Inspriation to Celebration: Bohemian Modern Beach Party
Bohemian Modern Beach Party Inspiration for your Summer Fete
Summer is here! The weather is warm and it’s time to start planning for your summer affairs. Inspired by the warmth of the golden sun and cool shades of the sea mixed with some mid century glam and boho character, I dreamed up this inspiration board for a Bohemian Modern Beach Party or even rehearsal dinner. Start with some cool white modern furniture, rough natural woods, shiny silver metals and amber glassware. Throw in some luxurious printed fabrics in the form of plush pillows and cozy throws, mix in a Dark n’ Stormy and Fete Accompli!
Invitation featured by Alchemy Fine Events & Invitations and is featured on our site here. The chic and eclectic furniture by Form Decor.
Here are some great summer recipes to beat the heat. Fresh herbs, spice and a few cool treats!
Chile Rubbed Shrimp, Avocado & Corn Cocktail
Peas, Mint & Parmasean Crostini
Epicreation to Celebration: Wine Country Style Cheese and Dessert Bar
A Wine Country Style Cheese and Dessert Bar
With the dessert bar rage sweeping the wedding world it’s easy to overlook some of the other delicious dessert ideas such as savory cheeses and fresh sweet fruits. I’m definitely more of a ‘cheese plate for dessert’ kind of girl myself and thought how wonderful it would be if the sweet tooths and the cheese heads of the world could celebrate in unison. With this Wine Country Style Cheese and Dessert bar we accomplished just that. Fresh Greek pastries were offered along side crisp, sweet summer red fruit and creamy delectable cheeses.
To play in tune of the fresh cheeses being offered we used simple strips of cheese cloth for a sheer and breezy table linen.
Red summer fruits including watermelon, strawberries and cherries were among some of the sweet treats offered along side homemade Greek cheeses and pastries.
Vintage urns from Found Vintage Rentals were used as risers for the Greek doughnuts and Baklava by Petros. We also found vintage milk bottles and carrying crate for a fun twist and side offering,.
This rustic style of cheese, fruit and dessert bar would be a wonderful alternative for a farewell brunch as well!
Dessert & Cheese Bar Design, Styling & Dessert Bar Tags by Alchemy Fine Events & Invitations
Photography by Cameron Ingalls
Props by Found Vintage Rentals
Venue Fess Parker Inn
Catering by Petros
Read More »Celebration to Epicreation: A Wine Country Wedding served Family Style
A Food-Friendly Table Design for this Family-Style Served Wine Country Wedding in Los Olivos
California chic meets rustic Greek in this Modern Wine Country Wedding shoot that took place at the Fess Parker Inn in Los Olivos, the heart of Santa Barbra’s wine country. Recently featured in Santa Barbara’s Wedding Issue, this cool and contemporary take on Mediterranean modern included family-style served gourmet Greek food by the famed Petros restaurant which lives inside of the Los Olivos Inn as well as a second location in Los Angeles’ Manhattan Beach.
When designing a wedding tablescape for family-style served catering it’s important to keep in mind the space that you will need once the food is served. I found that by using creative risers and smaller clusters of vases and decor, you can easily transform the look from flowers to food with a few small tweaks. I’m fortunate enough to have yet another wedding at the Fess Parker Inn this fall and I’m reusing this same concept but with a much more modern take of glass cube vases that will be used instead of the boxes seen below.
A cool color palette of green and white combined with aqua sea glass, rattan and breezy cheesecloth gave this Wine Country Wedding table design a modern feel inside of the lush courtyard. We combined this earthy palette with crisp white and dark wood for added contrast.
Cows, sheeps & goats were icons used on the tags tied around the napkins with aqua ribbon. This clued each guest into which type of cheeses they were about to be treated to. To keep in line with the gourmet cheeses that were to be served, a simple cheesecloth runner was used for a fun and sheer linen option on top of the heavy wood table. 
In lieu of all flowers, fig branches, rosemary and bunches of cabbage in modern sea glass vases were brought onto the table for interesting textures and a play off of the garden fresh catering that was yet to come. We used vintage boxes as risers for the clusters of florals that could easily be removed for the platters of food to be served family style.
Blackberry limeaid was a beautiful and refreshing compliment to the warm summer night.
These boxes, which worked great to elevate and separate the clusters of Portuguese wine bottles, milk glass and sea glass vases of flowers, fruits and herbs, also worked to present the platters of delicious family-style food. 
With the help of these rustic boxes used as risers for the platters of food, the presentation and design of this wine country wedding table stays beautiful and chic from the flowers to the food.
I absolutely love this shot the talented Cameron Ingalls captured of a bee getting a taste of Petros’ honey glazed Greek doughnuts. He’s no dummy!!!
Event Design, Coordination & Stationary Design by Alchemy Fine Events & Invitations
Photography by Cameron Ingalls
Flowers by Renae’s Bouquet
Venue Fess Parker Inn
Catering by Petros
Read More »Aspiration to Realization: Goals for 2011
Alchemy Fine Events & Invitations’ Goals for 2011 that I would like to share with you…
It’s barely 2011 and the exciting possibility of starting off with a clean slate of goals lie ahead of us. All of the opportunities that we can imagine for this year are still a possibility and with this post and a positive attitude they can become a probability. The year can be full of wonderful dreams and aspirations that we create for it and make for a wonderfully successful and stylish 2011 where we can not only grow but forge wonderful relationships with other creative people in the event design industry and reach out to brides and clients to make their wedding dreams come true.
It seems as if just imagining these wonderful goals sets them into action and have already had a wonderful start to 2011. With even more goals to conquer then ever, I wanted to share them all with you.
To work with other planners to design and style their clients weddings and special events.
With a background in interior design and art direction our love of design is what drives us in this industry. We of course love to plan as well and bring all of the components such as catering and music and coordination together but our heart is driven by style. We love to focus on the small details, one-of-a-kind ideas, custom made linens, hand ombre dyed napkins, embellished and intricate styled dessert bars. We can oversee and direct all of the creative design aspects including floral, lighting, linens, and detailed site plans or even just take over specific areas such as tablescapes, lounges and dessert bars. Being able to work with other planners as their go-to designer not only allows us to focus solely on the design that we love but also allows the planner to focus on all of the other intricate details involved in planning while knowing that their clients event design will be
To work with other planners to design their clients invitations and wedding stationery & to design even more gorgeous custom luxury wedding invitations.
We believe that great event design starts with the invitation and should be just as beautiful and luxurious as the linens and the flowers that you put on your table. Great invitations and stationery is like another design accessory in your overall creation. We love to collaborate with other great planners to create custom wedding stationery suites for their clients events. We don’t just look at invitations as a single element but as part of a whole. Being able to work with other planners and learn about how we can incorporate their clients inspirations into the stationery including invitations, welcome booklets, dessert tags is a wonderful way to add our design value into another planners work.
As an event designer in addition to stationery designer we know how the creative process works and know how to bring in unique paper elements that add to the overall decor of an event. Custom illustrations, unique embellishments such as chain and stone and new techniques such as laser cutting allow us to create one-of-a-kind custom invitations and stationery that serve as fashionable accessories to your clients special day.
To plan and design weddings and celebrations in Italy and throughout Europe.
While living in Florence for my masters in graphic design I also worked with a boutique luxury travel company as a personal concierge. I would coordinate castle rentals, villa rentals, wine tours, truffle hunts and gallery visits for weddings and holidays for clients throughout Europe. With so many wonderful connections in Tuscany and throughout Italy and Europe, planning events there would be the perfect transition into being known as a luxury destination wedding planner. My Italian is starting to get a bit rusty so would love the excuse to ‘parla Italiano’. Whether it be an intimate wedding in your own private villa in Tuscany, a 4 day trip to Monaco with your closest friends gambling along side you in Monte Carlo, a private perfume tour of Fragonard in Eze or taking a cruise on a yacht for your 1 day anniversary party around the Mediterranean, we can make it all happen while still having the high level of design that you can expect with Alchemy Fine Events.
To plan and design weddings and celebrations in San Diego.
As ironic as it may sound, we haven’t had the opportunity to do many events in our own back yard! We love to travel and because of our blog and other blogs that have been kind enough to post our work, the majority of our events have been out of county and out of state. From Santa Barbara to San Francisco, New Orleans, Hawaii, Miami, New York and New Jersey, we have worked with many wonderful clients, but it would also be so amazing to do more events in the city that we’re so proud to be from! San Diego was voted the #1 Destination Wedding location last year and who better to show you all that our wonderful city has to offer then a born and bred local.
To collaborate with talented Chefs and to grow my passion for food into a large part of the events that I design.
For as long as I can remember I have been one of food’s biggest fans. With and Italian/Spanish/Mexican/Dutch family food always played a huge part in our lives and this passion has only grown larger and larger every year. Even in high school I toyed with the idea of culinary school but art school won. What some people don’t appreciate is that food is such an art form that shouldn’t have to be sacrificed for budget or design. I have such a high respect for chefs and love to collaborate with them to create unique recipes, menus and desserts for my clients events. When I see brides that have amazing decor, stunning flowers and extraordinary invitations only to server their guests dry chicken with rice pilaf I’m shocked at how this huge element of celebrating is overlooked. I believe that the food should be the star on the table and that it doesn’t have to be boring when catering a large group of people. In 2011 my goal is not only to bring more daring and gourmet cuisine into my events but hopefully work work with clients that appreciate the art of dining as I do.
To get my work published in top design magazines and to work with publications themselves to show their readers new possibilities in combining event design, fashion, food and the luxury lifestyle.
Working with top magazines, blogs and other publications is such an exciting and great way to show readers what we’re made of and what we can really do. We’re already off to a great start with such wonderful publications as Style Me Pretty, Style Unveiled, Utterly Engaged, Hostess Blog and San Diego’s Riviera Magazine! Creating styled and designed shoots is such a great way to ‘show off’ a bit and test the limits in design while also inspiring brides for their own big days. What I would love to do is not only contribute design ideas but fashion, food, traveling and music which also play such an important role in weddings and celebrations in addition to an overall stylish luxury lifestyle.
Oh, and to add a lot more Missoni to my closet wouldn’t hurt.
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