The Art of Lettering Brunch

With summer just a few weeks away, I wanted to host a special brunch before everyone’s summer schedules start going crazy.  Whenever I host an event, I love to offer a hands-on activity for my guests.  It’s always a treat to get together with friends and even more fun when there is a creative element to it.

For my end of the school year celebration, I settled on an Art of Lettering brunch.  I absolutely adore hand lettered design and calligraphy though it’s something completely out of my skill set. I thought brunch with a local calligraphy artist would be the perfect creative activity!

Local creative and Minted designer Brandy Brown of Marabou Design was the perfect fit for the day.  I met Brandy a few years ago at a local calligraphy workshop (which I was terrible at..but here I am trying again).  I absolutely love her style and talent.  She makes hand lettering look so easy.  Spoiler alert..It’s not.

I settled on a cobalt blue and lavender color palette.  It felt fresh and different from what had been done in the past.  My cobalt blue glass collection was happy to make an appearance as it’s a color I don’t use very often.  After seeing how pretty it all came together, I need to incorporate it more often.  It’s so pretty!

My friend Kelli of Country Bouquets Floral put together a beautiful assortment wildflowers in a mixture of vintage glass bottles, jars and vases.  Flowers always make the best table centerpieces combined with a great fabric runner.  I found the perfect blueish-purple dotty watercolor looking runner at Minted.

Each guest had their own personalized place setting hand lettered by Brandy.  We included all the tools needed for our lesson, which makes it nice so no one is having to get up and down and eliminates materials having to be passed around.

For a hearty morning snack, I made fresh fruit and granola yogurt parfaits and placed them on each place setting.  It was just the right size, saving room for later donuts and muffins!

I believe the centerpiece to any party is the dessert table.  Because I was hosting at 11am, dessert didn’t feel right.  Instead of cake and cupcakes, I created a pastry bar of your dreams!

I found this weathered potting bench a few years ago at a second hand store and had to have it.  I love anything with chippy paint!  I could just imagine it overflowing with desserts.  Fast forward a few years and here you have it!  It was filled with muffins, scones, donuts and miniature cinnamon rolls.

As guests arrived, I sent them to pour themselves a mimosa or make a cup of coffee and find their place setting.

Once everyone arrived, I introduced Brandy to the group and we got to work!

Brandy explained the different calligraphy materials and had us begin practicing by tracing letters with a pencil to get a feel for the curvature of the alphabet.

After we traced, we moved on to a calligraphy nibs.  These little guys are temperamental!

We filled our pens with ink and began tracing lines.  Who knew a line would be so challenging.

Each guest was given a darling packet of note cards, envelopes and coordinating stamps from Minted.  Their stationary is absolutely beautiful and they’ve taken it a step further offering coordinating postage.  I didn’t think their designs could be any more gorgeous but I was wrong!  The personalized stamps are the icing on the cake!

Each guest practiced until they could move on to full words.  It was impressive to see how well some of my friends did!

It was a lovely, creative morning with great company and an awesome activity.  If you need me, I’ll be practicing my name in calligraphy.

 

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Photos by Kelly Clare Photography