Down Home Romance: A Real Wedding, Part 2

The Details
White and green roses paired with green and white hydrangeas, kraft covered books with hand painted table name signs, mason jars and touches of lace and burlap were everywhere!
Photos by Whimzy Photography
Bride's bouquet

Stitched Program


The Cake 
Nothing is more down home than bundt cakes and fruit pies so in lieu of the traditional wedding cake, we had a small tiered carrot cake with a cluster of bundt cakes and a cluster of pies to create a homey dessert buffet.

Place setting with homemade Salted Caramel Sauce favors
Simple aisle decor
To add to the fun, laid back atmosphere, we set up a S'mores area on the back patio for those wishing to enjoying the warm summer evening under the stars.
S'more Kits

Down Home Romance: A Real Wedding, Part 1

Mr and Mrs V
She is bubbly and outgoing, he is quiet and reserved.  She is passionate about celebrating life and he is passionate about her.  When Mike proposed to Rachel, he wanted to give her the wedding of her dreams.  Since dreams can't be bought with a price and real life vehemently disagrees, the two set forth to create a wedding that would fit into their modest budget of $5000 (which had to include all gifts, attire, rehearsal dinner and wedding bands).
       Mike grew up in a small town in the southern Colorado mountains and met Rachel when they were both English majors in college.  When I sat down with the two of them for the first time, we discussed the overall look and feel they were going for as well as how to accomplish those things with monetary restrictions.  They wanted a wedding that is relaxed and fun in atmosphere but beautiful and romantic in feel.  This is how we nailed down the "down home romance : burlap and lace" concept.  It is classy and beautiful but earthy and gritty- much like the two of them.
Enjoying mojitos on the porch during beverage hour.
We set out to make most of the wedding elements ourselves so as to save as much money as possible without compromising the details that make an occasion stand out. We were blessed to be able to use the ceremony and reception facility for only $75 total, thanks to a friend doing us a favor.  Her stunning photography was done at a VERY low cost by her lifelong friend, Shannon and her business partner, Celeste, whose business Whimzy Photography focuses primarily on maternity, infant and family photography. The catering was chosen both for its value and its taste (both the bride and groom were HUGE fans of Bird Dog BBQ) and we felt that it fit the theme perfectly.
The wedding party - all but two are family members.
The color scheme: various shades of brown, white and ivory with pops of granny smith apple green in order to echo nature and tie in the burlap and the lace.

Busy times!

Well, it must be busy season again because I am currently planning one event per month for the next three months.  I will try to update you as I go, but I can't promise too much.

Real party: Butterfly Garden Baby Shower

I don't have very many pictures of the dessert table or the food table, but here are some GREAT detail shots of the foods and desserts and such.  The party turned out to be such a sweet clebration of thsi precious new life!

Monkey Love...in progress.

I purchased a printable girly monkey party package from Etsy that came with a party hat template. Here is what I have thus far:

I found a tutorial online that had these homemade "lanterns" for decorative use.  I am a strong believer in adding a vertical element to your displays, so I took the plunge and got messy (VERY similar to paper maché process) to create these with my girls.

I have a ton more projects to complete:  the main one being painting a base layer on the heart photo frames that I bought for the kids to paint/decorate.

Monkey Love: A Party in the Making

My baby is turning two next month which is quite bittersweet as she will no longer be a baby... You may remember the Little French Bakery 1st Birthday Party that I threw for her last year,  Well, due to the expense and time involved with throwing a very intricate and detailed themed party, my husband and I have an agreement to only do a "big" party every other year.  I guess that means that I should be packing up the girls along with their cousins and heading to Chuck E Cheese's, but I just LOVE parties too much!  In efforts to keep this year's shindig to a "small" party, we are trying to just do family and a few friends. We shall see how well I do at that...ahem.

Claire loves monkeys at the moment: from watching Curious George to reading her favorite bedtime story, Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.  But with Valentine's Day so close to her birthday and my not being able to do her party the weekend of her actual birthday (the hubby and I are headed to Rome for 5 days), I thought it best to combine the two by choosing a pink & brown color scheme and incorporating both hearts and monkeys to give...Sweet Monkey Love!!!

My favorite part of throwing a party with a simple shape is the vast number of possibilities from crafts to food designs.  My four year old daughter has already begun assisting me with craft projects...pics to come.  I purchased these gorgeous fabrics to use for the dessert display backdrop, the table topper and a "photo booth" backdrop.

I was delighted to find these cute Monkey Love craft kits at Target...10 for $5.  
I plan on having a kids craft table decked out with craft supplies in cute heart-shaped containers with a few different crafts to do, ranging from the Monkey Love crafts to decorating little photo frames to cover the photos we take at the photo booth (thanks to digital cameras and modern technology which allows us to plug in the camera and print out copies of the photo booth shots in a matter of moments).  These crafts will make for wonderful party favors for the kids to give away to loved ones for Valentine's Day two days later.
I just snagged these on Amazon for the kids!  I may paint their names on them too.

Needless to say, I am already getting sucked in to this party.  I wish I had a ton more time and money (and guests) allotted to make it truly out of this world, but I will do my best to give my little girl a day of wonder.

The New Website!!!

I officially launched SAVOR Events & Sweets back in July, but I am just now finding the time, money and energy to create a website and do some serious branding!

I hope you get a chance to check out my new site to see my services, pricing, portfolio as well as featured parties.  Let me know what you think!

Dark Chocolate Brownie cookies with Mint M&Ms


In case you need a simple, tasty cookie, here it is.
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour 
3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (I prefer dutch blend)
1 teaspoon baking soda 
1/4 teaspoon salt 
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature 
1 cup packed light brown sugar 
3/4 cup sugar 
2 eggs 
2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (regular or mini’s)
 
1 cup Mint M&Ms
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a medium bowl sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In a mixer beat together the butter with the sugars until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating until smooth after each addition and scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add vanilla. On a low speed beat in the flour mixture a little at a time. Gently mix in chocolate chips and the mint M&Ms.  
On an ungreased cookie sheet, drop teaspoons of the batter about 2 inches apart. Bake until just cracked on top, about 8 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the cooking time. Flatten the cookies slightly with a spatula after removing from oven. Cool completely.

Great new approach to party invitations-just in time for New Years Eve parties!

With all of the craziness of Christmas and family, I love to just invite good friends over for a classy dinner party and some games for New Year's Eve...we usually just set up pack and plays for babies and have guests bring sleeping bags for their kids then we just hang out until the wee hours when everyone crashes at our house.  Whatever style New Year's Eve party you like to throw, you should check out the new invitations that Shutterfly has created!
For the elegant celebration, you could do one of these:

And for your super fun family sleepover party, maybe try one of these:

Christmas is two weeks away, but there is still hope for you to get your family Christmas cards sent out.

I know you like parties, but in keeping with this blog's original intent of celebrating all things cute,  I feel it is my duty to tell you about the super cute Christmas card styles being offered on www.shutterfly.com this season.  Don't get me wrong:  I have been using Shutterfly for my annual family Christmas cards since 2007.  They always seem to have the best designs from traditional to simple and modern.

As for my family, we are stepping up our game a little this year by getting folded cards printed on premium cardstock. You can also add small images and personal messages inside.  Here's a sample:
If you are more into the typical photo cards, what I like the best about Shutterfly is that they have several designs for multiple photos.  SInce I spend good money on adorable family pictures, I can never choose just one!  Here's a sample of a cute one I found. 

For the first time ever, I think I am gonna do address labels because Shutterfly offers cute modern ones, unlike the cheesy ones I so often see. Here are a few samples, but you can see them all here.


Oh!  And if you need some great gift ideas, I am a HUGE fan of photo books.  I know there are several sites who make them, but Shutterfly is the best one that I have found to date. They are user friendly, fast and highly customizable.  I have made three or four of them and always get rave reviews.  Check out this one that I made for my girls: Sisters Photo Book Project

Here's a little secret, for all of you bloggers out there, you can earn 50 FREE photo cards.  What's not to love about that!?!  

REAL Party: More "Sunshine and Cupcakes" Sip and See


The Cupcakes

I made the following four varieties of cupcake treats:

Devil's Food with Marshmallow Cream Filling
 
Banana Malt Shoppe  

Pink Velveteen  
Mini Pavlovas  

Real Party: A Sip and See

When my brother and his wife were in town visiting with their twin daughters (Kelsey and Stella, 5 months) for the first time, I thought that a Sip and See would be a great chance for their friends to catch up with them and meet the girls at the same time. Since the majority of their friends have a few kids of their own, I chose to do the Sip and See on a Sunday afternoon open house style so that people could feel free to come and go as they pleased as well as to bring or not bring a baby gift.  So I chose a "Sunshine and Cupcakes" theme to incorporate that summer afternoon with tasty treats feel and chose a yellow and white palette for the decor.  Here a just a few photos:

Door Decoration

Cupcake Table
More pictures with great details and DIY info to come later in the week.

Cinco de Mayo Dinner Party


Cinco de Mayo is the perfect event for hosting a dinner party.  It's a fun, laid back holiday, no pressure, no hustle and bustle, everyone is just ready for a good time and the decor is bright and cheery!


We used bright table linens, a very loud table cloth partially covered in bright pink.  We brought the tone back down by focusing on only green and white for the tableware, flowers, candles and lanterns overhead.  



Each setting had a cloth napkin with tissue paper pom attached and a place card.  The poms matched the bright green flowers (stems cut very short and placed in shallow bowls) perfectly.  The place cards were backed with bright colored paper and the font had a 'fiesta' vibe.  


We hung more brightly colored, coordinating lanterns in the corner of the room.



The tablescape was bright and funky, but also elegant.


The meal, of course, was the focus!

Guests were greeted with chips and homemade salsa and guacamole and frozen margaritas.
For dinner, we feasted on the most amazing chicken fajitas with all the fixings, sauteed veggies and spanish rice.  The kids had chicken and cheese quesadillas.


The Margaritas were served in mason jars with the cutest pink and white swirled paper straws.  We printed out these freebies and used them as 'charms' on our glasses, on the other side, number the drinks: uno, dos, tres... so guests can keep track of their drink


We even touched up the water with bright limes

AND dessert!!  We kept with traditional mexican fare and finished our meal with Tres Leches cake and cinnamon sugar Sopapillas served with honey.  Oh.  My. Goodness.  What a treat!


Everyone had a wonderful time!

You don't have to wait for next Cinco de Mayo!  It can be any reason to celebrate, just use a Fiesta as the theme!  Plus, who doesn't love Mexican food?!