Trish and Rick: Destination Wedding TDF, Part 2

So, this windy, rainy gal named Sandy is hearkening memories of another nasty vistor not so long ago - dear, old Irene.  This time, I am lucky to be tucked in safe at home with my family and plenty of junk food, but when Irene came to town, it was a different story...

I started Part 1 of this wedding tale months ago before the mania of wedding season struck, but what a better day to finish it than when I am hiding out in my apartment with eleven different media sources comparing this hurricane du jour to the last one that pummeled the Northeast in late August of 2011.

In Part 1 of Trish and Rick's wedding at the beautiful Sagamore Resort on Lake George, you were witness to the glory of their Friday night welcome dinner.  Well, while the rest of the Northeast, and particularly all of our family, friends and colleagues in NYC were bracing for the worst storm in recent memory and canceling weddings by the dozen, we were bracing for.... the most fabulous, pristine, gorgeous Saturday of all time. Perfection. We watched the rest of the Lake George resorts clear out as hotel guests raced back to their hometowns to prepare their houses for the worst, but our team and the wedding guests settled in for a glorious day of outdoor events - ceremony, cocktails, tented dinner... and a late evening surprise. Lucky really wasn't even the word that day. Blessed was a bit more like it.

Trish's bouquet was composed of white dahlias and garden roses.

The ceremony overlooked breathtaking Lake George. The weather was so calm that the ribbon streamers we created didn't even blow in the wind as planned!

Ceremony program incorporated fonts and design elements from other printed pieces. 

Drink signage is so fun - coasters and bar signs provided info on the signature cocktail and drink flags used the monogram and anchor insignia.

Escort cards were embedded in a tabletop covered end-to-end with flowers... what you can't see here is that the flowers were arranged in thick pink and white stripes to continue the nautical/preppy vibe. 

The tent before dark... custom white dancefloor with huge monogram was the focal point and the ceiling was enhanced with 85 clear globes to create an ethereal sparkle.

And the tent after dark.  You can't really get a sense of how magical the globes really were, but I can't help but smile when I remember the bride's nephew entering the tent and saying "Wow! Look at all of those floating bubbles!"

We detailed the bride and groom's chairs with striped ribbon - the same ribbon used to create napkin rings at each place setting. The polka dot china from Party Rental Ltd created the perfect foil to the stripes. 

Custom upholstered lamps adorned half the tables and lush round centerpieces were on the others. 

The pastry chef at the Sagamore was remarkably ready and willing to mimic the design we painstakingly created with the bride and groom for their perfect nautical cake.

THIS was the late nigh surprise!  The best fireworks I have ever seen for a private event! Rick surprised Trish with a post cake cutting fireworks display over the lake and it was truly magical.

I'd be lying if I said the story ended with these spectacular fireworks.... there was, indeed, an awesome afterparty inside the Sagamore until about 1 AM.  At that is when Irene made her way to lovely Lake George. 

The rain continued through the night and into the Sunday morning brunch.  At 11 AM sharp (seriously - no exaggeration), the moment the brunch was scheduled to end, there was a "pop" and then the power was out throughout the whole hotel. It was strange and eerie - and kinda cool. Like there was some force that knew that 11 AM marked the end of this perfect wedding weekend. 

The story of how it took me and my team two days to drive home is for another post another time... we made it eventually - and if I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times... all's well that ends well. 

Special thanks to the amazing Sofia Negron for all of these photos and to David at Renaissance Floral Design in Albany, NY who was my production partner for this event.

Stay safe in the storm!

Trish and Rick: Destination Wedding TDF, Part 1

I cannot believe that Trish and Rick are almost ready to celebrate their first wedding anniversary and I'm just posting this now, but I assure you it will have been worth the wait! The scene was last August at the spectacular Sagamore Resort on Lake George where we transformed the iconic hotel into a truly customized and totally adorable nautical-meets-preppy inspired wedding for an absolutely fantastic couple.  Every one of their 150 guests traveled from a distance to be a part of this celebration full of warmth at the bride and groom's favorite vacation spot.  They had been coming to the Sagamore for many years to celebrate special occasions or just to have a weekend away, but because it was also the site for their romantic engagement, it was a natural choice for the wedding as well.

Both Trish and Rick loved navy blue and had a thing for nautical symbols, so we knew those elements would be the basis of the design.  Soon after we began working together, I visited their apartment with a few different color palette options. Without hesitation, Trish knew that hot pink was the perfect accent color, and from there, their wedding design was born. 

To get you started, I thought I'd give you a peek at their outdoor rehearsal soiree on the pool deck at the Sagamore overlooking the Lake. If glamorous camping can be called "glamping," I'd say this casual feast was definitely a "glarbeque!" Guests enjoyed BBQ and grill favorites at long picnic-like tables accented with tons of candle lanterns.

All photos by Sofia Negron

To set the scene, we strung patterned flag garlands along with mini lights across the space with poles we erected solely for this purpose.

Their signature anchor made cameos throughout the weekend, starting with the napkin rings and cocktail napkins at the rehearsal dinner.

What would a lakeside BBQ be without a s'mores station?

Guests could relax throughout the space on Adirondack chairs around fire pits... we were actually in the Adirondacks after all!

 

 
With such an amazing and special pre-wedding celebration, you can only imagine what's to come! Stay tuned....

Cindy and Brent: A Warm Winter Wedding

After many years together, Cindy and Brent knew that once they decided to get married, they didn't want a long engagement. So, when I got a call in mid-October that there were less than four months to plan and design a big, luxurious wedding for this lovely couple, I knew we had to jump right into the details. At our first meeting Cindy and her mom decided that they liked purple and shortly thereafter we moved forward with a palette using various shades of purple from lavender to eggplant and accent it with antique gold to bring a little warmth to what promised to be a cold February day.


All photos by Sofia Negron

I created a huge escort table, fitted with an amethyst cloth and covered with a mirrored tabletop. Pearlescent purple cards were hand calligraphed with white ink for a dramatic contrast.



We mixed long and round tables and incorporated three different centerpiece styles to create interest in the ballroom.



Tall acrylic stands held full, elongated floral pieces with bold arches made of curly willow and accented with orchids. The ballroom boasts a beautifully detailed 30 foot ceiling, so it was important to use elements which drew the eye upwards. Dozens of floating candles decorated the tabletop and added a luminescent glow to the room.



Smaller acrylic stands held candles on top and had bases filled with lush floral arrangements.




To highlight the beautiful gold rimmed chargers, we incorporated round menus from Ana Dolan which fit perfectly within the rim of the plate. The custom monogram that we designed for the couple carried through the wedding.



Because the resident caterer has an in house baker, we requested that she create a cake with no design at all and then I adorned it with two types of purple ribbon and hand made sugar flowers from Sugar Flower Shop. This is a great alternative when a great baker is not a great decorator.



For a sweet finish, guests left with French macarons in four pretty colors, each of a different flavor.

This was just a taste of all of the gorgeous details of the day. Check our Facebook page in the coming weeks for the complete album. Many thanks to Sofia Negron for all of the beautiful photos.

Holiday entertaining... LLE Style!

I think the difference between the art of styling and the art of design is often muddled... In my opinion, styling refers to taking existing elements that you are given and organizing them into an aesthetic whole that is more spectacular than the sum of their parts. Design, on the other hand, is about creating a look from the ground up, where you are the innovator of all of the elements.

I absolutely love doing both styling and design, so it was great fun to work with my good friend and genius businesswoman Amanda Allen, on behalf of her brainchild NewlyWish, an online alternative registry service for chic, sophisticated New York couples, to style a gorgeous seasonal tablescape. Design guru Isaac Mizrahi had approached Amanda to put together a stylish and contemporary holiday table for his weekly "webisodes" using tabletop items from her registry merchants on NewlyWish. Naturally, I was honored to be asked to enhance the style of the elements she wanted to showcase on behalf of her merchants.



Isaac's studio is a stylist's heaven as you would imagine! It was props galore! So, I was able to take the gorgeous tabletop items Amanda had selected from merchants like Bobby Berk Home, Fish's Eddy, Bowery Kitchen and Michael Aram and really enhance them with beautiful furniture and finishings to create a cool, but still homey holiday tabletop.

Mismatched plates set the scenes for a tabletop that is friendly, but still formal - an appealing alternative to uber-fancy china and crystal. Also, altering the purpose of tabletop and home items gives them fun new life - these sweet glasses hosted our "Bloody Mary" shrimp and a simple pashmina worked double-duty as a table runner.



Using hand calligraphy for any event or dinner elevates the style and adds a personal touch, so my friend, calligrapher Anne Robin, lent her hand to write these gorgeous place cards. Instead of stands, I used fresh dahlias to prop up the card which tied in perfectly to the simple centerpiece of dahlias, kangaroo paws and baby purple artichokes.



As a side note, this was my first time professionally styling food... and I loved it! I want to use food in every photo shoot from now on! Everything from finding the perfect angle at which to slice the bread to pouring the wine to the perfect level was great fun. And, as with all at home entertaining, adding food to the tabletop made it truly look and feel like a celebration was about to take place.



All photography by Sofia Negron

You can see the Webisode in which this tablescape was featured here.

Happy holidays!