Posts Tagged ‘weddings’

April 3rd, 2013 No Comments

flowers with michael george: spring is in the air, daffodils make a beautiful table setting

Spring is in the air; the bulbs remember. We looked closely this weekend and found hellebores in the garden. Six florets in low crystal bowls, a few naturally colorful eggs, great food and it was a fete complete for Easter! Another idea for a spring table is a crisp white linen tablecloth, pale yellow napkins, white plates and 4″ or 5″ containers filled with yellow daffodils and placed with whimsy around the table. – Michael George For ideas and floral techniques be sure to check out Michael’s beautiful book, “Simply Elegant Flowers with Michael George”.  

March 27th, 2013 No Comments

weddings with peter callahan: 3 great berry ideas for your wedding or celebration

I spent a few summers in Maine when I was young and developed a great love of blueberries. Pancakes to me must have blueberries and our mini blueberry pancakes (above, served on a white tray lined with powdered sugar) we like to make right at the party while the guests are there. Lemonade (shown below), is made even better by blackberries, it adds a wonderful texture and burst of berry flavor. The berries make it so elegant. And the perfect ending to a meal is grilled stone fruit (below) drizzled with some delicious balsamic honey and then the cool mascarpone … Read more

March 20th, 2013 No Comments

weddings with peter callahan: 5 creative ways to include citrus at your celebration

1. (above) Hollowed out lemons filled with fresh squeezed lemonade and vodka with candy sticks and straws. “I love hollowed out lemons, they remind me of happy summer days and add a great flavor to any lemonade.” -Peter 2. Mini key lime pies with edible johnny jump up flowers. “Key lime have the perfect sour to sweet factor and I like them served chilled.” – Peter 3. Sgroppino bar with lemon sorbet, limoncello, vodka and prosecco served with citrus marigold garnish. “This is a classic dish from Italy that a client brought back from a pre-wedding trip. The action of … Read more

March 18th, 2013 No Comments

this week’s color palette: citrus- orange, lemon & lime…with gray

This week’s color palette was inspired by a story I styled for Martha Stewart Weddings about citrus. Photographer Sang An shot this beautiful image. We used a slightly pale gray background to allow the bright colors to pop. Which just as in a room, a neutral color is always a good base to allow bright colors to shine. These Benjamin Moore paint color selections are very true to the vibrant citrus. I chose Gray Lake because it has a slight green tint to it and works within this color family. I’ll keep sharing the citrus story I styled this … Read more

March 13th, 2013 No Comments

weddings with peter callahan: 5 creative ways to use green mint or basil at your celebration

Our March weddings contributor, Peter Callahan of Peter Callahan Catering, has so many ideas using mint and basil it’s hard to narrow them down! But here are five creative ways to include these flavors at your wedding or celebration. Above, Peter serves Mint-tinis with a flowering mint garnish on white drink trays lined with fresh mint leaves. Below, “In summertime we like mint and cucumber water for dinner or at the bars served in French glass bottles with long cucumber slivers and spearmint stalks and leaves.” – Peter “For our ice cream bars, we have assorted ice cream flavors, all … Read more

March 6th, 2013 No Comments

weddings with peter callahan: bacon cocktails, bacon appetizers, bacon garnishes- they’re all having their day and they are packing a smokey punch of flavor!

As I’m seeing a trend of bacon becoming more popular at events I turned to our March Weddings Contributor, Peter Callahan (bestselling cookbook author & founder of the culinary design studio, Peter Callahan Catering),  to see what he’s been serving. As we talked about the increase in requests for bacon from his clientele, it turns out Peter has a sentimental spot for bacon. “I grew up with bacon. Bacon was put in my peanut butter sandwiches that we ate for lunch while skiing at Mad River. Slab bacon from the local butcher in Londonderry, Vermont was what we served at … Read more

March 1st, 2013 No Comments

peter callahan shares how he includes monograms at his celebrated events

Peter Callahan, Creative Director of Peter Callahan Catering, shared with us some unique ways to incorporate your monogram into your next celebration. Above, mini reuben sandwiches are topped off with monogrammed pendants. Below, Peter  puts monograms in the bottom of drink trays with a sheet of acrylic over the top to personalize cocktail serving. He also adds monograms on mini take out food boxes that he puts spicy chicken fortune cookies in. You can personalize most anything from mini pizza boxes to cones for frites! As you can see, there are several ways you can display your monogram- with a single … Read more

February 27th, 2013 No Comments

weddings with gail brill: MONOGRAMS! – see gail’s inspiration, the behind the scenes process, to designing exquisite wedding details with martha stewart and much more!

  This monogram (below) of the alphabet was drawn by JM Berling around 1908. He was a great monogram designer and lettering artist. I love monograms. To me they are the lyrical coupling of beautiful letter shapes. They can be style specific, like Art Deco or Romantic, they can be simple and stark or elaborate with iconography and symbols. Unlike a family crest they are totally accessible and available to anyone. Everybody that has a name has one. Monograms are evocative of a time when manners mattered and social stationery was essential. Now don’t get me wrong. There are a lot … Read more

February 26th, 2013 No Comments

personalize your table setting with monogram chair covers & matchbooks

To continue with our monogram theme this week I wanted to share with you a table I styled for InStyle magazine. First I had Gail Brill (our weddings contributor this month on the blog!) design a personal monogram for the couple. We then gave the monogram design to Penn & Fletcher in Long Island City to embroider chair covers in a blue that was in our color palette. Now I did these here for a wedding reception, just for the bride and groom, but you can do this idea for your own chairs at home too. We simply … Read more

February 20th, 2013 No Comments

weddings with gail brill: what a professional calligrapher can do for you, it’s not just addressing envelopes!

Oddly enough, I am going to start this blog post talking about an American Folk hero named John Henry. When I was a kid, my parents read to us about Paul Bunyan and his Blue Ox named Babe, Johnny Appleseed and John Henry. John Henry “was a steel drivin’ man” who used a hammer to lay railroad tracks. One day he was pitted against a steam powered hammer that could do the job better than a man. John Henry took up the challenge to compete with the machine and in the end, John Henry won, but it didn’t end well. … Read more