Happy Monday! The past two weeks we have been giving daily tips and craft ideas over at our Facebook fan site so today we are featuring a Valentine's Day Wedding Party Plan. 

 Yes, hearts and flowers are very much a part of this particular theme so why not start off with invitations that make it clear that this is the theme for your wedding day. These from Your Invitation Place start at just 1.06 each which includes the gorgeous lined envelope!

 Even double backed invitations are affordable. These are also from Your Invitation Place and start at just 1.27 each. VERY affordable!

 Make sure to play up the theme in your photographs. Have your photographer take shots that includes hearts or big red painted LOVE letters. SO cute!

 This doesn't mean your wedding can't be elegant. These amazing beaded bridesmaids dresses from Melissa and Beth are simply stunning. 

 There are so many glam heels out there that it would be hard to choose which one you want to wear but what if you are not a "heels" girl or walking on grass or sand? It doesn't mean you have to give up the Glam. These beaded flats from Jimmy Choo are so beautiful you will keep figuring out occasions to break them back out to wear after the wedding!

 For your dress you have lots of color options. With lining and big ribbons in red you can definitely add that gorgeous touch of color to your dress. Are you incorporating black into the color palette? Then tie with a black ribbon and carry red flowers! Beautiful!

 If you are a true fashion icon then maybe a white dress for this "red" day is just too tame. Well, rest assured that they now make red wedding dresses too! You would make quite the stir in this gorgeous gown on your wedding day!

This aisle look is so very very easy to attain! All you are doing is setting down a red carpet and covering it with an aisle runner that is partially see through. Scatter real or silk petals down the sides and then accent with red flower bouquets. Along with the standard white wedding chairs you have a beautiful setting for your walk down the aisle.

 If you are looking for a more simple "cute" idea for your aisle or maybe for the walk way up to the reception, then these little hearts on sticks is just so sweet! And it's easy to do too! Just double back construction paper hearts, different sized or same size, onto wooden skewers and stick them into the ground. You can use all different colors like they did here or just red, pink and white for your Valentine's Day theme.

Colored sand for your sand ceremony can be a beautiful touch, not only for your ceremony but also for your home after your wedding day. Do you have family members you want to include in your ceremony? Just give them their own color and layer them up inside the container or frame. 

 Scrapbooking stickers come in all sorts of colors and patterns. You can use them to write out little love sayings such as this one or use the sayings on Conversation Hearts. Frame them and set them up on your guest book table and gift table for an easy adorable detail for your day.

 Fortunately the color palette for a Valentine's Day wedding is an easy one to coordinate and decorate with for your reception space. Broad red ribbon tied into a simple knot will add a splash of color to each chair or even every other chair.

 And don't forget the area over your guests heads. Extra large balloons, size 3-4 feet, or paper lanterns along with twinkle lights will help to complete your space and add drama to the space as well.

 If you are having a more intimate setting with a smaller guest list then you can add more detail to each table with their own groupings of balloons or lanterns. If you only have 4 to 5 tables then you have the chance to really make a big splash with your budget.

 The details on your tables really matter as well. If you have decided to include disposable cameras to your party plan then make sure to get those that work with your theme. These "LOVE" cameras fit the Valentine's theme perfectly.

You can even fit your bottles of wine into the theme! Printing out labels you design or ordering personalized labels online will add another special touch to your tables.

If you used the hearts on sticks leading up to your altar or into your reception space you can use these little hearts to coordinate. Just paper hearts on toothpics and then stuck into Kisses makes these really easy to add to your day. You can scatter them onto the tables or use them as place cards. Cute!

 Mini champagne bottles are very hot this season. Why not tie on a heart covered paper straw with ribbon on each little bottle and set them out on a table for all of your guests?!

 Boxed favors can be the way you add the chocolate to your Valentine's Day theme. Just pop a few chocolates or Kisses inside a white wrapped box and top with red ribbon and a silk heart or flower. 

 And don't forget the kids! Just use plastic shovels, slip them into plastic candy bags and then fill with candy and tie with a ribbon. The kids will love it!

 Or just place colored M&M's into little glass jars and place at each place setting. You can get 20 of these jars for about 20 dollars at Michaels...use a 40% off coupon and you save even more!

And finally there is cake. This Valentine's Day Wedding Cake from Cat's Cakes would be the perfect final detail to your day. Pleated like the Groom's white cummerbund, topped with a red bow and ribbon and with the added detail of the LOVE plaque this cake fits the Valentine's Day Wedding theme perfectly.

Next week we focus on Super Bowl! We always throw a party for Super Bowl but we are looking forward to it even more now that the San Francisco 49'rs are going to be playing in it! So next week we'll share a great party plan to make your party even better in your home! See you then!

Cat

 Happy Monday! Today we spotlight one of my very favorite themes...Alice In Wonderland! We are huge Disney fans in our family, which is how we fell in love with Alice in the first place, but I have come to love the "Classic" version as well. We hope you enjoy our "Alice" Birthday Party Plan!

First comes the invite. There are SO many different ones in this theme that it would be hard to choose which one is perfect but I'm sure one like this one from zazzle.com would definitely fit the bill for most. 

If you want to incorporate more than just the usual wording consider these fun invitations. Keep in mind that you can always print out your own invitations at many of the websites so you can choose any wording that you like!

 This table was for an Alice themed Bridal Shower but uses all the fun elements that would work great for a birthday as well! From mismatched teacups to handpainted teapots to actual grass in the planters, each element plays well with the others to create this intimate whimsical tablescape.

 But if your party is anything but intimate you can add a lot of extra fun touches in a big space such as these multicolored hanging lanterns and twinkle lights for a bright and colorful presentation!

 A super easy detail are these clock face coasters made from cardstock and thin cardboard backing. Just print out the clock faces on your computer onto card stock and then use spray on adhesive to attach to the backings. Something fun for your guests to set their glasses upon.

One pack of these cards would allow you to place a few on each table as charming accents that continue your theme for hardly any cost!

 Banners are a huge part of parties this year and an Alice inspired banner is easy with all of the Alice themed stickers out there online. Using solid colored scrapbook paper for the background and fun heart covered paper for the top layer you can easily add all different fonts and colors of stick on letters and then a sticker or two of the Alice themed stickers for your accent! Perfect!

 Not everyone has such a perfect dessert server as this one but even a regular tiered tray (you could make one yourself with plates and candlesticks glued together) would work great for a formal service of tea and cakes for your party. One or two of these on each table would serve your charming appetizers as your guests take their seats.

 And what is an Alice party without hats? These from Oriental Trading Company are a low cost super fun way to include your guests into your theme. Just place one of these on each seat and let them be discovered!

 I also found rubber stamp sets online that could be used to create the traditional "Eat Me" "Drink Me" tags that can be attached to each cup or favor.

 And speaking of favors. If you do a quick search on "small bottles" you will find lots of choices for your party favors. Everything from these cute little bottles with stoppers to test tubes that stand up in a metal tray filled with a yummy drink (either alcoholic or not) or some fun candy to munch on would make an easy fun favor that fits the theme perfectly!

 And don't forget to get some fun "critters" to place around your venue. We loved these colorful versions of flamingos who's heads swayed between their extenda-legs with the slightest breeze. Too funny!

 Dessert can come in many forms with this theme so I couldn't just choose one version for this party plan. How about a wonderful dessert table which include teacups filled with cupcakes and topped with multi-colored frostings to start.

Then add in a woodland themed cupcake display that includes these totally cute "toadstool" cupcakes. These are easily made with red frosting and white M&M's!

Of course you could have a stunning cake like this one from Caketopolis as your grand centerpiece. This one is totally copyright safe because it doesn't feature any of the copyrighted characters but rather uses the "feeling" from Alice to make it undeniably Alice in Wonderland themed. Absolute Genius!

As I mentioned, we have done this theme before but with Alice there are just so many great ideas that you could do several parties of this theme without repeating a single idea! Too much fun!

See you next week with a Valentine's Day Wedding Party Plan!

Cat

Happy Monday! A couple of weeks ago I mentioned an event I worked for a couple who was celebrating their 60th Wedding Anniversary. The original wedding was a Christmas themed wedding so the kids of this happy couple decided upon a Christmas theme for this party too!

We started out with faux foliage wreaths. You can find these at any craft store early in the season but even grocery stores will carry them the closer to the holiday it gets. These had round red and white lights that didn't blink. We then added the ribbon, fresh flowers and the gold and rhinestone wire covered pillars to the wreath to complete the centerpiece.

We considered using red tablecloths but realized that the ribbon and roses would blend right into all of that red and be overwhelmed. One thing to remember when first getting organized is to ask your venue what they provide. This venue not only covered all of the table settings, flatware and stemware but also all of the linens and were able to accomidate our choice of the camel color cloths with the red napkins.

You can see how simply elegant this set up ended up being. Many times you consider doing huge centerpieces when, in fact, a small, low centerpiece actually helps to facilitate conversations across a large table. These tables normally seat 10 but we wanted each guest to have plenty of elbow room so we reduced the settings from 10 to 8 instead.

The room held 4 of these tables easily. This left enough "mingle" room for cocktails before dinner as well as the very touching slide show on the wall to the right. By not overcrowding the tables, or the room, the guests had plenty of room to visit each of the conversation groups as well as enjoy the slide show.

As with all of our events, it's the small details that make all the difference. The plain red napkins, that you would find at any nice restaurant, were dressed up with one red rose bud and then tied with gold ribbon. I had several guests tell me how beautiful it was to find that waiting for them and how they loved the fact that they, too, were showered with roses.

With any venue you will find "dead spaces" this is a table or a corner or even a restroom that has a "bare" look to it and you will need to dress it up. This was easily done with containers available right there at the venue. Just some rose buds, babies breath and two of the wired candles along with a vase full of the "Bride's" favorite flowers helped dress up this corner.

When an event follows a holiday it's really easy to re-use anything from that holiday. We removed the no longer fresh flowers from this arrangement that had been received earlier in the month and replaced them with fresh roses, spider mums and carnations to give this arrangement new life and allow us to use it to fill up the "dead space" near the coffee bar.

The fireplace was a lovely touch in this room but had some not so elegant silk flower arrangements flanking it. We replaced those with the nutcrackers and red rose filled glasses.

These were really quite simple. Just stemmed drink glasses that each had a handful of glass marbles in the bottom. We then filled them about 1/2 full of water and inserted large groups of babies breath and a single red rose each. 

The venue still had the Christmas tree up so we requested they leave it in place for part of our decor! We set up the cake table to hold not only the cake but the vintage photos of the couple and their original wedding photo album for guests to enjoy.

We dressed up the base of the cake with trimmed carnations, red rose buds and petals. All you do is trim off the top of a carnation right where the petal meets the greenery. You end up with beautiful ruffles to surround your cake, line your aisle or whatever extra decoration you would like. A very inexpensive but beautiful treatment! We loved the antique looking invitation for the event as well. It really helped set the mood!

And finally, the cake. The client wanted something that looked like Christmas and Winter and snow and she fell in love with the idea of large crystal sugar for the snow effect. The top and bottom sugared tiers were both Double Chocolate with Dark Chocolate Brownie Buttercream filling. The extra tall middle tier was Lemon Chiffon cake with Lemoncurd Buttercream filling. It was topped with red sugar roses and wrapped with a big gold Christmas bow which was the only non edible part of the cake. You can find out more about this cake and how it was made on our Cake Blog !

As always I was very honored to be included in such a special celebration. Not only is it fun to watch your designs come to life, to be able to create more while you are there setting up, but to watch as the event comes together, as the guests of honor see and enjoy what you have created and the event that is just for them is the best part of my job. I am in awe of 60 years of marriage and very honored to have had a small part of their celebration.

We'll be looking at an Alice in Wonderland themed grown up birthday party next week! As always, you can get lots of tips and tricks on a daily basis over at our Facebook page. Hope to see you there!

Cat