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DIY bachelorette party

There are times in life when things line up.  When what’s meant to be is.  When magic happens.  My sisters’ bachelorette party was one of these times.  There were times during her planning where I had to put a lot of thought into things: writing a toast for the reception, how was I going to be a maid-of-honor AND wedding coordinator, if I should get chicken or fish, but choosing a theme for her bachelorette party was not one of those times.  Hence, Saradashian’s Last Stand was born.DIY bachelorette party

I designed and printed the invites (front to back) complete with photshopping my sister in with the Kardashians, tied them up with ribbon and stuffed each envelope with feathers and sequins.  The liners were custom made because really, when other time am I going to get to do something like this?  When you’re talking about the Kardashian’s, it’s got to be over the top.  Bible.

I didn’t tell her anything about the party other than what the invitation gave away which was to meet at a hotel downtown at 5:30.  At 4:30 I had an SUV (just like Kim Kardashian gets driven around in) pick Sarah and her bridesmaid Shannon up at her house and when they got in the car Shannon gave her a card I had had my parents write her (likely ending with, “be safe!”)  Then they stopped to pick up two more bridesmaids and she got a card that I had my brother write (surprisingly sentimental).  One final stop to pick up the last bridesmaid Molly, and Molly gave her a card I had written her (recounting some of our drunken escapades together to ger her in the mood to party!)  I was so happy Shannon send me these pictures as a play-by-play!DIY bachelorette party

So in this case, I had the party in a hotel room.  This makes things difficult for a myriad of reasons: no access to your dishes, kitchen utensils or dishwasher, having just a tiny fridge and a microwave etc.  Even though we used a lot of things that could be thrown away at the end of the party, I still wanted to make it special.  Everyone got two glasses, one for champagne and one for kahlua and creams (my sister’s favorite) adorned with the Kardashian of their choice.

DIY bachelorette partyDIY bachelorette party

I made the kahlua and creams by freezing the cream in ice cube trays and pouring kahlua over them.  A bathtub full of beer, and the party was on!  As for food, choose lots of things that are easy to eat on your lap and don’t take a lot of prep.  I did sushi, chips and dips, fruit and dip in individual cups and individual popcorn boxes.  Mini cheesecakes and cupcakes for desserts, topped with engagement rings, perfect for taking to the bar afterwards to fend off any unwanted advances.  Oh and candy.  I just filled a bunch of patterened cupcake liners with all of Sarah’s favorite candy.  She is ridiculous and eats it for nearly every meal yet still somehow manages to be as thin as a rail and never has any cavities.

DIY bachelorette partyDIY bachelorette partyDIY bachelorette party

You know I splurged and bought a life-size cardboard cutout of Kim, Kourtney and Khloe to greet guests.  Much to her fiance’s chagrin, the girls are living in their basement, watching over the laundry pile, naturally.

DIY bachelorette party

Goody bags for the girls were in little felt buckets I found at Target and I created tags for each using a heart-shaped punch and ribbon.  Easy-peasy.  Included in each was a mini can of Sophia champagne (mini, pink straw included!), a mini-bottle of Kim Kardashian’s perfume, individual packs of Advil, a couple of blow-pops and a ring pop, a pack of Starburst and a pack of Skittles (see: candy obsession above) and then a few things to take to the bar: a stick on mustache, glow-stick jewelry, pixie sticks and mardi-gras beads.  Sarah got a homemade veil and light up diamond to ensure everyone knew who the star of the party was.  Classy, simple and accentuated her outfit.  Seriously, how long did your sister/best friend/future-in-law spend picking out an outfit for her bachelorette party?  Don’t ruin it!

DIY bachelorette party

Timeline wise, for a shower or bachelorette party I like to welcome guests with a drink as they are arriving, let them eat and chat for a bit, play a game, open gifts and call it a day.  At a shower, people can stay and mingle, at the bachelorette party we keep drinking and told some hilarious Sarah stories.  I really hate forced bachelorette party games, but think they can be a good ice-breaker when people don’t know each other well.  I created a “Kardashian Kuiz” full of questions about the infamous family (which my sister promptly won) and then took a bag full of props out to the bar with us. And obviously the penis straws and Scott Disick.  Did you think he was going to let us go without him?  Not a chance, doll.

DIY sugar and spiced themed destination bridal shower

Last weekend I headed out on the road again to put together a bridal shower for one of my dear friends, Melissa.  We hosted it at Amy’s house and ran with a sugar and spice theme.  Melissa’s wedding colors are red and pink so we used those along with some teal to create a lot of sweetness.  I made the invites and it’s sort of where the theme began. I drew three kitchen canisters labeled sugar, spice and nice so when you opened the envelope, this is what you saw:

A red envelope lined with pink and white striped vintage wallpaper (which I bought at a thrift store at least a year ago and just KNEW it would come in handy some day. I was right. Also, Melissa hates thrift stores and I love them so HA my friend.)

I printed the details in “empty” canisters on a separate sheet of paper and cut it down to size.  I sewed a blank sheet to the canisters and stuck the info in the pocket…and viola!  All the necessary info. is tucked inside the canisters for safe keeping.

I even rigged up my sewing machine using a popsicle stick so I would get straight lines, genius!  My OCD would not have handled that well otherwise. I was pretty proud that I got all the lines to line up perfectly — small victories my friends.

At the shower we served sweet and spicy foods and I made signage with our little logo on it with teal card stock and more wallpaper. 

DIY bridal showerIt was a brunch shower and I just could not resist the cereal bar pun.  I cut them into heart shapes and dipped them in white chocolate with pink sprinkles.  Why the heck not, I say.  I used light pink, dark pink and red ribbon to make a super simple table runner down the middle of the table…

DIY bridal shower DIY bridal shower

Inspiration comes from my clients all the time!  I had recently done a wedding where we hung up paper lanterns in the tent and it inspired me to create a red and teal and pink filly lantern for this shower.  Cheap paper lanterns, tissue paper, a circle punch and my trusty glue gun was all it took! 

Every shower needs a fabulous cocktail so for brunch drinks I made a “Bride to be-llini” which was a pomegranate bellini garnished with fresh blueberries and watermelon cubes and a “Mis-mosa” (her nickname is Missy and you wouldn’t have been able to resist that either.)DIY bridal showerI haven’t done a candy bar in a long time and realize they are sometimes overdone, but when you have a sweet and spicy theme, it just works.  I gocco’ed these little bags for guests to fill up on their way out.DIY bridal showerThe bride got some candy to go for herself and the Mr.!DIY bridal showerAmy made an awesome game of the “spice” variety and Melissa even got a few gifts to boot!DIY bridal shower

Three weeks until the big day and all they have to do is move into a new house in the meantime!

anticipation events lifestyle

Check out Chicago Style Unveiled to see the awesome “real Chicago wedding” featuring Dan & Laura, their kick-ass wedding and me!

hoopla!/ 
source

Congrats on the awesome feature guys and thanks to Chicago Style Unveiled for the hoopla!

lions + tigers + babies, oh my baby shower

This sweet, sweet baby shower took place in Omaha, Nebraska at a private residence in November of 2009. The parents-to-be were waiting until their little one arrived to find out if it was a girl or a boy so the color palette was orange, yellow and green so it would be fantastically gender neutral. They decided to use animals for the nursery so I jumped on board with that for the invitations!

I got craft paper cards and envelopes and a big pack of animal-themed scrapbook paper along with a giraffe stamp and some ribbon to create these. I just used some green, orange and yellow paper that was part of the paper pack to stamp and emboss the giraffe on, rounded the corners and used colorful brads to attach them to the front of the invite so it would have some motion. When it was all done, I tied a variety of yellow, green and orange striped and polka-dotted ribbons to close it at the side.

baby shower 5

I used the animal-printed papers for the envelope liners, behind the return address labels and address labels and as a strip of fabulous behind the informational part inside. I printed all of this out and glued away. The pack of paper had paper adorned with sheep, ducks, buffalo, penguins, alligators and lions…so stinkin’ cute and everyone’s invite had at least two different prints on it somewhere.

I also created a little mini-envelope for the inside that had information on a “Letters to the Little One” book that was going to be put together for Amy as a surprise. I used scraps of the green, orange and yellow paper and little buttons I had already.

I really loved making these and I think everyone liked receiving them in the mail. Isn’t snail mail such a wonderful thing?

I used more of the paper pack to make the sign for the front door to reference the invitation so people would know that they had found the right place! (Don’t worry I put it up looking nicer and evened out the letters before guests showed up. I was so worried I would forget to get a picture of everything!)

baby shower 7

As a last minute thing, I whipped up some name tags because I had just gotten a xyron machine that I wanted to try out and used some giraffe printed paper from the same pack to back them. Easy peasy.

baby shower 3
Flowers are expensive right? So I made some paper flowers, used mason jars and ribbon to create candle holders, put dried peas in the bottom, found a few cheap frames at the thrift store which I painted and framed some of the scrapbook paper in (seriously, i used this one pack of paper for almost every single project.)

baby shower 1
The other table had the same components but instead of the oranges in bowls I whipped up a quick diaper cake. I actually wasn’t going to do this because sometimes I think they can be a little cheesy, but I was gifted a half a box of diapers and I didn’t want to just hand it over like that. Each layer got a ribbon in a different color/pattern and I topped it off with an awesome floppy lion I found. He just looked so dang cute lounging on the top.

baby shower 2

A friend of Amy’s (mom-to-be) carved this stroller out of a watermelon and I made skewers for fruit kabobs that had little animal flags on top. This actually turned out to be the biggest pain of any of my projects. I originally wanted circles, but didn’t have a circle punch, so that failed quickly. Then I realized that it was really hard to get them to match up exactly (my type-A personality shining through). So I redid them a third time, flipping the image in InDesign so that I cut two out together, folded them over the skewer and they looked perfect! Third time is the charm, (or maybe it was three strikes and skewer flags would be out.)

fancy

Using more of the paper I made paper cones to hold “goldfish” and “puppy chow.” Get it? I know, SO clever. To make them stand I cut a piece of styrofooam to be a little smaller than the shape of the pan. Then I stuck lollipop sticks in the foam to hold the cones up (leave a hole [or snip the end] of the paper cone so that it just barely slides down the lollipop stick) and cover the styrofoam and bottom of the cone with dried peas. Cutting the foam smaller than the pan is essential if you are using a see-through pan like I did so that you can get peas around all of the sides as well. Fill with your favorite treat and the crowd will go wild. Promise.

baby shower 4

I wanted to make sure there wasn’t 1,000 glasses to wash at the end of the party. You know how you set your glass down and then you walk away and when you get thirsty again you cannot for the life of you figure out what you did with it? Well champagne deserves champagne flutes and everyone was getting one chance. I made these tags for each glass so guests would be able to keep tabs on it. If you have an RSVP list beforehand it’s easy to do, otherwise I would forget it–if you miss someone and they don’t get an adorable bird tag they might cry. I would.

glasses
little birdies for bubbly!

Chocolate cupcakes, coconut cupcakes and pumpkin cupcakes were turned into rattles with lollipop sticks, ribbon bows and gumdrops. And lemon bars were included as they are one of Amy’s favorites. The coconut and pumpkin cupcakes got RAVE reviews. Go bake them. Now.

We had lots of drinks to choose from. Champagne was the only alcoholic choice, because it was 10:00 am, and it was Sunday and the guest of honor was with child and therefore not drinking. But pairing it with carafes of juice: orange, mango and peach make it a perfect Sunday morning drink. Amy does LOVE lemonades and fruit juices of all kinds so we had sparkling lemonade, citrus water (it looks so pretty!) and blueberry limeade as well. Behold:

baby shower 6

I found a recipe for Sparkling Raspberry Lemonade, pretty much ignored it and made Blueberry Limeade instead. It was delicious. It’s also kind of a pain in the behind to make, but I promise it’s worth it! Here’s the gist, feel free to edit to your tastes.

Blueberry Limeade – serves 6 (or me)
Ingredients
• 1/2-3/4 cup sugar (i like it tart, add more for sweet)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 1/2 tablespoons grated lime peel
• 1 cup fresh lime juice (MUST be fresh, please.)
• 1 liter (or whatever will fit in the rest of the pitcher) chilled water
• Ice cubes
• 1 bag frozen blueberries, no sugar added please, just the fruit!(or your favorite berry)
• Lime slices & fresh blueberries to garnish

Preparation
Combine blueberries, sugar, and 1/2 cup water in medium saucepan. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves and berries thaw. Increase heat and boil 3 minutes. Strain blueberry mixture into bowl, pressing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible; discard solids in strainer. Mix lime peel into blueberry syrup in bowl. Chill until cold.(Do this ahead of time, it’ll keep for a few days at least.)
Stir blueberry syrup, lime juice, and water in large pitcher to blend. Pour over glasses with ice cubes and add garnish with fresh blueberries and lemon wheels. Devour. Thank me later.

When guests left they all received a bag of vanilla animal cookies to take with them! I bought a giant container of animal cookies at Costco and put them individual zip-top bags (if you do this you can make them weeks ahead of time and they’ll still be fresh). The white bags were from Party City and I used the giraffe stamp that I used on the invitations to stamp each bag. I painted each one with thinned out paint so it wouldn’t totally cover the stamp (watercolor would be great but I didn’t have any at the time) and then, because I am completely insane and was annoyed that the paint faded the stamp ink, I traced each stamp with colored pencil to make it stand out more. I cut green tag shapes from leftover paper in the invitation paper pack, stamped and embossed each one with a “thanks” stamp and then strung it on a ribbon that I tied in bows on top of each bag. Boo-ya.

lots
If nothing else I hope you have learned just how far one pack of scrapbook paper for $19.99 can go! Congrats Amy & Brian, what a lucky little monkey your baby will be!

Amy’s Vendors

Venue: Private Residence
Invitations: AE style
Favors: AE style
Decor & Styling: AE style

UPDATE: Julia Diane arrived on January 1st, 2010. Welcome to the world, baby girl!

 

julia

*All photos in the post except for Ms. Julia’s photo (taken my Mom) were taken by me. They are terrible, I realize this. This is an excellent example of why you should hire a professional. Please. Hire a professional

anticipation events style

I got invited to attend an event at Willow Creek Church in Barrington this past weekend. Three times a year they host “Once Upon a Wedding” and invite couples who have reserved a date to get married at the church or who are thinking about getting married there to attend. They pull out all of the decorations they have available and have their volunteer wedding coordinators there to answer questions and show them around. I made a few things to give to the couples to go along with my business cards. I think they are great. I hope you do to.

brochure
(a little “brochure” that has information on all of the packages AE offers)
kisses
(i made stickers for the bottom of a bunch of hershey’s kisses and then tied them up in bags)

all
(the whole pile of happy little goodies waiting to be taken to their new homes)
These could easily be turned into awesome wedding programs and favors I think! Want me to make them for you? I am hoping 2010 will bring more “AE style” clients and I’ll get to do boat-loads of crafting!

*all photographs are personal and all items made by AE style

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