Cool + Cool + Hot
We chat often with peers, clients, and friends about the incestuous relationship between interior design and event planning. Both industries rely heavily on a profound sense of space, an appreciation of color’s impact, an obsession with details, and an intense focus on quality. Working closely with the ever-talented Courtney Gunter Rowson of Stitch to design our corporate stationery suite and color palette back in the day, we were exposed to the power of choosing a few cool colors and one *pop* color, ours being- surprise- orange. Since then, we’ve employed this technique when creating motifs for our clients, and it works like a charm.
It can be a little challenging (in a good way!) to design weddings along the Southeast coast when we, as a rule, eschew the whole barefoot-on-the-beach motif. Being surrounded by palm trees is peaceful and Buffett-esque, but emblazoning them all over everything is a wee bit much. As a testament to our little coastal mecca, we’re designing a 2010 wedding around another “cool/cool/hot” color palette of dove gray, ice blue, and punchy yellow. Check out our inspiration board below!
Pillows from Mecox …Interiors from Decor Pad…Bouquet from Martha Stewart… Treesje clutch… Sweets from Rebecca Thuss…
Orange you in love with orange?
Sorry, couldn’t resist. We wholeheartedly disagree with the writers of the original Legally Blonde, who had Reese Witherspoon (a Tennessean, at that!) exclaim: “Whoever said orange was the new pink was seriously disturbed.” Sorry, Reese- it’s true. Bubblegum pink and its spectrum of dissident shade sisters has truly been replaced by the overt and opulent orange. Our travels and general Googledom have revealed that orange is most definitely au courant, in tones ranging from sherbet to neon and many shades in between. We have a strain of a delicious creamsicle orange running throughout our corporate stationery suite, and we pen all of our thank-yous in a coordinating orange Sharpie (living on the edge). A few ways to incorporate this saucy color into wedding design:
Blood Orange Champagne Cocktail
From Bon Appetit …
Ingredients ( serves 8 )
1/4 cup crème de cassis (black-currant liqueur)
1 1/2 cups strained fresh blood orange juice (from about 6 oranges)
1 750-ml bottle chilled brut Champagne or dry sparkling wine
8 blood orange slices (optional)
Preparation
Spoon 1 1/2 teaspoons crème de cassis into each of 8 Champagne flutes or other glasses. Add 3 tablespoons juice to each glass. Fill each glass with Champagne, then stir gently. Garnish cocktails with slices of blood orange, if desired.
Flower Fun
Accessorize your Signature Drinks
… from Elizabeth Anne Designs
Inspired invite?
… from Dauphine Press
Votive Light
… from Conran Shops
Passed hors d’oeuvres, in style
… in Target stores only
The Trinity
Ok, maybe not the Trinity of Christmastime…but right up there? Grab a gorgeous wood board, a few accoutrements, and the perfect trio: a blue, brie, and a goat, and you’re ready to entertain. We are, unlike Madonna & Gwyneth, unabashed dairy doers. In light of the holiday season and all things cocktail hour, we thought we’d highlight a few of our favorite must-haves when designing a gourmet cheese table.
Foundation: a classic board or tray
A French antique bread board (we collect them for our clients!)
An edgy little board by Roost, buy it here …
Accompanied by: tools of the trade
Horn spreaders from Jayson Home & Garden.
Little ceramic markers and spreaders that are always “in”, from Pottery Barn.
Accessorized with: great wine glasses and cocktail naps
Riedel’s stemless vino glasses, buy them here.
Crate & Barrel’s Vino Carafe and Wine Glasses.
Designer chair napkins? Heart the Lucite Philippe Starck-ish one.
Topped off with: the Trinity + a few necessities
Boucheron (aka disc of heaven) is a briefly aged goat’s milk cheese from France’s Loire Valley with an accommodatingly mild flavor and interesting texture. It belongs to the family of “soft-ripened” or “bloomy-rind” cheeses, along with more well known Brie, Munster, Livarot, etc. Accordingly, Boucheron has that “Brie-like” rind and the paste (the interior of the cheese) near the rind is similar to Brie in appearance and flavor. Because a soft-ripened cheese ages from the outside towards the center, the middle of a disk of Boucheron is much firmer and drier than the edges and more closely resembles a fresh chèvre. Chef Nico Romo from Patrick Properties introduced it to us; we’ve never been the same.
Humboldt Fog is a bit edgier than Boucheron. Cypress Grove’s signature offering is an elegant, soft, surface ripened cheese. The texture is creamy and luscious with a subtle tangy flavor. Each handcrafted wheel features a ribbon of edible vegetable ash along its center and a coating of ash under its exterior to give it a distinctive, cake-like appearance.
Bleu d’Auvergne is made in the Massif Central,in France… mainly in the areas of Puy-de-Dôme and Cantal. This cheese was first made in 1850 when a peasant farmer in the area of Laqueuille seeded his milk curds with rye-bread moulds and stabbed the cheese with a needle – it is believed that he was trying to copy the famous Roquefort cheese. The result was very successful and soon its popularity spread throughout the region. Smaller farms enjoy making Bleu d’Auvernge since each cheese requires much less milk than the huge Cantal cheese from the same area.
Brie is perhaps the best known French cheese, and is aptly nicknamed “The Queen Of Cheeses”. In order to fully enjoy the experience, Brie should be served at room temperature. Our favorite is the Champignon Truffled Brie seen above, but we will also fight you for a sliver of the mushroom Champignon as well.
Soppressata Calabrese (order it “hot”- if you can take it!) is the perfect match for the Trinity…but order it carpaccio (sliced paper-thin) for the best presentation.
You can’t go wrong with a lovely olive oil- the greener the better…always opt for extra virgin cold press and add a little cracked black pepper to your plate for that “oomph” factor.
Housemade crackers anyone?
A campagna bread or French bread, sliced extra-thin…
Take a hearty olive mix (our fave is lemon zest-stuffed) and drop a few groupings onto your cheese board of sorts…
Dried cherries accompany any cheese well…
As do dried apricots!
Last, but certainly not least: offer your guests a parting favor of little boxes of paperwhite bulbs. We found ours at White Flower Farm – darling.
