Ladies who Lunch - Hosting an Event Table

 Hey there princess!

Recently, I was given the opportunity to host a table for a luncheon at my church. This is my first time embarking on this type of project, and I am so thankful that I was able to co-host with my mom so that the project felt more manageable. My mom is a hostess extraordinaire, and she has a wealth of knowledge and linen to make planning fun and stress-free. 

The event didn't have a theme, so we had free-reign to decorate how we pleased. The verse that we chose for our table was Song of Solomon 2:11-12, "For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and done. The flowers appear on the earth, the season of singing is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land."

So basically... flowers! So let's begin with a review of our table...

My mom and I are both huge fans of Spode's Blue Italian, so it was an easy choice when it came to the place settings. This was the pattern I chose for my wedding china, and between my mom and myself we have more than enough place settings and specialty pieces. For napkins, my mom purchased these special pieces from Laurie Byrne on Etsy (click here for her shop).

We decorated our table with tons of fresh flowers, which were so gorgeous and also were the perfect compliment to the Bible verse we chose for our theme. My mom has an extensive tulipiere collection in blue and white, so it was great to be able to pull all of them out and put them on display for our friends. I made each guest a place card so that they would know where to sit, and I also painted a small canvas for each lady to take home as a memento of the afternoon. 

When arranging flowers, it is important to look at your display from every angle. Since we were at circular tables, they needed to look lush and gorgeous from the perspective of each guest. These were so much fun to do with my mom, and lots of the beautiful roses came from Life in Rose Farm, and some of the other flowers came from Whole Foods and Kroger. 

Luckily for us, we had some time to go around the room and look at some of the other tables that the ladies decorated. I have included photos of those below. They were so much fun! Let me know in the comments which one is your favorite!

This was such an amazing opportunity to be creative and connect with my church community. I am so happy that we were able to participate, and I can't wait to challenge ourselves next year with another amazing and fun design. 

Bachelorette Party in San Antonio: Pre-Planning and Bridesmaid Bags

 Hey there princess!

If you have been named Maid or Matron of Honor for an upcoming wedding, one of the first things that you might be thinking about is how to plan the perfect bachelorette party. After being responsible for planning one myself, the number one piece of advice I would give is - have fun and keep it as unique as possible! The theme I chose was "Final Fiesta" and we all travelled to San Antonio to spend a long weekend eating Mexican food and roaming up and down the Riverwalk. 

Remember, this party is for the bride, and should be something that is both fun for her and manageable for you. For me, pre-planning was essential because we were leaving Houston and traveling to San Antonio, and we were bringing along with us a group of girls from all over the United States. I wanted to make sure that everyone knew what the plan was so that they could pack appropriately, set their expectations, and just relax and have tons of fun on the trip!

The first place I start when planning any event is with the invitation. After selecting the date and location, I wanted to give my guests as much advanced notice as possible since they would need to purchase flights and ask for time off of work. I always love going to Sweet Caroline Designs for invites. Her work is absolutely beautiful, and the paper quality is terrific! I addressed the envelopes myself using a style that is currently available in my Etsy shop here. 

Next, it was important to come up with an itinerary. I wanted to make sure that what I sent out to the girls was cute, easy to read, and something that they could keep saved to their phones for easy reference. I have used Canva for years, and always find it really user-friendly. For the actual schedule, I tried to create a balance between structured activities that I knew the bride would like, and downtime where the girls who still had energy could keep going, and the people who wanted to be more low-key could go back to the hotel and relax by the pool.

Next in my preparation activities, I wanted to create a bag for the bride and bridesmaids with all the essentials for the weekend. This included things like our matching shirts for when we visited the Alamo together, matching pajamas for photos the first morning, and a bunch of other things that just helped to make the girls feel special and cared for. 

My mom found these fun burlap bags for me to use, and I hand lettered each girl's name on them to set on their beds in the hotel. You can purchase the ribbon I used here.

Inside the bag were several goodies, and I really tried to shop small! I love supporting small businesses, and I find the best, most unique stuff on Etsy!

My mom found some multi-colored mirrors, and then I got decals from Etsy (click here to purchase) that I used to customize each mirror. 

Next, I got these incredible koozies - they were to die for, and made the perfect practical thing to use for drinks all weekend. I made sure to get an extra for the bride so that she had one that said "It's My Final Fiesta" and one with her name on it. I got them on Etsy here. 

All of the girls are major coffee drinkers and I thought it would be fun to create a snack and coffee bar for them in the hotel room (check back later for a post detailing what all that included). So that the cups wouldn't get mixed up, I got each girl a reusable Starbucks coffee cup (you can purchase these here) and put decals on them myself at home (these are the ones I bought). This was way cheaper than purchasing something completely custom online, and I really enjoyed the project!

I also got the girls these cute hair bands! This is a super practical accessory, and it was cute! You can find the ones I bought here. 

I am a super practical person at heart, and I had to include a hand sanitizer in each pack. However, we needed to cute it up and make it more on-theme so I found custom stickers on Etsy (you can find the ones I used here) and stuck them to some Bath and Body Works hand sanitizer. The scent I used was Watermelon Lemonade, which smells just like summertime!

One of my favorite things that I had made for the trip was custom cosmetic pouches. These came out so cute, and I always have use for little bags like this! I like being able to use something like this for my daily makeup, and for this weekend I filled the pouch up with some essentials. I was able to get travel-sized items on Amazon that were super useful over the weekend. In the pouches I included individually packaged Tylenol, Emergen-C, Neutrogena Face Wipes, Ring Pops, and Antacid.

Next, I got these super cute shirts for all of us to wear to the Alamo for pictures. You can find the same ones I got on Etsy. I chose these colors because they matched the bride's wedding colors, and I wanted them to be something we could reuse the weekend of the wedding. 

The real showstopper of the bags were these ginger jar pajamas from 8 Oak Lane. They aren't available on their website anymore, but I found them in another online store here.  The theme of the bride's wedding was ginger jars, so I thought these were great! Not only could the girls wear them during the bachelorette weekend, but they could be used for the wedding weekend as well. The quality on these was great, and I would love to buy other pjs from this company in the future. 

Check back later for more information on creating an incredible bachelorette weekend! If you have questions, or would like any help planning your own bachelorette weekend, or just a girl's trip - let me know! I love party planning!

Sparkle on!