design minded

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Michelle & Ryan Modern Wedding in the Desert + Part 2

Part two of Michelle and Ryan's Memorial Day weekend Celebration begins with the gorgeous, recently renovated ballroom at The Fairmont Scottsdale Princess Resort. I was so happy when I heard that the resort was replacing their very Southwest carpeting with a more neutral selection. The gold wall treatments and gold ballroom chairs were incorporated into our overall color scheme, which was originally silver and purple. Gold was easy to add and actually gave warmth and glamor to the room.

The table numbers were a DIY I found on Pinterest. They gave a metallic look without the expense of metal table numbers. Half of the tables were lit with an assortment of white, silver and clear candlesticks, all with white candles (part of our signature collection of rental decor). This also reduced the cost of the florals.

The other half of the tables were graced with the most amazing white tulips. A fresh, clean, modern look, leaning, almost reaching out of each vase. Some were a trio of three different sizes of tall cylinders, others were low, leaning bowls. One of the servers asked me if the flowers were supposed to be like that, or if she should straighten them for us! Don't expect everyone to "get" your vision.

The Sweetheart table created for Michelle and Ryan started with an amazing clear acrylic table from KOOL Party Rentals.

I created an eclectic combination of gold and silver balls, clear stands, white flower petals and purple LED lights. Then, right under the top, lots of crystal jewels, and on top of that, loads of candles in different shapes and sizes and more of those gorgeous parrot tulips. Gold champagne flutes, square silver chargers, pearl napkin rings, their own little platters of mini desserts, and last, but not least, their own little sweetheart cake topped with two large white roses and perched on a mirrored stand.

The Escort Card Table was draped in La Tavola's gorgeous sequined chevron linen. Mirrored trays filled with glass crystals held the sleek, modern escort cards. The floral arrangement was re-purposed from the welcome table at the ceremony and we added shiny silver ball candle holders for a simple elegance and glow on the table.

I decided to use the venues' amazing new tables for the dessert table, modern sleek, grey stone tops and silver trim. This was actually my first dessert table with NO LINENS. I loved it! I used two tall, curvy white vases and one very traditional black vase in the center. The florals we chose for all the guest tables were white tulips, But, when Ivy walked into the ballroom with dozens of white parrot tulips, well my heart was singing! These gorgeous beauties gave such a n exotic feel to the my design for the arrangements. I absolutely love the movement of the tulips throughout the evening, uncontrollable and wildly natural. Just lovely.

Desserts: Mini Peach Cobblers, Lemon Macarons with vanilla butter cream, Espresso Mini Cupcakes, Dark Chocolate Cake Truffles with edible purple Disco dust, Vanilla Bean, Peaches and cream Cake shots, Vanilla and Blackberry Cake Shots, Vanilla Macarons with Blackberry butter cream.

Now, Lets talk about MUSIC. This couple wanted to have fun, and the band delivered loads of it! From the second the guests entered the ballroom until the band reluctantly played their last encore, this party rocked ! The Hamptons Band was amazing, and when they left, they told me that they have never played a wedding that was this much fun. Now, that's quite a compliment for Michelle, Ryan and their guests. It's true though, never have I seen a group of people genuinely have this much fun together.

Venue: The Fairmont Princess Resort
Photography: Imaginale Design
Florals: Garage by Ivy
Design, coordination and decor: Angela Saban Design
Cake and Dessert Table: Angel Cakes Bakery
Linens: La Tavola

Ruby Red Grapefruit Curd Favors + Recipe

Living in Arizona has it's perks. Although it is well over 110 degrees this month, and we have officially entered monsoon season and the humidity is steadily rising, I have all the grapefruit, lemons and oranges that I could ever use. Fruit for juice, lemonade, and lots of baking. My favorite use for the juice of the lemons and grapefruit is curd.

If you've never tasted curd, you may be saying "yuck" right now! Believe me, curd is far from yuck.
Curd is simply a fantastical emulsion of juice, sugar, zested rind, egg yolks and butter. Cooked slowly until a magical, creamy, slightly tart, deliciously sweet and spoon-able creation forms. Licking the spoon is optional, but probably necessary as a reward for your patience during the stirring. You can use any citrus fruit for this recipe. Lime, lemon, or grapefruit.
Oh, and by the way, my favorite places for curd are: mixed into butter cream, filling for mini tarts with whipped cream topping, dolloped onto vanilla ice cream, spread onto toast, and most definitely tucked into biscuits.

Servings: Makes about 2 cups

Ingredients

1/2 cup freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
7 large egg yolks
1 cup sugar (7 ounces)
4 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest
1 stick (1/2 cup, 4 ounces) cold unsalted butter , cut into pieces

Directions

In a heatproof bowl, whisk together the sugar, grapefruit juice, lemon zest, and egg yolks. Set the bowl over a pot of simmering water to make a bain-marie. Whisking occasionally, cook the mixture until it thickens considerably (to about 172 degrees F). You will know it's done when the creamy mixture coats the back of a spoon.

Remove from heat and strain through a fine mesh sieve into a clean container. Let the curd cool SLIGHTLY (to about 140 degrees F). This may take 20 minutes, or it may take less time, depending on the temperature of your kitchen.

Using a whisk, mix the butter into the curd until it is completely incorporated. The important thing here is to make sure you don;t just throw the butter into the bowl and let it melt. Mix it into the curd while it is still cold. If you have lumps, strain again. Place plastic wrap directly on top of the mixture to prevent a skin form forming on top and refrigerate until well chilled. Curd will keep for up to 7 days tightly covered in an airtight container in the refrigerator.It also freezes beautifully for up to three months.

For the Favor Jars:

Spoon some of your lovely curd into small canning jars, or any jar that you love. For these, I wrapped the tops in a burlap, chevron ribbon I found at Hobby Lobby, and cut rounds of decorative scrapbook paper for the tops before I screwed the outer lids on. You can always add a cute thank you tag as well.

Photography by Diana Elizabeth

Monday, July 8, 2013

Backyard Southern Styled Wedding + Diana Elizabeth Workshop

When Diana Elizabeth told me to design the wedding of my dreams, I immediately said, southern. This is my roots, where I feel most at home and when I start to dream, I always go back to my all time favorite book, Gone with the Wind. This is why I love collaborating with Diana, we both love the sweet south, the romance, simplicity, and the timelessness of it all! If you read her blog, you will see, I totally just stole her phrasing in that last line! She writes so beautifully, and its so hard to say it any better than she does, sorry Di!

This concept shoot was created for Diana's 2-on-1 wedding photography workshop where she mentored two sweet and talented photographers exclusively all day who want to dive into the wedding industry and learn how to market themselves, shoot better, and develop their style. In the end, they got to shoot this gorgeous set up right in Diana's lovely backyard. This set up was a joy for me, I was able to take my time, adjust, step back and in the end, Diana makes it all look so unbelievably perfect.

Here's a few more lines form Diana's post that once again sums it up perfectly:

"Angela and I are trying to start a movement. Although we’re in Phoenix and Arizona is the Southwest, we’d like to drop the “west” and be considered south so we can catch on with the Southern inspired weddings that we love."

Make sure you scroll all the way to the end to see the workshop in action, thanks to Love Story Films for capturing the day! And thank you Diana for including me, as always can't wait to work (have fun) with you again.