London recipes
Dream deal!
Ooh, ahh, have we found a decadent offer for you!
The Levin Hotel (above, and reviewed in the London Calling feature in our current issue), a chic boutique hotel in London’s Knightsbridge district, is offering brides-to-be a truly lavish experience to make you feel like a princess as you create your dream dress! They have partnered with couture house Saint-Hill & Von Basedow, to allow you to create your dream wedding gown from the comfort of your very own suite at The Levin – yes, the couturiers will come to you for personal private fittings!
You will have exclusive use of the Levin’s top floor (which consists of a Junior Suite and an Executive Double room) on four separate occasions with a stay of one night per visit. Continental breakfast is included for up to 4 people as well as complimentary use of the in-room champagne bar. Imagine sipping Champagne as the couturiers from Saint Hill and Von Basedow create an Italian duchess satin embellished with hundreds of hand beaded Swarovski crystals, or a precious French Lace on ivory silk with an ‘endless’ train just for you!
Appointments with makeup artists, hair stylists and beauty therapists can be organised upon request, and after each day of pampering, you can enjoy a relaxing dinner at the 2 Star Michelin Capital Restaurant at the next door Capital Hotel.
To reserve your place at The Levin for this dream offer, contact reservations@thelevinhotel.co.uk or visit www.thelevinhotel.co.uk
Artistic Inspiration
Last night our Founding Editor Kirsten MacKelden attended Art with Heart, the annual fundraising event created by Dave Ansett at Storm Design/Brand DNA. Guests bid on artwork in a silent auction, with this year’s event raising money for the Melbourne City Mission‘s Breakfast series. In the six years since Dave created Art with Heart, he’s raised over $100,000 for charity – wow!
Our Founding Editor, Kirsten MacKelden (middle) with friends; creator of Art with Heart, Dave Ansett (L) and founder of stationery empire, kikki-K, Kristina Karlsson (R).
Kirsten with friend Carolyn Cresswell, founder of Carmen’s Fine Foods.
Seeing Kirsten’s photos of the event this morning reminded us of how beautifully art lights up a room – and how much fun you can have with this at weddings! We’ve seen two weddings that featured art to beautiful effect; in Issue 4, our Real Couple Kristi and Andrew Batty gave guests paint, brushes, plastic gloves and disposable plates as palettes, and invited them to paint their interpretation of the day. Kristi said: “People went crazy! Now we have a fabulous reminder of the best day of our lives.”
And in Issue 11, our Real Couple Anne-Louise and Fred Siasat used paintings by their six-year-old daughter Bronte as the basis for their stationery, which was designed and styled by Form Over Function. The reception also featured a miniature exhibition of Bronte’s designs, which added a burst of colour to the room.
Photography by Milk and Honey Photography
We loved both these ideas, and have thought of another! Inspired by these Ralph Lauren “Paint your Polo” kits Kirsten spotted in London (below), we think it would be great fun to design t-shirts for the bride and groom; perhaps something they can wear on their honeymoon! All you’d need is some fabric paint, brushes, and maybe some smocks for your guests. Wouldn’t this make for great photos?!
London Inspiration Part 8: Palm Trees
Summer is only a few months away now (hooray!), and we’re getting in the mood with this inspirational image our Founding Editor Kirsten’s recent trip to London!
We love the palm tree motif on these gorgeous Sicilian Lime candles from Ortigia in Italy, and think it would make a fabulous theme for a summer wedding – whether you’re celebrating on a tropical island or not! There are so many ways to include this design in your celebration, from your stationery to your floral arrangements – even your wedding favours!
In our current issue we featured these images taken from a wedding in the Bahamas – the palm tree motif appeared on passport holders, luggage tags, place settings and even photo album favours. The full story of this gorgeous wedding will appear in our December issue, but we wanted to share it with you now!
Pics: Vallentyne Photography
We adore these sweet Palm Tree cookie cutter favours from Pink Frosting
We spotted this urn at Brylane Home: wouldn’t it look fabulous filled with a tropical punch, perhaps as part of a table centrepiece?
London Inspiration Part 7: sweet favours
We thought we’d brighten your Monday afternoon with a burst of colour and sweetness courtesy of these pictures taken by our Founding Editor, Kirsten, at Harrods of London.
Pics: K. MacKelden
Made by Conti Confetteria in Milan, these gorgeous sugared almonds come in every colour, size and shape you could think of! We love the way they are displayed too – it’s so tempting to reach in and fill a bag with your favourites!
Conti Confetteria have stores all over Italy, but they ship their products, including the beautiful wedding kit below, around the world.
Pic: Conti Confetteria
Closer to home, Huetopia Design has a gorgeous range of sweet wedding favours to choose from including macaroons and gourmet Jelly Belly jelly beans. Each favour comes wrapped with beautiful details to match your stationery and/or wedding theme.
Pics: Huetopia Design
We recently spotted some gorgeous bird house favour boxes on the web, head to our Facebook page to have a look!
London Inspiration part 6: one for the future!
If you’ve been following our blog this week, you’ll know we’re loving the vintage look. We know everybody loves wedding inspiration, but when our Founding Editor, Kirsten, showed us this photo from her trip to London, we knew right away that we just had to share it with you. After all, a marriage is not just about a wedding, but a beautiful future together, and beautiful futures might just include beautiful babies! And why shouldn’t you spoil yourself (and your baby) with something gorgeous!
Gorgeous pink baby carriage, spotted in Harrods of London.
London Inspiration Part 5: The body beautiful
Happy Monday everyone! Monday is always such an exciting day in the bridal world, because over the weekend so many women become brides-to-be, and today they start sharing the news! If that’s you, congratulations!
To kick off the week, we wanted to share some more souvenirs from Kirsten’s recent trip to London. While shopping in Peter Jones on Kings Road, Chelsea, Kirsten spotted this gorgeous beauty box for brides:
Made by skincare company Philosophy, this gorgeous floral box is filled with divine body treats for the bride-to-be, and includes the very sage words “marry yourself before you marry another”. That’s right girls, love yourself and take care of yourself first! As if you need an incentive when you’ve got this box of treats to enjoy!
The five-piece skincare set includes the Purity facial cleanser, the Hope in a Jar therapeutic moisturiser, the Amazing Grace shampoo/shower gel/bubble bath (it works as all three!), the Amazing Grace perfumed firming body emulsion, and the Amazing Grace perfumed hand cream.
Philosophy also make a sweet “Falling in Love” range that includes a shower gel and a romantic perfume, and every bride’s must have item: the Kiss Me exfoliating lip scrub, to ensure your lips are silky smooth for your first kiss as husband and wife!
We think any or all of these products would make a great gift for a hen’s night or kitchen tea, or as a “congratulations on your engagement” gift!
To find out more about Philosophy or to purchase these beautiful products online, visit www.philosophy.com
pics: K. MacKelden, Philosophy
London Inspiration part 4: butterflies continued
We ended last week with the promise of more butterflies… after being inspired by Kirsten’s recent trip to London and that window display at Hacketts we just had to go back to Issue 14 and our “Birds, Bees and Butterflies feature”! Here are just a few butterfly details that might take your fancy…
This sweet stationery from Papier D’Amour would look fantastic as part of a garden, spring, or butterfly themed wedding.
We just adore this china tea setting from Zandra Rhodes’ collection for Royal Albert, and the butterfly card from Rosebud Designs is a gorgeous touch!
And the delicious butterfly biscuits from Sweet Art, below, fit beautifully into the pastel colour scheme of the China – this looks almost too good to eat!
The Zandra Rhodes collection features an array of delightful butterfly motifs – we think the pink butterfly plate below is gorgeous.
To see more of this collection visit the Royal Albert website.
London Inspiration part 4: butterflies!
Kirsten spotted this incredible window display at Hackett while she was in London. Look at those butterflies!
We just love the array of colours, shapes and patterns – this display is giving us so many ideas…
Check out Monday’s blogs to see some beautiful ways to include butterflies in your wedding!
Photographs: K. MacKelden
London Inspiration part three: Macaroons!
What’s that in the window of the divine Ladurée patisserie at Harrods, London?
photograph: K. MacKelden
Let’s look a little closer….
Photograph: K. MacKelden
It’s macaroons!
The French patisserie, founded in 1862, has been making Les Macarons since the early 1900′s when Pierre Desfontaines, second cousin of founders Louis Ernest Ladurée, first thought of taking two macaroon shells and joining them with a delicious ganache filling.
There is a huge range of flavours (see below) with a new flavour released every season: in Spring 2009 it was Bergamot!
If you’re having a dessert buffet at your wedding, macaroons would make a divine addition – their colour and texture look beautiful placed amongst other sweet treats and colourful bunches of flowers.
We saw something similar at the wedding of caterer Ed Dixon and her partner Mark Thomson, which featured in our 2008 Style edition:
Photograph: Paul Griggs
Or you could stick to a single colour scheme, and create something gorgeous like this white dessert buffet:
photograph: The Big Group
Macaroons would also look fantastic as part of a lavish high tea styled celebration. Just look at how they do it at Ladurée – yum!
Photograph: Ladurée
We’ve included some stunning Ladurée products in our beautiful new Style issue, due out soon – but here’s a sneak peak!
London Inspiration part two: Hydrangeas
If the gorgeous wallpaper designs in part one of our London series didn’t inspire you, then take a look at these gorgeous hydrangeas! Kirsten spotted them outside the Design Centre at Chelsea Harbour, a fantastic venue which showcases the work of interior design specialists such as fabric outlets and bespoke furniture designers.
What a stylish way to accentuate a staircase!
photographs: K. MacKelden
It reminded us of a beautiful wedding we featured in our Winter 2008 issue, where Real Couple Samantha and Nicholas lined the staircase leading into their marquee with beautiful white bouquets which included hydrangeas – such an elegant entrance!
photograph: David Oliver photography
Hydrangeas are beautiful flowers that look fantastic en masse, particularly when the variety of pretty shades are mixed together.
photographs: Brent Parker Jones
Real Couple Sarah and Dean used this idea to full effect at their wedding, gathering enormous bunches of hydrangeas in every shade and placing them in tall glass vases to create dramatic centrepieces.
Photograph: David Fowler Photography
The couple also had smaller all-white arrangements that included roses, just for a touch of variety.
Photograph: David Fowler Photography
For more of Sarah and Dean’s wedding, and other gorgeous floral ideas, grab the latest copy of Real Weddings, which is in stores now and available online at digitaleditions.realweddings.com.au. And for more London Inspiration, keep checking back here or sign up to our RSS feed! x
