This past Saturday a large handful of top bakeries in Chicago all gathered to showcase and sell their goodies. The Pastry Market was held at Logan Square Kitchen, a facility that allows bakers to rent out time in their super professional workspace.
Not only is the kitchen wonderful but the dinning space as-well with reclined wood doors & trim, antique bar and all around cozy feel. I was lucky enough to have a special tour by Zina Murray, the owner of Logan Square Kitchen. Its clearly visible just how much love she has for LSK. During my private tour she explained how they had salvaged most of the wood used from places that were being demolished. The venue also has a wonderful lighting system that turns off certain lights when it senses enough sunlight, they are all on motion sensors as-well which leaves you to never have to turn a light on or off!
She also told me about these fabulous dramatic drapes they have dividing the kitchen from the dinning area, made by a local artist as-well. If you are looking for a smaller space that's 100% eco-friendly Logan Square Kitchen is it!
Onto the Pastry Market.......Oh how I love thee! I think I was in heaven surrounded by over 10 bakeries all selling delicious pastries. I was brought in by FLOUR Cake & Pastry in Oak Park to design their showcase. Nicole from Flour told me that they needed two tables designed one with a Valentines feel the other more wedding looking to showcase their gorgeous wedding cakes. Of course this immediately excited me because I love designing vendor showcases. I say this because a vendor has a split second to draw the client in. As I'm sure you know first impression is everything and your showcase should reflect your business and who you are.
The designs came rather quickly to me as I have designed an abundance of showcases. The wedding table was to be very delicate and dramatic at the same time. I used a iridescent taupe pintuck linen with a stunning hand beaded overlay bunched on top to give that delicate feel. Flour supplied three drop dead gorgeous cakes: one dramatic five tier cake with golden fondant work, Octagon cake with bead detail and fresh floral and last but not least their one of a kind offset cube winter theme cake with fondant and sugar to resemble snow! We placed each cake on ornate silver cake pedestals to give them that luxurious look. Also on this table was one of our mots popular centerpieces, the crystal tree! Now this particular tree has made more than a few appearances so we anted to be sure it was different. We achieved this by coming up with the idea that the tree would be interactive! Now your saying how on earth can that be possible?!?!? Nicole supplied us with a box of their wonderful square shaped business cards. We punched a hole in them, tied a pretty ribbon and hung them on the tree. We also created what I was calling business card crystals!! Basically they were my interpretation of hanging crystals utilizing business cards instead. All the business cards made the tree come to life as they took the place of leaves. The interactive aspect comes in with the guests being able to pluck their card off the tree. This was a huge hit as the guests love it!
We also surrounded the tree vase with additional cylinders filled with water and floating candles and white rose petals.
Now this is where things get super sweet! Our Valentines table design.... We used a pink lamour table cloth that matched the exact pink on Flour's logo. We thought how could we showcase their delicious goodies to feel almost like a candy shop???
We then made our own using apothecary jars, cake pedestals, and smaller vases.
We took each item and matched it with the appropriate vessel that would showcase them to their fullest. The amazing red velvet cup cakes were placed on two white cake pedestals, sugar cookies in tall jars, chocolate lollipops in a tall vase with glass beads to hold them in, tiny heart chocolates on a tall pedestal & more...oh lets not forget the Pièce de résistance was the three tier custom Valentine's Cake in the center.
If you are a vendor and would like more information on our booth design, please contact Barbara Medina at Barbara@JustSayYesEvents.com
Take a look at what we came up with!
All photos by Just Say Yes Events
