At Home with Nadia & Co for the Holidays
When our dear friend and custom wedding cake artisan Nadia Colella from Nadia & Co announced she was launching a Holiday Collection, you can imagine the visions of sugar plums (and more!) that began to dance in our heads. Over the years, we’ve been lucky enough to spend lots of time getting to know and working with Nadia. From capturing her beautiful artisan sweet confections and cakes at our clients’ weddings to the beauty of her own wedding day, it is always a feast for the eyes and our camera lenses, not to mention for our sweet tooth! 2020 welcomed plenty of time for her to think and create, as well as an opportunity to welcome her followers into her home through her Spill the Tea and How-To episodes she created on her Instagram. When the holiday season came around, she wanted to share holiday inspirations for decor, cocktails, baking, and gifting with her audience.
Given her custom wedding cake business is run by appointment only all year and no storefront, to better connect with her clientele she decided to create festive gift boxes filled with artisanal handmade products alongside a new collection of gift wrapping paper and greeting cards so everyone could bring a little Nadia & Co home this holiday season. She aimed to elevate her current holiday offering of tea blends and artisan treats and confections by creating an at-home cookie mix that her viewers and clients could experience from their very own homes, where they too can experience the beautiful aromas of what she and her skilled team create everyday. “I wanted shopping with us this holiday season to be inspiring and filled with hope.” she said, in the true Christmas spirit.
A long-time lover of textiles, paper, and fabrics, Nadia decided to take the time this year to nurture her design skills. After shifting her focus from the world of fine art to becoming incredibly successful in the custom wedding cake industry over the last many years, she was able to use the time and space 2020 provided her to revisit and fuse her love of fine art and sweet confections together. Putting her painting skills to very good use, she created a series of hand-painted gift wrap and greeting cards that will bring all the playful whimsy of the season into your home.
To capture the magic of this time of year, our team of Toronto photographers created an “At home with Nadia for the Holidays” inspired shoot - inviting her viewers into her enchanting home. A fan of the festive, she has long been inspired by the magic of Christmas. The music, the trimmings, the baking and cooking, the yuletide giving, “Ah! It’s always such fun!” she says. To capture the joy of the collection, we shot in her festive home. The main living space was converted fully with holiday cheer. Playfully dubbed “Tinsel Town”, it’s impossible to not get into the holiday spirit once seeing this room. Taking inspiration from so many styles - her home is an eclectic fusion of French provincial with English fabrics, and a little twist of Moroccan textiles - making for an eye-catching setting.
The Christmas tree really was the pièce de résistance on this enchanted set. A wintery, flocked tree, packed with Wedgwood Jasperware ornaments, blue suede bows, frosted blueberries, cotton and tinsel branches...it truly is that something blue we’ve been looking to capture! A mix of textures anchored around a monochromatic palette, and don’t get her started on her obsession with tartan (“It’s a holiday spale, period!”), her design aesthetic perfectly translates to celebrating the season at her home or yours.
Our team of Toronto photographers love working with Nadia. We take a collaborative approach and always aim to create an environment that’s open, comfortable, and above all else: fun! For the last scene of the shoot, we set up a Nadia & Co baking station worthy of The Claus’ and blasted vintage Christmas music. In her natural element, she did what she does best: create beautiful confections, all the while singing and dancing while we shot and captured the playful energy and festive spirit of the day with a mix of editorial and candid, natural style photographs. What’s more festive than baking cookies over the holidays? “My first at-home cookie mix received such an amazing response. It’s so rewarding to know others want to bring a little of what I offer home to their families.” she shared.
It was truly such a joy to get into the holiday spirit alongside this spirited crew. In a year filled with such uncertainty, we are grateful for festive moments like these and beautiful yuletide treasures like Nadia’s Holiday Collection to bring a little extra magic to our homes this holiday season.
