’, ‘crazy adventure’, ‘got engaged’, ‘fell in love’ and many more experiences. The French baroque chair was even accented with a handmade American flag pillow with aqua velvet stripes, a Moroccan stool served as a table, and the area was surrounded by delphiniums placed on the ground resembling an overgrown English garden.

Vendors: Photographer: Jessica Claire / Event Design, Production, Vendor Coordination, Bride & Bridesmaid Styling, Graphic Design: Lollipop Events & Designs / Floral Design & Groom Styling: Tam Ashworth for Isari Flower Studio and Stylish Silhouette / Hair & Makeup: Vivian Tran, All Made Up / Furniture: Fete Accompli / Dinnerware, Flatware, Flutes & China: Bloomingdales / Gowns: Joan Shum Bridal / Groom Suits: Bloomingdales / Cake Designer: Erica O’Brien Cake Design / Love Quotes Calligraphy Linen: Laura Hooper Calligraphy / Upcycled Vintage Bridal Jewelry, Accessories & Heirloom Jeweled Bouquet: Noaki Jewelry / Bridesmaid Dress: Swoon / Bridal Headpieces & Bridesmaid Bolero Jacket: Alisa Benay / Message Box Favors: Lucky Bug Handmade Paper Delights / Special thanks to Be Inspired Public Relations

7 Comments

Mar

3

Inspiration to Creation: ‘Voyage of Love’ Stationery

Filed Under Inspiration to Creation, Weddings

Our design process always starts with the vendors and design direction, then the inspiration begins turning into the creation. We spend quite a bit of time on the graphic design elements that will be intertwined throughout the event. Paying extra special attention to details such as menus, place cards, invitations, seating charts and other graphic elements, can really take an event to the next level.

We started with the ‘Voyage of Love’ guest seating area. We decided that we would like guests to use navigational compasses to direct them to famous ports around the globe. The ‘Voyage Du Amour’ seating sign would be framed and placed onto a rod iron easel and surrounded by vintage globes.

We designed each seating card in the shape of a circle to resemble both the shape of the world and a port hole. Each table would be named a different port that each guest would be directed to sit at.

The programs were also designed into the shape of a circle and even the best man was called the ‘best mate’ on them! We took inspiration from Frank Sinatra’s “I’ve got the world on a string, I’m sitting on a rainbow, got that string round my finger, what a world what a life I’m in love”. We put these lovely lyrics on the backs of the programs, and took it a step further by tying a string to them so they could be hung off of the ceremony chairs!

Topographical maps were used as a textured background behind many of the designs. We made multiple ‘Voyage of Love’ signs with old ships, planes, trains, automobiles and even a tricycle!

The ‘Time for Tea’ sign was also designed into a circle shape and would be set onto the tea table that would have teas from Japan and England and would be placed amidst clocks that would be set into different timezones from around the world! Guests would be able to see the times in Paris, Tokyo, and England as they sipped their hot teas from gorgeous china.

The wedding menu “A night afloat on a wonder boat” (on left) had each course labeled with ‘Bon Appetit’ in multiple languages from around the world. We used the actual menu featured on the Titanic for an elaborate tasting of what life was like when dining was the nights destination.

The circles on the right, would be the tags for the dessert and liquer/wine pairing station. We would pour different liquers into beautiful decanters and pair them with cookies and treats. French Cognac would be paired with French Petite Palmers, Chines Bai-Jui would be paired with fortune cookies, Hereford Apple Apertif from England would be paired with English Lemon Tea cookies, and many more fun pairings!