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.
Inspiration to Decoration: Persimmon & Plum
When I think of Fall the sunlight always comes to mind, and how different it looks and feels, as if brighter and crisper, when shining through the falling leaves and against warm terracotta walls. This was my inspiration for a recent photoshoot for a modern twist on an opulent Thanksgiving or Fall Wedding tablescape. I absolutely love mixing looks and styles and love to show people that they need not be afraid to combine all of theirs loves together. For this look I combined warm peach terracotta, rich black plums, vibrant persimmon, warm wool plaids, geometrical graphics and clean modern green glass. Here is a sneak peak of this modern Fall tablescape’s inspiration.
Illustration by Sandra Suy, White Ceramics, Spanish Courtyard Painting
Inspiration to Celebration to Publication: Dapper Dandy Dinner Party on Utterly Engaged!
What do you get when you mix a grad voted ‘highest maintenance’, vintage day dandys, modern day hipness and a whole lot of cool? One hell of a graduation party!!! Our Dapper Dandy Dinner Party was just featured on the latest issue of Utterly Engaged! Our feature starts on page 39 so make sure to hop on over to this must read online magazine that we’ve become so obsessed with.
We brought the dapper dandy into modern age by updating his look of top hats and canes by mixing in modern lucite, mirrors and turntables. We pulled inspiration from the lucky grad such as his love of chess, hip hop, records, and overall great style to come up with the eclectic event decor. All of this plus a surprise guest performance by international R&B start Iyaz made this one party his friends and family are sure not to forget soon!
Graduation Party Ft. Iyaz from David McAbee on Vimeo.
Inspiration to Decoration: Exploring scale and repetition with Tara Donovon
Back in my art school days at Otis, I had an installation art teacher that was one of those people you’ll never forget. He probed and poked our creativity in ways we never explored that made you think in entirely new ways. One day he walked into the classroom and held up a single toothpick and asked what installations we could create with it. We all looked at each other a bit puzzled and tried to come up with wise and witty comments, but soon feel short. Then he proceeded to dump an entire garbage bag of toothpick onto the floor and then asked, what could we create with this. That lesson always resonated with me in so many ways, proving that scale and repetition is the key to create beauty in so many ways. Repetition creates pattern, and pattern creates balance and symmetry, which we find beautiful.
A single tree may be pretty, but a forest full of them is magical.
Another perfect example of this are the Anthropologie windows we all drool over. Look at their teabag installation, or their plastic bottles, it’s the scale and repetition that makes them what they are. As I worked this past weekend on an installation featuring hundreds of hand dyed strips of fabric I reminded myself of these principals of design, poured myself a glass of wine, and kept on working.
Tara Donovan is an installation artist that explores exactly that with her series of installations made from common day products. You’ll never look at the scotch tape on your desk the same again. From styrofoam cups, toothpicks, glue drops, and buttons, she grows organic shapes that seem to live undersea or on a mountain top, proving that repetition is part of the reason we find nature so beautiful.
The forms these cups create seem as if they could be living on the bottom of the sea.
I imagine a hectic cityscape of highrises in a future time.
The honeycomb pattern seems so intricate and delicate.
The circular patterns created in these rolls of paper feel so natural, as if grown inside of a seashell.
I feel as if I’m looking into a delicate garden of coral.
I imagine the black lava rocks in Hawaii from these textures.
These actually remind me of the drip sand castles I would make on the beach as a kid.
