I thought that for my first myKPW blog post it would be fun to share my favorite aspect of what I do which is the entire custom cookie design process from start to finish. I love this process for several reasons. First, I really enjoy working so closely with my clients and giving them the opportunity to be as hands-on as they would like in designing their cookies. Second, I love creating new designs, experimenting with colors and techniques, and seeing how the final cookies will fit into the overall asthetic of the event. I think that the best way to share this design process is to walk through a real custom wedding order from this past August...
I met this client in March at a venue Tasting Party, which they hold annually for their brides and grooms to select their menus and also interact with preferred vendors. She was drawn instantly to the cookie below which was a winter tree scene however it didn’t quite work for her wedding which was being held in August. We discussed some ideas that she had and the feeling that she was going for with the overall design of the cookies. She loved the idea of pine trees or a summer scene of the mountains which would be the backdrop for the wedding.
If the client is ordering a large number of cookies and I don’t have any pictures of similar cookies then I like to make samples and mail them to the client. This is a good way to let the client see designs, compare colors, and choose a type of ribbon. For the samples for Mara’s and Elia’s August wedding I knew that most of their guests were out of town and they really wanted something that represented summer in the Berkshires. Sage was one of their main wedding colors so I chose that and a dark brown to complement the forest green of the pine trees. The first sample was a literal translation of a summer version of the winter tree cookie. For the second sample I used brush embroidery to hand paint the “forest” and chose to do a blue sky with clouds. For the third sample I did something a bit simpler and chose a stenciled fern. The final sample incorporated both the inscription that they had asked for and the idea of the trees. They chose to go with the fourth sample and also decided to provide me with stickers to attach to the backs of the cookie bags thanking guests for making the trip.
I usually start production of orders about a week before they are scheduled to be delivered or shipped. Even though the cookies are heat sealed in cello bags and stay fresh for a very long time I like to make sure that they are as fresh as possible when they initially go out. The final count for this order was 185 favors plus I like to make several extra cookies just to be safe. These were large cookies and it took about 8.5 hours just to decorate the 2 trees on each cookie. Writing names on cookies can also be very time consuming because it is extremely important to make each cookie look as identical as possible.
These cookies were finished with a dark brown satin ribbon and delivered to Cranwell in Lenox, MA on the day of the wedding. It’s actually not too often that I get to see the cookies set out for weddings as many deliveries occur the day before the wedding to venues or event planners. Even though the tables were not completely set yet it was really fun to see how my cookies looked with the linens and flowers. Originally the client had planned to change the background on the cookies from sage to the blue sky with clouds but then decided to stick with the sage to match the room. She didn’t have a swatch of the table linen for me to match and said that the color of the sample would work perfectly, which it did!
