And we’re back with Part 2 of some behind-the-scene photos! After setting up vessels and determining a layout that is aesthetically pleasing as well as easy to access, I have to consider the dessert layout. The dessert layout gets a little trickier because you have to consider the colour balance of the overall table design as well as the actual size and shape of the dessert. The cake pops, for example, are taller due to the sticks and cannot be placed in front of the decorated cookies because they would simply cover them…kind of common sense, but not everyone thinks like that. The colour balance is tricky too, because when you’re dealing with a table with a larger colour palette (like this one is), you have to be careful not to put all of your “reds” in the same area of the table (unless you’re colour-blocking) all while maintaining the balance of the shape and size of the dessert too. Most of the time, you end up shifting and re-arranging your vessels and changing what sweet goes in what vessel.

This is a way for me to figure out how to balance out the colours:


Aside from the mock-up, here are some photos from the desserts involved in this particular photo shoot! Behold, my go-to cake pops:


…and here’s some of the packaged macarons I worked on:

While dessert tables are certainly lovely to look at and good fun to eat, there is also quite a bit of good old fashioned manual labour involved. I don’t have photos to document everything involved in packing and moving my supplies and food, but this is a photo of one of the large tote boxes used for this table:


It takes a lot of packing know-how to ensure that none of the vessels nor desserts break during transportation and it’s very handy to know exactly what is going in each tote box…hence the list of items in each box!

Below, all of the boxes and my collapsible table stuffed into the backseat of the car (there is also a steamer in the trunk to steam out linens on site):

Doesn’t look like much, you say? Well, that is thanks to packing know-how and a little bit of “oh, maybe this tote is heavier than it should be…”. And don’t forget, these photos don’t show the actual moving and lugging of boxes and supplies — these suckers are heavy and awkward to carry!

I hope you have enjoyed these behind-the-scenes posts — I’m hoping to get more up once I get a little more time. As always, let me know what you think!