Let's get cooking party!

Two friends and I threw a dinner party to celebrate our friend's 30th Birthday and upcoming wedding! She loves the color orange - so we celebrated with an orange themed Cooking Party.

The party table:

 

Special chef's hat for the guest of honor:

 

Table decorations included baskets of orange veggies and fruit, glasses of bread sticks and giant orange silverware. Each place setting was decorated with a flower straw and mini garlic grater.

 

 

Each chair was festooned with an handmade apron for each guest - tucked in the pocket was a set of recipe cards for the items on the night's menu:

   

The aprons!

 

 

In the kitchen, ingredients and recipes were laid for guests to work together to prepare the meal.

 

 

Guests enjoying the celebration!

The invitations included screen-printed dish towels with party details and a recipe card with specific instructions. Instead of gifts, each guest was asked to bring a kitchen utensil (wooden spoon, spatula etc.) that we combined into a "Utensil bouquet"!

Fiesta Wedding Shower

Busy week for parties ... as the Maid of Honor for my good friend, I helped co-host her bridal shower this weekend. It was a Mexican inspired Fiesta with lots of good times and good company!

 

The tent with round tables, Mexican Papercut flags and large tissue paper flowers on each table.

 Nametags - I like fun, themed name tags at events where everyone does not know each other. They help break the ice and make everyone feel a part of the event.

 The clear boxes contained Mexican Wedding cookies as favors.

 Mexican inspired appetizers and desserts for guests to snack on. We also have maragritas, coronas and a Churro frying station.

Harry Potter Movie Dinner

As a Harry Potter fan, I couldn't let the release of the last movie pass without a celebration! A group of friends whom I've seen several of the movies with joined me for dinner and a chance to reminisce about Harry Potter. Although I waited to long to buy tickets for the opening night, I look forward to seeing the movie soon.

 Bags with Harry Potter buttons as favors and to hold Honeyduke's treats!

 Festive table

 Bertie's Every Flavor Bean for all.

 Owls, wands and lots of Harry Potter books for decoration.

 Favor bags.

 Dessert - English Sherry Trifle in a cake pop - so much fun!

More dessert - pumpkin juice too.

Decades Inspired Birthday Party

Last weekend, I helped host a party to celebrate two 30th Birthdays, a 60th Birthday and a 60+ Birthday. It was fun celebration with a mix of black and white sophistication and fun retro activities and decorations.

The velum overlay of the invitation introduced the theme: 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and today!

Party was held outside on my parents deck - we set small round and square tables with white linens, black and white overlays and centerpieces.

Each table had a centerpiece which was a glass jar with candle and iconic toys from the 50s, 60s, 70s, or 80s. There were green army men, trolls, play doh, silly putty, Smurfs and Mr Potato Head.

As an introductory activity, we played a Flashback Scavenger Hunt. Each guest received a card with a list of retro toy related activities - guests mingled and interacted with decorations and reminisced!

The Flashback Challenge card:

Retro toy decorations and stations for the challenges:

Decorations also included paper pendants featuring photographs of the four birthday guests and of iconic TV shows, movies, toys and pop culture icons from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s.

Appetizers were also inspired from the past 6 decades - deviled eggs, sausage rolls, cheese straws, shrimp cocktail, pea soup and chicken salsa.

After a delicious dinner of steak tenderloin, mashed potatos, salad, bread and more, we all enjoyed Birthday Cake!

Before guests departed, they filled their own bag of favorite retro candy from our special candy bar.