New York Cake & Baking Supplies

My six-year-old niece received an Easy-Bake oven for her birthday so I thought she would enjoy some fun decorating supplies to embellish her mini cakes with. This was a great excuse to visit New York Cake & Baking Supplies. If you are planning to make your own cake, cupcakes, candies, or cookies for your wedding this store is a fantastic resource.

They have just about every size cake pan, cookie cutter and pastry tip you could possible want, as well as sprinkles, nonpareils, icing dyes, and pre-made sugar paste flowers. They also sell packaging and display items like cake stands, cupcake wrappers, baker's twine, and cellophane bags. Plus they have an impressive selection of candles including those tall skinny ones - I love those.

Be forewarned though - the store is cluttered and a little dingy (this is not Williams-Sonoma!) and the clerks are not exactly known for their customer service. But if you are serious about baking and planning to make your own sweets, this is the place to go.

New York Cake & Baking Supplies
56 W 22nd St (between 5th Ave & Avenue Of The Americas)
New York, NY 10001
(212) 675-2253
www.nycake.com

Inspiration: Wine Labels

I got married at a vineyard, so I have a soft-spot for wine country weddings. Regardless of whether or not your wedding takes place amongst the vines, wine labels can be a great source for interesting layouts, graphics and typefaces.

I love the calligraphic swirls and crests on old-fashioned and vintage-style labels. If you are after a more modern look, the packaging blog, The Dieline, has photos of some great contemporary labels, like the ones created by Duffy & Parnters (left) and ilustrator Yiying Lu (right).


Images:Wine bottle table numbers and wine favors (upper left), marthastewartweddings.com; Table numbers, save the dates, wine favors, and invitations by Blue Ribbon; Misc. Wine labels from mmdusa.net, Wolffer Estate, Laurent-Perrier, Bonny Doon, St. Supery, Polaner Selections, R. López de Heredia, and theartistslabel.com; Duffy & Partners and ASDA California labels via The Dieline.

Blue Ribbon on Wedding Bee Pro

In the coming months a selection of my posts will appear on Wedding Bee Pro (yeah!). Wedding Bee Pro has tons of inspiring photos and provides a behind the scenes look at the creative process of some of the best vendors in the industry. I'm really excited to be contributing alongside so many other amazing vendors - be sure to pop over!

Imprintable Menus

You don't necessarily need to spend a lot to include some exquisite personalized details in your reception. The menu below was done on an ink jet printer using pre-printed letterpress flats (from Blue Ribbon, of course!).

Helvetica - The Movie

Helvetica is a must-see for anyone interested in the history of typography and graphic design. The film chronicles the use of the typeface Helvetica throughout the last 5o years and includes interviews with some superstar type and graphic designers where they discuss their creative process and talk about how the aesthetics of a particular typeface can evoke different emotions/actions depending on the context in which it is employed. PBS has built a great companion website which has more interesting tid-bits about the history of Helvetica and you can even take the What font are you? Quiz. Apparently, I am Times New Roman.

Meet Oscar

Our new pup Oscar will be joining me in the studio/house, so if you call the studio and hear high-pitched yelps in the background, it's just Oscar saying hello!

Hot Off the Press: Chinoiserie in Lilac & Lavender

Here are some photos of a new print job where the Chinoiserie design was printed in a Lilac & Lavender colorway. I think this might be my new favorite color combination for this design.

Real Wedding: Jessica & James

Look at these gorgeous photos from the wedding of Jessica & James posted by Brooklyn Bride today! This was such a fun wedding to work on. Jessica is a true paper connoisseur and I created a custom suite for her that included everything from the invitations to the place cards. The same scroll work motif was repeated in different variations on all the stationery pieces and even made an appearance on the cake! You can see more photos from this beautiful wedding over at Brooklyn Bride. (You can also see additional photos of the stationery suite in the custom design section of the Blue Ribbon website.)

(All wedding stationery by Blue Ribbon Design; Photos via Brooklyn Bride.)