Category Archives: Cakes

bride and girls

This pretty bride and her pretty plantation party make for a perfect Wedding Wednesday post. She and her groom celebrated with a ceremony downtown at First Baptist Church, and dinner and dancing afterwards at Runnymede Plantation outside of Charleston. The navy and white set a formal yet fun tone and Corbin Gurkin was on hand to capture all of the beautiful images. Here, I do love that the bride and her girls had such a lovely backdrop for the day while getting ready. It does make for photos that help set the tone for the day…

Bride and groom Collage

A bride in all white and a groom in a classic tuxedo is pure perfection.

wedding party Collage

Flowing navy dresses were accented with cream and peach garden rose bouquets. The bride worked in fashion at Ralph Lauren, so the groomsmen all sported custom loafers with their tuxes.

Bridesmaids on bus

The bride and her ladies ride a Classic Charleston trolley to the church, luckily Corbin is right behind to capture this sweet moment

Ceremony Collage

Simple ceremony decor like floral wreathes and a custom aisle runner give a sweet touch without overshadowing the meaning of why everyone is there.

ceremony programs

A custom monogram designed by Lettered Olive is used throughout the wedding papers and design.

guest box Collage

Guest welcome boxes contain a mixture of the couple’s favorite treats and local goodies. Custom printed cups are perfect for the morning bloody mary’s using Charleston’s Fat and Juicy mix.

Cocktail hour Collage

Once at Runnymede, guests enjoyed cocktail hour on the lawn… We customized the wedding everywhere we could, down to the blue and white striped bow ties, and printed papers lining the trays serving the food.

Escort cards

Caligraphied escort tags on papers printed in the different colors and patterns were pinned to a board for guests to find during cocktail hour.

Dinner tent Collage

I’ve been really into designing the outside of a tent as much as the inside lately. I mean, really you see that first and foremost, so why wouldn’t it be lovely as well, instead of some big white rigid structure. To enter the carpeted and greenery draped dinner tent, guests walked down a boxwood lined pathway and under a custom fabric awning.

tent garland

The head table’s centerpiece was a garland adorned with flowers running the length of the table and spilling over onto the floor.

Table Collage

Graced with perfect weather that day, the tent opened up onto the plantation grounds overlooking the river and the ruins of the old plantation house.  A crisp blue and white palette allowed the soft pastels in the flowers to pop.

Cake Collage

Jim Smeal’s pastel and metallic gold cake with simple florals was a centerpiece of the dinner tent. We like finding a way to have a captive audience for the cake cutting without having to interrupt the flow of the party. So, if you can cut it and have the servers pass out as the dessert course without delaying the dancing, that’s a good way we have found to do it.

lounge tent

Guests retreated after dinner into a lounge full of conversation nooks and dim lighting, draped with glowing golden fabric.

Late night Collage

A late night food bar of sweet treats even included Charleston’s cult favorite donut truck, Diggity Doughnuts.

Getaway Collage

The bride and groom said farewell to guests with sparklers,  and drove off into the night in a classic convertible car as fireworks made for a grand finale.

8.03.16   |   TARA GUÉRARD
Cakes, Charleston, Event Design, Event Planning, Flowers, Food and Drink, Reception, Stationery, Invitations and Pretty Papers, The Lettered Olive, Weddings | Comments >>

44347_36_invitation

We’re going way back on this Wedding Wednesday, to one of our biggest weddings to date. This family is near and dear to me having worked so extensively on this first event that we did for them, and then later doing the brides’ brother and future sister in law’s wedding. Being the middle of July in Charleston, the best location for this event  was at a convention center and hotel that the family owned, for 500+ people, Orthodox ceremony, kosher everything, and only 2 days to set it up. Yep, it was crazy, but we did it and I was so proud of how it turned out!

44661_27_recessional (1)

I really loved learning about the history and the traditions of an Orthodox wedding. A traditional Tisch and Bedeken were held prior to the ceremony, (learn more here) which I think is such a special piece of the event. After the veiling ceremony, the groom and bride are escorted by the family and friends in lively dancing and music playing to the chuppah ceremony.

ceremony 2

Ceremony Collage

We wanted to create a warm and sacred ambience and since traditionally the chuppah ceremony is to take place outdoors under the stars, we had to build that inside for them. And, with the guest count being over 500, to keep the flow moving and easy we placed ceremony programs on the seats before guests entered.

Cocktail hour Collage

After the ceremony, guests enjoyed cocktail hour before heading into dinner. There were large windows in the hall where cocktails were, so we took advantage of creating an added design element by hanging all of the dinner escort cards in the windows.  And, again due to the large guest count we didn’t want to have a traditional sign in book and risk many guests not being able to get to it. So, we had individual smaller books on each dinner table for guests to write well wishes over the course of dinner.

Dinner Collage

The dining hall had to be fully draped in fabric, I can’t even remember how many production people we had to do this, but it was in the hundreds for 24 hours around the clock!  I can’t imagine not having it done though because it changed the entire feel of the space for the guests.

Liz_Banfield_44350_26_cake

This amazing 6 tier cake by Jim Smeal had a real layer on bottom, but the rest is “fake” so that true kosher cake could be served properly to the guests- the slices were plated and glazed and delivered to guests at their seat, after the bride and groom cut the one traditional layer on bottom.

Goodies Collage

To dress champagne up, individual orchids were added for a pop of color; sorbet was served as a palette cleanser in between the appetizer and entree course. For the send off, rose petals were pre packaged for guests to toss at the departing couple.

dance floor Collage

For a certain part of the dance time, men and women must celebrate separately, so we divided the dance floor with a curtain decorated with red roses. Lounge seating surrounded the dance floor for those wanting to watch the festivities or take a break from all of the excitement.

Thank you to Liz Banfield for all of the photos.

5.25.16   |   TARA GUÉRARD
Cakes, Event Design, Event Planning, Flowers, Reception, Uncategorized, Weddings | Comments >>

Tara Guerard Soiree by Squire Fox

What is more classic than navy and white? We have designed many combinations over the years in these two basics, but found lots of other colors to punch it up. In this couple’s case, a cheery yellow was the perfect compliment. A traditional church ceremony was followed by a tented reception at Lowndes Grove Plantation. Thank you Squire Fox for capturing the day for us.

Tara Guerard Soiree by Squire Fox

To soften the wedding Lettered Olive designed a feminine die cut pattern to use for most of the miscellaneous wedding printing.

Tara Guerard Soiree by Squire Fox

Our groom dressed the part in a navy suit and yellow and navy bow tie.

Tara Guerard Soiree by Squire Fox

Patterns were combined on the classic square letterpressed invites to create a  sophisticated yet youthful look.

Tara Guerard Soiree by Squire Fox

Yellow flowers are typically available all year round and remain quite hearty in our warm Charleston spring and summer temps.

Tara Guerard Soiree by Squire Fox

We were beyond thrilled with how this tent build turned out as it was our first time extending the base out over the water. It really helped maximize the view of the surroundings since the tent had to be enclosed and air conditioned because of an extremely hot month.

Tara Guerard Soiree by Squire Fox

Lounge seating was a must for a party of almost 500. Piped cushions and pillows and clear vases of lemons gave the party a fresh tailored look.

Tara Guerard Soiree by Squire Fox

Cocktails were livened up with decorative flags handmade in the patterns used throughout the wedding printing.

Tara Guerard Soiree by Squire Fox

The octagon tired cake by Jim Smeal mimicked design details from the brides dress. The beading and pleating were replicated in icing, it was stunning!

Tara Guerard Soiree by Liz Banfield

To facilitate guests accessing the food stations and bars with no lines, we built long chef attended stations so that guests could walk up and grab a small plate that was already composed for them.

Tara Guerard Soiree by Squire Fox

The couple’s first dance as sunset over the river is the backdrop through the tent.

Tara Guerard Soiree by Squire Fox

It’s the littlest guests that steal the show sometimes… This precious flower girl is excited about the banana pudding station in the reception tent. Individual puddings were served in clear glass votives with demi tasse spoons, so guests could grab and go.

Tara Guerard Soiree by Squire Fox

For those wanting to take a piece of cake home with them…

Tara Guerard Soiree

A fun take on the traditional departing send off of birdseed.

Tara Guerard Soiree by Squire Fox

Paper flags in all of the wedding patterns adorned the getaway car

3.30.16   |   TARA GUÉRARD
Cakes, Charleston, Event Design, Event Planning, Flowers, Food and Drink, Reception, Stationery, Invitations and Pretty Papers, The Lettered Olive, Weddings | Comments >>