Friday, October 3, 2014

Adorable Birthday Banners by String Dearie!



When Lisandra of String Dearie asked if she could send me one of her banners to review on my blog, I jumped on the opportunity! Not only are they sparkly adorable- they are SO. WELL. MADE. And I'm honestly not just saying this! I was actually kind of shocked that the note inside the package said, "Please give feedback- good or bad!" I was thinking, "Well, crap! What if I don't like them!?" But the truth is... I LOVE THEM! Upon seeing the two banners in their great packaging I thought they were amazing, and upon hanging them I was even more impressed. Each banner she sent (both the Happy Birthday and the Small & Large Dot Felt Garland) is sturdy yet light weight enough to hang without an issue. My favorite part is that the each letter is backed with felt and the dots are double stacked- I mean- a lot of time is spent creating these beauties!



Shockingly and very out of character for my little Miss Birdie, she actually agreed to taking some photos for momma (I think it was more that she enjoyed pretending it was her birthday!). Either way I got a little impromptu "photo shoot" out of her using our new String Dearie banners. I've been dying for a reason to put Birdie in this confection print party dress so this gave me the perfect "occasion"...

In the end I can without a doubt recommend String Dearie to you for quality and unique party pennants, banners and garlands! I think you'll be as pleased as I am with each of her handmade products (as well as her selection)... Now I can't wait to use these in a real party!




xo Party or Die xo
kenna

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

{Preppy Lemon Bridal Shower} August 2014

I met my friend Bri in 2010 and we've pretty much been planning her Bridal Shower ever since. Well, kind of... I mean, not in a, "we have the perfect theme!" sort of way- but in a, "one day I'm going to throw you a really special bridal shower" kind of way. Well, that day came this August 23rd and indeed, a special day it was! It was so fun to shower Bri with love, laughs and... new panties! A bridal shower isn't complete without a bunch of new panties, right? (Some of them were downright hilarious.)



A few of my friends mentioned to me that this shower didn't have my "typical" look... And I'm like, "Well- good... I didn't throw it for me!" I think one of the most important aspects to being a party stylist is to be able to design a party with someone else's style in mind. Of course adding your own detailed touches along the way is great- but if every party I designed had "my look" to it, I'd be working solely with a black/white and pink color palette! (Which couldn't be farther away from Bri's style btw...) Therefore I came up with what I named the "Preppy Lemon" Bridal Shower- which in my opinion, couldn't have fit my beautiful friend, the soon-to-be Mrs. Cote, any better!

One thing that I learned while designing this shower was that while a color palette plays a big role in the look of any party- it's ok to mix different shades of colors. I've always been on the fence about this and have spent hours upon hours making sure plates, cups and various pieces of decor were exactly the perfect shade... Quite possibly all in vain! I was really torn with the two colors in this shower: Navy and Yellow- because they can range quite a bit and I really wanted everything to match perfectly. I even second guessed using the striped backdrop because it was more of a royal blue than a navy blue. I also initially wanted a citrus yellow but when things started coming in the mail ranging from "school bus yellow" to "golden rod yellow" I decided that using various shades for both colors was going to have to work! And in the pictures, it's honestly hardly noticeable actually... So lesson learned: mixing shades is not only ok- but I may be the only one noticing.

One more thing I did for this shower was really try and utilize items I already had... If you know my former parties, you've already noticed that! From the bike (turq to yellow) to the newly spray painted gold basket-turned-cakestand, I made every effort to keep costs down and dig deep in to my inventory!

For this shower I partnered up with Party Pail, Inc. for a lot of my decor items. What a great website for finding color coded/themed party decor and paper goods to go perfectly with any theme. I simply typed 'lemon' in their search bar and was nicely surprised by what popped up- including these adorable Lemonwood Collection dessert plates (with gold foil seeds!) that helped drive home my lemon theme. I also used their quality solid color dinner plates, paper straws, and blue/yellow paper cups and lots of white paper fans for my dessert table backdrop!


Another vendor I was so happy to team up with was Marie at Sweets Indeed. Her custom candy kabobs blew my mind! She took Bri and her fiance Thomas' initials and made a custom edible graphic for each kabob... These were definitely a hit! They not only looked amazing but were really yummy! These kabobs come bagged and sealed and you can really taste the freshness.



For more "Preppy Lemon" shower details and what games we played see the write up and spread I recently had featured over at Pizzazzerie!


Vendors:
Event Styling and Custom Décor: Miss Party Mom Event Planning | Facebook | Etsy
Photography: Moments Captured Photography, Central Coast, Ca
Venue: Lake Marie Country Club, Orcutt Ca
Party Graphics: Chelsey Hale
White Paper Fans (backdrop), Cups, Lemon Plates, Plastic Cutlery and Napkins: Party Pail, Inc
Yellow Honeycomb Balls (floor), Yellow Paper Fans (backdrop), Blue Striped Cookie Bags: The TomKat Studio
Custom Monogrammed Candy Kabobs: Sweets Indeed
Custom Wooden Cake Topper: Ten23 Designs
Paper Straws & Yellow Polka Dot Cookie Bags: Celebration Lane
Lemon Die Cuts (used for table’s garland): Sawyer Leigh Boutique
Pink and Golden Rod Fringe Party Streamers & 36" White Heart Balloon: The Petite Party Studio
Lemon Shaped Cookies: Hannah Henry
French Macarons: Jennifer Hawkins
Lemon Pitcher: Sur La Table
Lemon Print Lingerie (on dessert table): Forever 21



























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