Archives for January 2011

 This Anthropologie-like bridal shower I styled last week was so much fun! There is tons of great inspiration out there for vintage flowers and decor. I was really pleased with how it turned out!

In order to designate who the Bride was (as if anyone would NOT know!) I found these gorgeous, pre-made pennant letters from the Ruffled blog. Seriously, bookmark this link for your next party, it’s so easy! Print out the pre-made bunting letter to spell the word you want, and cut it out!

                                                                           

Next up flowers, real and faux! Faux as in tissue paper, not silk…don’t worry 🙂 Real flowers first:

I wanted do an eclectic mix of vases and flowers, so here was my collection:

 Colored glasses – World Market

 Green birdies – Old Time Pottery

 Blue Glass pedestals – Old Time Pottery

Mini Off White Urns – Old Time Pottery

 Clear glass with dots – Ikea

(I have to tell you, my vase collection is out of control. I need a storage unit for my glassware….for serious.)

For flowers, I used a mix of pink/white carnations, white “football mums,” yellow Billy Balls and gorgeous pink peonies.  I clustered arrangements in the center of the tables for a pretty centerpiece!

 

For the “faux” flowers, I went mini-pom crazy! Poms are tissue paper flowers first made famous by Martha Stewart … I think, at least that’s where I first saw it! I put a different colored pom on each place setting:

I created garland with a vintage vibe by using string and scrapbook paper. One of the best buys for a DIY event is a book of pretty scrapbook paper. It’s $14 bucks or so, and you get so much use out of it! My friend Hillary came over one day and we drank one and created garland. It was a good time – thanks Hill!

I did 6 different strands. 3 between 2 columns in the entrance to the dining room, and three on the mirror on the back of the wall. I was definitely up on a ladder to get those suckers to stay on, and it turns out – I’m afraid of being on a ladder! Who knew. Another thing I learned? Very hard to take pictures of garland!

 

Let’s take a view of the whole table now…there were actually 2 tables, so here they are!

A champagne toast to the bride. Again, I used scrapbook paper to make pretty tags for the flutes!

I loved the favors! They were small white boxes that had each guest’s name on them and doubled as place cards. Inside the boxes? Chocolates, but personalized to the couple! An I heart NYC chocolate to pay homage to the couple’s home, a ladybug chocolate because ladybugs are a childhood nickname of the Bride, and chocolate kisses with crowns and Queen City stickers on them. (Charlotte (the bride’s hometown) is known as the Queen City.) 

There’s that scrapbook paper again – that’s 3 uses in one party if you’re counting 🙂

A close up of the personalized chocolates:

And finally, the all important topic of food. For a bridal luncheon, it needs to be light and girly … to put it plainly. I used Dean and Deluca catering, who always does a beautiful job. On the menu?

Chicken Cobb Salad (set up as a station so people could make their own)

Currant Tomato and Gruyere Cheese Tartlets (amazing)

Green Goddess Sushi Roll (Basically fresh veggie sushi)

Can you get more girly than that – the word tartlet just screams girly!

Now I am off to catch up on all my favorite blogs… I haven’t had time to look at any this week! I’ll be in cyberspace visiting my “friends” if you need me 🙂

First and foremost – HAPPPPPPPY NEW YEAR! I finally took down my Christmas tree this weekend, which officially signals the end of the holiday season for me. It’s painful taking down the tree. I may have shed a tear or two. On the plus side, it’s always fun to watch Mr. Fo take the tree outside to the trash. Basically I laugh while he curses as he gets sap and pine needles all over himself and says this is the “last year we will get a real tree.” Oh Mr. Fo… as if you have any say in that decision. I run Christmas in this house…WORD!

To ring in the New Year, we had a little soiree at our place before going out to dinner with friends. I think it’s safe to say that we are past the point of crazy New Year Eves (NERD ALERT), but I still like to celebrate with some friends, food and bubbly. After a quick trip to Party City and the Dollar Tree, I had a nice little gold, silver and black New Years Eve theme. Take a look at the pictures of the party taken by my friend Flanagan. Thanks Flan!

This NYE 2010 might as well have been brought to you by: Ballatore Spumante Rose.

It’s my new favorite beverage. Why?

1) It’s $8 for a bottle. EIGHT! OCHO! (That’s all the languages I know)

2) It’s a beautiful dark pink color. 

3) Champagne is supposedly the lowest caloric alcoholic beverage…meaning you can eat more cheese and  cupcakes at parties.

I had champagne flutes for all of the guests sitting in a tray of silver tinsel. Each flute had a name tag tied with a gold ribbon. I think it turned out very cute and festive! Note the hodgepodge of flute styles…Drives me crazy! We got a set of beautiful matching champagne flutes for our wedding, but we returned them because we had ZERO room to store them! I would have stored them in the bathtub if I knew how many times I would have used the matching flutes. Oh well 🙂

I made a few light appetizers to tide us over until our New Years Eve dinner. On the menu?

Cranberry-BBQ Meatballs – BBQ Sauce, Cranberry sauce and thawed meatballs done in the slow cooker! 

Shrimp – marinated with minced garlic and lemon – YUMM

Caprese Salad – drizzled with olive oil, balsamic and lemon…use GOOD FRESH MOZZARELLA in water – it makes a difference! Serve with toasted crostini.

Also served were mac and cheese bites, found on my blog HERE, and celery/carrot/ranch “shooters.” I chose these appetizers because they were all super easy and most involved assembly only, versus cookies. The apps I did have to cook I was able to prepare before. This is a great menu for a light spread that won’t leave you in the kitchen all night! 

I did create the Martha Stewart clock countdown cupcakes, as I mentioned HERE! It was pretty easy to do! I made pink champagne cupcakes with a white chocolate glaze. They were DELICIOUS. Mr. Fo wrote the numbers on the cupcake with black icing…he’s good at that kind of stuff 🙂 Check it out!

Here are some additional pictures of the set-up:

In this picture you can see how the food was served on raised gold chargers. Underneath the chargers were glass containers filled with the silver foil shred/tinsel. I got bags of it at the Dollar store, and it was worth every penny!

 

Cheers to 2011! Guess it’s back to the real world tomorrow 🙂