wedding favors

Ah, the wedding favor.  I tend to always want to be different and unique and give guests something to marvel at, and this totally carries over into the wedding favor realm.  With the traditional and very common little bag of candy or glass “love” coasters popping up as the wedding favor, how does a couple who wants to give something that is representative of their day find a token that evokes the feeling?  Allow me to show you some pretty inspiration.

Outdoor weddings seem to lend ideas quickly out of necessity.  For example, your female guests might greatly appreciate flip-flops as favors because their stunning heels are not conducive to beach sand and grassy lawns.  Flip-flops are also lovely for sore feet during a night of dancing.  An other option would be a basket full of sunnies.

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Are one or both of you foodies?  Do you love dessert?  How about little packages of macarons?  They can be mixed-and-matched to reflect your wedding colors or whatever flavors you like best!

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For couples who love spicy sauces or who make their own, why not let your guests in on the tasty life by providing them with your favorite bottle of hot sauce?

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Other edible goodies could include popcorn or whatever your favorite things are!

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Give your guests something to remember your day by for a long time by giving them a soundtrack of your day!  You have free rein to design the cover and really make it memorable.

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If you love jetsetting across the country or across borders whenever you can, luggage tag favors become a great way to tie your love of travel in with your special day!

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We’ve all probably heard about couples giving a gift to charity in lieu of gifting favors to each guest.  Here’s a way you can do both in a creative way.

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Succulents are pretty neat and I love seeing how the hardy little plants can be packaged in such cute ways–even as placecard favors!

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Have you seen any favors that you thought were spectacular and unique?  I’d love to hear about them and add to my arsenal of creativity.  Happy Friday, friends!

pink+orange+gold

It’s very possible that this combination is my new color obsession!  Ever since spotting this wedding by the very talented Amber Housley, I have been dreaming and obsessing (honestly the only word I can think of) about this color combination.  My blog design was inspired by that wedding as a matter of fact.  So!  Since then, I have been gathering inspiration for hosting a girlfriend appreciation party of sorts, and, thanks to Pinterest, I have a little pile of pretties going.

1/2/3/4/5*/6

*the link brings you to the Etsy page of the tag creator.  However, the tags are no longer available.  I chose the image for the design of the gift, but hope the tag creator gets the credit for the image.

These cake delights are gorgeous and I’m smitten with the pink macarons, too!!!

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[not my image; not sure of owner]

This decor is just dreamy.  Honestly, that’s the only way to explain it:

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You probably already know that funky straws are my favorite touch to party drinks.  These fit right in with my color scheme!  Whoo-hoo!

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Twelve straws for three bucks is definitely not bad!  They’re too pretty to say “no” to!

Of course I’d send my lovely ladies home with a little gift since gifting, paper products, and lasting memories are my thing!  The Elli Blog has some beautif-eous printable wrapping paper for FREE!  Who’s going to argue with that?!

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Visit their blog to get the PDF file and start wrapping!

If you’re looking for more pink, orange, and gold ideas, you can snag a peek at the rest of my inspiration collection.

And, just because it made me smile, this would definitely be placed somewhere in my little fete:

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Sparkle away!

it’s not a NOW thing

Amanda Genther

This little gem appeared in my inbox at just the right time.  It’s not a NOW thing.  I have so much that I want to do and so much in the works.  Some things are in progress like reading Blog, Inc by Joy Cho (blogger at Oh, Joy!) trying to learn as much about blogging as I can so I can become better at it and going through the e-course Blog (Design) Love by A Beautiful Mess so I can learn how to code and design my own space here better.

I think, unfortunately, I have always been one who just wants to go bada-bing, bada-boom, snap, crackle, POP! and have everything in my head accomplished.  Whether it’s painting a room (which I don’t hate, I just want to hurry it along against it’s will) or creating my dream job, I just always want to be further along than I currently am.  It’s not a NOW thing.  Patience.  Sidenote: am I the only one who thinks that word is of the four-letter variety?  Ha!

So, continuously, I plug on with an ever-growing mental checklist of goals including mini ones like research how much it would cost to get a domain name, and try to make your bed every morning even though at 5:40 am, you really don’t want to.  I celebrate crossing off every single one and continue to try to knock out the fear of new things and of putting myself out there knowing that I haven’t crashed and burned yet!

When you’re struggling with a lot of factors, take my advice: working out/running/taking a walk/that little mental break does wonders for your ambition (trust me, I’ve been on both sides of that fence) and remember that you ARE enough!!!  You are strong enough.  You are capable of whatever you set your mind to.  You CAN do it!!!  Even if you’re scared out of your pants.  And, while you’re working your heart out toward it and wanting more right this very minute, just remember: It’s not a NOW thing.

what can a planner do for you?

My friend Krista from KJ and Co. was recently a guest blogger for Hello Inspira and posted on the wedding budget and how a professional planner can help you spend your wedding allowance in the best possible way.  Guess what?  They may even help you come in under budget!

You can find her post here.

I’ve started a Wedding Planning course to add to my repertoire  and will be learning gobs of stuff specifically to this industry.  I’m excited to share it with you as I find out more!  I expect to soon write my own version of this post, but for now, I bring you Krista as she is amazing!

styled dinner party-the decor

 

Finally, my most favorite part of the whole party: getting to place every last itty-bitty detail.

I’m not sure how exactly I picked the color scheme of navy, white and green, but I think it had something to do with loving navy right now and the fact that I own a few green plates as accents to my white dishes.  When I stumbled across the tablecloths, the scheme just solidified itself!

I was able to snag the napkins which I found in both green and white and the white bud vases at Value Village, too!   Everything else you see, I already had kicking around.  I tend to save funky things that I find as well as things like battery-operated tea lights that I found ridiculously on sale about a year ago and have just kept until now!

I love mismatched chairs, but in a perfect world, I would own chairs that at least matched the same color scheme.  (Although, the pink and red ones are pretty comfy.)

[still so proud of those menus!]

[love the way the flowers popped on the table]

As I said in an earlier post, I’m just learning all the features of the camera I used.  I was pretty happy about the results, although I wish I would have been able to get more professional-style pictures from the evening as well as pictures of everybody.

However, my proudest moment of the whole day was getting this picture:

It was one picture I knew I wanted out of it all and I’m still so excited it turned out!

If this “trial” event did anything, it just made me even more excited about throwing parties and want to do it all over again.  I’d even be okay with dropping the cake again or some other glitch if it meant I got to do what I love again.  Sounds weird, but sometimes those are the parts I enjoyed the most when looking back.

There will be more!  I’m still learning so much and I always love throwing a good party with fantastic food, fun drinks, and my favorite people.

 

 

styled dinner party-the drinks

Oh, the drinks.  Mmm, probably my favorite part of the evening besides setting all the sweetness up was getting the pretty drinks ready.  Obviously, I wanted to incorporate some drinks into the evening, but wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted.  Actually, with a few possibly-underage guests and one beautiful pregnant sister-in-law, I really couldn’t be sure how many of us ladies would be drinking.

I had found the perfect glasses at Value Village.  When I was playing the whole dinner party in my head, I had an image of these glasses: basically, a tall, skinny, hi-ball-style glass.  However, I hadn’t seen them anywhere locally and knew I wouldn’t be able to afford to buy new ones (considering I’d probably have to get them from the Bay or some other high-end store).  I had just resorted to possibly renting them from somewhere.

The Saturday before the party, on my way home from work, I dropped in at Value Village just to wander and have some fun.  This still blows my mind!  I walked into the home goods section, and there they were!  In. Real. Life. Even better?  $1.99 for a set of four, AND they had three sets (twelve glasses was the exact number I needed).  How magical is that?!

I knew they would be stunning filled with something clear and sparkling and styled with a patterned paper straw to finish off the look.  Given the fact that I wanted everyone to be able to drink the same thing when they arrived (along with eating the yummy appetizers), and knew that alcohol was out of the question as I explained above, I mixed ginger ale and non-alcoholic sparkling grape juice and plunked in a few raspberries to float on the top.

I love the fabulous paper straws that are everywhere on blogs and in Etsy shops, but when I decided to add them in (too late to get them online where they are abundant), I couldn’t find them anywhere in town, except at Chapters.  Because of my last-minute decision, the available choices were limited, very limited—red and white stripes or blue polka dots.

The stripes were calling my name (as always), but considering my color palette was green, navy, and white, I chose the blue polka dots.  They’re pretty cute, too.

Once the before-dinner drinks were complete, I was pretty happy with the outcome and everyone thought they were great.

As for after-dinner drinks, I debated multiple options.  I researched for a few days on different options, but I just wasn’t sure which to commit to.  Darren was quick to inform me that the guys would basically only drink scotch, their latest craze, and rum and coke; in other words, very easy to buy for, not complicated, and would not require my awesome hi-ball-ers.

With the mixed drink idea, I was too nervous that buying finicky ingredients for one would result in me not liking it and having all these undesirable ingredients on hand.

Finally, after picking Darren’s bartending brain, we just chose a mix of alcohol including scotch and rum for the boys as well as some fruity things for my ideal drink (which, at the time, was yet to be determined).

Turns out, I was the only lady who had alcohol that night, but my drink was aMAzing, thanks to my honey.  I made him write down what he did so we could replicate it because it was that awesome.  A week later, I had it again, thanks to the note.

On that note, if you like experimenting with drinks and you find a mix you like, write it down!  Add it to your library.  What’s your go-to drink?  Let me know below!  I’d love to try some new recipes!  Also, have you seen patterned straws at stores anywhere in Southern Ontario?

Next up:  Last, but definitely, not least, I’ll bring you the décor pictures—my favorite part!

styled dinner party-the food

So, yesterday, I introduced you to my first dinner party in more detail and, today, I bring you…the so-amazing-you-could-almost-eat-them pictures of the food.

I knew that, upon arrival, I wanted my guests to have a little bite to munch on while I finished taking pictures of everything and putting the final touches on the dinner itself.  However, because dinner was going to be heavy, I didn’t want them to fill up on appetizers and have no room for lasagna.

I tossed around the ideas of doing a meat and cheese platter, just fruit, or some mix of the two.  Once I started searching for mini-appetizer ideas (Pinterest and Google are fabulous resources, by the way), I stumbled across caprese bites.  I saw a ton of variations on this tomato, mozzarella, and basil bite, but chose to skewer them for easier handling.

I also took Pillsbury croissants and, after baking them, added sliced prosciutto to make mini sandwiches.  Now, I realize you are probably thinking that for a chef, that’s a major cop-out, but with the time schedule I had and wanting to take as much time as I needed on decor, this route was necessary.  Prosciutto was my “chef” touch and the whole thing was yummy!  Ha!

Add in a little fresh fruit, and appetizers were complete!

(didn’t I tell you the images are incredible?! and I still have so much to learn about that camera!)

For dinner, we had a rather traditional kind of meal with Caesar salad, lasagna, and garlic bread.  I was able to use my new salad bowl for the first time that my honey bought me for my birthday.  It’s wood with a red exterior and has the coolest salad claws ever.

(please excuse the mess on my counter)

I tried a new lasagna recipe with cream cheese, and, WOW!  That’s all I can say.  It was so rich and I will definitely make it again.  Thanks to A Spicy Perspective, where I found the recipe, you can make it, too!  A quick side note, it is extremely heavy in it’s deliciousness, so don’t make more than you need “just in case” someone wants seconds.  I had a bunch of big guys who eat a LOT and even they only could eat one piece after only having salad as a starter.

Unfortunately, I was unable to get any “from the side” pictures of my lasagna because I was too busy serving and being hostess.  I knew, going in, that it would be a challenge to capture all the images that I wanted; the next time I throw one of these, I will definitely get a photographer to get them for me while I’m running around having fun.

(with extra cheese because you can’t go wrong with that)

Finally, dessert.  This was an interesting process and, therefore, has a story.  I planned to make an easy cake and ice it with buttercream.  Simple.  Well, then, as I was taking the layers upstairs to the garage to cool, I dropped one.  Not salvageable.  Let’s just say, I really felt like I was on Chopped or Cupcake Wars where something always happens differently than planned and the contestants have to scramble to get something presentable out.  What a crazy rush.  I made a mad dash to my recipe stash and managed to pull off a quick recovery so it didn’t affect my production plans too drastically.   As a result, my red velvet cake was half chocolate, half red velvet, but 100% yummy.

I cringe when I look at that icing job, and I have quite a few friends who are cake and pastry geniuses who will probably see this picture.  Thankfully, they know I have never had much patience for cake decorating and know it’s never been one of my main talents.  Again, I completely forgot to get inside-the-cake images, but I’m pretty impressed with how it turned out, even though it was simple, and I’m loving the cake stand that I totally DIY’d.

It’s been exciting finally pulling all the pictures together!  That’s my dinner menu in images.  I’ll continue editing and pulling together my pictures, and tomorrow, you can expect to see the drinks!

styled dinner party-the story

Having a dinner party was always something I thought would be exciting and so fun.  You get a bunch of friends over, you get to impress them with your kitchen and decor skills, everybody has a fantastic time and people talk about it for a long time afterwards.  For the party thrower?  Yes, it may be a decent amount of work, but if you keep the menu simple and just have fun with it, it won’t be as overwhelming!

I played around with this idea for only two seconds because, basically as soon as I thought of it, I set a date and started brainstorming.  It may seem a little whirlwind-ish, but that’s how I roll.  First, I invited by word of mouth because I wanted to make sure that my invitees would be available for that date, but once all had given me the yes-word, I created the invitations and sent them out.  I wanted to go all out for this party, and for me, paper products are huge, so of course I had to make formal paper invitations.

The menu was a bit of a challenge.  I’m always a little nervous when I invite people over for food because most people know about my culinary degree, and I’m always scared that they’ll be SO disappointed if I just put out the average meal.  In my experience, it’s been contrary, thankfully.  Phew!  Usually, our friends are impressed by good food and as long as it’s mouth-watering and yummy, they’re cool with it. (I think.  At least, I haven’t been told otherwise.)

Once I was able to figure out which parts of this event were most important to me (taking my merry ol’ time decorating because I wanted the pictures for my portfolio), I could then plan a menu accordingly.  For example, I knew that if I was going to want that extra time tweaking decor, I had to use some pre-made food than I normally would have if there was no decor angle.  Obviously, I added my own little twist to those foods, but at least the bulk of the work was done already.  Frozen garlic bread is a marvelous thing!  I know you’re probably dying to see what I served because it was so scrumptious, so, without further ado….the menu…

Not too shabby, eh?

As for how they looked at each setting…

Tomorrow, you’ll be able to see all that food OFF the paper, and lemme tell ya: FANTASTIC.  I used Darren’s camera to take all the pictures from this event and I’m still speechless by the quality and detail of the food images.  Can’t wait to show them off!