One of the fabulous opportunities that arise from attending such amazing symposiums such as Engage (besides getting to hang out with Preston Bailey) is that you meet, learn from, teach , and make great connections with other people who share your art.  Combine that with the power of twitter, and it’s hard NOT to collaborate with the amazing talent found all over!  This Photoshoot all started when I asked Kristy Rice of Momental Designs to create some of her AMAZING hand-painted paper goods for an idea I had…then Caroline from Paloma’s Nest jumped in, then Carla from Bainbridge Style with her delish food, and pow! we had a New Years Day Brunch Photoshoot. (And luckily, UK photographer Philip Meadows was available to shoot it for us!)

My idea was to create an intimate, lavish but not over the top New Years Day Brunch…a fun, beautiful get together to start the year off right.  Believe it or not, I don’t entertain often (I’m to busy designing everyone else’s parties!), so when I do, I like to do it right with beautiful invitations, great food,wonderful goodies. I prefer to keep things small (6-12 people) to make it really intimate and to be able to splurge!

I sent our creative team a color palette, of vanilla, champagne, gold and raspberry – doesn’t that just scream New Years to you?  (It did to me). I sent out an inspiration board, with hints like “wish bowl for New Years wishes” to Paloma’s Nest and “subtle elegance” to Kristy, “red sauce and chocolate and cream” to Carla, our food expert.

The result?  A stunning new Years Brunch Tablescape anyone would want to be at!  Our fabulous photographer had just returned from shooting art in England, so here we were out in the cold, creating a tab;escape (thank goodness for outdoor heaters!)

The table was create with some lush linens, gold rimmed plates and chargers and cups from local Pedersens Rentals, who always has wonderfully elegant selections.  I hand dipped some manzanita branches in gold paint, and perched raspberry hued cymbidium orchids on the more delicate branches in the middle of the table, flanking them with thwo ceramic vases covered in gold duppioni silk, and fillde to the brim with hand-peeled roses, gardenias, garden spray roses raspberries and more orchids.

Here is a great shot of Kristy’s handpainted name tags (seriously, she HAND paints every invite, every piece – she’s amazing!) and those LOVELY wish bowls that Caroline from Paloma’s Nest created just for us!

close-up of Kristy’s amazing work!

The flowers…

Beautiful Menu cards!

Carla created  the lovely champagne raspberry concoction – (yes, I have to admit I drank one afterwards – they are as good as they look!)

Yummy desserts, made by the lovely Carla of BainbridgeStyle, and styled by me (LOVE styling food!)  More food shots (the menu was fantastic) can be seen on BainbridgeStyle’s Food blog after New Years.

Rich Flowers!

Feel free to look at everyone’s blog who contributed for more photos! We’ll be enjoying a recreation of this on New years Day…want to join us?