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Archives for December 2015

7th Annual Cookie Party: Candy Cane Lane + a Peppermint White Russian

December 23, 2015 By Jackie Fo Leave a Comment

If you don’t know, we take our Christmas Cookie Party pretttty seriously around these parts. This years party “Candy Cane Lane” was our 7th Annual and we had a blast!

CookiePartyMantel Bar Cart

If you want to review last years party theme – Gold and Glitter – you can check that out in the link below:

Gold and Glitter Cookie Party

 We had peppermint cocktails, candy canes of all sizes and a very special guest. Let’s review our fun day on Candy Cane Lane!

We stepped our invitation game up this year by hand delivering box-style invitation wrapped with a red and striped ribbon.

CookiePartyInvite2

The invitation was designed by Scratch Paper Studio (LOVE Natasha’s work and she’s local for you Charlotte peeps!) and was accented by you guessed it – a candy cane! Party tip: A creative invitation sets the tone for the fun that’s to come!

CookiePartyInvite1

Guests were thrilled to be greeted by a fabulously decorated bar cart rimming with festive goodies and the aforementioned Candy Cane Cocktail. More on that later. Thanks to Tarjay for having this bar cart that we added to our party arsenal. We can always count on you. Ridiculously over decorated bar cart below:

Bar Cart

Not only did guests have a choice of the candy cane cocktail or a cranberry Prosecco immediately upon arrival, the drinks were delivered by the one and only Santa Claus! (Note: Large variety of Santa costumes at your nearest Party City.)

CookiePartyMantel Santa

As usual, my mom strung her beautiful garland up and down the stairs in the entryway. We accented the garland with striped bows from Michaels (aka my 2nd home and the reason why I’m constantly covered in glitter during the month of December). We also lined up our cookie tins on the stairs like so:

CookiePartyStaircase

The trees and mantels were decorated with extra special Candy Cane Care.

CookiePartyMantel2

CookiePartyMantel4

CookiePartyMantel

The main cookie table (the party has grown so much we have 2 tables of cookies now!) was lined with a beautiful red chevron runner I rented from gals at Party Reflections and a plethora of candy cane trees. It was a real peppermint overload. But in a good way.

CookiePartyTable2

CookiePartyMantel Table

Even the flowers were brimming with candy canes!

CookieParty Flowers

There were 33 cookie contenders this year and they were all winners in my book. Some standouts:

Candy Cane Cookies (you know I love a theme so I extra loved these):

CookiePartyCookie

The winner for Most Creative were these ADORABLE Holiday Hedgehog cookies!

CookieParty Holiday Hedgehog

Due the extreme number of cookies, people had to share cookie plates. Even a Cookie Monster couldn’t eat this many cookies…

CookiePartyPlate

Votes were tallied using the official ballots as we do every year:

CookiePartyBallot

Now that we’ve covered the cookies, let’s talk signature cocktail. Every year at the cookie party we do a signature cocktail and this years was no exception! We also provided wine and cranberry Prosecco (Prosecco + Cranberry Juice = Cranberry Prosecco), but the signature cocktail was our Candy Cane White Russian (really a Peppermint White Russian). Here’s the recipe – there’s DEFINITELY time to whip this up for your Christmas dinner!

White Russianpic monkey

Candy Cane White Russian (Note: Measurements aren’t exact. I just kept pouring the stuff in until it tasted pepperminty and delicious! It was a tough job but somebody had to take one for the team.)

  • Whole Milk (It’s Christmas, don’t use skim milk people)
  • Kahlua
  • Peppermint Vodka – Specialty vodka made by Smirnoff around the holidays. It has a pretty red and white striped bottle. Can be substituted with Peppermint Creamer – creamer for your coffee! It also tastes delicious if you can’t find the specialty vodka.
  • Lots of ice (Warm Milk = Ew)
  • Garnish with a mini candy cane hanging off the side of the glass.

Enjoy! I mixed up a pitcher of these because come on… milk and cookies?

So let’s review: We had cookies, white russians, freaking SANTA CLAUS and good friends and family. We were totally winning…..

Here I am with my hostesses with the mostesses, my mom and my sister in law (and Santa). (Note: Wearing a Panthers Jersey because the game was on during the party – poor scheduling but we won 38-0 that day so cookies must be good luck? Go Panthers baby!)

Cookie party 2015

It was a super successful 7th Annual Cookie Party- here’s the the 8th! I hope you and your family have a very Merry Christmas!

Cheers, Peace and Love to all!

Filed Under: Cocktail, DIYs, Party Tips and Food, Holiday, Parties Leave a Comment

Skillpop: That time I taught a class on Holiday Entertaining and Hosting!

December 15, 2015 By Jackie Fo 1 Comment

Earlier this month I added a new title to my resume: Teacher.

Well, sort of! Basically I spent 2 hours talking about cocktails, tablescapes and prepping for holiday entertaining. Honestly it just sounds like a regular day in the life of Jackie Fo!

This awesome opportunity came about because of Skillpop, a great new concept in the Charlotte area. Skillpop hosts pop up classes in the Charlotte area with topics ranging from photography, hand lettering and much, much more. Basically, you learn a new skill (without breaking the bank) all while meeting new people in your own city. Score! If you’re local, check out their upcoming class schedule HERE!

My class (aptly timed for the season) was Holiday Hosting and Entertaining. I may be biased but I thought it was a blast! The group of ladies were so much fun, asked tons of questions and provided a really interactive environment which is great, because no one wants to hear me talk for 2 hours. Not even me.

(Note: All pictures are iPhone pics. I was too busy molding young minds to break out my real camera.)

I made a mock table scape for the ladies with a silver metallic theme. The centerpiece was made from glassware and candle votives which is a great way to create an impactful table scape without spending a lot of money. Have to be cognizant of the cost, especially during the holidays!

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I also demonstrated a super easy DIY place card made from a faux pointsettia found at Michaels. I bought this bad boy for $8ish dollars. I should own part of Michaels at this point. I could walk through it blindfolded.

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The DIY is so simple! Cut the pointsettia apart with floral or wire cutters and attach a tag to each piece with a guest’s name. I used a key tag below. Each place card will be a little different which I love! I made 4 place cards for $8…you can’t beat that! Plus Michaels has faux flowers in every color of the holiday rainbow to match your table scape.

PICMONKEY

Here I am showing off my placecard idea… do I look profesh? Or like I remotely know what I am talking about? Or just plain awkward? The jury’s still out.

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I also shared one of my absolute favorite cocktail tricks of all time – the no-fail rimming the ole’ champagne flute with sugar trick. You may remember this from my tutorial around this time last year.  I’m telling you, it’s an instant party face-lift.

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The last activity was a flower arranging activity and each guest got to take home a holiday arrangement they created. I didn’t claim to be a florist (because I am SO not), but I did give them some helpful hints and ways to make flower arranging easier. To keep things totally real as I like to do here on this blog, one of the tips was just to buy flowers prearranged from a florist. Ha! Sometimes you’ve got to leave it to the professionals and that’s totally okay.

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Here are the ladies showing those flowers who’s the boss.

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I also gave guests a thorough holiday entertaining “prep” timeline with tons of specific tips plus a take home sheet with stress-free entertaining/hosting tips and tricks. Not that I’m an expert. But do I know a thing or two about throwing a fun party!

Basically I had a blast talking about one of my favorite topics with a bunch of women who were interested in hearing what I had to say. It was a great way to kick off the holiday season and to start closing out a successful, busy and satisfying year.

Don’t worry, I’ll be back later this week sharing pictures from our 7th annual cookie party. Things are winding down here at Jackie Fogartie Events and I’m looking forward to sharing a few more posts with you all before we close 2015.   Cheers!

Filed Under: Uncategorized 1 Comment

Meet Jackie Fo

Jackie FogartieJackie Fo is an event and wedding planner, brand stylist and freelance writer/blogger located in Charlotte, North Carolina. Despite her Jersey roots, she’s kind of a softie that loves weddings, parties and people. {READ MORE}

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