The Party Dress » birthday party

TPD Magazine: Flower Arranging with Friends

Kelly — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 09:00:05 +0000

It’s always a pleasure when I get to work with Christi from P is for Party on a party….especially when it’s one of her parties! When she approached me about helping her design party goods for her very own birthday party….a flower arranging birthday party….I knew we were going to have some fun! The end result is nothing short of spectacular, and I am so pleased we were able to feature it in the latest issue of The Party Dress Magazine.

Read on for some serious eye candy, and all of the details as told by Christi, herself…..

For my birthday this year, I decided to celebrate with a close group of girlfriends. I wanted the theme to be unique and one that people looked forward to. I decided on a flower arranging party! Many times, my husband will bring home flowers for me from the store and I haven’t the slightest idea how to arrange them. I know other ladies feel the same way! I asked my good friend, Elizabeth Munger, who happens to be an amazing interior designer who often arranges stunning flowers for her clients, to come teach us simple steps and tricks.

Gray is such a popular color right now, looks fabulous with just about every other color out there. I went with the color scheme of emerald green and gray and loved how everything turned out. Kelly Lyden of The PartyDress and WH Hostess always does a phenomenal job with her designs. I told her my color scheme and that I wanted to incorporate a chevron pattern and she ran with it. Kelly designed all of the paper goods for the party, from the invitation to the food tent cards, to the favor tags and all of the signage.

After the flower arranging fun, we moved to my dining room where each girl was served champagne and had a small cake all to herself! My favorite local bakery made individual two tiered cakes for my friends and I could not have been more pleased with how they turned out. Kelly now offers a service where you can order fabric to match any of her designs! I ordered fabric in the gray and emerald green chevron print and had a friend turn them into napkins for the table. The napkins really made the table pop!

I created a macaroni and cheese station with lots of toppings options. Who doesn’t love comfort food with a creative flair?! The toppings included favorites such as sun dried tomatoes, chives, bacon, sautéed mushrooms, truffle oil, and many more! A Skinnygirl Margarita is my drink of choice, so naturally, this was the signature drink I served. Kelly created the cutest sign for the beverage area along with white straws with flags in all of the patterns we used throughout the party.

Desserts were served on my coffee table which was near the flower arranging area. Serving the sweets there brought people out of the kitchen and into the living room so we could begin. On the dessert menu was cookies, meringue, small donuts and rice crispy treats.

Elizabeth did such a great job teaching us how to take store bought flowers and turn them into a beautiful arrangement that could last for days! On the way out the door, the girls took home the arrangements they made along with one more sweet. They had the choice to take home cake pops in strawberry or s’mores flavors. We had such fun with this unique theme and I am so happy I branched out and invited friends over for a fun night in!

Photography by Ellenzilla

Parties by WH Hostess: Sunflower Soiree {Part II}

Kelly — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 17:00:15 +0000

I hope you all enjoyed the decorations and food ideas in Part I of our Sunflower Soiree feature this morning. I’m back with all delicious details from the desserts, which we were lucky enough to have featured on Amy Atlas last week!

The dessert table received many “oohs” and “ahhs” and is personally one of my all-time favorite tables to work on! I wanted a fitted tablecloth for this table, something that resembled a cabana awning. I sewed it myself in order to make it fit the table perfectly and even added a white pom pom trim on the hem. Two wrought iron trellis’ anchored the table and held sunflower pomander balls. A banner made out of our coordinating patterns was strung between the two to frame the table.

Allyson Jane created stunning, hand-iced sunflower cookies, as well as “6” and “0” cookies to go along with our birthday celebration.

The two-tiered cake with scalloped design held center court, and was dressed up with fondant flowers by Two Sugar Babies. Cake pops by Flour & Iced sat atop mini cake stands that were decorated with gingham pom pom trip and polka dot ribbon, and mini chocolate cakes were topped with fondant flowers. Color-coordinated candy was placed in glass jars and labeled with coordinating candy jar tags.

JP Creatibles decorated darling cookies that incorporated both the sunflower, and all of our coordinating patterns (swiss dot, sunflower grid and yellow chevron). We sent guests home with a striped take out food box with a sunflower sticker on it full of sweets to enjoy.

Parties by WH Hostess: Sunflower Soiree {Part 1}

Kelly — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 09:00:53 +0000

One of my favorite articles in the latest issue of TPD Magazine is the Sunflower Soiree. With summer quickly vanishing and a lot to celebrate, my family gathered friends and family to celebrate the end of the season, an upcoming wedding and my mother’s 60th birthday in style with a “Sunflower Soiree”. With crisp black and white patterns, mixed with a bold yellow chevron and sunflowers everywhere you could see, this party took on a festive vibe that we will never forget.

Guests received a black box full of chocolate-covered sunflower seeds and custom invitation from WH Hostess, tied with a gingham ribbon and sunflower as their invite to the party. We decorated the patio and yard with small cocktail tables, dressed with tablecloths made from our custom fabric, and sunflower centerpieces in mini black urns.

A lemonade and iced tea bar took center stage, dressed in a white box pleat tablecloth trimmed in striped ribbon and pom pom trim. My parents love mixing the two to create “Arnold Palmers”, so it was the perfect addition to this summer party. Drink dispensers held the lemonades and iced tea, and we had buckets of wine, beer and water bottles dressed up with coordinating labels.

A large sunflower centerpiece in a gorgeous, white urn stood in the middle of the table, and coordinating signage and food tent cards on all ofthe tables and bar helped brand the party.

We served a variety of bite-size appetizers, including individual taco dips, mini crab cakes, beef tenderloin crostini, shrimp cocktail, meatballs in a variety of sauces, and more.

Stay tuned this afternoon for the details on our delicious dessert table (as recently seen on Amy Atlas!).

Party Ideas for Kelly

Kelly — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 17:00:29 +0000

Since we are celebrating MY birthday today, I asked our contributor, Charynn of Two Sugar Babies, to put together an inspiration board as if she was planning a party for ME! Fun, right?! Boy, does she know me well! Take a look at what she came up with……

Although Kelly is in Chicago, and I’m in Pittsburgh, we’ve been able to form a great friendship through our love for parties, design, handbags, and steak frites, not to mention the projects we get ourselves into. She is truly an inspiration to my daily work, and if I were closer, I would throw her a *darling* birthday party full of the colors kelly green, black, white, sweets (gluten free, of course) and simple, modern, design. Happy Birthday, Kelly! Here’s to many more years of great stationery, parties, and shopping (i mean, work) trips!

Images: cake/cake stand (www.etsy.com), cookies (smittenkitchen.com), plate (katespade.com), necklace (vstyleblog.com), flowers (opulentcreationsevents.com), cupcakes (anglefoodltd.com), invites (whhostess.com)

WooHoo! It’s Birthday Week!

Kelly — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 09:00:26 +0000

It’s an exciting week around here….it’s BIRTHDAY WEEK! My (32nd) birthday is tomorrow, so I thought we should take a cue and showcase fun, unique birthday party ideas ALL.WEEK.LONG. Fun, right?! There may even be a fun surprise for all of you too….but you will have to check back tomorrow for that news!

First up this week are creative birthday cakes. Whether you are hosting a 1st, a 10th, a 21st or a 60th birthday party, the cake should be a key element. Here are some of my favorite cakes (probably suited more for adult parties).

I love the texture on each on of these, the unique shape, the creative idea of stacking cupcakes atop a cake…fun, fun, fun!

If a theme party is on the docket for your child’s next party, take a look at some of these creative cakes. Perfect for a beach party, under the sea party, or an ice cream social!

Images: macaroon cake (theknot.com), cupcake cake (epicurious.com), truffle cake (instyleweddings.com), pink snowball cake (theknot.com), banner cake (eatcakebemerry.com), under the sea cake (hellonaomi.com), surfboard cake (carriesellman.com), ice cream cake (bhg.com)

Game. Set. Match.

Kelly — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 09:00:30 +0000

Since we are on a bit of a Wimbledon kick today, I thought I would show some creative ideas for a tennis-themed dessert table. This darling table was designed by LouLou Events for a birthday party. The star of the dessert table was the tennis court made of a wood frame and green m & m’s. Footed bowls of chocolate “tennis balls” and mini tennis ball cookies from Libby from Polka Dot Cookies completed this table. It’s such a simple, unique idea….perfect for players young or older (er)!

Parties by WH Hostess: Francesca’s Bake Shoppe II

Kelly — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 15:00:40 +0000

I hoped you enjoyed the details of Francesca’s Bake Shoppe birthday party this morning! I’m back now with all of the yummy details of her “bake shoppe” cookie dessert table. First, let me start off by saying that when I initially helped Francesca’s mom come up with the concept/plan for this table, I never imagined it would turn out THIS CUTE! The stand itself was made by Grand Soirées Event Design & Coordination, with a custom stripe fabric awning. The front was decorated with a coordinating pennant banner that said “bake shoppe”.

Gallon cookie jars were accessorized with coordinating paper liners, cookie jar tags and ribbon, and each held a different type of cookie. French macaroons, chocolate-covered {with pink polka dots} oreos, sugar cookies in the shape of “1″, jam-filled cookies and more….. Wooden tongs were placed in front of each jar for easy serving. To give the back row of cookie jars a boost up, and give the table a new dimension, a moss-covered riser was placed in the center and held both the jars and a DARLING tiered cake.

Guests went home with take out boxes full of cookies and the kiddos also took home a tin of bubbles {accessorized with a custom label}. I love how she tied in the moss from the dessert table by lining her lucite trays with it!

Photography by Nicole Parker

Real Parties: Ball Park Gourmet Dinner Club

Kelly — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 09:00:44 +0000

Today’s Real Party feature comes from Kate from Studio Lime Designs, who recently hosted her group of friends for a ball park-themed gourmet club dinner party. She thought the theme would be really fun considering their month to host was June and baseball season is in its prime. Also, since it was held on their patio, a fun, simple menu that would work well with outdoor entertaining was a must. The colors navy and brick red were used, because they are “all American” baseball colors and also festive for the 4th of July, which is just around the corner. The menu was designed around typical ball park food – nachos, soft pretzels, hot dogs. Signature cocktails included: “The Grand Slam” and iced tea, which was called “7th Inning Stretch Tea”. Decorations included an old blackboard was made to look like a scoreboard, and was used as the backdrop for this table, vases of baseballs, peanuts and cracker jacks.

I love the classic baseball feel of this party…..I always get requests for ideas for baseball-themed birthday parties and this is PERFECT inspiration!

Pink & Green Summer Celebration

Kelly — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 09:00:18 +0000

We have done so many pink and green parties lately, that I am just swimming with ideas! Whether you are planning a bridal shower (did you see the gorgeous one we posted last week featuring our exploded lattice collection?!) or a little girl’s birthday party (just WAIT until you see the birthday party we just did featuring our lilly flower collection…..it’s debuting in the next issue of TPD Magazine!), or even a wedding – pink and green can be sweet, preppy, or sophisticated.

Images: invitation (minted.com), table setting (bhg.com), lemon creme brulee (bonappetit.com), napkin (brides.com), pink and green dessert table (goodhousekeeping.com), tulip and hydrangea centerpiece (floralartla.com), party favor cones (rebeccathus.com)

Parties by WH Hostess: Modern Silhouette Playful Pics

Kelly — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 09:01:12 +0000

To wrap up this little series of posts on our Modern Silhouette party feature from Nesting Newbies Magazine, I thought I would share a couple of my favorite pictures. The photographers had some fun with me and my god-daughter, Mackenzie, who served as my model. She’s one of the little loves of my life, and I had so much fun playing “party” with her that day. I just love how these pictures turned out…..especially the one that Penny Lane, my sweet pup, jumped into!

Images by Sisterazzi Photography