Category Archives: Event Planning

Oct 15, 2015

Tara Guerard Soiree by Liz Banfield

It seems as if ice sculptures have been associated with weddings for as long as I’ve been doing them (and that’s a really long time). But, just like anything else- in order to remain en vogue things have to evolve and become more updated in order to keep their staying power.  Here in the South, we love our seafood and with our warm temperatures serving it on ice is a necessity. Here we are showing you some ways we’ve changed our ways with ice sculptures. Like this garden fountain lined with plastic and loaded with crushed ice for a shrimp cocktail display like no one has seen before!

Tara Guerard Soiree by Adrienne Page

For the cold cucumber soup course at this wedding dinner, we had ice bowls made for each guest and adorned them with edible orchids.

Tara Guerard Soiree by Liz Banfield

For a large and glamorous New Year’s affair, cocktail hour was a mix of buffet and passed items. For the seafood display we had large blocks carved into a modern design and up lit for a wow factor.

Tara Guerard Soiree by Liz Banfield

For a couple from Ohio, where Grater’s ice cream was founded, serving the ice cream was an absolute must!  We made a serve your self bar full of all of their favorite flavors.

Tara Guerard Soiree by Liz Banfield

This wedding was full of natural greens, plants, and flowers. Knowing that we would be serving a seafood display, we had our ice maker add some greenery and branches to the water while freezing it for an extra detail.

Tara Guerard Soiree

This mega ice bar for a recent William Aiken House wedding had to have some eye candy. The bride’s father is in the watermelon business, so what better design accent than freezing sliced watermelon for that pop of color!

Tara Guerard Soiree by Corbin Gurkin

Different shapes, sizes, and heights help give a display dimension that you can see and makes an impact.

Tara Guerard Soiree by Liz Banfield

No Greek wedding is complete without Ouzo!  We built a table to contain the crushed ice to hold the shot glasses, and then froze the bottles in ice lined with orchids used throughout the wedding decor. This was the hit of the night!

10.15.15   |   TARA GUÉRARD
Charleston, Entertaining, Event Design, Event Planning, Food and Drink, Reception, Rehearsal Dinner, Weddings | Comments >>
Oct 05, 2015

Tara Guerard Soiree by Liz Banfield

I know dessert stations have been around for awhile, but my sweet tooth is kicking in and I wanted to share some delicious eye candy and maybe these will inspire some ideas for your fall entertaining. Here, individual cakes were offered for each guest, complete with monogrammed chocolate pieces.  Photo by Liz Banfield.

Martha Stewart Weddings

Martha Stewart‘s team asked me to help on the wedding of her then assistant, getting married outside of Nashville, Tennessee.  This fall flavored dessert table is obviously magazine worthy. Photo by Josh Reeder.

Martha Stewart Desserts

The monogrammed petits fours for the couple were little works of art. Photo by Josh Reeder.

Tara Guerard Soiree by Liz Banfield

For our bride that had an eclectic aesthetic, a whimsical woodland themed dessert display by Jim Smeal was full of special details. Coconut cakes featured meringue mushrooms, and the pecan pies had graham and marzipan leaves. Other treats included handpainted chocolate quail eggs (served in nests) and mini mushrooms. Photos by Liz Banfield.

Tara Guerard Soiree by Adrienne Page

This dessert display was full of fun treats like banana pudding shots, s’mores pies, and pumpkin pie with roasted marshmallow tops. Photo by Adrienne Page.

Tara Guerard Soiree by Adrienne Page

The biggest hits were the individual boxes of “Moose Munch” and mini cherry cheesecakes. Photo by Adrienne Page.

Tara Guerard Soiree by Liz Banfield

Jim Smeal really outdid himself on this pie display (in lieu of a wedding cake all together).  Pecan, Peach Almond, Raspberry Frangipani, Sweet Potato, and Apple Cranberry, and Walnut were just some of the offerings. Doing the tasting for these was pretty amazing! Photo by Liz Banfield.

Tara Guerard Soiree by Liz Banfield

Something easily passed and still photo worthy at the end of the evening, are personal hot chocolates. Quick and easy, and gives everyone a little sweet satisfaction.  Photo by Liz Banfield.

10.05.15   |   TARA GUÉRARD
Bridal Style, Cakes, Charleston, Event Design, Event Planning, Food and Drink, Parties, Reception, Uncategorized, Weddings | Comments >>

Tara Guerard Soiree

We’re taking advantage of Flashback Friday and sharing pics from a bright and cheery fall wedding we did at the William Aiken House. Guests received Save the Dates from Lettered Olive featuring custom maps of Charleston with all of the important locations noted.

Bride

Groom

I love the khaki suit option for early fall weddings. It’s usually still warm here in Charleston so the material works well, and the neutral color means it often compliments fall palettes. Plus, who doesn’t love a man holding flowers?

Tara Guerard Soiree

We had fun playing with the colors throughout all of the design elements.

Tara Guerard Soiree

The couple loved that the interior colors at the Historic venue worked with the bright hues of the wedding.

Tara guerard Soiree

The couple chose a green paisley patterned paper that was used on the invitations and throughout the wedding decor. Centerpieces were placed in cylinders wrapped with the paisley paper.

menu

Printed on the paisley backed paper and tent folded, menus doubled as the place cards at dinner.

Tara Guerard Soiree

This was one of my favorite menus items in a long time… Appetizers were Jalapeno hush puppies with pimento cheese. Something you wouldn’t think always about serving as part of a wedding dinner, but Fish Catering did an amazing presentation and we made fun embellishments.

Tara Guerard Soiree

An al fresco dance floor and lounge welcomed guests for dancing after dinner. Ottomans provided a rest for those needing a break and paisley paper wrapped cylinders were placed around a reflecting pond.

Tara Guerard Soiree

Local Charleston favorite, Peninsula Grill has a famous Coconut cake. Two individual tiers anchored the dessert station but this couple elected not to do a traditional cake cutting.

Tara Guerard Soiree

Dessert selection included mini pecan, pumpkin, and key lime pies, individual pistachio cakes, and chocolate caramel petits fours.

Tara Guerard Soiree

Guests were given freshly baked Krispy Kreme donuts in custom boxes as they left.

Tara Guerard Soiree

The old school Caddy convertible begged for the old school send off of the cans tied to the car. We spray painted them in the wedding colors to keep them photo perfect of course!

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