Category Archives: Cakes

Oct 03, 2018

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Thank you for joining us on this wedding Wednesday! This was such a yummy cozy special wedding, so we hope you enjoy. This couple were some of the easiest, sweetest, and most fun we’ve had so we loved creating this event for them. Gayle Brooker photographed today’s feature.

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This was a true family affair.. the only wedding party were the family’s children. The bride’s ceremony dress was Vera Wang, and her dance dress was by Tadashi Shoji

gaylebrooker_04The groom, has an affinity for classic cars, which he also collects, so one of his favorites was brought down for the couple to use on their wedding day. After a ceremony at the French Huguenot Church, the reception was held at Runnymede Plantation. Cocktail hour took place overlooking the river banks.
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The couple also avid oenophiles, brought a bit of their wine collection for guests to enjoy. We designed a custom wine bar with gold tags on decanters for guests to know what they were drinking. A speciality bourbon bar was also built for partakers.  The octagon metallic tags were a huge part of the design throughout the event. Custom pillows were printed with the metallic design to use throughout the lounge spaces.

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Dinner tables were set with cozy and handsome suede linens, gold rimmed glassware, and centerpieces full of texture and soft fall pastels.  Menus used metallic ink and were emblazoned with the custom monogram Lettered Olive designed for the couple.  Escort cards were calligraphied gold tags displayed on a table full of glowing candles and moveable peony vases.

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A series of cakes by Jim Smeal were a dinner tent centerpiece. The large cake was covered in oak tree branches dripping with spanish moss in the wedding colors… the side flanking cakes mimicked a design used in the printed materials.

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Before the couple enjoyed a late night DJ after party with guests, they enjoyed dinner and dancing under glowing oak trees.

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Guest favors were bags of Southern Biscuit mix and home made SC peach preserves from the bride’s hometown packaged with the perfect little wooden spoons!

10.03.18   |   TARA GUÉRARD
Bridal Style, Cakes, Charleston, Event Design, Event Planning, Reception, Stationery, Invitations and Pretty Papers, The Lettered Olive, Uncategorized, Weddings | Comments >>
Sep 24, 2018

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We love love love when our clients hire us and the photographer (in this case, Corbin Gurkin) for all or most of the wedding weekend events. I feel that it really gets to tell the full story, and we can cultivate a complimentary and corresponding look and feel that guests can experience all weekend. For this wedding, recently featured in Charleston Weddings, the rehearsal dinner was a fabulously fun wedding eve at the William Aiken House.

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Al fresco lounge seating was set on the lawn for guests to leisurely enjoy their first night in Charleston.  Local blooms like camelias offered a bright pop to the navy, white, and green evening.

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The William Aiken House has sweeping porches perfect for lounging and cocktails. Guests get a prime view of King Street, which anchors Charleston’s most popular entertainment district.

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Calligraphied seating cards were perched atop mini lawns of rye grass. When hosting an event at this venue, we really like to utilize as many of the rooms as possible so that guests get to see detail of the historic restoration. People really enjoy getting to feel as if they are a guest in one of Charleston grande old homes.

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White blooms and greenery made for an lovely and elegant tabletop design.  Small details like embroidered cocktail napkins and cut crystal candles and glassware formalize the affair.

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It’s always fun to see the groom’s personality reflected in a cake! Of course Jim Smeal can make every request look incredible!

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I thought this Needle & Thread dress was so elegant and unexpected for a rehearsal dinner… I’m really into long sleeves when they work for the occasion and season.

9.24.18   |   TARA GUÉRARD
Bridal, Bridal Style, Cakes, Charleston, Event Design, Events, Fashion, Flowers, Rehearsal Dinner, Uncategorized, Weddings | Comments >>
Sep 19, 2018

Tara Guerard Soiree by Liz Banfield

Sharing some dreamy images from Liz Banfield on this Wedding Wednesday. We loved loved working on this wedding, and have since stayed good friends with the family,  and since worked on many other projects together. So, that always makes my job even better, getting to create something for people you really care about! This couple had 1200 people at their wedding so creating a space large enough to accommodate that, yet still have it feel intimate was one of our biggest challenges.

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Tara Guerard Soiree by Liz Banfield

The girls all started with a day of lunch and getting ready at the bride’s family home. The same car that would take the married couple from their ceremony to the reception took the bride and her mother to the church, spending that last bit of time alone together, which is one of my sweetest moments from recent weddings.

Guest Bag Collage

Guest boxes were packaged perfectly using the custom monogram that Lettered Olive created for all of the printed materials.

Tara Guerard Soiree by Liz Banfield

Tara Guerard Soiree by Liz Banfield

The bride’s style was traditional but also super modern. We went with an ice blue and grey color palette. Lots of squared/block shapes, clear acrylic, a modern monogram, and minimalist furniture were all part of the design aesthetic.

Church Collage

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The couple was married at her family church, which is a charming historic church in the quaint Old Village of Mt Pleasant. The sanctuary was softened with a white carpeted aisle runner and bountiful flowers. The couple was married in front of a lush flower wall that hid much of the acoutremants found on an alter but not necessarily needed at a wedding.

Tara Guerard Soiree by Liz Banfield

If you can try to carve out any “alone” time to either eat, or just take a breather together as husband and wife, it’s a nice idea that I think you will appreciate after the wedding. This couple rode together alone from the wedding to the reception so they had a chance to discuss the emotions of the ceremony.

Tara Guerard Soiree by Liz Banfield

Tara Guerard Soiree by Liz Banfield

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The reception took place at Boone Hall Plantation. Guests arrived to white gloved treatment from servers lining the walkway with trays of champagne, water, wine, etc. A carpeted aisle was laid, so that women’s shoes wouldn’t sink into the sand as they walked into cocktail hour.

Tara Guerard Soiree by Liz Banfield

This was a special surprise to the bride and her family. She had bridal portraits taken before the wedding which, as Southern tradition has it, are typically displayed throughout the reception. So, we had these blown up and hung at the entrance to the reception tent surrounded by a massive flower wall.

Lounge Collage

Food Collage

Once inside the tent, large lounge spaces and food stations were strategically places so that guests would have no problems getting bites to end and finding places to sit. All of the food was pre plated, making it super convenient for guest to grab and go and keep lines down.

Cake Collage

A cake bar by Jim Smeal was a focal point in one are of the tent- 20 smaller cakes of different flavors were displayed around the centerpiece cutting cake to ensure that guests were all served and a variety of flavors were offered. The custom wedding monogram that was used throughout the printed materials was recreated in icing in a variety of ways and color combinations.

Tara Guerard Soiree by Liz Banfield

Edwin McCain (a close friend of the family) sang the Father/Daughter dance song. And, Josh Kelley (one of the couple’s favorite performers) performed for the crowd that evening.

Restroom Collage

You would have NEVER guessed, but this was the restroom trailer for this reception. With that many guests on the middle of Plantation grounds, we needed a lot of restrooms!  So, instead setting them off to the side as an unfortunate necessity, we glammed them up with draping, chandeliers, lounge furniture to rest your feet or wait in line, and the guest sign in (Aka “Grains of Wisdom” a take on the bride’s maiden name of Rice). We wanted to make sure that nobody missed the chance to give their well wishes to the couple, and this was a place sure to get the most traction!

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Tara Guerard Soiree by Liz Banfield

Of course, as the couple left, we had to bring in the traditional tossing of the “Rice”. However, wanting to protect the birds that inhabit the natural surroundings, we used Orzo pasta instead!

9.19.18   |   TARA GUÉRARD
Bridal, Bridal Style, Cakes, Charleston, Event Design, Event Planning, Flowers, Food and Drink, Photographers, Reception, Weddings | 1 Comment