Baroque styled shoot featured on Burnetts Boards

A style I am seeing gracing the catwalks, fashion houses and homeware’s is Baroque. This has now translated into a theming option for events, and one that is turning out to be very popular indeed. I adore the opulent and ornate look that this style brings to an occasion. It’s colour palette of antiqued brass and gold metallic photograph’s perfectly. I am delighted to have this shoot featured on Burnetts Boards- see the link below for the full coverage: http://burnettsboards.com/2014/09/lavish-wedding-cakes/

Baroque style is most definitely characterised by lavishness, luxury, drama and majesty. Think rich gold’s, deep reds, velvet, luxe fabrics and sumptuous hues. Take a look at this gorgeous styled shoot that I recently planned and styled to get some inspiration.

Beach Blanket Babylon occupies an old Georgian house in the heart of Notting Hill, styled around the eclectic decor of a French country chateau. The photo shoot was set in the Ballroom, which is the main feature of the venue – situated on the private first floor, the decadent décor and regal charm creates an exclusive atmosphere. We particularly loved the colourful chairs with gold detailing and the dreamy chandelier. As well as the grand and imposing fire place.

We decided to use a red, pink and gold colour palette as they signify the Baroque period, which was characterized by its rich and dark colours.

The talented Okishima & Simmonds fashioned a floral dream with mixes of red, pink and green. They used Hydrangeas, pear tree foliage from the garden, crab apples, Columbian red Paris roses, larkspur, ivy, red spray roses, astilbe, sweet avalanche roses and fresh pears. The idea was to create something eye catching, full of colour and abundant, this is why they used fruit as well to replicate the décor of that era.

We had some gorgeous stationery from Intricate Creations:

Baroque Invitation

They used gold mirror acrylic engraved with an intricate opulent design to keep to the theme. The final piece was shaped as a paddle fan to make it stand out as a unique invitation.

Acrylic Menus

The menu for this event was extensive and luxurious. They opted to use a floral inspired engraved acrylic menu to match the flowers on the day, backed with printed card-stock to create a multi-layered menu that could accommodate the huge and amazing menu.

Personalised Tea-lights.

The personalised tea-lights offer something innovative to our clients. Often the simplest of things can be the most effective. They engrave coloured glass tea-light holders with the guest names. Once a tea-light is lit inside, the names light up which makes the tea-lights great for a darkened event space. They also double up as usable favours for the guests.

I chose to have a rectangular table as I feel in is more extravagant as it allows more space for floral and décor.I wanted the table to reflect the rich, decadent and lavish era that is baroque. Therefore I used a burgundy table linen by over the top rentals, in which I used as my foundation to create the extravagant décor that you see here today.

The rentals were provided by, none other than the definition of luxury crockery- Amara. We used powerful colours such as red and pink. The idea was for the crockery to provide instant vintage inspired charm to dining.

Elizabeth’s Cake Emporium created two dessert tables fit for a king.

The first cake was inspired by Marie Antoinette in a number of paintings and photos of Versailles. Elizabeth decorated the cake with ornate gold gilding and baroque molding of cherubs and cameos. Each cake layer featured exquisite hand crafted sugar roses and hydrangeas in pink.The second cake was the mask cake, which was highlighting the many masked balls that were held in the baroque era. It was a hand painted cake using edible shimmer colouring. The colour was rich using peach and pinks with gold swag and pearl drops.

Red cakes are seldom scene in real life. This is why we decided to make a cake of this colouring, also due to the fact that it was a popular colour in that time. This was a very dramatic cake, as Elizabeth replicated the damask pattern used on the dining chair. Elizabeth used stencil and royal icing to do this.We fashioned cookies into fans, which were a popular accessory for a lady to wear to parties in those days.

We added Macaroons to our shoot as they are delicately beautiful, provided by Ganache Macaron, which is an artisan macaron bakery based in London. They only make French macarons, which allows them to create macarons of an exceptional quality, which both look and taste gorgeous. Their mini macarons are a smaller versions of their classic macarons, included in the photo shoot were their best selling Salted Butter Caramel, Vanilla Custard and Blood Orange flavours! They develop each flavor, and each mini macaron is hand piped and paired in our Hackney bakery. We also used the bigger macarons in the flavor of raspberry coulis and blood orange, as the colours were perfect for the look we were creating.

We decided to use the extraordinary furniture that was available to us, the wood made a fantastic base in which to put the colorful desserts on.