Studio tour: One Girl Cookie
How does your studio style convey your professional aesthetic? The shop definitely oozes my aesthetic through the window display, serving pieces, design elements, etc… I’m not sure the back of house does as much. I have a business partner (my husband, Dave) and sixteen employees, so my style is somewhat hard to maintain in a busy kitchen. That being said, the kitchen is a really exciting place with lots going on, both production wise and creatively. Plus, it smells pretty darn good.
Where do you go for inspiration? I actually find the peace of my apartment very inspiring. It’s when my son is napping and I am able to clear my head from the daily clutter that all sorts of creative ideas start gushing in. Of course, blogs, magazines, architecture, art, landscapes, nature, fashion, books….and so on…all play a part in the process.
[images from D.A. Wagner]
Studio tour: Sweet & Saucy Shop
Name: Melody Brandon
Location: 6400 Stearns Street Long Beach, CA 90815
Company: Sweet & Saucy Shop
Aesthetic: Simplistic, modern, vintage, shabby chic
My studio style conveys my professional aesthetic pretty closely since I like to keep my designs clean and modern looking, but add pops of color and precise details. I don’t like to overwhelm my work space with too much clutter and business and that is definitely the same with my dessert designs and flavor combos.
My favorite part might have to be my office! I worked out of a rented kitchen for about 2 years or so before I got my own studio, so I really appreciate having a space of my own where I can bring my clients that shows them who I am as a designer and where we are casually chat while they taste my desserts.
I probably find most of my inspiration from wedding magazines, blogs, fashion, and nature. I love using elements of fashion or design and creating an edible piece of art that really has meaning to the person who orders it. We also do a lot of handmade sugar flowers, so nature definitely inspires us all the time.
I could not live with my laptop or iphone! I use them to get design ideas, chat with clients, and look at gorgeous photos!
Well besides desserts, photography is a huge passion of mine, so just last week for my birthday I bought a professional camera and fabulous new lenses! I am madly in love with them and can’t wait to get more and more lenses!
Real wedding: Crystal + Andrew
I got this wedding yesterday from Crystal and loved every single detail! Don’t worry, many more pictures to come later today….
Madrilejos – Towne Wedding
06.14.08
Medina, Ohio
Invitations: Being a graphic designer by trade, I couldn’t help but take on this challenge. The invitations have a grass theme that was kind of a foreshadowing of the actual event. The invitations were printed by a local printer in Medina.
Ceremony: Andrew’s parent’s house sits on 50 acres of land just outside the Medina city limits. Finding the perfect spot for the ceremony wasn’t hard because the location is so beautiful. We decided to have the ceremony in an area just within the forest line with the trees towering over us. Up until we decided to exchange our vows in this spot, it was just a lot of grass and weeds that Andrew’s parents let grow wild. So we, and Andrew’s parents, mowed the ceremony spot and an aisle for a whole year before the wedding date as the rest of the vegetation around it grew tall.
Reception: The reception was at the same place as the ceremony, in Andrew’s parent’s yard. We had three large tents to seat about 250 guests (we both have large extended families) and the food and drinks were catered by a local restaurant, Medina Steakhouse & Saloon.
Decorations and Flowers: We didn’t want to have traditional flowers so we decided to go with just greenery (other than my bouquet which were peonies cut from bushes in our yard). Each centerpiece was unique and consisted of 3-4 individual planters in either green, white or clear vintage glass. Ohio being the mecca of thrift stores, we were able to buy all these containers for around $100. Me and my sisters put together every one of the planters, which were a mix of everything from moss to succulents. While we were planting, the guys went in search of fallen trees in the woods to cut into slices that were used to raise the planters to different levels. Underneath the centerpieces we had different patterned squares of vintage fabric. The table numbers were xerox transfers on balsa wood that we set into Y-shaped tree branches that we gathered. We also made lanterns from old jars and hung them from the big sycamore tree that is the focal point of the backyard.
Dress + Shoes: My dress was made by a Brooklyn-based fashion designer, Laura Budde. She is a great friend and an amazing designer. The dress turned out perfect. I wanted something very simple and feminine with color incorporated into it. And flowing! The shoes were Anna Sui from Anthropologie. They were leather, almost like running shoes, with leather flower accents all over them. Weird sounding, i know, but they were so cool.
Photography: Lauren Crew (www.crewscontrl.com) took our photos. Lauren was my Photo Editor at a magazine that I was Art Director for in NYC so I already knew that she was an amazing photographer. She isn’t a traditional wedding photographer, which is exactly what we were looking for. She shot both film and digital and we are extremely happy with how they turned out.
Desserts: I am a huge dessert person with the biggest sweet tooth! I wanted an elaborate spread with cakes and candy and cookies as far as the eye could see. And that’s pretty much what we got! A good friend of the family, Amy Ash, made the majority of the baked good. Her family is known for their magic touch in the kitchen and they did not disappoint with their Red Velvet Cupcakes, Carrot Cake, Lemon Cake, Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes, Chocolate Marshmallow Cupcakes, Classic White Cupcakes, Italian Creme Cupcakes!
Favors: One of the very first decisions that we made was to get a photo booth (a “real” black and white, film kind). We used Photobooth Scrapbooks (www.photoboothscrapbooks.com) and were very happy with them.
Extra Touches: For a guest book we used a vintage typewriter that we got from Andrew’s grandparents with a long roll of paper. The best thing about it were the drunk messages people left for us by the end of the night. The most popular message: Don’t go to bed angry. Thanks, we’ll remember that.
[images by Lauren Crew Photography]
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