Beauty and the Beast is a timeless love story of intrigue, danger, compassion, love, forgiveness, and redemption all rolled into a tale as old as time. It made an inspired wedding theme that I am honored to design. Just as in designing real life weddings, the venue set the tone for the entire event. I needed to find the right location: not a castle, but an enchanted forest. With its amazing wooded glen and majestic pines, the Hollow in Sundance Canyon was the perfect fit.
After working in the Utah wedding industry for 32 years, I knew just which vendors would capture the vision of Beauty and Her Feast and, as you can see, they were amazing. This style of shoot is a bit different from typical inspiration shoots, as the focus is on the food. I envisioned Beauty’s thoughts as she designed her feast for her groom and guests, her watchful eye loving every detail. The colors needed to be rich with splashes of blood red in the food, flowers, and cake. I created each menu course to have something red: berries with the cheeses; roasted beets in the salad; blood orange sorbet intermezzo; and roasted tomatoes in the entree. The glass domes with the “red rose” cupcakes, gold-dipped red pears, and English tarts were my favorite pieces of food! The stained glass cake with red sugar roses was like looking back in time. And for Belle’s cocktail it had to be Pomegranate Prosecco!
I love the opulent table set in the middle of the woods with a free-standing stone fireplace! I selected gray stoneware and gold flatware as I love the look of mixed metallic colors and textures rather than matchy matchy. To keep things appropriate to the period, I used red velvet runners, black velvet napkins, and a couple of gold candelabras! Funny to set these in a forest setting, but it all came together as planned.
Beauty’s dress also took some thought and careful selection. Nothing too sexy. Something with a full skirt. And not white. Ah! This light gray wedding dress was just what I had in mind. I let Ann Elizabeth have free reign in designing the paper suite, but my only 2 requests were that it have a rose somewhere and a wax seal. I loved them. We have fallen in love with Beauty and her feast and we hope you do too. At Culinary Crafts, we make your fairy tale into reality.
Love, Mary
Photography by Heather Nan Photography
27x winner Utah’s Best of State
24x Best of State Caterer
3x Best of the Best / Hospitality
1x Entrepreneur of the Year
