{Event Recap} Vintage Jewelry Surprise Birthday

I was asked to design an event for my client's mother. Her mother, unfortunately, was robbed 2 weeks before her birthday and 4 generations of jewelry was stolen. My client was inspired to throw a jewelry themed surprise luncheon for her mom. She asked all of the guests to bring one pair of earrings as a gift for the birthday girl. I was very touched by this story and pulled together a simple design with hints of vintage jewelry. The color palette for the party was pink, cream and white with lots of wood accents. The party had a combination of clean, modern colors with rustic accent pieces. It made for a really spectacular combination.


For the dessert table I ordered some fabulous custom cookies with beautiful cameos featured on each one. This was huge hit as it closely resembled one of the birthday girl's favorite broaches which was lost.


The picture on the right is taken with my phone but you can really see the detail of the cameo!


I also included strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, strawberry parfaits, strawberry whoppers, mini doughnut rings and a lovely strawberry cake.


I decided to use cherry blossom branches in tall white bottles as the backdrop of the table. I didn't want to take away from the beautiful wallpaper!
For the lunch the ladies were served a variety of salads and roasted vegetables, a mixed juice spritzer, white wine sangria and lemon water. All the tables had fresh flowers which were purchased the day before in the LA flower district and at a farmer's market by myself and the hostess. At the end of the event all the ladies took home strawberry bath salt favors.


Vendors
Event Design: Enchanted Events & Design
Printables: Enchanted Events & Design
Photography: Next Exit Photography
Cookies: Denise's Creations

Modern Turtle Baby Shower Map Insert

Rebekah, from A Blissful Nest, contacted me awhile ago about designing a map to accompany some adorable baby shower invitations she designed. I was more than happy to help her out! Here's the final result.


To see more pictures from this event stop by A Blissful Nest.

{Tip} "Thanks" the perfect gift!

So how many of you have been to a baby or bridal shower (or other event) and you were given a blank envelope? "What's this?" you ask the hostess. "Oh just write your name and address on it," replies the hostess. "It's for the thank you card the guest of honor will send you."

Okay I don't know about everyone else but this always irks my etiquette button. I never comment on the situation when it occurs. I simply grab a pen and fill out the envelope. But a couple of weeks later when I get the card ... it just feels weird to see my own handwriting on the envelope. Now don't get me wrong, I think it's a wonderful thing to do for the guest of honor. But it just seems a bit of a nuisance and kind of tacky for the guests.

My new favorite gift, when I'm hosting a gift giving event for someone, is to give them a set of thank you cards along with address labels for all of their guests and stamps. I give this to the guest of honor at the end of the event to be opened later, so they're not opening up their thank you cards in front of everyone. I like to give address labels instead of handwriting the address on each of the envelopes. This way if the guest of honor wishes to use different thank you cards the ones given can still be used at another time without having to buy all new envelopes for them. And while handwritten addresses for thank you cards are a really nice touch, I think most people will over look labels for a busy bride/expectant mother. And the guest of honor can always choose to hand-write the addresses instead of using the labels if they prefer, and the labels are still a big convenience since all of the guests names and addresses are readily available for them to copy.

I also think this is the perfect gift for the hostess since it is not very expensive, and lets face it, after throwing someone a shower giving them a big, expensive gift isn't usually at the top of the list. I also try and give a thank you card designed to match the style of the party. I think it's a nice touch that the event flows seamlessly from the initial invitation all the way through the event down to the thank you card.

I'd love to hear everyone's opinion on this gift idea. Would you enjoy receiving it if you're the guest of honor? As a guest if you found out the guest of honor received this as a gift, would it tarnish the thank you card when it comes in the mail?

Some of my thank you card designs