This Summer I attended a beautiful event; not just because of its exciting venue of Floating Harbour Studios and gorgeous flowers from Flower & Land, but because of the lovely people. Yonder Collective is an exciting “space” created by Emma Chapman-Burnett and Rebecca Storey, who sought to build up a community of like-minded creative people to collaborate and inspire each other.

Having slightly stalked their Instagram account for a while, their gorgeous photos tempted me in. Admittedly I originally felt like somewhat of an impostor when I booked my ticket. Although I am surrounded by creative individuals at work, my personal creativity is restricted to when I have the time and energy outside of work. At the time I had a pop-up coming up, which seemed pretty small fry compared to some of the exciting things others were up to. That didn’t seem to matter though as everyone was massively encouraging and supportive about each other’s projects.

The theme of the evening was “Make you Mark” –  focused on creating a visible impact and celebrating individuality whilst maintaining authenticity. HMSS Cocktails introduced the concept with style, greeting us with what looks like a Chinese noodle box, which in fact housed a delicious Kentucky cocktail. The flower pots beautifully decorating the tables also turned out to be a surprise, when we were told to stick our straw in the soil and try the scrummy gin concoction. HMSS are already a favourite of mine, managing to excite the senses with their creative beverages without impacting on the quality of cocktail taste.

Venturing down from the deck, goegeously decorated tables were set with delicious starters from Griffett Catering. Delicate and colourful sharing plates of salmon ceviche, beetroot and broccoli salads, BBQ courgette pastries and stunning pressed ham hock terrine, perfect for nibbling on as we got to know our creative fellow diners. Their food is beautiful to the eye and the taste-buds. We helped ourselves to the gorgeous wine on tap from More Wine – offering splendid organic and low sulphite wines, that are available in Bag in Box, pouches, and even cans. I particularly fell in love with the rosé – the perfect match for the delightful main of soy marinated chicken, with noodles, greens and perfect seasoning of cornish seaweed and garlic.

An inspirational talk from Natalie of Caro Somerset gave an interesting insight from someone who had completely changed their lifestyle and her experiences of making her mark in an unfamiliar territory. For anyone who hasn’t already perused the website , I recommend doing that now. So many beautiful items that I want to own. The dessert was introduced by the creative genius behind The Bakemonger. The baked creations are absolutely mind blowing! The dessert of “Pink Landscape”: a surreal and psychedelic representation of an edible summer landscape, was more than a cake. It still amazes me that piece of art was completely edible.

The event was planned to every single detail and celebrates local Artisans who are doing things differently, even down to the gorgeous place settings printed by The Old Market Printing Company.

YONDER seeks to be a creative initiative giving people a platform to be encouraged and build ideas. It did exactly that; thank you.

 

For any fellow Instagram lovers out there, here is a whole heap of Instagram accounts you should definitely follow from the event:

• Emma Chapman – Burnett from Yonder Collective – @emmachristina7
• Becky Storey from Yonder Collective – @rebeccastorey14
• Her Majesty’s Secret Service – @hmss_bristol
• Griffett Catering – @griffettcatering
• The Bakemonger – @the_bakemonger
• Caro Somerset – @carosomerset
• The Old Market Printing Company – @theoldmarketprintingco
• Flower & Land – @_flowerandland
• Harts Bakery – @hartsbakery
• More Wine – @morewineontap
• Origin Coffee – @origincoffeeroasters

They have a super exciting event coming up in October – “Rooted with why”. For any wonderful creatives out there, get involved: Yonder Collective events.