Citywide Services

The best businesses are born of personal frustration, and WOW Bakes is one such. Founder and mama Sharon Overfield struggled to find quality gluten-free bread for her daughter with celiac disease and turned to her own kitchen instead. After years of careful study and adventures in fermentation, she came up with the tastiest free-of-unnecessary-additives natural bread, crackers, and sweet treats. To order, contact Sharon via Instagram or email. Delivery is free throughout the Westside of LA, but be sure to get your requests in early—WOW Bakes is a one-woman show.

Schentell Nunn has a knack for crafting wildly textural statement bouquets and floral installations with a distinctly modern edge. When it comes to weddings and events, Nunn is seriously in demand, which is no surprise after scrolling through her IG feed and website. Her arrangements contrast full petals from plump flowers like peonies and roses with long grasses, wispy leaves, and other jaw-dropping blooms we can’t name or look away from. Look through the floral offerings section of her site for arrangements available to order. Oh, and as if the flowers weren’t enough, Nunn also designs perfect-for-everyday chunky rings, stackable bracelets, and other gorgeous pieces for her jewelry line, NÜN. Images courtesy of Ashley Randall and Casa de Perrin.

Tabia Yapp’s floral arrangements are like fragrant art installations for the home. Each month Yapp creates a limited number of vibrant vases (get your order in early) filled with florals styled to play with color and scale. A happy ten minutes scrolling through the Bia Blooms Instagram feels like art therapy; it’s impossible not to feel soothed by the beauty of these arrangements. Sign up for Yapp’s newsletter (the appropriately named Bloomsletter) for details on her monthly limited floral collections. When she’s not crafting bouquets, Yapp runs Beotis, a boutique talent agency for creatives of color. Images courtesy of Tabia Yapp and Dean Castano.

A bouquet of wildflowers and roses landed on the desk of a goop editor recently, and everyone in the office gaped. The light pink and yellow flowers were stunningly arranged and so fresh you could smell them ten desks away. It was the Platonic ideal of a bouquet—thoughtful and artistic and perfect. This was our first introduction to FLOOM, a relatively new online floral-delivery service. It was founded by Paris-born Lana Elie, who has held creative roles at high-end luxury brands across the globe. The service is incredibly streamlined. The site is easy to navigate and the arrangements come looking exactly how you order them. The service works with local floral designers in Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco to make sure everything is fresh and delivered intact.

Emma Feil is well-known around Los Angeles, and for good reason: She’s the master of candid occasion shots—be they weddings, home interiors, birthday parties, or a special portrait of your newborn. Feil manages the impossible with kids—unstaged, active shots of little ones in motion, often looking directly at the camera (not easy). Many of the pictures featured on some of our favorite websites, like Clare V and Ariel Gordon, are stellar examples of Feil’s product-based work.

We have often found that the realities of hosting an outdoor sleepover have a way of stalling plans. Camp’d Out is a full-service luxury tent company that accommodates off-the-grid locations with ease. Pick a patch of desert or an unoccupied hillside (with permission, of course) and this female-founded company will handle the rest. Tents are spacious and decked out with comfortable blow-up mattresses, organic sheets, rugs underfoot, and handy storm lamps. Camp’d Out will also tailor the campsite to your event with heaters, a camp butler to help with the drinks, a fire pit to ward off the chill (and toast a few s’mores), and an outdoor lounge area to maximize the under-the-stars experience. Go big and book Moonrise Standard to cook a feast. You won’t regret it.

Kris and Sarah Yenbamroong have all of LA under the spell of their interpretation of Thai street food—served with their well-curated, biodynamic wine list. Kris Yenbamroong has no formal training, but no matter: He learned how to cook in both Bangkok and the kitchen of old Thai mainstay Talésai. Not a week goes by without a handful of goop staffers crowding a table at one of the couple’s three Night + Market restaurants in Silver Lake, West Hollywood, and most recently, Venice. Night + Market Song’s flavorful, vegetarian-friendly Thai food is also available for catering. One (very appealing) option is for chef Yenbamroong to come and set up kitchen in your home to personally cook for a dinner party or small event. For weddings and larger events, the whole team gets involved. Serving plates of crab fried rice; short rib curry with crisp, oil-slick roti for dipping; the sweetest coconut sticky rice; and eye-wateringly spicy papaya salad at your party is unexpected and significantly more exciting than boilerplate hors d’oeuvres. Available in the Los Angeles area only.

After bonding over a shared love of throwing parties and scouring Pinterest boards and Etsy for inspiration, Jessi Means and Lindsey Kauffman decided there must be a faster way to put together cohesive, beautiful events. With Celebrated, they do the legwork for you. The party-in-a-box kits cover both adult and kids’ parties and accommodate twelve guests or more. For kids, expect clever themes, like Happy Camper (stocked with fairy lights, buffalo plaid plates and napkins, scavenger hunt activity cards, and toy flashlights), plus staples like princesses and superheroes. For adults, garden parties, baby showers, margarita fiestas are covered. (They'll also send you party menu suggestions and a shopping list.) What we love: Each party type includes a "special touches" section where you can add extras to customize your event—be it confetti balloons, pool floats, or cake toppers. Attention procrastinators: There's an option for two-day shipping.

The best businesses are born out of need. The Chain Press is one such example. Masterminded by Naoise McGee, an Irish émigré who missed handwritten letters, the company celebrates old-fashioned craft and encourages the simple gesture of sending a note or invitation on proper stationery. McGee works with clients to create designs and monograms that reflect their personalities and passions. Aside from bespoke personal stationery, the Chain Press also designs custom wedding invitations, announcement cards, even accent pieces for the home, all handmade by McGee—a one-woman show—on a midcentury Vandercook cylinder press in her new Los Angeles atelier.

This string ensemble, made up of four friends and music school grads, is a fun and elegant option for virtually any type of event. Musically, the Cattus repertoire ranges across classical, jazz, pop, and rock—and they're happy to take requests. (Read: they'll gladly play everything from Pachelbel's Canon​ to Guns N' Roses with equal aplomb.) A secondary passion for these players—aside from their music—is animal welfare, so a portion of the proceeds from their performances goes directly to charity. Photo: Morgan Hydinger