Real Party: Blue & Orange Garden Party Sip & See

My friends Leslie & Pavel's son is Dylan. Dylan's Grandparents recently hosted a gathering for friends and family to meet little Dylan.

I was asked to help with decorations and desserts.  Of course my partners-in-crafting Lindsay and Drea helped to execute the plans.

What a beautiful day it turned out to be. Leslie's parents have an incredible yard for entertaining. It served as the perfect setting for the gathering.

Leslie chose this invitation from Minted.com and just reworked the wording so it wasn't for a birthday.  This invite was our inspiration for the color scheme. The invitation was perfect because Leslie had really wanted to incorporate some of the 36 inch balloons we had used at her baby shower.

My husband made this chalkboard for me recently.  It was perfect to point guests to the backyard.  (We literally found the frame on the side of the road and he added the center wood, painted it with chalkboard paint, and then put legs on the back. I have so many uses planned for it already! Yay!)

This beautiful display lined the pathway that guests walked to reach the party area.

Leslie punched hundred and hundreds of circles and attached them to sticks.  Wow, that was a lot of work. But it looked so great!

The party area has lots of trees, so our main decor was hung from them.

We cut hundreds of triangles and sewed dozens of yards of bunting. 

And Leslie ordered a bunch of paper lanterns in different shades of blue. 

I thought it was stunning.

We had some round tables spread across the grass lawn. 

Dylan's Grandma put together some simple white flower centerpieces.  Lindsay and I made some fabric squares for the centers of the tables.

Now the most important part: Food & Drink! 

There was a bar and 2 food stations: one with Mexican food, and one with Chinese food. Yum and Yum. We used more bunting and balloons to decorate the tables.

Lindsay, Drea, and I worked together to make lots of cupcakes.

We topped them with m&m's in greys and blues, and built a simple little display with some fabric covered boxes. We put a few pictures of the guest of honor in Ikea frames.

Dylan and his Mom.

Too cute.

Resources: 
Invitation: Minted
Party Rentals: Danny Thomas Party Rentals
Chinese Food: New Orient
Mexican Food: El Paisa Taco Truck
Paper Lanterns: Jade Time
Balloons: Bargain Balloons

Real Party: Gray & Yellow Luncheon Baby Shower

My friend Leslie is expecting a baby boy. We threw her a lovely little shower in Lindsay's backyard a few weeks ago.  We tried to make the decor appeal to Leslie's style. We decided rather than do a specific theme, we'd concentrate on a color scheme she likes.  We settled on gray and white, with touches of yellow. 

First off, I have to give a serious shout-out to Jennafer of Oh Creative One. She helped with the invitations and other printables for the party and did an awesome job.  She was super fast and made any tweaks I requested almost instantly. It was a pleasure to work with her.  

Appetizers and drinks were out when guests arrived.

Foods were based off some of the mom-to-be's favorites.  We had a cheese plate, pigs in a blanket, and tomato bruschetta for appetizers. 

We strung a line of onsies over the appetizer spread.  Our friend Alana found these perfectly colored onsies at Target. 

Lindsay's re-purposed window-turned-pin-board held baby pictures of the mom and dad-to be.  Too cute!

We set up two long tables in the yard for guests.  I made some runners out of gray fabric.  Alana made floral centerpieces.

We had the cutest tented place cards made by Oh Creative One.

Lindsay made little fabric covered jars of candy for each plate.  Crisp white linens and pewter napkin rings finished the look.

 We decorated the area around the tables with ribbons and a garland. Lindsay sewed the circle garland and we strung it between trees.  We also hung ribbons from trees. 

I've mentioned on this blog before that my friend Leslie is a total celebrity nut.
(We played a celebrity themed game at her bridal shower.
And if I remember correctly, she actually won when we did it again at this shower, but we disqualified her since she won the first game.)   
So, we had to have a celebrity game at her baby shower also.

Drea whipped up this cute game and everyone had a lot of fun trying to name the babies and their celebrity parents.  Guess who won? The mom-to-be of course! :)

We also had guests write a message to the baby in a children's book.

We chose Frederick mostly because it matched our color scheme, but what an adorable book to help start the baby's library. 

Lunch was served next.

We had a "slider bar". It was adorable and yummy!

 We had both beef and veggie sliders with all the fixin's.

We served Caesar and kale salads. 

We also had mac & cheese and potato chips (served in cones -- thanks to Katie!).
No one went hungry at this shower!

With all the yummy food, I was afraid that no one would eat my dessert.

Luckily that wasn't a problem!
These push-pops were so fun to make! I just layered chocolate chip mint ice cream and chocolate cake (with a little frosting mixed into make it sticky), and then topped them with whipped cream. 

Party favors were Deb's homemade caramel corn.

Embellished with stickers by Oh Creative One. 

Congratulations Leslie! I cannot wait to meet your little man!

Real Party: Nesting Baby Shower

If you've been reading this blog for the last few months you know that my friend Lindsay and I are both expecting.  Our high school girlfriends threw us a joint baby shower earlier this summer.  And it was amazing! I'm so excited to finally be able to share the pictures! 

My friend Megan made the adorable invites, which set the scene for the nesting theme. 

There was a banner for each of our babies.

The food table was gorgeous.  

My most favorite detail was the 2 bird houses painted for each of us and hung above the food table.  Aren't they adorable? 

Lunch was tea sandwiches and assorted salads.

Our friends also baked up a storm!

Vanilla cupcakes, bird nest sugar cookies, grapefruit sandwich cookies, lemon tarts were just a few of the desserts.

Around the house were flowers, birdhouses, and bird nests.  

 Linds and I opened amazing gifts for our baby girls from friends and family...

...and then played the best game I've ever played at a baby shower.  With the help of our friends Deb and Leslie, our husbands were secretly interviewed on camera about our pregnancies and parenthood.  We had to guess how they would answer. It was hilarious!

The boys were very good sports. :)

 Party favors were individually packaged macaroon cookies from one of my girlfriends' favorite bakeries. 

Lindsay and I with our hostesses: Linnea, Marci, Megan, and Morgan.  Love those girls. :)

Thank you so much for the amazing shower! I could not have asked for anything more. 

Photos by Morgan McGinn

Real Party: Fall Wedding in Wine Country

I have some great pictures of an absolutely beautiful fall wedding to show you!

My friend Lisa was married last fall in California's Wine Country.  (I shared her bachelorette party on the blog last year!) I think you will agree, the season was captured perfectly in every detail of this gorgeous event!

 The wedding was held at Vintage Estates in Yountville, CA.

 A cocktail hour was held on the lawn, which included passed appetizers and beverages. 

Don't you love the pillars of fruit & candles?

Charming hand-stamped escort cards and beautifully printed menus set the stage for the meal.  

Lisa & Jeremy celebrated with family and friends at the reception, which was held in the barrel room of the winery.  An additional area was also set up on the lawn. 

How beautiful is this cake by Branching Out? It was as tasty as it was gorgeous. There was of chocolate cake with passion fruit curd, and white cake with lemon curd and berries.  Yum!
The cake was designed after the bride's dress.

I love the clever party favor Lisa & Jeremy gave their guests. Lisa is a total foodie (please check out her new blog for great recipes!), so they gave little bottles of Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  Made locally, of course! 

I love the simple "Merci" tags. 

Congrats to Lisa & Jeremy!  Happy (almost) Anniversary!

Thanks Lisa for sharing your pictures with me!

Vendor Details: 

Photography by Donna Kopol Bonick

Cake by Branching Out

Flowers by Lush Floral

Real Party: Rubber Ducky Baby Shower

I recently shared with you some decorations I made for a rubber ducky baby shower. 

The hostesses sent some pictures of the party to me.  I love way it all came together! 

Tulips, rubber duckies, bath items, the polka dot fabric square, and my ducks & bubbles confetti made a cute centerpiece. 

The baby shampoo, duckies, and sponge were given to the new mom.  

The welcome banner hung over the fireplace. 

Straw flags at the drink table. 

The hostesses gave chocolate chip cookies as party favors, and used one of my fabric squares to line the basket. 

Thanks so much to the hostesses for sharing their pictures with me! 

So glad to hear baby Gillis is doing well!