Mae's Sparkling Holiday Gift Guide Featuring Female-Owned Businesses
We hope that this Sparkling Holiday Gift Guide finds you staying safe, strong and happy during this holiday season. While masks and distancing with loved ones is advised, the traditions of the holiday season are still upon us! If you are able to show some love to your favorite people, we advocate shopping locally with small businesses when you can and giving back to the community whenever possible. See our #MAExHauteMod💋 Love Masks for a good cause. This holiday season we are pleased to share with you a Sparkling Holiday Gift Guide featuring diverse, talented women-owned businesses.
A Sparkling Holiday Gift Guide By…
Featuring
Ijorere
Ola Morin-Muhammad the owner of IJORERE wears many hats, each more beautiful than the last. Working with such precision, Ola creates intricate and gorgeous wedding invitations as well as amazing note cards and stationary that are perfect for everyday use. Ola’s creative sensibilities don’t simply herald grand occasions, her designs are individual works of art. Over the years, Ola has garnered accolades in the media, such as NBC, The Knot, Entrepreneur Magazine, Martha Stewart Weddings, INSIDE Weddings and many more. She also has designed for many celebrities, musicians, athletes and top industry experts! Ola says her life story is one that is shaped by culture, by geography and by a God-given eye for unique design! Her burgeoning enterprise is the result of a dedicated path and drive to see her creative vision brought to life. IJORERE’s beautiful holiday designs and cards are a meaningful way to send your love to friends and family this season!
Fierce Jewelry Co.
Growing up in Italian American homes Fierce Jewelry’s owners, Marissa Shrader & Joe Weber both viewed gold as an aspect deeply rooted in their lives from an early age. Gold is treasured as an investment that becomes an heirloom, and they feel honored to invite you to share in this special part of their heritage. Marissa and Joey’s top priority at FJC is delivering hand-crafted luxury Italian jewelry without dipping too deep into your pockets. Fierce Jewelry Co. is everyday luxury - always pure, never plated. Each piece is intended to be timeless yet luxurious, dainty yet durable. It’s important to note that their 14k Gold is ethically sourced, crafted and produced by their partners in Arezzo and Florence, Italy and shipped overseas right into your possession. This sweet girlfriend + boyfriend duo has crafted a line that is versatile enough to elevate your weekend dinner look or stay on as you rock it out in your next fitness class. Every piece is carefully named after family members in the hope that you feel the love and tradition behind their pieces as much as they do. Fierce Jewelry Co.’s pieces are a perfect staple to gift all of the jewelry lovers in your life this holiday season!
Check out their latest site-wide sale here.
Calia Stone
We are very excited to feature one of the most generous local businesses, Calia Stone. Enjoy the beauty of this marble design dreamland! Accomplished owner, Kristin Schloemer, provides her clients the best variety of quartzite, marble, granite, porcelain and specialty stones. Many of our clients come to us to plan their wedding while they are building and/or searching for their new home. It is an asset to have excellent designers like Kristin as an expert resource to send our clients to! From elegant and traditional to unique statement stones, Calia is proud to offer some of the most beautiful raw materials the Earth has to offer. Calia Stone is your trusted partner in the interior home design process all the way to material selection. Kristin provides her clients with an elevated stone selection experience and her River North studio features artwork from artists, like one of our absolute FAVs. Kelli DePaolis, known as HauteMod, a top multimedia artist! Make an appointment with Calia today!
Brittney Kee
Floral Design
Beginning fifteen years ago, talented Brittney Kee started creating gorgeous arrangements to make everyones floral dreams a reality! Brittney is a full service wedding florist who provides incredible design, on-site delivery to transitions to end of night pick ups. Her passion for flowers and people has allowed her business to grow, leaving a lasting impression on every customer. This holiday season Brittney is featuring a variety of fabulous gifts for you & your loved ones! While Brittney has holiday gifts such as soaps, candles and body butters, our two favorite holiday items from her collection are her floral centerpieces and holiday wreaths. Her floral centerpieces and wreaths include romance, texture and gorgeous color palettes. These pieces are a perfect gift or accents for your holiday dinner table!
Bon Vivant
Owner, Emily Nejad began Bon Vivant Cakes after baking a special, colorful five layered cake for her best friends 30th Birthday! Birthday cakes then turned into creative cakes for all types of celebrations: weddings, graduations, baby showers & bridal showers. Emily then knew it was time to take the plunge in creating her own company. Construction began in her sunny storefront studio in Albany Park in February 2018, and by August her small-but-mighty staff was celebrating the opening with balloons, a surprise marching band, and, of course, lots and LOTS of cake. Creating delicious, personalized edible art is a passion of Emilys, and when you're passionate about something you can't help but want to tell everyone about it. That's why Bon Vivant offers virtual cake & dessert design workshops for pastry pros and the cake-curious alike! When you enter a Bon Vivant class you enter a world art, confection, playfulness, creativity and lots good humor! Bon Vivant cakes are a perfect way to celebrate the holiday season! This year Bon Vivant is featuring their Kitschmas Classics a Funky Tree, Brownie Wreath and much more!
Read more about Emily and her wonderful business Bon Vivant in our blog
Bariano Prosecco
Bariano Prosecco is able to put the word “sparkling” in Sparkling Holiday! This delicious bubbly was created by Tricia Barry Romano and the Romano family of Chicago, distributors of wine and spirits since the 1930s. The Romano family partnered with the Rive Della Chiesa di Gasparetto family of Italy to create a fresh, new Prosecco for distribution throughout the US. From the moment, I met Tricia (began planning her daughter’s wedding + sipped on her Prosecco) a lifelong friendship was born! You will love their light and elegant, bubbles perfect for celebrations! Bariano is made of Glera grapes nurtured in the rich soil of Italy’s Treviso province. With a fresh, bright taste and a lovely fragrance, Bariano can be an everyday aperitif or served alongside hors d’oeuvres, soups and seafood. Our recommendation is enjoy with those you love!
This Thanksgiving Bariano partnered with MAE for a Friendsgiving Giveaway, gifting a variety of their bottles with our Lavender #MAExHauteMod💋Love Masks! Earlier this Spring we worked together on gifting to healthcare heroes, our frontline workers. Bariano is the absolute BEST! Order your splits and bottles of Bariano at Drizly, Binny’s & Mariano’s!
Stacks By Gianna
Jewelry has always been a huge part Gianna Trobiani’s life. Gianna’s parents have pictures of her decked out with obscene amounts of necklaces, bracelets and rings on at a very young age! She was known for layering bracelets and necklaces on top of one another until she no longer had room!
Hence Stacks by Gianna was born!
One of our favorite aspects of Gianna’s jewelry is her being an advocate for the power of manifestation! She encourages that in each of her client’s to help create the most unique keepsakes for their own use and gifting. We love these stacks!
Stone Monroe
Stone Monroe Boutique built its foundation with the goal of empowering women and offering confident comfortable looks at an affordable price. Founder, Kayleigh Kelly, decided to embark on this journey after spending several years in the fashion and retail industry. Her time in the industry involved various positions from customer service up to assistant buyer. These various positions established a unique ability to identify consumer needs at a reasonable price. While Kayleigh continues to focus on the newest and always changing trends, she recognize that offering essential basics (that won’t break the bank) is essential.
Since athleisure and loungewear are essential staples these days, definitely check out Stone Monroe’s trendy sets. We love their Yellowstone Cardigan and Butter joggers, perfect for your work from home look! Take note of their 20% off through Cyber Monday!
Mirror Image Boutique
Mirror Image Boutique strives to inspire women of different shapes, sizes & cultures to feel empowered and confident through unique, affordable fashion at any stage of life. Founders Jennifer and Christina, a set of identical twins (!!), are passionate about helping women look and feel great about themselves through fashion. Their goal is to inspire you! They strive to bring you new looks that incorporate an element of vintage, elegance and edge so you can have fun exploring new styles. Shine bright this holiday season in their glamorous Monte Carlo Rhinestone Long Bar Earrings available in 3 colors: Gold (has black and silver rhinestones), Silver, and Rose Gold!
Left on Thread
Left on Thread is an online women’s boutique born in Brooklyn, NY and now in Chicago. Let’s welcome founder Amanda Scherf to the Windy City! Amanda’s brand is inclusive for women of ALL shapes and sizes. She believes in the power of simplicity, exemplifying that style doesn't mean sticking to the latest trends but rather feeling comfortable and looking great in everyday pieces. Left on Thread is featuring their Emmie Knit Ribbed Set in Mocha and Olive. This adorable set is extremely soft and stretchy, with wide-legged pants, pockets and a cute cropped top with an overlapped front!
scrub me
Katherine Heinz, owner of scrub me is a kind-hearted, savvy esthetician who opened up her skincare studio to bring you access to excellent service and products that are cruelty-free and plant-based! This mindful lady also makes house calls! We love her spray tans and so do our clients! No matter where Kat or her clients are, she creates a relaxing, cozy vibe where clients can talk all things skin care and beauty. In consultations Kat will help you decide what treatments and products are best for you. scrub me has everything to help you GLOW - facials, peels, body treatments, spray tanning and so much more! Kat’s passion in life is making others feel radiant and every time clients leave relaxed and glowing, her heart is full. Take a peek at scrub me’s favorite items for the holidays in their Instagram giveaway!
DESEDA
Chicago mover and shaker, Sarah Somers, founder of DESEDA, creates silk scarves that are designed to accessorize life's most vibrant moments. Each hand-finished, limited-edition scarf is printed in Italy and designed in collaboration with artists from around the world. Somers launched DESEDA in 2018 as a lifelong scarf lover herself, her vision for DESEDA unfolded as she made the tie between her passion for fun, sophisticated design, emerging artists, and her signature accessory. At DESEDA, they aspire to connect with clients who have a shared love of art, design and style while creating statement accessories that make you look and feel fabulous! The Sirens is my current personal fave from the collection... It reminds me of the sea and fun days and nights in South Beach with gal pal Fallon PR!
Maha Studio
With over a decade of experience capturing celebrations rich in tradition and culture, Maha Studios is a great option for your photography needs. Maha and her photography + videography team understand capturing the nuances and fleeting moments that complete the story of your special moment. Maha doesn’t miss a beat and her goal is to understand your vision by understanding and getting to know you first. Maha weaves a poetic collection of photos, film and video into your life moment that will bring joy for eternity! This talent behind the camera creates photo and video keepsakes that truly last forever! That is Maha’s promise! Here are some of our favorite images from a family portrait session. For more on Maha, her lifestyle sessions including wedding photography and video, please see her website!
Provenance By
Diana Michelle
Diana McCarty, owner and curator of Provenance is one of our favorite retailers at 900 N. Michigan Avenue Shops who specializes in luxury, custom, menswear. Diana offers the most elegant bespoke fabrics, hardware, details and fashion from around the world. Provenance is rooted in full circle sophistication and quality materials and they offer both men’s and women’s lifestyle essentials. These include accessories, clothing, jewelry, fine parfum (One of our favorites Floraïku!), hand bags, outerwear and home decor.
Please note that Provenance and all of the retailers at 900 N. Michigan Shops (From name brands to small business alike!) are following all health and safety protocol to ensure the safest shopping experience. Black Friday through December 24, 2020, everyday from 4-7pm 900 will be hosting a Twilight Shopping Holiday Happy Hour. Aster Hall is offering $5 red & white wine and kiddie cocktails, too!
*If you choose to drive instead of sip, parking is currently being validated up to 3 hours with a $10 purchase. This is conveniently connected to 900 Shops at 911 N. Rush Street. Take your parking ticket with you to get validated inside.
Michigan Avenue Events
“The truest form of love is where you are able to put your own needs aside to do what is best for the ones you love.” As a wedding and event planner, 2020 has put me to the ultimate test like millions of business owners around the world. My response has been listening, learning, lending a helping hand and implementing new, dimensional experiences like Virtual and Hybrid Events into our planning services. We are honored to be able to offer excellent and exciting new event elements to our clients! In addition, we have dove into a sweet passion project in 2020, our new #MAExHautemod💋Masks! It was a little endeavor with local business BBJ Linen and inspired by an inclusive wedding event that MAE planned and produced Amsale x Kercher with Fallon Ryan and Kelli DePaolis @hautemod. The masks are dedicated to our frontline workers, community, clients & loved ones! They are also based on a message of INCLUSIVITY, come in all Pantone colors, styles and sizes and raise money for charitable causes supporting BLM + LGBTQ community.
One of our absolute mainstays for gifting that is especially sweet over the holidays is jewelry from our favorite girl boss Nicki Galper, owner of Nicki Roxx whose jewelry is featured above. We recently held a generous giveaway for Brides who had to postpone their 2020 wedding in which they received jewelry sets for their bridal party from Nick Roxx! We think that Nicki’s jewelry makes perfect bridesmaids and best friend gifts! Some of our favorite pieces are featured across MAE’s website and pictured, The Abby.
Be sure to use code MAE25 for all of your Nicki Roxx shopping and gifting this season!
Stay tuned as Brianne + Team MAE plan an exciting array of virtual holiday events throughout the season! please feel welcome to contact us with your ideas, questions and special requests! New for Winter 2020/2021, we are hosting virtual client appreciation events that include unique experiences with hosted industry experts, fun consultations, workout classes, gifts, yoga and even meditation sessions with one of our faves, Rachel Buccieri of Soulful Ray.
We hope that you enjoyed our Sparkling Gift Guide featuring fabulous, female-owned businesses! Please stay strong and healthy, especially during this time.
Please Contact Brianne Garritano and Team MAE for features and more information!
With Extra Love This Holiday Season + Cheers To All Fabulous, Fearless Small Businesses,
xoxo Brianne, Grace & Team Mae
312.585.7265