Paris Chic Bridal Shower

I recently had a request to post some tips and ideas on bridal showers. I found this lovely Paris inspired Bridal Shower online and thought I'll share it with you. 

This type of set up is pretty easy to do with enough planning. Once again, you need to stick to your colour theme and choose 3 main colours and build your event decor on that. They chose a sophisticated colour palette of lavender, black and white and used different shades of lavender here and there to give it a bit of depth. You will be amazed at how many different types of decor items you will be able to find in different shades and different textures of your specific colour. They incorporated lace, polka dots, stripes and doilies to give the overall theme a bit of texture. 

The use of the hatboxes as treat trays is such a clever way of incorporating the Paris theme.  Should you not be able to find boxes in the colour you need, you can always recover them with gift paper or even paint them. Use ribbon and scrapbook embellishments to decorate them and give them extra sparkle. 

I particularly like the vintage dresser as the cake table. Using various smaller cakes instead of one large cake is such a interesting way of adding to your food decor. As you will see in the image they used the cakes to further add to the theme and each cake had a unique themed look. The big pink garter cake is my absolute favourite!

To add to the soft and lacy Parisian theme, use a lot of ribbon. Use it around your cake stands, on the chairs or even tie the knives and forks together to add to the food table display. You can buy beautiful satin ribbon at almost any Metro or fabric shop - they are usually cheaper at fabric stores than anywhere else. 

Lastly, event stationary. People always tend to forget to add a few personal touches here and there, but it gives your event a classy touch. Take some time and cut out a few handwritten notes or even print out a few Eiffel Towers and a few printed notes. This usually takes up a lot of time, but get all the bridesmaids together and make it a team effort. Visit your local scrapbook shop and look around at what they've got. Various scrapbook shops offer ready cut-outs in various shapes and sizes - you might even be able to pull it off and look like a professional! 

Stencil Chic

Every so often I find a creative and stunning idea or project that is so relatable and easy to do. These fantastic stencil mirrors just happen to be one of them! 

I found this awesome idea on the ELLE Decorations website and what makes it even more exciting is that the stencils were included in the original article. I have added them at the bottom of the article for you to download. 

This project doesn't take much and is quite cost effective. You can easily spice up your bathroom cabinet and add a fresh look to that old boring wall! You can even do the same above your dresser - it will be just as effective!

There are two different ways to do stencils, but I personally choose to paint onto a wall instead of using stencil paper. Firstly, download the stencils and print them out to size. You can change the size according to your specific need. Once printed, cut the stencils out and trace these onto the wall. Use very light markings as the markings are sometimes difficult to get rid of. Once you've chosen your colour of paint, use a very thin artist brush and start colouring in working very carefully and neatly! Lastly, choose 3 types of similar looking mirrors, and hang them onto the stenciled mirror! 

Click Below To Download:

Mirror Stencil 1

Mirror Stencil 2

Asian Ease

I had a request from one of my readers to post ideas for a themed dinner. I did an Asian themed dinner a little over a year ago and thought I'll share the photos with you for some inspiration. 

You can easily recreate the same look at home. I tried to tone down the strong colours and I opted for more neutral colours instead - brown side plates, bamboo runner and lots of green plants. I purchased three types of unusual flowers and grouped each individually in their own vase. Play around with your flower arrangements and create something unusual and interesting. For place mats, I purchased an Asian newspaper and used different pages from the newspaper - you can buy these at most Chinese stores. To add a bit of 'life' to the table, I hired 3 goldfish for the evening and used them in vases as part of the table decor. It added some interest to the table. Should you struggle to find a animal or pet shop to hire your goldfish from, use the Animal Kingdom in Atterbury Value Mart. Then lastly, I always enjoy adding depth to the overall picture and in order to achieve this I hung a few chinese lanterns and chinese umbrella's from the roof. 

Just think of something theme fitting and creative you can dish up for your guest and you will create your own Asian themed dinner with ease! 

Photo Booth Props

Photo booths are the perfect tool for adding spontaneity to your pictures and encourage guests to have loads of fun while taking photos.  

I recently suggested to one of my clients that we do a photo booth at their wedding. Because the photo booth costs did not fit in to their budget, it was my job to come up with another creative idea that would fit into the budget.

You can do the same at your next party or celebration:

Have a cordoned off area that will be for the photo booth only. You will need a fun back drop for your 'booth'. Select the type of style you want the photo's to be taken in - retro, funky or formal. Ask one of your friends with a nifty camera to take the photo's in the photo booth. Have the camera set up and ready on a tripod to ensure that all your 'photo booth' photo's will be from the exact same angle.  Create time slots in which the booth will be open for photos and invite your guests to partake during these time slots. The key to your booth will be fun props. I had awesome wooden props made and there will be enough props to make each photo unique and fun. 

The Bunny Hop

Main Table

Table Settings

Food Lollipops

No 1 Gift Box Tower & Ek Verjaar Blocks

Food Table (Side View)

Kids Table Setting

Bunny Birthday Cupcake and Bunny Friends

T-Shirt with Custom Bunny and Birthday Phrase

And so the bunny finally hopped! I finished the bunny themed birthday party today and it was such a fun theme to work with! I've added a few photos of the final product. 

The Bunny Hop Storyboard

One of my readers sent in a request for party ideas for small children. I thought it would be a great idea to do regular updates as I make progress with an event and hopefully give you some inspirational ideas and tips for your own event.

I am busy planning an event for a one year old boy. The theme is bunnies and I just finished my storyboard. Using a storyboard to present all the ideas really helps the client to envision what you are proposing and helps you to focus on the core items of the event.

As I go along, I will post updates under the label 'Bunny Hop Event Progress' so that you can easily follow the progress and hopefully see the end result. 

Invitation (front)

When it came to the design of the invitations, it was important to incorporate elements of the party as much as possible. I photographed the little boy a while back and we used the images on his invitation. He was such a good bunny! To bring in elements that will be used at the party, the table cloth material was scanned in and used as part of the design. 

A Perfect Beach Party On a Rainy Day

Having a beach party in the middle of January is probably the best way to ease the sad realization that the holidays are officially over. I am sure we've all been to a 'beach party' at some stage - it's such a fun and colourful event, you just can't help to enjoy yourself! 

I was invited to a beach party over the weekend and I could almost feel the sand between my toes. Even though the weather didn't play along, the colourful decor and perfectly done table settings really set the mood for a fun and 'warm' day. 

Having such a bold and colourful theme can be risky as things easily look cluttered and overdone, but a few key items on display will be your best bet to pull off a striking and spot on themed party. Choose a basic colour and build your party decor around that. Having the same undertone throughout will keep things unified and will be easy on the eye - with a few pops of colour here and there. As you will see from the images above, the host chose lime green undertones - green linen, green plates and green bamboo mats. 

Creative ideas for the table included island flowers in small steel pots, buckets full of sand and a colourful umbrella to create a bit of height and I particularly liked the flip flops in a bucket! 

Bird Themed Dinner

 I recently did an event where I used a bird theme with purple undertones. I used wooden birdcages and bird cut outs that I covered with decorative paper. These were used as place cards and I hung a few over the table with different coloured ribbon to add a bit of depth to the over all picture.

As a party favor I stamped small wooden hearts with a small bird stamp, twisted a hook on to it and tied a small piece of ribbon to it. It looked great on the table! 

Party Nibbles

I am busy planning a birthday party for a 1 year old boy and saw these lovely mallow-lollipops. They are so easy to make and if presented in a small gift box (as above) they look absolutely gorgeous!

I am sure these will work great for a grown up party too. I can just image these in a glass bowl served with coffee for each guest to nibble on.