Under the Sea Themed Bridal Shower

We hosted, designed, planned, coordinated and catered a bridal shower for a very special bride-to-be.

The only thing we had guiding us as we started the planning process was the fact that the bride wanted pastel versions of her wedding colors and that somehow she wanted a mermaid in the mix. Apart from those requests, we had full creative freedom to design to our hearts content. The first thing that we made to help us get started with everything else, were the invitations, which our creative director and captain, Rebecca, designed. We wanted to incorporate a mermaid into her invites in a very subtle way that did not scream “children’s party!” So Rebecca drew mermaids on Adobe Illustrator using a charcoal pencil effect and then added some watercolor streaks throughout the background. We used the font, Janda Elegant Handwriting (which is free!) in the invitation and throughout ALL the signage we made.  We lined the envelopes using some gorgeous paper we found at Paper Source and were able to incorporate this same paper throughout other elements we used in the party. 

Something we get asked a lot is: how do you get started when you are planning a party?

Whenever Rebecca and I are planning a party the first decisions we make before moving forward with anything is the theme and color palate. Then, the next thing we make before anything else is the invitations. We find that for us, it helps us set the tone of the party and from there, we can make sure to design everything else that follows cohesively. 

The menu we put together with the help of the bride who wanted a light mix of finger foods. 

Appetizers: Barbeque Glazed Meatballs, Chicken Brochette with Lemon & Garlic, Crab & Gouda Stuffed Mushrooms and Split Pea Soup Shots with Grilled Cheese.

Main Course: Finger Sandwiches – Cucumber Dill, Curried Chicken Salad & Egg Salad, Mini Salami & Turkey Sandwiches, Broccoli Salad, Red Potato Salad & Fresh Fruit.

Dessert: Chocolate Chip and Cranberry Orange Scones with Devonshire Cream, Lemon Curd & Preserves, Decorated Cookies, Fruit Tarts, Chocolate Covered Strawberries, Lemon Bars, plus home-made chocolates and chocolate lollypops. 

Drinks: We made delicious sangria – the recipe which we will share in full detail in a later blog post – which we stationed in a dispenser for guests to help themselves. We also served margaritas: mango, strawberry & lime plus Pina Coladas & Mimosas. We had our bartender Eileen dressed casually for this, she even wore a little mermaid blouse in the spirit of the party – which the bride loved! 

The Games:

We planned out five games for this bridal shower. We drew lots of inspiration from Pinterest to help us narrow down what to do! 

Here they are listed:

You can’t say the bride’s name. We had rings out in a bowl and told guests to put one on. If they heard someone say the bride’s name they could remove their ring. At the end of the party, whoever had the most rings won a prize.

How well do you know the bride? The classic questionnaire which we modified a little to suit the bride’s personality. Highest scoring person wins the prize. 

Toss the Bouquet. This is basically hot potato. Rebecca hand-made paper flowers and placed those on long wooden sticks we had from Michael’s. The bride controlled the music with her back to the players and what was nice is that she kept the bouquet after as a favor to use at her rehearsal. 

Wedding Dress Design Challenge.  A team game – we had teams of 5 people – where the challenge is to use one of your teammates as a model and make a wedding dress using only tissue paper and 1 roll of tape. We gave our two teams only 3 minutes to complete! The bride picked the winning group by selecting which dress she liked best.

What’s in your purse? We made a list of items and listed the items for guests to hear one by one, at the end whoever had the most items from the list won a prize.

DIYs we made for this party were:

Invites, Signage, From Miss to Mrs. banner, Bride-to-Be chair banner, Crepe Paper Streamer Backdrops (Garage Door, Dessert Station, and Photo booth Backdrop), PVC Pipe Photo booth, Photo booth Props, Floral Centerpieces + Buffet Arrangements, Round Paper Fans, Tissue Paper Pom-Poms, Party Favor Bags – filled with nail polish, Initial Wooden Letters (we painted and glittered), Paper Flower Bouquet (for toss the bouquet game), Chocolate Lollypops and Sea Shell Chocolates plus a How Well do You Know the Bride Questionnaire to match the party. We are hoping to have some specific DIY posts for a few of these elements as well as some FREE printables for your personal use soon! 

A note about the centerpieces: We were inspired by coral reefs when figuring out a color scheme and flowers to use for this. We loved how they turned out!

To see the happiness on the bride’s face when she saw all of the details the day of her shower made it all worth it! That’s the most rewarding part of being in this business.

Vendor Credits:

Rentals – A Rental Connection

Decorated Cookies – Bella Donna Special Events

Fruit Tarts – Sarah J Pastries

Everything else…..Henri’s Exquisite Catering!

 

DIY: 80's Themed Inspiration. Centerpieces + Candy Station + Bar Menu with Signature Drinks

We love the 80s! Check out some inspiration from a party we threw last year. These DIYs are inexpensive and simple to do. Hope you enjoy!

 

1st DIY:

To make these we drank lots and lots of Mexican Coca-Cola out of these adorable 8oz bottles for months! Well we didn't drink all of them ourselves! We made sure to host lots of family barbeques and get together where our family and friends could help us out! This type of Coca Cola bottle is not impossible to find here, we've seen this at places like Target and Wal-Mart. The only thing we didn't like, the price tag. Each bottle will average about $2.00 each in a 6-pack. We were lucky to find cases of these on a trip to Tijuana, Mexico at a "Wal-Mart type" chain called "Commercial Mexicana". The average price per bottle in Mexico was about 50 cents. Not to mention Mexican Coke is made with pure sugar cane! 

For this you'll need glass soda bottles and spray paint in the color of your choice.

This is what the bottles looked like before getting sprayed.

Here's the silver metallic spray paint we used that we purchased at Home Depot.

Let them dry over night after spraying them!

We made lots of these! To make them pop as centerpieces, we clustered about 5 of these at each table and topped them with single stems of flowers.

Here's what the seating area looked like with all of our centerpieces!

We added Rubix cubes we found at the Dollar Tree and 2 votive candles for a little something extra.

2nd DIY

80s Themed Candy Bar and Backdrop

To make this backdrop, we spent about $10.00. We found party streamer rolls at Dollar Tree and decided to go with a green, black, and purple color scheme. We used duct tape to secure each row of steamer to the top of the cement wall (which is not visible - sorry!). But the way we taped them, by folding the duct tape so that we ended up with 2 sticky sides, no one could see the tape!
We cut and cut and cut and taped and taped and taped. This did take us about one hour to complete, but we prepared this area a day before the party. So that helped! The 80s themed cutouts were made by hand using different cardstock we had on hand. The sweets sign we made by spray painting a piece of ply-wood we had on hand with the same silver spray paint we had for the bottles and then painting "sweets" using black acrylic paint.

The day of the party we placed the candy we purchased at Jack's Wholesale Candy in LA. Here's a link to their website. http://www.jackscandyandtoy.com/ 
Their store is AMAZING! It's a great place to also find candies in a specific color if you are going with that style candy bar.What's also nice is that if you ask a staff member, they will give you a list of decade themed candy starting with the 40's all the way to the 90's - very useful when figuring out what to buy for an 80s themed party!

Here we used blow pops, sixlets, sour gummy worms, lemon heads, pop rocks, razzles and fun-dip. Guests loved the decor and loved the candy!

3rd DIY:

Bar Signage and Signature Cocktails

For this signage, we used an old cork board we had from a previous party that we used as a seating chart. We lightly stained the border with some black paint and then covered the cork with black cardstock. We used a Cricut to cut out some letters in various cardstocks we had.

We wanted to use drink names that would remind our guests of 80s pop culture.  We also had glass soda bottles of Fanta. Costco is a great place to buy large quantities of sodas in glass bottles.


Hope this inspires you if you are planning your own 80s themed party or any other event!

Chocolate Chip Cookies!

The holiday season is in full swing and for many people it's a time to bake bake bake bake bake! Many ask us about our unique chocolate chip cookies; as a special holiday treat, we thought we would share how we make these delicious treats.

Just a note about our ingredients before we begin...we make a very large batch of cookie dough recipe, which yields us about 300 cookies. So to make things simple, we'll just list the ingredients we use without measurements. This is more to give you ideas and tips when making your own cookies! 

Feel free to follow us on Instagram where we have also placed some step by step pictures with some video as well!

 

Ingredients:

• Granulated Sugar
• Brown Sugar
• Sticks of Margarine
• Sticks of Unsalted Butter
•  Eggs
• Vanilla Extract
• All Purpose Flour
• Baking Soda
• Mini Dark Chocolate Chips

First...

Have a mixing bowl ready (we use a commercial mixer with a beater attachment) - a stand mixer works as well, or you can hand mix...if you're up to it!

Add your granulated sugar and brown sugar in the bowl (note: we used 4lbs of granulated sugar and 1lbs of brown sugar).

 

Then...

We added sticks of margarine, unsalted butter, eggs and vanilla extract!

 

After

We placed our bowl in our mixer and turned it on medium speed. This is what you get after all these ingredients are incorporated nicely. A yummy mushy buttery blend of awesomeness.

Add...

Some all-purpose flour and baking soda to your mixing bowl.

 Turn on your mixer and have the flour blend with your other ingredients...

After your mix resembles a dough...

Add some dark chocolate chips and turn on your mixer one last time to blend these in.

Once your chocolate chips are mixed in, this is what your dough will look like!

This dough is so good, it's even tempting just to eat it on it's own without baking! If you are into making your own ice cream, think how good it some home-made cookie dough ice cream would taste with this!


After our dough is done we let it rest in the refrigerator for a few minutes. This makes it easier for us to scoop the dough into baking sheets. We use whole baking sheets and get 35 cookies to a sheet.

Place your baking sheet in the oven at 350 F for about 10-15 minutes, until your cookies are golden brown.

Take them out of the oven and let your cookies rest! This is what they look like when they are finished!

What we love about these cookies is that, first, they are not too sweet or over chocolatey. Then they have a little crunch when you first bite into them followed by a chewy soft center. Super delicious! Enjoy!

Style Me Pretty Featured Wedding at the Adamson House in Malibu, CA

This lovely wedding was featured on Style Me Pretty not too long ago. We catered this wedding at the Adamson House back in September of last year and absolutely loved all of the special details that the bride and groom put together. 

Weddings are always reason for joy and celebration. This wedding was no different. From the moment we met the beautiful couple, we knew this would be a special wedding. 

What made working with this couple an enjoyable experience was their knack for good design, and a sharp vision of what they wanted. Very straight forward, they told us what style of dinner service they wanted, a family style dinner, and the floor plan they envisioned for their big day. Harvey was amazing and even sent over a visual design for the rental company to see!

From a caterer's standpoint, working at the Adamson House is no easy feat. It takes a lot of planning and collaboration from your rental company and the bride and groom, as well as an amazing team of people (servers, chefs and coordinators) to put everything together. For the bride who wants the freedom to customize and DIY their wedding, the Adamson House is the perfect beautiful beach venue. You are allowed to bring any vendors of your choice, no restrictions! Any bride and groom should be aware, however, that as a California State Park, there are rules and regulations that need to be respected. Also, this venue does not have a kitchen for your caterer to work out of. What is the solution? To build the kitchen. This will require you to rent a tent with lighting, prep tables, a commercial gas range stove or two (depending on your head count and menu) and simple protective floor covering  (per the Adamson House's regulations). The Adamson House provides a wonderful large area that is used for kitchen prep area where everything is set up and out of sight from your guests. Once all the details get taken care of however, the result is a beautiful and unforgettable wedding. 

For Harvey and Sophie, we provided a family style dinner service which included, a sit-down salad course - field greens with candied walnuts, dried cranberries, crumbled feta & raspberry vinaigrette, grilled salmon with orange ginger sauce, lemon chicken with light lemon caper sauce, bowtie pasta with eggplant, zucchini, and diced tomatoes, roasted acorn squash with slivered almonds, as well as fresh baked rolls & squaw bread with butter. We also stationed some fresh fruit and vegetable crudites & dip for guests to help themselves to. They also had tray-passed hors d'oevures during cocktail hour. We passed crab and gouda stuffed mushrooms, mini beef wellingtons, sweet & sour meatballs and split pea soup shots with grilled cheese skewer. As part of our services we also set up a pre-ceremony greeting beverage station with water and lemonade and coffee during the reception. Our team provided all the china, glassware and flatware and helped to arrange all of the place settings at the tables.

A great team of vendors worked together to make this wedding a fun and memorable day for the bride groom and their guests. We were happy to be a part of this special day - life is full of celebrations and we are lucky that in this line of work we get to share these incredible moments with our clients.

Enjoy the pictures captured by the talented Bethany and Whitney Dean of Glass Jar Photography. To see more pictures check out Style Me Pretty's original post.

Photography: Glass Jar Photography | Videography: Glass Jar Photography | Event Planning: Renee Lee - Table 8 | Florist: Ixora Floral Studio | Cake: Porto's Bakery | Catering: Henri's Exquisite Catering | Wedding Venue: Adamson House Rentals: A Rental Connection

4th Of July Dessert Inspiration - Mini Apple Turnovers

With 4th of July just around the corner, we thought we would share a little bite size dessert that is sure to have your family raving. The Apple Pie has long been a classic American favorite. In the middle of summer, a slice with vanilla ice cream on top is perfectly satisfying. However, when you are out on a picnic ready to watch fireworks, an Apple Pie might not be too practical. These bite size apple turnovers have all the familiar flavors everyone loves, are not too sweet and super easy to make.  

Here's a list of ingredients you will need:

• Puff Pastry Dough
• Flour
• Granny Smith Apples
• Brown Sugar
• Granulated Sugar
• Cinnamon
• Butter
• 1 Lemon
• Egg Wash

Peel and cut your granny smith apples into little cubes. Then squeeze about 1 table spoon of lemon juice into the apples. Add some brown sugar and cinnamon - to your liking. Toss your apples with the ingredients together so they are well incorporated. This is what we came up with afterwards.

After, have a pan or skillet on medium heat and melt about two tablespoons of butter. Then add the apple mixture and stir occasionally. You want your apples to get soft and you will notice that a glaze will start to form. This is from the sugar in the apples and the butter in the pan. You want your apples to get nice and soft and for this glaze to form. If you feel you need a little more butter or sugar, feel free to add it to the apples in the pan. After they are cooked and ready, this is what they should look like.

Once your apple mixture is done, remove it from the skillet and into a bowl, you can even place the bowl with the mixture in the fridge to have it cool down a little. This will make it easier to scoop into your puff pastry dough.

Then you will need some puff pastry dough. We make our own dough, but if you do not have the time for that, frozen puff pastry sheets from your grocery's frozen dessert section will be perfect! Make sure they are thawed out so you are able to work with the sheets of dough. Place some flour on your work table and then a piece of puff pastry sheet. You might want to roll out your dough a little bit so it's not too thick. Then cut your sheets into 3-4 inch circles with a biscuit cutter.

 Note: If you don't have a cookie or biscut cutter,  you can also use a glass or plastic cup to cut your circles. 

 

Grab a small scoop or spoon and place a generous table spoon or two into one half of the circles. We apologize for not having a picture of this step! Then after all of your circles have filling in them. Fold the circles in half and seal the turnovers with a fork.

After all your turnovers are sealed, brush some egg wash on them (we made ours with eggs & water). Then mix up some granulated sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and sprinkle your turnovers with this sugar-cinnamon mix.



Have your oven pre-heated at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Place your baking sheet full of turnovers in the oven for about 15-20 minutes and/or until golden brown. After they are out of the oven, this is what they should look like!

Let them cool a little, then they will be ready to enjoy. They keep pretty well out of the fridge for about two days or so. You can make them the night before and pack them in a container and enjoy them the next day on your 4th of July fireworks picnic!