Mother’s Day Brunch
When my husband and I relocated to LA from San Diego in 2020 I decided it was time to start my own planning business after years of training with mentor planners. What I didn’t expect was a global pandemic to shut down the world the same week we signed paperwork on our new house! We had a 6 month old baby and events of all sizes came to a halt. With no clear path or end in sight, it wasn’t the best time to start an event planning business, so I waited. In the meantime, we decided to have a second baby and the pandemic stretched on. When I was 6 months pregnant the restrictions finally started easing up and I saw the events were coming back. It wasn’t really the ideal time to start a new business, but I was tired of waiting, so I jumped in and started working with local clients on small gatherings, which is how I went from only doing weddings to doing so many kids parties. So it seems fitting to launch my new website on my two year anniversary of my business and to look back to one of the first shoots I did that year. I put together this Mother’s Day brunch to get some promotional images together for my new business but it’s still one of my personal favorites and one that clients love too.
The part of Los Angeles I live in is a historic area for citrus and many properties have all kinds of gorgeous and abundant trees. I wanted to create a tablescape with fresh citrus and all the vibrant colors they come in, so I gathered as much variety as I could find locally.
For the color palette I drew on shades of lemon, lime, grapefruit and blood oranges and the images that resulted are so vibrant you can almost taste them.
I made what has become one of our signature ice bottle chillers with citrus frozen inside and put together a vase of flowers in citrus shades for a simple centerpiece (thanks to Jessica at Royal Bee Flower Co. for always sourcing the most gorgeous flowers!)
The key to the fresh runner centerpiece was contrasting all the warm tones with fresh greenery and accenting it with a variety of shapes and sizes of fresh fruit. I used kumquats, grapefruit, oranges, blood oranges, and lemons. For the place settings I kept to the natural theme with woven placemats and added a touch of glam with vintage gold flatware. I made place cards out of leaves from the garland and tucked them into knotted napkins with sprigs of kumquats and a flower to make the guests of honor feel extra special when they sat down.
I made a boozy citrus sangria and picked up some non-alcoholic blood orange soda for drinks, and I let the dads figure out the food.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the mamas out there! If you’re planning a brunch for someone special, I hope this provided some inspo, and if you’re a mom I hope someone in your life spoils you!