Halloween Luminarias

Looking for a cute way to set your house apart from others for Halloween? I saw these spook-tacular Halloween luminarias from Lumabase and thought these would be perfect for lighting up the entrance for visiting trick-or-treaters. These luminarias come in a few varieties such as a green witch, white ghost, orange pumpkins, and purple spiders. Check out the whole collection here. You can also find these at your local Target. Happy Halloween!

Ghostly Marshmallows from the Decorated Cookie

How cute are these spooky marshmallows? I found these over at the Decorated Cookie and was instantly smitten. I can definitely see these guys on one of my halloween dessert displays.

All you need is:
Marshmallows
A black gourmet writer
Skewers or lollipop sticks

Simply skewer the marshmallows and draw your spooky faces! Make sure the marshmallows sit out at room temperature for a few hours to stiffen the outside so it is easy to draw on the marshmallows. Thanks Decorated Cookie!

Autumnal-inspired Fete at 620 Loft & Garden with Marcey Brownstein

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending a lovely and intimate dinner party hosted by Marcey Brownstein Catering and Events. Held at 620 Loft and Garden, Marcey Brownstein pulled together some of the best people in the event business to enjoy good company and her exquisite food and drinks while enjoying the breathtaking views of Manhattan at the Top of the Rock. Press NY set the tone for the fete with autumnal-inspired invites and menus, while Matthew Robbins Design created the beautiful weathervane and moss floral arrangements.

Marcey had a lovely idea of numbering each seat with numbers and then having each of the 65 guests randomly pick #'s (on faux leaves, of course) to determine table seating. Throughout the dinner, guests picked a different numbered-leaf and switched seats so each guest could mingle with others at the party. I had the chance to sit with the lovely Xochitl Gonzalez of Always a Bridesmaid, Marcy Blum, Sarah True of True and Wesson, and many others.

Of course, the food was absolutely delicious and satisfied all of us foodies at the event. The menu included a delicious juniper flan with house smoked lamb served in an eggshell! It was a very special event and I was happy to make a lot of new friends in the industry. Check out Marcey's website here to learn more about her fabulous fare.

Photography by Roey Yohai.

Stained-Glass Halloween Cookie Recipe

Halloween is just three days away and I thought it would be a good time to share our Halloween stained-glass cookie recipe that we posted about here a few weeks ago.

Here is the recipe...

Cinnamon Sugar Cookie (makes about 50)
2 c sifted all purpose flour
1 t vanilla extract
1 L egg
1/4 t salt
1 c sugar
1/2 t baking powder
1 t cinnamon powder

*for chocolate cookies add 1/4 c of unsweetened cocoa powder

Sift all dry ingredients.
In electric mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter until light and fluffy.
Add sugar and continue for about 4 minutes then add the egg and vanilla and continue until mixed. Add sifted dry ingredients to the butter mixture on low speed just until combined. Wrap dough in plastic wrap in flattened disks and refrigerate until chilled (at least 1 hour).Preheat oven to 325.

Roll chilled dough into 1/2 inch thickness and cut dough with desired shaped cookie cutters. Then transfer chilled dough to parchment lined baking sheets and chill in freezer for 10 minutes. With an exacto knife or these Halloween cutters cut dough into desired Halloween shapes. Chill dough again until firm (about 15 minutes.) Bake in oven for 7-10 minutes or until light golden color but not browned. Cool cookies on racks. Repeat this for all of the dough.

Candy Filling
1/2 c corn syrup
1 c granulated sugar
Gel Food coloring (you can find this at New York Cake & Baking Dist.

In small saucepan stir sugar and corn syrup and put over medium heat until sugar reaches hard candy point (300 degrees on candy thermometer). Stir in desired gel food coloring and pour into the center of the baked cookie. Repeat this in various colors to achieve the same effect as our cookies.

Pictures of Our Dessert Table from Mindy Weiss Event!

Many of you know that I was lucky enough to fly to LA two weeks ago for Mindy Weiss' Most Ridiculous Wedding Event Ever. Well, here are some pictures from the "ridiculously talented" Elizabeth Messina of our dessert table. Style Me Pretty, the ultimate wedding blog, posted these pictures today. Yes, we know that we are seeing vintage, autumnal weddings everywhere, but we thought that we would shake things up a bit with a more bright and contemporary look for our visit to LA. After all, it was bright and sunny out in LA and we thought it would be our last chance of some color before the winter sets in.

At the event, I spoke to the many brides and event planners who attended about infusing their personality into the design of their event. I love graphic patterns so I wanted to infuse a bold pattern into the dessert table to show how I would bring a design that I loved into a dessert table. My thought was take a modern look that one might find on a Tory Burch tunic or a Jonathan Adler pillow (love them both!) and bring that into the event. With that, we created our own version of the classic greek key pattern for a modern and chic dessert table. We used that pattern for signage such as a backdrop, stickers, marshmallow flags, and candy bar wrappers. We had the "ridiculously talented" Cake Divas whip up a cake, cupcakes, cookies and petite fours using our greek key pattern. We even created greek key pattern flower sculptures using green mums. The idea is that you can take any pattern and color scheme and make your dessert table (or event design) completely your own. We had a "ridiculous" time creating this table and we hope that you enjoy our creation!

Halloween Whoopie Pies

With Halloween just five days away, it is time to start getting ready for some Halloween entertaining! If you don't have time to make our Halloween treats here and here, then you can always call on my friend and whoopie pie connoisseur Marisa Angebranndt of WannaHavaCookie to whip up some Halloween whoopie pies for you. I often call on Marisa for her amazing whoopie pies and believe me, her whoopie pies are some of the best around. There is a reason why the New York Times said earlier this year that whoopie pies are having their moment again. Order some now!

New York Magazine Fall 2009 Listing

We were so pleased to learn that we made it into the Weddings New York Event Planner listings of New York Magazine again for Fall 2009. Weddings New York is the bible for all brides looking for the best vendors in New York, so we are quite honored. Read the raving review above, where they mention that we became "internationally known as the dessert table designer(s) after setting the trend with (our) signature dessert and candy buffets." Thank you to the editors at New York Magazine!

More Pictures of Our Candy Buffet at Martha Stewart Weddings Event

We're super busy with lots of projects today, but I wanted to get some more pictures up of our candy buffet from the Martha Stewart Weddings event. I will post more about this and the wonderful people that helped out with this event soon!













Photography by the amazing Mel Barlow and Elan Documentary.

Unique Lamps at the Biz Bash Expo

I just came back from the Biz Bash Expo in NYC and saw these elegant lamps and thought they were a great find. You can rent these lamps from Signature Event Rentals if you are looking for a way to dress up your party. I'm thinking of hanging the shades over a dessert table for an upcoming party. Check out their whole rental collection here.

Some Pics of Our Candy/Dessert Buffet from MS Weddings Event

Pictures of our candy/dessert buffet from the MS Weddings event are starting to appear on the web. I didn't take many pictures, as the lighting was a little too difficult to capture good pictures with my amateur photography skills. Above are some pictures that were on Darcy Miller's the Brides Guide today. We'll continue to share as we get more photos!

We created a pink a gold candy/dessert table to bring in the rich colors of the Plaza Hotel. Time was limited to come up with the design, but we found this awesome damask wallpaper from Interior Place, which we used for our backdrop and vessel liners. We also used that wallpaper to inspire us to create custom MS Weddings 15th Anniversary candy bars for the event.

We created a pink and gold 15th Anniversary dummy cake (see above) for the event. We used beautiful damask fabric that we had on hand (and used throughout the table) to imprint on the fondant and then painted the fondant with edible gold powder. We were tickled pink (pun intended!) that Darcy liked it so much that she decided to keep it as memorabilia for her office!

Also, look at the gorgeous vessels that Juliska donated for us to use on the candy table. They were the perfect touch for this romantic and charming dessert/candy buffet. Stay tuned for more pictures of the table, including the full shot and Wendy Kromer's beautiful pink and gold cake!

Behind the Scenes at the Martha Stewart Weddings Event

Last night I had the privilege of contributing to Martha Stewart Weddings Magazine 15th Anniversary party. I was asked by the amazing Editor in Chief of Martha Stewart Weddings Darcy Miller and wonderful Claudia Hanlin of the The Wedding Library to create the dessert/candy buffet for the event.
The event was beautifully designed by the very talented Matthew Robbins of Matthew Robbins Design. Let me tell you, this was one incredible party!

At the party were some FABULOUS people! I had the opportunity to meet style guru Robert Verdi, so exciting! Wedding designers Preston Bailey, Marcy Blum, David Tutera, as well as so many others were there! I also had the chance to finally meet a lot of my wedding blogger cyber-friends, including Abby of Style Me Pretty and Vane of Brooklyn Bride. Here are some pictures at the event. Pictures of the dessert table were taken by Johnny Miller and Mel Barlow and I will share them as soon as they are available!

Me and Martha Stewart Weddings Editor in Chief Darcy Miller


Me and Event Designer Matthew Robbins


Me and Style Me Pretty's Abby Larson (with a sneak peek of our candy buffet)

Me and Vane of Brooklyn Bride, Wedding Bee Kim, and Erica of Thoughtful Day,


Me and Mini Cupcake Superstar Melissa of Baked by Melissa


Me and the lovely ladies who won our blog ticket giveaway contest Sarah Brooks Kamins and Jihan Zencirli. They were adorable and flew in all the way from Seattle and DC to attend the event!

Mosaics from LA Photo Party

When I was in LA last weekend for Mindy Weiss' event, I was lucky to meet a lot of fantastic vendors. One of those vendors was LA Photo Party, a portable photography studio that brings fun ideas to events such as a photo booth without the booth. One great service that they provide are these awesome poster-sized mosaics, which consist of hundreds of photos that they take at your event. La Photo Party basically takes your favorite photo from your event and included within that poster is hundreds of other photos. It may be easier just to show you.

Here is the full size photo.


Now look closer...Do you see little pictures within the big photo?


Here's a closer look...


Isn't that cool? This unique idea is great for all kinds of events, including weddings, birthday parties, bar/bat mitzvahs. Check out LA Photo Party's site here to see all that they have to offer.