Bridal Shower Gift Idea: International House of Picnics

Not the IHOP you're familiar with?  

This past weekend, Jamie and I went to our husbands' cousin Becky's bridal shower.  (got that?)  It was an Around the Clock shower:  a type of shower that neither of us had been to before.  Jamie was assigned "picnic time" and I was assigned "travel time."  I was totally stumped.  Aside from the suitcases that the bride and groom wanted (which, even with a coupon, were a little more than I wanted to spend), I couldn't think of what to get them for "travel time."  I debated going with a toiletry bag with her new monogram and some travel essentials, but that didn't seem right.  Jamie was struggling too. So we decided to get on our creative pants and do a combined gift.  We took a few liberties with our assigned times, but hey, a girl's got to do what she's got to do!

We ended up deciding to do an international food and wine picnic basket.  Not a real picnic basket ... but a cute lidded basket that the happy couple could use in their new home.  We reasoned that they'd get more use out of this than an actual picnic basket.   Here's the basket (found at Michael's and purchased when it was 50% off) and most of the loot:

Because Becky already had one shower prior to this one, her registry was pretty picked over, so we went off-registry.  We found a bunch of things at Crate & Barrel, including a cute plastic tray in a cheery stripe, a matching striped picnic tablecloth, some punchy floral napkins that coordinated with the stripes and two plastic stacking blue wine glasses.  Cute!  To tie in the "travel" time, we bought some great cookbooks from our favorite chefs (Ina Garten and Giada DeLaurentis) with an international focus: Barefoot in Paris and Everyday Italian.  We also loved these gorgeous glass dessert plates from Crate and Barrel with the pretty white floral.  They were so sweet, we picked up four.

And what's a picnic, or a meal for that matter, without wine?  We chose three bottles of wine to round out the basket, all with an international bent, to again tie in the whole "travel time."  Mmmmm ... vino.

So, once we had the supplies, it was time to put it all together.  I love this part!  In college, I worked at Crabtree & Evelyn and loved to put together the gift-baskets.  Fun fun.  The key is to take your time and play around with it. Just throw things in and then make it right.  I used some tissue paper that Crate & Barrel gave me with the plates to fill in empty spaces and sort of cushion around the breakable wine bottles and plates.  Here it is pretty much together:

Next up was to create a simple card that explained what was going on with the gift.  A few minutes on Adobe Illustrator and voila -- I whipped up this little number. I punched a hole in the corner so I could attach it to the basket. 

Then I took clear cellophane that I had on hand and wrapped up the basket.  I used a big white bow to tie it together and used a scrap of ribbon to hang the card.  Done!  Here it is.

I'm happy to report the bride loved the gift. Whew!  What about you guys? Stumped on a gift you need to give?  Let us know! 

See you swoon,

Real Events: Staged Baby Shower {Part II}

Didn't Tuesday's post featuring the staged baby shower that Jamie and I threw together make you want to throw a party?  Up today is part II, and my favorite part of any party: the drinks & snacks.

We decided to make a "bites & bubbly" table, where we'd put champagne, candy and sweets.  We made the Styrofoam ball banner by purchasing different sized Styrofoam balls from Michaels, spray-painting them yellow and feeding a fishing line through each ball with a really thick needle.  Cute effect, no?

We also bought all orange and yellow treats: blonde Oreos, yellow and orange licorice, yellow non-pariels, Reeses Pieces and even some lemons and oranges for a little more color ... mmmm.

The "bites & bubbly" banner was made by using a template on Martha Stewart Weddings.  I've made these many times and they are really so easy to do!

We bought some clear Christmas ornaments at Michaels, took the hanging rings off and piled them in a vase to make them look like bubbles.

There you have it! A super simple, yet super cute baby shower with plenty of ideas to steal.  Planning a party and don't know where to start? Shoot us an email! We'd love to hear from you and help.  Cheers!

See you swoon,

{all photos courtesy of Lisa Levine Photography}

Real Events: Staged Baby Shower {Part I}

Last week, I blogged about the fabulously cute soaps from Soapsational Creations, and in that post, I dropped a little teaser that we would feature the events from which the soaps were featured.  Today's the day!

Back in November, Jamie and I spent an entire afternoon making up two staged events at my home - we had some ideas we'd been itching to try out, and decided to make a day of it.  Lisa of Lisa Levine Photography graciously offered up her time to photograph what we created.  The first event was a baby shower.

We decided to focus on rubber ducks and bubbles and featured it in colors of white, yellow and orange.

Center stage was my big bay window, in which we blew up pearlized balloons to act as "bubbles" and put the sweet little soaps that Laurie of Soapsational Creations sent to us.

We bought the white favor bags on clearance at Michael's and then bought yellow buttons to secure the bags: we just threaded some ribbon through the buttons and the holes in the bags.  We printed the tag to say "cute as a button" and voila - super sweet and simple favor bags.

We made a wrapping paper runner, which we totally love, by taking a piece of paper and gluing yellow grosgrain ribbon to the edges.  Jamie donated her fab yellow plates for a pop of color.

We even went for broke by creating menus for the table: these were super simple.  We downloaded the image and created a delicious sounding brunch menu.

We hung white paper lanterns from the top of the window by suspending them from yellow ribbon (the same ribbon as on the runner) and tying thicker pieces of ribbon to the bottom, for another little burst of bright colors.

Hopefully you can steal some of these ideas for your next party! Stay tuned for part II of the shower - bites, bubbly and sweets. Yummy.

See you swoon,

{all photos courtesy of Lisa Levine Photography}

Wishing Wells: yay or nay?

Chances are, you have been to a shower where there was a wishing well.  These are a surprising source of controversy: are they useful and fun or old-fashioned and wasteful?

Wishing wells are a great idea in theory, but one problem we see is that most brides and grooms register for everything these days - including things that were once thrown into the wishing well.  We suggest those hosting a shower consider a more modern approach.  Here are a few suggestions:

1.  Wine. This is a great idea for a wine lover.   Ask each guest to bring a bottle of wine for the bride and groom.  In the invitation, include a small card with ribbon and ask the guest to write her wishes for the happy couple and tie it to her bottle of wine and bring it to the shower.  The bride and groom will love reading all of the "toasts" as they crack open each bottle.  To package up the wine and to make for easy transport home, ask the wine store for a cardboard case for wine and keep the inserts.  Wrap the box with pretty paper, and you're good to go.

2.  Christmas ornaments. If the shower is held in the few months before or even after Christmas, ask each guest to bring an ornament for the bride & groom's first Christmas tree.  Like the wine bottles above, ask each guest to write a little note or wish to the couple and attach it to the ornament, so the bride knows who gave her which one.

3.  Recipes. Love this twist: send a blank recipe card with the invitation and ask each guest to bring her favorite recipe for the bride.  The host provides a recipe box so the bride can begin her collection.

Where do you fall on the great wishing well debate? Yay or nay? What do you think of the more modern twists to the concept?

See you swoon,

Shower Etiquette: To give a gift or not?

This is perfect to follow up to what we talked about the other day regarding sending a gift for a wedding if you cannot attend.  So, what about a shower?

The whole point of a shower is to "shower" the bride with gifts so that the happy couple can start their new lives together with essential items...and some fun items to get them of to a great start.  Showers are a little more laid back so I think it really depends on how well you know the bride or groom.  If you are close to either side it is a good idea to send a gift even if you cannot be there, the guest of honor will be truly grateful that you still thought of them and will remember that you cared enough to pick something out for them even though you could not enjoy the festivities.

So I would like to know how you feel, would you send a gift or not an are there certain situations that require a gift or not?

See you swoon,

Real Events: Jamie & Kelly's Rehearsal Dinner (Part II)

Jamie and Kelly's rehearsal dinner in August 2009 was one of my favorite events ever to style ... not only because of how fun it was, but also because we were officially welcoming Jamie into our family.  So, as I thought of what we would do, I wanted it to be pretty and special but also meaningful.  In the end, we decided to welcome Jamie into the clan with an Irish themed event:  it was important to me that we keep the event classy and contemporary vs. covered in shamrocks and leprechauns.  I did a little research and discovered what the O'Neal family tartan looked like; I was happily surprised to discover it was a lovely combination of burgundy and gold.  And with that, I had my color palette: gold-burgundy-cream-black.  Once I had the colors down, I thought we would have some fun with the phrase "good luck," which seemed perfectly suited to a rehearsal dinner, with the wedding the next day.  And since I love a good project or two or twenty, I went a little crazy with all the details.  Here's what we did:

* "Good Night & Good Luck" cupcake flags. Using the template for the custom drink stir sticks from Style Me Pretty, I created a bunch of little flags for cupcakes that we served for dessert.  One side of the flag said "good night ..." and the other side said "and good luck" -- I cut the sticks a little shorter than the above template recommends to accommodate the smaller sized cupcakes.  I used store-bought cupcakes and just bought some edible gold glitter sprinkles for the tops.  Easy and super cute.  They looked especially cute all grouped together.  Who doesn't love cupcakes?

* Menu/Welcome Signs for Tables:  Rather than put a menu at each person's seat, I decided to place two double-sided menu/welcome signs at each table.  One side was the dinner menu, and the other side gave a brief explanation of the event and our hopes for welcoming Jamie into our family with true Irish hospitality.  Creating these was so easy: I used gold cardstock and then pasted the menu and welcome on each side.  Voila!

* Chocolate Horseshoe Favors:  I am a big proponent of edible favors: it's less waste and they are usually pretty easy to buy or make.  In our case, I wanted to carry on the "good luck" theme with a chocolate horseshoe for each person, as I read that Irish brides carry a horseshoe on their wedding day for good luck.  I could not find chocolate horseshoes that weren't ridiculously expensive, so I ordered a horseshoe candy mold online for around $3 and made my own with melted chocolate chips.  It took no more than an hour and they were pretty yummy!  I put each horseshoe in a candy bag, made a little tag that said "good luck" on it and tied it with a gold ribbon.

* DIY centerpieces:  I am not a florist - not by any stretch of the imagination! But if I keep the florals really simple, I can make centerpieces look pretty good.  For Jamie & Kelly's rehearsal dinner, my centerpieces were totally DIY.  I picked up the sunflowers & babies breath from the grocery store the morning of the party.  I wanted to buy whatever was on sale, and they happened to be.  I kept each flower with like flowers - if I had mixed the sunflowers & babies breath, they would have looked like they were straight out of 1982.  Keeping the arrangements simple and fresh made them work successfully. The centerpiece "vases" were just coffee cans, soup cans, jars, and other food vessels that I had asked family to set aside.  I cleaned them out and then covered them with cream fine wale corduroy fabric and the O'Neal tartan.  I mixed up the fabrics so they had some texture and interest and to break up all the burgundy. I was thrilled with the end result.

There you have it!  A completely DIY rehearsal dinner that's both easy on the eyes and the wallet.  Let us know if you'd like some help or ideas with your rehearsal dinner.  We would love to help!

See you swoon,



{all photos courtesy of Doug Burns, Candid Moments Photography}

Tutorial: DIY projects from Sheila's Shower

Last week, I posted about a bridal shower that Jamie and I styled, and that our client, Sheila, hosted for her niece.  As promised, here are the simple and inexpensive, yet super chic, projects that we created for her.

* Wrapping Paper Runners:  sounds crazy, right?  We have made these for oodles of parties and we get the same question every time: "this is really just wrapping paper?  but it's so pretty!"  Yes, it is really just wrapping paper trimmed in ribbon.  We took our inspiration from Martha Stewart Weddings, although I simplified the procedure a bit.  Green tip: assuming no one spills on it, you can reuse the wrapping paper runner as gift-wrap for presents when the party is over.

- What you need: One roll of wrapping paper; one spool of ribbon (grosgrain works best); one bottle Tacky glue.  (one roll of wrapping paper and one spool of ribbon will make two runners)

- What you do: cut the wrapping paper to size.  Cut the ribbon to size - one piece for each edge of the wrapping paper.  Starting at a corner, run a thin bead of glue from corner to corner.  Press the ribbon into the glue (don't bother wrapping the ribbon over the sides of the wrapping paper - it is way too much effort and it looks just as neat with the ribbon going to the edge of the paper).  Cut any overhanging ribbon.  Repeat with the other four sides.  Dry flat or lightly draped over a chair for about 1-2 hours until the glue has set.  Done!

* Congratulations Banner:  Another project using the inspiration of and template from Martha Stewart Weddings.  This one is really cute and can be used for any party.  Green tip:  Save the letters that you don't use.  You can use them on future banners and won't have to reprint.

- What you need: full sheets of card-stock, skinny ribbon, hole punch

- What you do: download the template from Martha Stewart Weddings (above).  Print and then cut the letters that you need.  Punch two holes in each letter at the top of the circle (tip: if you imagine the circle as a clock, you want to punch the holes at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock).  Thread the ribbon through the letters leaving plenty of extras on each end for hanging.

* Paper Lanterns: Oh, how we love paper lanterns.   They are so pretty and festive, not to mention incredibly affordable, usually around $1 per lantern. And they fold down completely flat for easy storage!  Green tip:  as long as you take care when handling and hanging them, you can use paper lanterns for quite a few parties, saving money and trees.

- What you need: paper lanterns (we've found them at Michael's, Dollar Tree and Save-on-Crafts, but we are a bit partial to those from Save-on-Crafts for selection, price and durability); ribbon, string, fishing line or twine (whatever you choose for hanging); thumbtacks or 3M removable Command hooks like these or these.

- What you do: we think the most effective use of paper lanterns is hanging them in large clusters or over tables in a symmetrical fashion rather than random or sparse placement.  It looks dramatic and fun when they are hung in bunches.  This takes some time to plan out, and we highly recommend working with a partner so that one can hang while the other guides the placement.  We have hung lanterns using all of the above materials (ribbon, fishing wire, twine, string) and it all works - just depends on the look you're going for.  We really like those Command hooks for hanging because when the party is over, they come down lickety-split and won't tear off your paint or wallpaper.  We have also used thumbtacks to suspend the lanterns from wood beams too - as long as you (or the homeowner/venue) do not mind some teeny thumbtack holes in the wood, it is a very effective and quick way to hang the lanterns.

See how simple?  Hopefully you can use some of the ideas for your next party.  Got any easy and inexpensive ideas for decor? We'd love to hear!

See you swoon,

Real Events: Sheila's bridal shower

Two bridal showers in two weeks! Jamie and I sure have been busy.  Yesterday Jamie blogged about her friend Julia's shower, which was held two weeks ago.  And just this past Sunday, Jamie and I styled a shower for our client, Sheila.  Sheila's niece is getting married in the Fall, and Sheila was kind enough to offer up her home and host a bridal shower for about 50 members of the bride's family.  Not a small feat!  Sheila enlisted our help with the decor, and you know we were all about it.  We love bridal showers to begin with ... but in this case, our client had a beautiful home, she and her family were warm and kind, and oh-my-goodness: did I mention it was 74 degrees and sunny on the shower day?  How lucky can two event stylists be?!?

Jamie and I created several projects for the shower and decorated the space a few hours before the party began.  Because the weather was so unbelievably perfect, Sheila made the no-brainer decision to have as much of the party outside as possible.  The bride's wedding colors are black and fuchsia, so Sheila opted to go with those colors for the shower.  That was our starting point.

Jamie and I made custom black & white damask printed runners trimmed in fuchsia grosgrain ribbon for the tables, favor tags for the favors (which were the cutest little terracotta pots with flower seeds inside, snagged from Target's Dollar Spot), a custom "congratulations" banner for the entryway and a custom sign for the bar, which listed what the bar had to offer.

For decor, we really, really and I mean really love paper lanterns for showers & parties.  They are so inexpensive and so beautiful! We hung lots and lots of fuchsia and white lanterns and some big fluffy white pompoms around the dining space on the porch, including rows of lanterns over the tables.  We also hung a few lanterns over the bar outside.  The lanterns made the space look so festive and pretty and infused color at every turn.  Stay tuned for step-by-step instructions on how to do some of the DIY projects that we created for Sheila's shower in future posts. They're so super simple and fun!

In the end, we all loved the way the space turned out.  Our client was tickled pink (sorry, couldn't resist), the bride was touched and Jamie and I? Well ... let's just say this was a shower where we really kind of wished we could have hung around and stayed for the party.  They were just cracking open the wine as we left, and it looked like a pretty perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon. <sigh>

What are your favorite color combinations for bridal showers? Jamie and I have been loving the black-pink-white combos we've done lately.  Do you like bolder colors or softer hues?  Black & white? Or is that too stark for you?  Color us curious -- we would love to know what you think!

See you swoon,

Real Events: Julia's Bridal Shower

About a week and a half ago I had the honor of throwing my best friend in the entire world a bridal shower. The day went off without a hitch...well except for the major wind storm that took place. The theme we decided to go with was a rooftop deck party with a touch of "Sex and the City". We used three main colors that consisted of cream, black and hot pink.

We used white curtain panels that we dyed pink to hang as an entrance to the beautiful deck covered with vines. Globe lights were hung throughout to give a touch of soft light (I love globe lights and plan to use them on a deck of my own one day).

We had planned to use floating candles in the pool that would have been surrounded by candlesticks in wine bottles around the pool to make the pool area glow in the dark...however the wind prevented that idea so we moved inside.  One thing that cannot be controlled-WEATHER!

Paper lanterns were used near the bar and on the deck to add an area of interest and color.

One of the most fun ideas was the accessories that we used as favors for the party. We handed them out to each guests to wear during the shower and then to take home as gifts. There are some wonderful, inexpensive ideas such as these that you could use any day to jazz up any outfit.

Tell us about a shower that you planned. I would love to hear some of your favorite decor themes or ideas that you have planned or seen at an event that you attended.

See you swoon,

Surprise Showers, yay or nay?

Surprise parties are one of my favorite things in life, surprises in general are just so much fun...to me at least. Now I realize that surprises are not for everyone and can be difficult to pull off so it is best that you make sure that the guest of honor is OK with not being totally prepared for an event that involves most of their family and friends attending.

A good idea is to make sure that the day of, the party is planned around something that requires the guest of honor to look nice and avoid having them show up in their favorite sweats or deciding not to shower that day (this is a sure fire way to make someone dislike surprises and feel uncomfortable). Due to recent experience, a party may not always end up being a surprise, but the thought that is put into the event and the fact that the guest of honor could sit back and relax is a huge gift in itself and will mean more to them than you could ever imagine.

So if the person you are throwing the party is up for a surprise I say go for it and make sure you have a camera ready to capture the moment!

Let us know about your experiences with surprise events and if you think they are a good idea or not.

See you swoon,