Tag Archives: favors

Hawaiian Birthday Party

Aloha Macy!

Its HOT!  Its summer here in the city and as we begin planning Macy’s 9th birthday party I thought it would be a great time to post her 8th birthday party, Aloha! A Luau Pool Party.  I bet there is alot of people planing a luau party this time of year, its the perfect summer theme and I hope you find ours inspiring!  We had her party at our community pool and it was a such beautiful venue that it didnt take much to decorate.

Macy's 8th Birthday Celebration

Hawaiian Party Table

There are a few consistent elements in Macy’s birthday parties, I always make the cake and the invitations are handmade.  This year was no exception,  hand cut hibiscus flowers were the front of the invites and the party info was on a medallion on the back. In her earlier years, our parties included a lot of  friends and family & I had to make about 5o invites.  But now that she’s older and we dont live near friends and family anymore her party guests are school friends and total less than 20 guests.  This years cake was a Hula Girl Barbie and she was so easy to make!  (I’ll talk more on her in a future SugarCoated post)

Luau Party Invataion

Hula Girl Barbie Cake

When it comes to buying party supplies, there are a lot of Luau and Hawaiian themes to choose from.  I tried to keep ours simple and I was very careful to not go overboard or cheesy. Lots of color is a given when you are do a luau, but since this was a girl’s party it was easy to add in more pink and orange to give it a focus. A few plain white tablecloths were a great investment I made a few years back and this was another party that I was glad we were able to use them.  The grass table skirt was safety pined to it and because it was cloth I didnt have to worry about the weight of it tearing a plastic tablecloth.  The party and favors included a lei and hibiscus hair clip and a flower printed tote to stuff with candy & treats from the pull string (the only kind I do) pink flamingo pinata. Cool treats like fresh fruit served in a half pineapple and Hawaiian Punch in a coconut shell cup was all that was needed to entertain these girls.  I could hardly keep them at the table long enough to even sing happy birthday, because they were very anxious to get in the pool and just have fun.

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A wedding to remember

My favorite wedding picture

 

 This week I celebrated my tenth wedding anniversary! As I reminisce of my wedding and the planning that went into it, I think fondly about the excitement I found in researching and sourcing the details.  I guess it was my first Celebration to plan, as it probably is for most young brides.  This was before every product you can imagine was on the internet, I actually had to buy books and magazines to find inspiration.  Most of mine came from Martha Stewart Weddings, which I still adore today.  Theknot.com had just launched and I was chosen to receive one of their planning kits in the mail.  I filled it with clippings, articles and brochures that I pulled or found at bridal shops.  I made a real scrapbook of things that I liked, as the digital inspiration boards that anyone can do today was only done by graphic designers in the magazines. I still have all of those scrapbooks and keepsakes but not in a location that I can pull them out and look through today. 

 So I thought it would be a fantastic idea to recreate my wedding dreams, ten years later, in the medium I would do today.  Some of the pictures I found online are similar to what I choose & some are the same item (thank goodness MS website has archives!) Overall this is the feeling of my wedding I created ten years ago at the tender age of twenty!

My recreated inspiration board

For my dress I was smitten with ballerinas and a favorite picture of Marilyn Monroe.  Mine had to be a tulle ball gown and the bigger the better!  Madonna had just worn this tiara to wed Guy and I sourced one nearly identical for myself.  Our color started as a dark purple but since it was a spring outdoor wedding I lightened it to lilac.  My bridesmaids wore a dress of organza overlay with a satin sash and carried my favorite flower, the hydrangea.  My hand tied bouquet was made of sweet peas, purple tulips and white roses.  Jacob and his groomsmen wore white stephanotis.  Many of our decorations were in a spherical shape such as the paper lanterns that hung from the trees over the reception tables, the vases filled with hydrangea and the topiaries that were scattered about. We were married in our home town, on the front steps of Elm Springs, an Antebellum home built in 1837 and our reception was also in the home and on the property.  For favors, we discovered candied violets to order from France in a MS Weddings issue, they were packaged in a gift box with a purple ribbon.  This is our invatation, it is square vellum with silver dots and silver envelope lining.  My cake was also out of a MS Weddings issue and the baker did a fabulous job!  It looked exactly like this!  We did a sparkler farewell and by luck a photo was captured that has been our most favorite from the start.  My wedding portrait was done a few days before the wedding, with a photographer that has been photographing Jacob’s family for more than 50 years!  This black and white proof is now a full oiled portrait on my wall and it is breathtakingly romantic! (you can see  the portrait on my living room gallery wall here). 

Nikki (Brown) Berry by Orman Photo Shop Columbia Tennessee

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Chrysanthemum Invatation

Invatation, favor tags and vintage table cloth as the inspiration

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Hudson’s First Celebration

Hudson gets his first Celebration!

Hudson turned one in February.  I initially decided that he would have the same circus theme as Macy’s first birthday, “Under the Big Top”.  But Macy made the suggestion to do a winter theme with animals instead, so “Arctic ONEderland” was conceived!  I choose the color palette: black, white, blue and orange first, then  I created the Arctic Friends characters: penguin and polar bear in an acrylic painting to make the theme completely original.   Inspired by the new trendy and lavish dessert tables, I focused with much excitement on creating my first one in that style. I made sketches for the table layout, sourced colored candy, made all the treats and designed printables in photoshop to unite the colors and characters.  Keeping the background and vessels white was perfect for the winter theme and simplified the task of finding and matching pieces during set up.  And I have to add that I packed up the entire collection and flew 900 miles to set it up!

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