Stunning. The one work I can think of to describe this unique and stylish celebration uniting dear friends Michelle and Jim. Michelle's vision was for a wedding full of Old Hollywood Glamour with a modern twist and she totally brought it to life with the amazing attention to detail. Let's take a look:

The Ceremony took place on the main stage at the Porter Center for the Performing Arts at Brevard College. The venue was stunning and Michelle embraced the space by keeping the ceremony decorations simple, classic and oh so elegant. The stage was set by the music of a single violinist who's stark and nearly haunting melodies filled the theater. The stage was softly lit with enough stage lighting to give everything on stage and ethereal glow and enhance the warm ambiance of the candlelit stage front. An arbor decorated with calla lilies and shear ribbon was the centerpiece, but as you see in the photos, the bride and groom were definitely the focal point. It was a breathtaking scene, as though there was no one else in the world except the two of them.

Between the reception and the ceremony, guests were ushered into the Black Box Theater, a more modern space, for a cocktail hour. The cocktail hour made a play on the 'Hollywood' theme by offering movie treats, such as hot fresh popcorn in old time-y boxes, and featured a "Hollywood" sign for guests to pose photos in front of. The theme carried over into Michelle's Play Bill style program.

The reception tablescapes were amazing! Each table was unique and themed after a classic Hollywood love story. Every table featured movie props that looked amazing and doubled as fun party props for the guest once the party got started on the dance floor. The table theme was further illustrated by 'photo cubes' made by the bride that featured both movie stills and related photos of the bride and groom on the sides and a black and white rendering of the original movie poster on the top of the cube-talk about attention to detail! Center pieces were constructed of wine bottles filled with peacock feathers and willow swirls, all dripping beads and crystals. The overall look was that of a glamorous 1920's supper club.

Guest were treated to a candy buffet at the reception. Each place setting was dressed with an organza "to-go" bag tied with a tag asking guest to help themselves to some take home treats. Note the language on the favor tags also picks up on the theme.

List of Vendors

Photography:

Adrienne Fox Photography

Venue:

Porter Center for Performing Arts and Brevard College

Dress:

Designer Michelle Holland Persek (the bride!) with Eliza Punki Design

What an amazing event! Congratulations to Michelle and Jim on their marriage and the design of a positively stunning wedding ceremony and reception.

One thing that I love about planning evens and parties are all the little details. Here are a few items that I created for Jim & Michelle's wedding this past weekend.

Favor Bag Tags:

Michelle had an adorable candy bar set up at the reception and it was a hit with guests. Her favors were pretty organza bags affixed with these little tags inviting guests to help themselves to some candy to take home. The text on the tag went with the 'Old Hollywood" feel of the event by taking a line from 'Casablanca'-rather than simply saying thank you, they read "Here's lookin' at you, kid."

I created the text and graphics for the tags in Microsoft Publisher and cut them out with my Cricut. It took a little doing to create a template that I could align with the Cricut settings, but once I had the template created, making the tags took very little time and the result looked quite professional.

Table Number Luminaries:

These were quite easy to make and were quite dramatic on the tables. Again, I created a template in Microsoft Publisher, trimmed the square sides with a paper cutter, cut the numbers out with my Cricut, and assembled the cubes with craft glue.

Placed over a candle, these luminaries gave the tables a pretty glow and made it easy for guests to spot their seats. I was inspired by a tutorial I found on Intimate Weddings, but the Cricut made trimming the numbers quite simple. I really had no idea that a few sheets of card stock and a glue stick could make such an impact and was thrilled with the finished product.

I'll have photos of each of these elements in the tablescapes to share soon!

The events leading up to a wedding are always fun and this one was a new one on me. I had never helped plan a joint bachelor/bachelorette party before and I really had a great time planning and participating. The bride and groom wanted to go for a night out with all of their friends, rather than have the more traditional separate celebrations, but they wanted it to be more unique than an average Saturday night. The plan the bride and I came up with was to organize a bar crawl downtown, but with a twist. The party had an angels and demons theme where party goers were encouraged to dress as their choice of angel or devil. Also,  rather than having the more typical bachelor/bachelorette party gags and 'entertainment' we opted for a game that the whole group could play. A classic dusted off from college days, we played 'Anything for Money.'

Here is the graphic I created for the email invite. I think it helped set the mood.

Through the joys of Photoshop, I was to use my crude graphic design skills to whip up this comical graphic of the groom and bride-to-be in angel and devil gear.

My next Photoshop project was to create a stack of Monopoly-style funny money for each partygoer to wager.

The bills featured the same good/evil images of the bride and groom from the email invitation graphic and the money wrapper reads "Wouldn't it be cool if all this money was real?"--- because someone just has to say it anytime Monopoly money is involved, I thought I'd get it out of the way early.

After printing the funny money out on different colored paper, I trimmed it and wrapped it in stacks of $600. For the 'Anything for Money' game, each partygoer received a stack of money at the beginning of the night. The person with the most money at the end of the night won a prize. Other than that, there really are no rules. Playing "Anything for Money" is like the ultimate game of truth or dare, but everything has its price. It was a really fun game to play though out the night and was entertaining to say the least. It definitely helped break the ice in a group of people where not everyone knew each other well. Also, there was an element of 'riskiness' to the game, appropriate for a Bachelor/Bachelorette Party, but no one was really pressured to get too far out of their comfort zone. I think it would work well in many situations where there is a large group at a party and will lend itself to being as tame or wild as the partygoers themselves. Keep it in mind for your next bachelorette party, girls night, or birthday party out on the town.

I also used the DIY devil horns from the previous post. There was a great group of guest for this party who really got into the theme and dressed as angels or devils. But, for the party people who forgot to dress for the theme, the devil horns were on hand to give everyone a chance to participate.

This weekend I hosted a Breakfast at Tiffany's themed lingerie shower for my good friend Michelle, a fashion designer and model. She is having an October wedding, to be held in a lovely theater, and her theme for the big day is Old Hollywood Glamor. I felt that a shower inspired by one of the most iconic movies of all time, would be more than appropriate and I had a wonderful time working on all the little details that made it special.

Let's start with the favors. I totally scored at the Dollar Tree with these Tiffany blue ring boxes that came complete with a white satin ribbon tied in a bow. To fill them, I used Martha Dahling's, recipe and tutorial to make candy gems. What could be more decedent than dining on diamonds? I can't think of a single thing. I used blue food coloring and crème de menth candy flavoring to add some pizazz and the multifaceted candy mold yielded rock candy in many different gem cuts: princess, emerald, round, cushion -cut, pear. They turned out quite lovely and tasty too.



For the door prizes, I used my cricut to create mini martini note cards with lined envelopes, all packaged in Tiffany blue sleeves tied with a satin ribbon. Cheers!





 

For added fun I hit the Hobby Lobby website for tiny tiaras, giant blingy plastic diamond rings, and strands of 'pearls' (iridescent white Mardi Gras beads). I filled long stemmed Tiffany blue martini glasses that I already had on had with the 'jewels' to decorate the buffet and gift tables, and party-goers used them to decorate themselves later.

For the beverage bar, I purchased tall glass bottles of European style soda and removed the labels. I made tags for the sodas and also for my apothecary style drink dispenser, and I filled the drink dispenser with a blue champagne cocktail I called "Wedded Bliss." I used champagne, pineapple juice and blue Curacao to create the concoction, and it was a hit. I beaded black cocktail stirrers with iridescent plastic beads and set out small clear plastic cups so that party-goers could easily help themselves to the cocktail of their choosing. The concept for the beverage bar was inspired by Eat, Drink, Pretty.

Also note how cute those little ring box favors look all stacked on a cake plate! love!

With the help of Rachel Evans from Lovely.Crafty.Home and the mother-of-the-bride, Elizabeth Holland, I served: stuffed mushrooms, bre and fig mini pastry cups, mini chicken and walnut salad sandwiches, hummus with vegetables and pita points, crackers with vegetable cream cheese tapinad, star fruit skewers.

We had gourmet cheese straws and edible gems for snacks:



And for dessert, what Breakfast at Tiffany's themed party would be complete without a Tiffany & Co. Box cake.

For the cake, I used Barbara Streisand's Never Fail Chocolate Cake recipe from the Beautiful Wives Cookbook. I substituted dark chocolate for milk chocolate in the recipe and filled the triple layer cake with dark chocolate ganash. I then iced the cake in chocolate butter cream icing to provide a base for the marshmallow fondant. I have never worked with fondant and friend and fellow cake baker Lacey Graham recommended trying the marshmallow variety. It was fun to make and very fun to work with. And, I am not usually a fan of the flavor of fondant icing, but let me tell you, this stuff is yummy. I was so pleased with the way the cake turned out, especially for my first attempt in a new baking medium. I served the cake on an 8x8 square cake-board (no serving plate) and placed it atop another Tiffany blue box with a white satin ribbon in the middle of the buffet table. It made for a very pretty and unusual display. And golly was it ever delicious!



That's the cake in the middle of the buffet table!

Some other fun party details included the "congratulations dahling" banner made with my cricut. Each banner tag was suspended from an iridescent plastic bead, for added bling. Also, conversation bubbles with movie lines were a hit at the party, and after party.





For added ambiance, I lit lots of candles and had the movie showing on the television in the living room for background. I killed the audio on the movie and instead played a collection of jazzy standards and sambas to fit with the period of the film.

The party was so fun and fabulous. Even though we used plastic cups and paper plates and napkins, the style of the event gave it an air of class. As the hostess, I was really able to relax and enjoy myself because all of the food and beverage was self-serve. For a shower game, party-goers split into teams, elected a model and fashioned a wedding gown (complete with accessories) out of one roll of toilet paper. Then, in honor of the bride-to-be, the 'dress' models worked a 'runway' through the center of the room, showing off their team's fashion creations. It was hysterical. Michelle judged the dresses and modeling skills of the contestants to select one winning team---and let me tell you, it was not an easy job - these girls knew how to WORK. All-in-all the night was a smashing success and the "Breakfast at Tiffany's" theme made a great platform on which to plan an unique and very fun event.

I am hosting a 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' themed shower for my good friend Michelle a few weekends from now at my home. I am so happy with how the invitations, enclosure cards, envelopes and address lables turned out. I had some fun with the wording as well:

Dahling,

You are cordially invited to

a 'Breakfast at Tiffany's themed swinging soiree

to honor

Michelle Holland

Bride-elect of

Jim Persek

Don't you just love it?!

Saturday the X of X

8 o'clock-ish

409 Charlotte Street

Asheville

RSVP

Amy Evans

555.555.5555

~glamorous attire encouraged~

I can't wait to share more of my party ideas. I have so many things in the works. More to come!