an "urban loft" tablescape for utterly engaged

this tablescape has to be one of my favorites...ever...it's like nothing i have ever done before...or even seen before...

the online e-zine, utterly engaged, held a new years party back in january and part of the event was a "design challenge" where anyone could enter in teams of 2 or more to create a tablescape...the only guidelines were:

1. the tablescape has to be MODERN

2. the focus of the tablescape should NOT revolve around flowers but rather some other element - paper, wood, metal, etc.

3. we had to spend $150. or less (not including rentals - we could use whatever rentals we wanted but no chairs)

i was asked to join forces with courtney from joyful weddings and events, then we immediately pulled in jane from olive hue paper to round out our team...from there we started brainstorming...we definitely knew we wanted to take it REALLY modern...like stark modern -fitting for an NYC loft wedding...so we called our theme "urban loft"...

in a industry where it seems nothing is new under the sun, i REALLY wanted to do something different that NO ONE had ever seen before on a tablescape...so i turned to one of my favorite interior retail companies, design within reach, for inspiration...me and my husband have always been obsessed with their "pendant light fixture"...so i thought, what if we created a bunch of those and grouped them on the tablescape, accented with a couple big headed blooms to add a pop of color? and with that, the tablescape was born!

here is our inspiration board:

and here is what we came up with!!!

those string pendants? i took it old school (like elementary days!) and did the whole "blow up a balloon, wrap it with string, slather it in fabric stiffener, let it dry, then pop the balloon" thing...pretty time consuming but SUPER cheap and SUPER different...

gorgeous dark fuschia peonies added that pop of color we needed and their ruffly effect kept it all pretty and feminine...

jane created these adorable glass tags that were attached using fuschia yarn...of course the initials were "U" and "E" in honor of our party hostesses...

courtney wrapped all the votive candles in fuschia yarn to add even more color and also keep the "string" idea running throughout the whole look...

we just had to ask melody of sweet and saucy shop to contribute her delicious cake pops! they were dipped in white chocolate and the little lines on each pop emulated the string orbs on the table...perfect right?

one of my favorite things on the table...jane's menu card...she did a "blind press" where it's letterpressed with no color (look closely to see all the font on the left side of the card) which i thought went perfectly with our whole "stark modern" vibe...then she flooded the right side of the card with a massive fuschia peony bloom...i loved it so much i kept mine and saved it :) we added more fuschia string to the napkin treatment, keeping it clean but adding texture...

how exciting that we tied for 2nd place at the party!! to see our feature in the e-zine, click here...

thanks to the utterly engaged girls for hosting a fabulous party and to jasmine star and jd for taking all the great photos! to melody for her yummy cake pops and to wildflower linens and classic party rentals for their contributions!

and thanks a million to my fabulous team mates, courtney and jane! i am so proud of what we came up with and i LOVED collaborating with you two! big hugs!! :)