WISHCLOUDS Launch Party, October 2013

Event Stylist: Miss Party Mom Event Planning

MPM Intern: Kristin Lethbridge

Photography by Felix @ LA Look Book

Background: WISHCLOUDS is a shopping/social media website with an app that alerts you as to when things go on sale... hence the tag line: "Know Without Fail, When Things Go On Sale". Another aspect of the site is that when you "wish" for something others following you can see just what you're wanting... let's say... for Christmas! It's pretty brilliant. If only I could convince Shawn to follow me. This party was to "present" the site to fashion, home and beauty bloggers so that they could give it press to their readers- WISHCLOUDS market: people interested in fashion, beauty and home decor.

I've already written about how I landed this amazing gig... if you somehow missed that story you can find it here... or here... It's a fun one.

Behind the scenes I worked like crazy with Sara of Green Elephant Prints who's located in my town. It was nice to be able to physically meet with her and sketch out some ideas as to what I had in mind. She was amazing with her turn-around time and quality of work and I highly recommend her if you're looking for a printables designer.

For 2 weeks before the event I spent countless hours (except I DID count them this time) emailing all of my vendors making sure I had everything I needed to provide candy/desserts for 50 top LA bloggers and a few of the WISHCLOUDS Tastemakers (celebs) that would be there. We had cookies coming from San Diego- me coming from the Central Coast and organic marshmallows coming from Canada... I'd say we spanned a pretty good amount of land for an LA based party!

I had all of my signage printed in my town at Local Copies... and true to there always being at least one pre-party malfunction I went in to pick them up and they were all 3 feet long verses 5 feet long. At first I was annoyed and then I realized I'd be able to keep all of the wrongly sized signs and hey- having 2 sets of signs never hurts!

I made the 3+ hour trip down to LA on Monday. On Tuesday I met Ashley, head of social media for WISHCLOUDS at the office where the party would be and I got myself a little tour so I could better visualize my set up.

Let me tell you it was good to be back in LA- traffic and all I was loving being back in the grind of a big city. You can seriously take the girl out of the city but you can NOT take the city out of this girl! I love all the chaos a big city brings... and knowing I was there setting up something I'd worked on for 2 weeks straight, it was exciting. Having grown up not far- distance wise- from Beverly Hills (but VERY far economically speaking!) I spent a lot of my weekends in High School begging my mom to drive me down to Melrose and Wilshire so I could go shopping. I hadn't been down in that area for a while though and was so happy to figure out exactly where the building was and unload my first load of party stuff.

Wednesday I was up and at um' at 7am with the glue gun plugged in and the glitter flying in order to finish up some last minute things. I ran some party errands and left the South Bay at 1pm for Wilshire Blvd. I got there, unloaded on a huge dolly and then shimmied my way in to setting up my dessert table way earlier than I was supposed to... I was told I could start at 4pm (party started at 6pm) and I knew that wasn't going to fly with everything else that needed to be done- I was sweating just thinking about setting everything up in 2 hours.

Set up was pretty intense. Everyone in the office had there own thing to be working on and we were all working like crazy until 10 minutes before guests arrived... slightly stressful! I am so used to having my sweet interns to boss around and at this party- I didn't have that luxury! If anything- I was the intern! It was fun watching Jamie take a boring board room and turn it in to a gifting suite full of amazing swag I was drooling over... it really made the whole fashion blogger thing ultra appealing since that's who would be hitting the suite up. Hummm...

During the party I was able to network like crazy (I haven't collected that many business cards since my Mattel function days!) and eat some amazing sushi and drink unlimited amounts of Diet Coke... definitely a major job perk. My main job however was to help people fill up custom WISHCLOUDS candy bags. I also had little glitter take-out style boxes if they wanted a quick way to get a sampling of every candy on the table. All of the sweets were a hit and I received so many compliments on the table that I was on [WISH]CLOUD 9 the whole night, what- like I wasn't going to do that?

I seriously owe it all to these peeps who cranked me out some amazing items on a 2 week turn around... my VENDORS!

xo Party or Die xo

kenna

Graphics: Green Elephant Prints

Logo Cookies, Cloud Cookie Pops, Cake Pops and Cake Balls: Roni's Sugar Creations

Cloud Marshmallows and Marshmallow Pops: Kimberley's Kitchen

"Sweets" Pin Wheel Sign, Jumbo Coffee Filters, Coffee Filter Garland: Peckled

WISHCLOUDS Custom Photo Props: Tweedle Dee Designs

Cake Pop Bling Sticks and Bling Candy Scoops: Made by a Princess

Blue Sixlets, Vanilla Taffy and Rock Candy: Candy Galaxy

Hot Air Balloon Lantern, Cloud Photo Backdrop: Oriental Trading Company

Turq Glitter Take-Out Boxes: Michael's Crafts

The CEO's of WISHCLOUDS 

Fashion blogger Beth Jones on the left

The winner of one of the 7 iPad Mini's up for grabs... I thought about jumping her for it.

John Salley of the NBA and Teala Dunn of Nickelodeon's Dog With A Blog

Somewhere Along The Way She Lost Herself to Motherhood...

I know, you thought I'd abandoned you. For a brief moment I thought I might have abandoned you too. I needed to get rid of one of the balls I was juggling: being a mom, p/t waitress, party planner and blogger. The blog is the easiest one of those for me to break from, as it gives me no *real* profit, just some therapy and a much needed outlet for when I'm feeling like only 3 people I know understand me... (one of them being my sister- and like, does family even count?) I figure if 300 people read this... I'm bound to to have someone else feel it... just based on the odds... and if you don't "feel" it, that's OK. We're all different and I'm just sharing my version of different.

I had a part in planning a huge event this week... a lot of you know this and have been following along with me through Instagram as I planned it. The entire story on how I landed this gig is in my last blog entry but in a nut shell I was reconnected via Instagram with my high school pen pal Jamie- a New Yorker now living in LA as a beauty blogger. She was hired on for this event to gather fashion bloggers and celebrities for the launch party of a new social media shopping website called WISHCLOUDS. Her and Ashley, (head of social media for WISHCLOUDS) contacted me 3 weeks ago about supplying some decor for their event. At first I figured I'd send a party-in-a-box and a photo of exactly how to set it up, as it was 3+ hours away. And then I got to telling Shawn about it and he told me I'd be crazy to miss it... and so I asked if they'd mind if I actually came down to LA to set up myself. They were happy to have me and so I made some plans for a visit to LA (I'm writing from my husband's old bed room right now). I didn't secure funding until 2 weeks before the event- so my entire candy/dessert bar, photo booth and all of the signage were done on the quickest timeline I've done yet. Creatively speaking, I work well under pressure.

To put it lightly... it's been stressful. The last 2 weeks have been FULL of emailing, online shopping, late nights and deadlines. And remember, I'm time tracking and profiting now- so it's been full of making business type decisions to keep myself a business- not a hobby- too. On top of this event I had another [mermaid] party already booked 3 days before the WISHCLOUDS event... So stressful doesn't really even begin to explain it. And in all of the chaos that fast deadlines bring, these 2 weeks have been awesome and inspiring and I've felt more accomplished than I have in a really long time. The day of the WISHCLOUDS event (October 2nd) I worked 16 hours and the crazy part- the insightful part for me- is that not one of those hours did I feel bitter or angry or tired that I was working so hard. I felt fueled and for the first time in a long time- successful.

One thing I'm learning is that the thing about success is that it's very subjective. Some people feel successful as a parent... or a wife... as a great friend.... And while I do love being a mom and a wife and a great friend- none of them have made me feel errr... successful, per say. I'm hard on myself, a perfectionist- which isn't as cool as it sounds... trust me. So if something isn't perfect I have a hard time feeling great about it...can you see how this could be hard on a mom? Most days if I'm honest, I feel less than successful when it comes to raising my kids... like I'm doing it all wrong and that neither child is retaining a shred of what I'm trying to teach/instill in them. That screeching tantrum wasn't exactly grounds for feeling like my clients (my kids) are happy with my work.

I used to wish I could base my success on things like potty training, or a great home-cooked meal... but simply put: I cannot. Because that is not who I am. I keep reminding myself over and over again- that is not who you are Kenna and that is ok. There is no mom-mold you need to fit in to. I can still be a good mom even without star charts and weekly meal plans. My kids will grow up with a different set of life skills than most of the kids I know. And again... after almost 5 years, I'm learning to be ok with that. 5 years of trying to be the SAHM, the WAHM, the perfect house- sparkly clean kids mom.... THE I'M TIRED OF PRETENDING MOM. The I-love-my-kids-but-I-also-want-to-work-mom.

The bottom line is, somewhere along the way deep in to motherhood, I forgot who I was. It's like a light bulb went off for me while planning this event and this light bulb shined a bright light on my love of so many things I'd retired for the sake of raising my babies. And why? Why can't I be a mom with passions and goals for my version of success?

My love of fashion. Have I mentioned I majored in it? And owned a funky little clothing store? I became a mom and swapped my wedges for flip flops and my vintage dresses for Target. And not that there's anything wrong with that- it happens, motherhood will change you. But I miss fashion. I miss caring about what I look like and waking up to put on a full face of makeup and stylish clothing and looking in the mirror and saying, "Wow you look cool today". I don't ever say that anymore, I'm lucky if I say, "You look presentable to the outside world!" 

My love of music. I traded the Kings of Leon for The Psalty Praise Album. Over. And over. Again. KOL just came out with a new album- my little sister told me. The same little sister (ok, she's 26) I introduced to them back when they were nobodies. Because I loved music and always found the nobodies. I have a poster from their 2004 tour on my living room wall and yet I didn't even know they just came out with a new album? But I have the newest Little People soundtrack... Oh yes, I do have that.

And I forgot that I love to work. Like really, really work. Which is weird because I have been working in some capacity since 7th grade when I first came up with the idea to sell hair wraps and plastic pacifier necklaces. I have always thrived on making and selling things.

In a sense becoming a mom meant responsibility and not taking business risks and just bringing in X amount of dollars so I can help with preschool for my son and other necessities. And even as I type this I'm thinking, "Yes, absolutely- security is good- that's why you waitress." But at what expense? Because I'm really asking myself this week, "Who are you, Kenna- where did you go?"

While shopping for an outfit to wear to the WISHCLOUDS event I felt so disconnected to fashion that I kept asking my best friend, "Are studs still in?" "Are back cut-outs still in?" I used to be the girl telling people what to wear... and I actually felt anxiety looking for an outfit. Me, anxious over clothing? And I know the exact verse my Christian friends are quoting in their heads... and like I said, not everyone is going to get it... and that's ok because I get it: I miss ME.

Yes, it had a back cut-out... It's still in.

This week working for WISHCLOUDS I got to do something I was created to do: CREATE. I was paid to take my vision and bring it to life. It was challenging in the very best way possible. At the end of the event I felt like a million bucks and that right there- makes me a better mom, a better wife... a better friend to anyone who can grasp my passion and need to feel successful in this business I started a year and a half ago.

Because when momma's happy... everyone's happy... Can we at least agree on that?

xo Party or Die xo

kenna

PS- Both parties were professionally photographed and I can't wait to show them off to you in the next couple of weeks.