jaime melfi

Owner | Cake Artist | Wedding Coordinator | food stylist | mixologist | designer

Early years….

Jaime grew up in the Pine Barons of South Jersey, outside of Philadelphia - a town called Medford, New Jersey. As a young lady, she always had an unconditional love for art - drawing, painting, sewing, ceramics, interior design, sculpture, hair/makeup, costume design, graphic design, textile design, metals - the list goes on. Basically: all things creative. She loved it all! The idea of taking thoughts and dreams, and using your imagination, creativity, and heart, while using your hands to express yourself through some sort of a combination of mediums - that is pure love and beauty to her. Simultaneously, her love for food & travel, creating & experimenting with flavors, and food styling & photography grew. At a young age, she began her journey towards her artistic medium.

As soon as she was old enough to stand on her feet and hold a knife, she was taught how to cook. Always watching the food network & travel channel, dreaming constantly of exploring and tasting. Surrounded by food & travel from birth - she loved cooking & watching the food network with her grandmother, & while obsessing over cook books. Her Mom-Mom and her were extremely close, and she learned the beautiful simplicity of old school Polish & Irish cooking,. They loved watching Emeril, Iron Chef, Ace of Cakes, & Rachel Ray together and reading food magazines. Her father, a fellow foodie, butcher & chef, brought her to catering gigs & his Italian Butcher Shop in Philadelphia from birth. From him, she learned how to be a work horse, working in the food industry on your feet all day long, working holidays & long hours, experimenting with food, the importance for cooking for family, and the need for travel, inspiration & expressing those tools through her food. Her mother taught her to be an independent dreamer, a gypsy, free spirit, to love music & cultures, and to be a strong woman. She brought her to unique restaurants, and constantly had her trying weird & interesting food. She was able to taste different cultures and learn about the world through her. She traveled a lot with her Mom, Dad, Brother: Kevin, and Grandmother, and really got to experience a lot at a young age, which she is forever grateful for.

Growing up in a big family, she grew up around the idea of FOOD + LOVE + FAMILY. Entertaining, surrounded by love ones: eating, drinking, talking and laughing… that’s the only way to live. Her family still loves to bring up when she was 8 years old and cooked her big Italian family Roasted Corn & Salmon Chowder at her father’s birthday party! It was an original recipe she came up with because she loves salmon & jersey corn so much. She soon developed a passion for using her hands, entertaining and creating joy to everyone and anyone.

college….

She spent 4 years in North Carolina for college. Starting her artistic journey studying fine arts at East Carolina University, in Greenville, North Carolina. There she spent two years taking courses like art history, figure drawing, ceramics, metal design, painting, textile, and more. Eventually she decided to concentrate on textile design. Now craving a career in textiles and fashion design specifically, she then transferred to the mountains of Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. 

Her time in Boone proved to be two of the best years of her life. She found herself as an artist, thrived in school academically, student taught fashion courses, discovered her love for the mountains, made life-long friends, traveled, experiences a huge variety of live music, and discovered who she wants to be. During this time, she began working at a showroom in Atlanta, Georgia for Free People. This gave her the opportunity to begin working in a professional career, while in college. She loved traveling for work, exploring a different part of the country and learning a lot about fashion, retail, merchandising, & fashion buying.

After college….

After college, she moved back to New Jersey. She traveled to Atlanta 6 times a  year to work in a Free People showroom as a Sales Representative, while trying to find her path in her career. She worked for Anthropologie as a manager in the home department and accessories department. She was able to start dabbling in Visual Displays wit Anthropologie but couldn’t find an available position. Her design to be creative was strong, so she left retail to try another path. She taught art at a YMCA for a children’s after school program, worked in interior design for a year, was an artists assistant, did graphic design, event photography, and was hired as a florist. She tried anything and everything creatively during this time of career self discovery, which lasted till she was 25.

Throughout this whole time, at home, she was making jewelry & accessories. Very funky, bohemian type designs that she sold at Boutique’s she worked with through the Atlanta Market. Stores as far as Key West were carrying designs made by herself or her now business parter, Keith. Keith is a pro at making feather clusters for earrings! Fact!

When she needed a name for this company, she wanted to come up with a two word name, cause it had a good ring. She loved to travel and her favorite season was & still is, Autumn…AUTUMN NOMAD. Now that she thought had a ring to it! She did a lot of research to find there has yet to be a business called this, so she went for it! Autumn Nomad was originally women’s jewelry & accessories!

Eventually, she found herself chasing several dreams - creativity, cake design, floral design, event design, food styling, travel, being her own boss, and being happy. 

Cake art…

Her cake career started at Sweet T’s in Haddonfield NJ. She got to work for a true artist who had previously been on the Cake Boss. Next she worked at My Little Kupcake in Collingswood, NJ. Her desire to move back to the mountains brought her to New England, where she began working at the White Mountain Cupcakery in North Conway, New Nampshire. 

There she worked for Marc and Kathy Iannuzzi as their wedding coordinator and cake artist. During this, almost 4 year time period she worked for them, they developed an undescribable bond, friendship, and feeling of family that continues to grow today. Additionally, she found her style, as her wings began to grow. She was designing more and more, and started getting more into wedding design and becoming friends with other vendors. She designed her first inspiration shoot and first big wedding cake display. It was then that her wings grew and Autumn Nomad emerged. 

Autumn Nomad…

Jaime decided to take over the space in Jackson village and open up Autumn Nomad. She had been dreaming about Autumn Nomad for years and wanted to make it a reality. In her planning process, she wrote the below statement to herself in hopes to get her dream on paper - written September, 2016.

“Autumn Nomad is an artistic, edible concept. Day-to-day, customers can enjoy a quality cup of coffee, an inventive fast-service brunch, or a sweet treat. Couples can choose their ideal wedding cake flavor, while having a unique, one of a kind piece of edible art for their special day. Autumn Nomad also offers specialty styling and creative guidance for their wedding, as well as unique handmade décor to make their special day something to remember. “

April 7, 2017 Autumn Nomad opened their doors. Now, after 4 years of business, they’ve worked with over 800 couples to create specialty desserts for their weddings. They specialize in custom designed, artistic, out-of-the box cake designs and desserts. Beyond the wedding portion of their business, the cafe now staffs 12 people and is open Wednesday through Sunday, offering a full service coffee bar, homemade pastries, specialty breakfast and lunch sandwiches, catering, grab and go cakes, and  specialty themed cakes for all occassions. They have also branched into teaching workshops, editorial work, food styling, cocktails & bar service at events, catering and wedding planning. 

Recently, Autumn Nomad has been featured in Martha Stewart, The Knot, Brides, Green Wedding Shoes, Style Me Pretty, Ruffled Blog, Junebug, 100 Layer Cakelet, 100 Layer Cake, Wedding Chicks, Equally Engaged, Bliss Magazine, Seacoast Weddings Magazine, and more. Like most things, Autumn Nomad is starting to take on a life of her own and mold into something pretty exciting. 

Jaime continues to do all of their graphic design, branding, website, wedding coordinating, cake artistry, catering, as well as merchandise design and assisting managing the cafe. She absolutely loves working personally with each wedding couple along side her assistant Krystyna and Project Manager, Deb. In 2022, she will be starting to travel again worldwide for workshops and photoshoots. She is hoping to branch into writing cookbooks and food/travel blogs. She’s very ambitious, a true dreamer and can’t wait to see what Autumn Nomad has in store for her!