sweet

Love is in the air – well it has been during the four weeks of planning this special event…

My dear friend, Karen, shared the news that her daughter, Rachael, said “yes” to the marriage proposal from long time love, Gregg. Naturally, Valentine’s Day was the perfect “love” weekend to throw an Engagement Party to congratulate and celebrate the soon to be Mr. & Mrs.

Even though it was Valentine’s Eve, the traditional Valentine theme just wouldn’t do. We kept it to white with a touch of red – no pink here. Sophisticated, delicate, and lovely. We were inspired from a dessert table found online (see link below) and the simple elements that were used. The paper products featured on that site are no longer available so I did my best to replicate them. The garland was our base and we built from there. The venue for the party was a multi-level club-house and the stair railings were the perfect place to dress up with yards and yards of custom cut hearts sewn together into an elegant and delicate garland. Please note the “hap-hazard” way it was hung was done on purpose… elegant yet whimsical – fancy but not stuffy.

Karen had the brilliant idea of a kissing booth but to be used more like a photo booth so that guests could have photo memories and fun with their Valentine. Her giving heart wanted to be sure guests were still able to enjoy their Valentine being that the event took time from their weekend. The crape paper backdrop was created to cover an 8′ door wall. The event was at night and the wall of glass behind the booth turns into reflective mirror and wouldn’t make for good photography. The booth was a big hit!

The backdrop for the dessert table was needed to cover an interior window. The venue was full of window and mirrors so creative and inexpensive backdrops were needed. The envelope wall was the perfect fit. “Sweet Hearts” was our tag line and we felt fit the envelopes well.

Karen made all of the cookies – working for hours to get them just right. The edible stamps on the love letter cookies were so cute and each cookie carefully tied with twine. Karen’s brother made the amazing cupcakes and cake and I did the chocolate covered strawberries. Licorice was tied in knots, Oreo’s covered in white chocolate, and red velvet cheesecake brownie “love bites” finished the table. (Karen did the Oreos and brownies too – she hasn’t slept for weeks!)

Thank you to everyone who helped with the set-up, food, desserts, and clean-up. So many helped to make this event a huge success.

I hope LOVE has found you this February and will continue to do so all year through.

red velvet cheesecake brownies

Oreo’s covered in white chocolate

yummy cupcakes

centerpieces – simple frames with tissue flowers.

custom garland

custom signs

photo props

red pillows for the furniture – no detail left undone.

custom photo booth

what a sweetie

Lovely Ladies

my Valentine

Karen – She did it again!

http://justcallmemarthaa.blogspot.com/2011/02/happy-valentines-day.html

March is a busy month in our house; two birthdays and an anniversary. This year in particular is a year of milestones; our oldest turns Sixteen!, my hubby turns 50!, and we celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. To tell you we planned it that way, well, that would be a lie. I guess it’s good to do it all at once and get it over with, right?

So, what do you get a sixteen year old boy (besides a car)? A snow day! Yup, I woke him at 5:00 am to tell him he could spend the day sleeping since we got nailed with over 6″ of snow during the night. To say he was thrilled is an understatement. Praise God! He pulled that one off for me! Now on to the party planning. All the family was coming over to celebrate these special men. So I did what I know how to do – craft! I wanted to make the normal family party extra special with decorations and LOVE the hanging garland I recently did for a client. I also love the look of a pennant banner too. Here’s my take on the two:

utensils inside with custom license plate

So my plan was to make my son a car cake – since he wasn’t going to be getting a car for a present, and I asked him what kind of car he’d like to have – real car if he could have any. He didn’t know I was going to make it into a cake. He found this one:

It’s an Audi TT. Let the learning begin… Nightly Pinterest visits and video watching and I educated myself on how to build a car cake. Now to execute. Hmm… could I pull this off? For my first car cake, I think it turned out pretty good and best of all, he LOVE IT! That’s all that matters (and it was yummy)! Oh, did I tell you I was also making a golf themed cake for my hubby? I don’t know where I come up with these things. I could have just went to Costco and ordered a cake for their party, but what fun is that? My hubby liked his cake present too! Please excuse the imperfections, dings in the paint job, and jabs in the homemade marshmallow fondant. I don’t have all the fancy tools of a professional baker and I made due.