{ Cadenzza launch dinner }

Cadenzza is a fabulous new jewellery concept launched this year by the gorgeous Swarovski.

In August I curated a dinner to launch their brand to 15 key members of the fashion press.

The dinner was held at the St Martin's Lane Hotel in their private dining room.

I was briefed by the lovely team at Portas PR, and they very much gave me full creative reign, which was GREAT fun.  

I wanted to give the guests a chance to interact with the jewellery and to give them a full body experience.

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Each course was given a fashion trend theme and this was incorporated into the tableware, music, props to display the jewellery on and even the scent in the room and wine.

TODAY I AM DANCING TO MY OWN TUNE

The guests arrived into the private dining room to the music of Robin Thicke, the table was laid with bright coloured props decorated with Cadenzza jewellery.  Each place setting had brightly coloured plates, napkins and balloons floated above the table.  When they sat down the waiters served them their first course, whilst in the background a themed playlist was playing.

TODAY I AM ROCK STAR

When they had finished eating the waiters cleared away all of their tableware; plates, napkins, cutlery.  My team them cleared away all of the props.  When the table was completely cleared they laid it afresh with black plates, black cutlery, black napkins.  The music changed to a Nirvana track and my team walked in carrying these props displaying the jewellery.  We placed them all in the middle of the table for the guests to admire.  They were then served their first main of Black Cod.

TODAY I AM DIVA

When they had finished eating their second course, the table was cleared again, reset with gold plates, gold rimmed glasses, gold cutlery.  Glasses were filled with a new, course specific wine and Diamond by Rihanna played loudly.  Myself and my team carried in a candelabra, two birdcages, and gold pineapples as well as beautiful flowers and placed them carefully on the table.  These gold pineapples went down an absolute storm.  Flowers by www.katebrewer.co.uk

TODAY I AM SANTA

We cleared the table again, and this time replaced it with white crockery and cutlery.  Zoe Deschanel and her band She & Him serenaded our guests with Christmas music.  Whilst my team and I carried in white props displaying the jewellery into the middle of the table.  The props had been scented with a Christmas scent so that all senses were being engaged.  Before guests were served their white chocolate pudding, Santa delivered them each a beautifully wrapped white Christmas gift from Cadenzza.

TODAY I MET CADENZZA

For one last time we cleared the table entirely, and this time brought back out highlights of all of the 'courses'.  Whilst guests took a closer look at the jewellery, they were served tea and coffee and listened to a Cadenzza playlist.

{ slacker }

I am so behind on my blogging!  This Christmas I will do my best to get caught up on all of my behind the scenes blogs for this year's exciting projects.

Starting with...

{ wise words }

{ Behind the Scenes with Ploom }

This was a great shoot to work on.  Lots and lots to get done, but it was lovely working with the super talented and lovely photographer Michael Leckie.

The final shots turned out really well.  You can see them on my website in my Still Life Portfolio.

www.the-detail.co.uk

Behind the Scenes photos taken by Ivan Bellaroba

{ Grrrrrr! }

Animal Napkin Ring

I LOVE these napkin rings from Zara Home.

They come in a set of 2 for £15.99

{ Brockham in the sunshine }

For those of you who don't know, Brockham is a little village in Surrey in the Mole Valley.  Just a stone's throw from Box Hill (most recently famous for being on the Olympics cycling map) it is quite possibly one of the most beautiful villages in England.  

My sister moved to the village last year and has discovered that it is an amazingly friendly village with a tight knit community, everyone welcoming each other as friends and neighbours.

No surprise then that Brockham organised such a fun and atmospheric festival this last weekend.  I went down to see my sister and was blown away by just how much fun you could have in a village outside London!

The Victorian fun fair was beautiful and despite my helter skelter injuries, I had fun too!  My dad and I went down the helter skelter just like we did when I as a little girl!

 

The main reason for going down to Brockham was to see my sister perform with her new band friends. She performed about 6 of her own songs, some old, some new, but all equally as inspiring and enjoyable.  Her music was always fantastic, but these new friends and band colleagues have brought it to a whole new level.

Visit Alexandra Sawyer on her website www.meemusic.co.uk

Visit Brockham and say hi to my sister who pops into the Village Hall for a drink and a singalong.

www.brockham.org.uk

{ Designer Candles - Shopping Guide }

{ Shopping Guide - Coat Hooks }

{ BRIDES - Conde Nast }

Stylist - Marianne Cotterill

Photographer - Debi Treloar

Stylist Assistant - Laura Sawyer

Photographers Assistant - Jonathan Gooch

The final shots are in the current edition of Conde Nast BRIDES magazine.  

I will be scanning them and uploading them as soon as I can.  I shot the above images on my iPhone as I was so taken with the shoot and the setting that I wanted to show what went on behind the scenes to put it together.

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{ Side ♥ Table }

{ RHS Gnome fest }

{ Behind the Scenes with Frank Lampard }

These are some quick scans from today's magazine.

Photography by Mitch Jenkins

Prop Styling by Laura Sawyer

( with a cameo from the lovely photographers assistant )

To get your own bears go to www.belairgallery.co.uk

{ new favourite prop }

Here's a snap of my new favourite prop. 

I picked up this white plastic '&' shop sign from Lavish Habit in Balham. Which is an amazing cafe, shop, bar. Tomorrow night I am going back with some friends for a comedy night! Looking forward to it and maybe picking up another little treat...

{ sometimes there are no words... }

Atelier Randall certainly has fantastic imagination!

{ a light bulb moment }

{ my big sister's little big day }

Last week my sister got married.

I had offered to do her wedding flowers, but she insisted that I shouldn't make a fuss, that it wasn't something that she had thought about or felt was important...  So I did it anyway!

She had decided to wear the dress that she was wearing when she met her now husband.  It's a dress that our mother used to wear when she was younger, and we both used to fight over who had custody of it at the beginning of each summer.

The beautiful dress is black with bright coloured flowers and she had decided that she wanted to wear a traditional Polish flower garland from the Lublin costume in her hair.  She's a no fuss kind of a girl, so I looked for some inspirational images of relaxed bouquets on Pinterest.

I got up at 4am (up with the florists rather than the larks) and headed to the Covent Garden Flower Market.  I bought Anemones, Ranunculus (which I always have to look up because I always want to call them rambunctious!), Lily of the Valley, Eucalyptus and some other brightly coloured flowers the names of which I will have to ask my florist friend.

I made a bouquet for my sister, as well as a slightly smaller posie for my 10 year old niece.

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I had lots of flowers left over that I was going to use for the dinner.  My sister had already asked me to decorate the area in the restaurant that she had booked for the small dinner after the ceremony.  But she had just given me some white bunting which she had leftover from another event and some feather birds leftover from the set I built for her O2 performance last year.

Both she and her husband were overjoyed when they arrived and saw the transformation.  The restaurant helped us create one large table, my dad ironed the table cloths for me (good thing I always have my iron in my kit bag!), whilst I asked the mother's of the bride and groom (and her friend) to arrange some flowers for me.

The thing that really made the decoration for me, was the traditional Polish hanging decorations called Pajaki, which my mama has had for years and I have always coveted.  I also hung some simple paper pom poms and the bunting my sister had given me alongside the Pajaki.  I kept the theme going and incorporated some other Polish touches such as Wicinanki printed napkins and floral hair pieces from our Lowicz costumes as napkin rings.

My favourite part of the decorations was after taking them all down at the end of the dinner, I drove over to my sister's house and put a vase of flowers in every single room in her house.  I knew that it would help keep the magic alive. 

She texted me that night "Thank you again so much for the flowers all over the house, they are amazing and gasping me with wow! xxx" and again in the morning to say "Flowers are still so pretty and bringing so much joy!  Thank you Thank you Thank you!".

Remember that this was just the little big day.  Just 3 months to go before the big big day in the woods!!!  I'm looking forward to that trip to the flower market!!!

{ Tate & Lyle's Tasting House }

I recently worked with Nathan Pask on a photo shoot for Tate & Lyle at their Tasting House.  You can see the final pictures below that Nathan took to promote the event.

Above you can see some behind the scenes shots that I took.  Some of the cake makers involved were absolutely incredible, making cakes in the shape of turtles, Easter Island statues, flowers made of sugar in a cake vase and a treasure chest cake to name but a few.  There was also a rug made entirely of delicate meringues in bright colours.

There were even some bizaar additions of chocolate skulls, babies heads and human hearts that when you bit into them bled red caramel!  It really was an incredible even to be involved in.

Behind the Scenes

Final Images

Photography by Nathan Pask

Fashion Styling by Heather Falconer

Prop Styling by Laura Sawyer