A Night of Seven Decadent Sins- Styled & Coordinated by Jemma-Jade Events

Covent Garden’s Royal Opera House played host to an array of British talent on January 14th, as a team of the event industries finest brought together key event-industry players for a showcase evening, inspired by the Seven Deadly Sins, named ‘Seven Decadent Sins’.

From the initial invitation produced by Intricate Creations, through to the final course of canapés, miniature toffee apple lollipops by Company of Cooks, every detail of the event oozed the decadence of the theme.

The evening was styled and co-ordinated by me at Jemma-Jade Events, I wanted a theme that could be split into different categories and that could work with the suppliers involved keys strength’s. A take on Seven Deadly Sins, has never been done before and I wanted the theme to be fresh, unique as well as dramatic in keeping with the venues aesthetics. We loved the theatrics that involved that room. This is where the dancers practice; it is the real heart and soul of the venue I would say.

‘Wildabout’s Managing Director, Leanne Roberts-Hewitt said of the event ‘the thought process behind the evening was to collaborate with some of the best suppliers to show the ultimate in creativity for the luxury events and wedding market. We wanted a prestigious yet unique venue, and with the ballet rehearsal rooms being relatively unknown in an event-hire capacity, we thought this would be the ideal location to showcase our collective creations.

Each section of the room represented a different ‘decadent sin’. In between the sins were decorative objects provided by Farley to ensure a continuous flow from sin to sin. ‘We thought it would be a nice touch to have items representing the sins as they moved around the room ‘said Kay from Intricate Creations.

From lust to pride was a gorgeous folding screen in sumptuous reds, Pride to envy had free standing mirrors for guests to admire themselves synonymous to the sin pride, moving on to envy were marble statues decorated in Ivy. The piece de resistance between envy and gluttony was a wooden bookshelf decorated in colourful books and cakes with golden acrylic signs saying ‘bite me’ designed by Intricate Creations.

Lust was apparent in the sumptuous crimson set-up. The idea behind the decor was to recreate a luscious boudoir feel, which was highlighted by the incredible props from Farley such as the dressing table on which we placed one of Elizabeth Cake Emporium’s gorgeous baroque cakes along side some beautiful accessories of mirrors, hairbrushes and perfume bottles from Farley.

I came up with the unique idea of putting real roses inside the lust table when I stumbled upon a picture frame, which had roses inside. I then decided to translate this idea into a table cover, so called Leanne of Wildabout who created a bespoke table of over 1,000 red grandprix roses, red klooni ranuncuklas and red anemone contrasted with black ivy berries and added red votive’s to give a warm sultry glow to the table. Over the top rentals provided their divide red damask linen to place the florals on top.

The innovative use of mirrored accessories, including a mirrored menu by Intricate Creations, portrayed Pride to perfection. Intricate Creations built a custom made silver mirror tabletop covering the whole table. In the middle was a silver mirror box. On one of the sides they engraved the famous lines that the Queen from Snow White chants to her mirror.

Wildabout then created White lilac, white hydrangea, white akito roses and masses of white dendrobium orchids, which adorned the setting. The four-tier pride cake was displayed on a stunning crystal chandelier cake stand by Elizabeth’s Cake Emporium.

On the opposite side of the room, the setting of trailing green amaranths cascading off twisted willow branches, green cymbidium orchids, green hydrangea, green dianthus, green viburnum opulus, green Anastasia, succulants, hebes and masses of green carpet moss made for an envious exhibit.The wood effect envy cake had 7DS (seven decadent sins) initials carved on it and was decorated with the most realistic green sugar cymbidium orchids that perfectly matched those on the floral tablescape.

When the concept of The Seven Decadent Sins was being planned, it was natural that the appropriate ‘sin’ for Elizabeth’s Cake Emporium would be gluttony.

‘Historically, Marie Antoinette, the naive queen of France epitomised excess and her over the top decadence was the perfect inspiration when it came to designing the cakes for the showcase.’ Said Elizabeth Solaru.

We wanted to create a range of baroque and rococo cakes that referenced some of the things Marie Antoinette loved including masked balls, fans, fashion and elaborate feasts.

The centrepiece of the collection made up of a dozen colourful cakes. There was an extremely tall 24 carat gold rococo style cake on a specially constructed pedestal base, surrounded with gilded sugar pears, sugar fans and a sugar mask. The collection featured two 3 tier masquerade cakes, complete with sugar masks, sugar flowers, butterflies and fans. The pink tiered cake had a bold gold mirror design; the blue and purple tiered cakes were decorated with gold swags, gold coin trims and topped with sugar flowers. The green cake had sugar fan embellishments in gold and the white cake featured pretty gold bows, oval frames and trims. The rest of the cakes in the collection were ornately decorated pillow cakes in assorted colours.

Hundreds of cupcakes, cookies and cake pops decorated with edible jewelry and sugar roses completed the lavish cakescape with Intricate Creations providing beautiful gold laser cut signs inviting guests to help themselves to the sweet delights.

On our site visit to the ballet studios we immediately noticed the great potential that the theatre seats had with keeping to our ‘Seven Decadent Sins’ theme. This area was perfect for our sin ‘Sloth’ referring to laziness, so we wanted to incorporate this into our event by creating an area that guests could relax in after consuming the gorgeous canapés, cakes and drinks on offer. We decorated the seats in baroque pillows provided by Farley.

Wrath was beautifully captured by Hire The Barman’s cocktails. Guests were treated to ‘smokin wrath’, ‘passion fruit with pride martini’, ‘gingerlicious gluttony, ‘envious of your Shirley temple’ and lusting for tropical spoons’. These were all made in Wise Productions bespoke red bar with our custom-made ‘7DS’ sign by intricate Creations,.

We then had Company of Cooks who provided canapés that were based on all sins. These included:

Pride: Cucumber, lobster, crème fraiche and gold leaf, served on mirrors made by intricate creations.

Lust: Venison Carpaccio & fig that had custom made lady sticks by Intricate Creations.

Envy: Herb goats cheese & parmesan shortbread to highlight the sin of being green with envy.

Greed: Orzo pasta, grilled artichoke, parmesan cream Served in a colourful large bowls

Sloth: Chocolate, praline & vanilla eton mess

Origin of the sins:

Mini toffee apples: Served on perspex tray covered in moss or lollypop style

The guest list included designer Julien MacDonald, representatives from Sotheby’s, Disney, Barclays and The British Fashion Council. Guests were entertained by pianist and singer, Stephen Riley, who created a special medley just for the event, adding to the decadent dramatic setting.

Photographer Kate Nielen was on hand to capture the evening from set up to completion alongside videographer’s Urban Cinematography. Please see links below:

A massive thank you to all our friends, clients and suppliers who supported us in our night. It was such a pleasure working with such a talented team.

I hope by reading this you have been inspired by Jemma-Jade Events x