Girly Safari Birthday Party - PART 2

Okay, I didn't want any of the pictures to get lost on one long post so I had to break them up.  The dessert tables and all the beautiful signage really need their own shine :)  You can go to my facbook page to view the entire album from this party tomorrow.  

I was so fortunate to find Alison of The English Pea.  She designed all of the signage and custom made a few signs for me.  Her work is super amazing! 

18x24s at the dessert table sums up the event pretty well : )

Signs for the treat table and also the food room which was dubbed the Watering Hole

                    
I picked tropical/exotic cookie flavors to play off of the safari theme for my milk and cookies bar.  The GREEN TEA SHORTBREAD was fabulous and made by Crumbles Cookie Factory.   The Cinnamon Guava Sandwich cookies were so delicious and made by Zugar Haus. 

Orange Chocolate Blossoms by Butter Blossoms.  If I told you how good these little cookies were you would think I was exaggerating so I'll simply say, TRY THEM : )

THE MILK, needs no introduction lol

My client had already commissioned the cake from a fabulous cake designer that I was happy to be introduced to.  Elegantly Iced Cakes is AMAZING!!!

Just over the treat table hung the perfect burlap banner also from Haley Davis, such beautiful work.

The treat table was so fun to design.  I included some nature elements with the tree stump cake riser, and the moss ball trees atop the tree stump vases.  I spray painted some tine tin planters and they became the perfect vessels for my milk.  The signage ties in all of the safari prints perfectly.

The guests walked away with a delicious cookie from Fun Favors which was an amazing iced shortbread cookie.  SO YUM! 

Vendor List for Part 1 and 2:


Graphic Designs: The English Pea
Burlap banners: Haley Davis
Vinyl Cling: Bubba & Doodle
Clear tubes for animal crackers: Quaintly Amazing
Cookies: Crumbles Cookie Factory, Zugar Haus, Butter Blossoms, and Fun Favors
Event planning and design: DUH lol, The Party Muse

ALL PHOTOGRAPHY (for the pics I'm posting) BY MY FRIEND FRED OF CAPTIVE MEMOIRS!!!  I was so lucky to have him on board for this day.  

Hope you enjoyed :)

Girly Safari First Birthday Party - PART 1

Hi all!  Here's the first look at the Safari themed first birthday party I did in NYC yesterday.  I'm so excited to share a few of my favorite photos with you and also links to some extraordinary vendors I had the pleasure of working with.  The full album will be posted on my facebook page later this week but I wanted to show here first.  Hope you enjoy :)

The welcomer :)  This little guy (actually 5ft. long so not so little!) was the first thing you saw as you entered the event space.  Cute right?!  Lots more to choose from in the Bubba & Doodle Esty Shop.

I worked hard on making what I thought were the perfect centerpieces.  These were on all the low cocktail tables.  I had a smaller version of these with green hydrangea that I had on the high cocktail tables. 

In any event that I design, the kids tables and favors are my main focus.  I love to make sure to provide them with multiple favors if possible and a fun atmosphere.  Here are a few pics of the kids tables.

 Each place setting had a stuffed animal, bubbles, a puzzle, and animal crackers.  The beautiful chair banners were made by a super talented, Haley Davis.  They were burlap and hand painted. 

I hope you enjoyed the first look at this super fun party!  I'll be back with PART 2 which centers around the goodies of the dessert table tomorrow.  Let me know what you think so far!

Busy Summer!!

Hi all!

I can't believe I've been away from my blog for as long as I have, it's totally criminal! Since I haven't spoken to you guys all summer, I figured I'd just dip my toe back into the blog world before I get in fully with a new post :) My summer has been really awesome and I just can't believe it's almost over. I've been spending so much time with my family which is always great. The weekends have been hours at the park, beach, bounce U, boardwalks, and festivals! My little one is already going to be 3 next month and even though he's still small, I can't even believe how big he is. It's been a great summer getting to watch him do things for the first time and really enjoying himself. He says to me all the time "I'm happy mom" lol, he totally knows how to get me!

Anyway in the party world I'm so happy to be apart of a $100 party designers challenge which is all about my favorite thing....pretty party on a budget! Definitely more about that later. I revamped my whole website and also the party planning options that I offer. I can't wait to share with you all the fun party package themes I have. One of which I'm giving my son next month, Vintage Train, for his 3rd birthday. Also, I'm working on a fabulous safari party for early September and even though it's not here yet I'm looking forward to sharing the pics with you :)

So that's all I've got going on. I hope you guys have been having a great summer! I promise, another blog post THIS WEEK!

Networking Event with AMY ATLAS!

Happy Monday!! I'm so happy to blog about this event. It all began on Martha Stewart's Dreamers Into Doers on a chat board where regional groups were forming to meet up. I love networking and meeting area business women so when the opportunity to

came up for someone to plan the NJ event I JUMPED at it!

Dawn of Bee*s Knees Parties offered to help and I was happy to have a partner.

Dawn and I had so much fun planning this event and became fast friends. We now call each other "partners in fabulousness" lol. Within days of deciding to plan this event Dawn had fearlessly emailed Amy Atlas and started working with her assistant Lisa to be a speaker at our event. We decided that it would be one HUGE surprise if we could pull it off....and we did....and it was!

Decor elements: Paper invitations, and all paper decor and logo design by the fabulous

Two Pooch Paperie. The Swag bags were donated by Martha Stewart Living and contained Martha mags along with items from each of the group members and a few honorary members!

Here's the girls all having a good time, we gathered at Alice's Tea Cup, Chapter 2.

It was such an adorable place and get this, we got to meet the owners who

are a pair of woman business owners! I highly recommend this place :)

Amy along with her assistant Lisa, made a grand entrance and were met with screams, cheers, and OMG's! It was the most exciting moment. Amy didn't stand at the podium, she wanted to sit and have more of a conversation which was just amazing. With 9 of us there, it was amazing to have all of our questions answered so thoughtfully by Amy. Lisa added in some details of her career path which was so inspiring. They were both delightful! Amy even mentioned that she had visited all of our websites, AAHHHHHHHHH, I was dying lol.

The group! Crista of Creations by Crista Marie, Sarah of Dreamers Joy Events, Jennifer of The Hudson Cakery, Dawn of Bee*s Knees Parties, Vanessa of Vanessa Grant Events, Lisa of Polkadot Pound Cake Co., Dawn of Hydrandrea Home, and Gemma of Brainfry Concepts

I had the most spectacular time and I'm so excited to have met these ladies. You are all talented, special, and my new friends ☺There will be MANY more events in the future! Thank you so much to Amy Atlas, Two Pooch Paperie, and Martha Stewart Living.

Got hard boiled eggs? Make these!

HOPPY EASTER everyone! Tis' the season for chocolate, jelly beans, bunnies, and hard boiled eggs! In my family we dye eggs and have an Easter Egg Hunt. I grew up with cousins and later on around age 13 my sisters (I have three) started to come. It made for festive times for sure. I'll be dying eggs today with my son and husband but with only 3 of us there will be A LOT left over. If you're like me you'll be happy to see that there are tons of cools things you can do with your left over hard boiled eggs :)

First up - Instead of stuffing the egg, why now leave the stuffing in a little bowl and make this cute FLOWER with the halved egg whites! I thought this was so CLEVER, and so SPRINGY. Just pick up a petal and stuff to your liking :)

How cute it this?! Totally giving DEVILED EGG a new meaning! I bet the kids would love to try to make this :)

Now I LOVE the entire egg, but believe it or not, all people don't eat the whites...go figure ; ) Even though this DEVILED EGG SPREAD has chopped whites in it, you could leave them out and it would still be yummy with the crackers. Use the left over whites to thin out your breakfast or add to salad!

What goes better with an EGG than BACON?! Bacon and Cheddar deviled eggs...YES please :)

How perfect is this for an Easter Dinner appetizer! No eggs going to waste here, and the presentation is PERFECT for a fancy meal at home :)

If you try one of these, let me know, I would LOVE to see!

Package Your Favor

I can't tell you how busy it's been lately, I sure have missed blogging these past few weeks. I should be back to normal now :) I've been thinking lately about the elements of a good party, more than good really, I guess a stylish party! One of the things that stood out to me that all stylish parties have are pretty favors. Favors, gifts, giveaways, take aways, good bags, loot whatever you call them they're all the same, a nice little token of your appreciation for each guest. I really have a BIG problem with those little bags of junk toys you normally get at the "birthday factory" type places, most times it's stuff you wont let your kid have or play with. I lean more towards edible, at least that way you can bet that they didn't go to waste.

To ensure that your party favor is stylish and lending to the décor of the party if you decide to leave them out, is to make sure the packaging is pretty. Here are some ideas and examples of some of the prettiest favor packaging I've seen.

Waxed bag with top stitching, LOVE!

Cookies in a great jar

Sweet treat in a box with ribbon, tag, and fork

Could be anything in here right?! But it doesn't even matter because this is a great reusable bag with nice modern tag. THE cutest little "Stash Bag"

Hope you're inspired for these ideas!

Share with me some pretty favor packaging you've done or seen.

Lemony Goodness

So I've been enjoying the warm and snow free weather we've been having in my area. Looks like that ground hog knew what he was talking about, which freaks me out lol! Anyway, spring is on it's way and while this is not a direct connection, spring made me think of the sun, which is yellow, which reminded me of my love of lemon desserts.

Funny how everything comes back to food : )

My all time favorite flavor for dessert is LEMON! There used to be an ice cream shop by my house growing up that made the best homemade lemon ice cream, it was really one of the best things I've ever tasted in my life. It was so good that even people who turned up their nose and didn't want to try is were converted to lovers of this ice cream, it was pure magic. I think that's where my love of lemon began. I picked some lemony goodness to share with you.

What's your favorite dessert flavor? Does it tie to a specific fond memory?

YUMMY Lemon Mousse! I of course love this presentation too : )

Lemon Chiffon Marshmallow

I need to make these NOW, lemon and blueberry pancakes

Who could resist a macaron, lemon or not, but lemon is the best : )