Utterly Engaged's "Snap. Crackle. Pop! It's a New Year Party"

On January 19th I attended the Utterly Engaged event at the Avia Hotel in Long Beach, "Snap. Crackle. Pop! It's a New Year Party." Utterly Engaged is a online magazine which focuses on fabulous weddings with a fabulously low budget. The main focus of the event was their design challenge. They invited wedding professionals to enter the contest and design a unique wedding tablescape that conveys the theme "Snap. Crackle. Pop" within a $150 budget! They were awesome!

There were 9 teams that entered the contest. Of those 9, there were two winners. One winner was chosen by an elite panel of judges:

Carissa Jones of JL Designs
Jasmine Star of Jasmine Star Photography
Jen Campbell of Green Wedding Shoes
Jennifer Sbranti of Hostess with the Mostess
Leila Khalil of Be Inspired PR
Summer Watkins of Grey Likes Weddings
Lucia Pador and Henry Vallee of Utterly Engaged

The second winner was the "People's Fave Award." This award was given to the team that received the most votes that evening by the people attending the event. Now on to the tables!

The winning table selected by the judges was ...
Table 4, "Love with a Pop of Pink"
Nancy of So Happi Together
Jane of Olive Hue Paper Goods
Cindy of Floral Elements



The People's Fave Award went to ...
Table 5, "Brooke Keegan Weddings & Events"
Brooke Keegan and Virginia Kirwan of Brooke Keegan Weddings and Events
Karla and Will Flores of Elegant by Design


I attended the event with my fabulous assistant, Tish. We both voted for the same table, which got one of the editors choice awards. We loved the fun colors and the nerdy science theme.
Table 9, "The Anatomy of a Sparkler"
Mai Hoang Ito of Bunch Studio
Laurie Mura of I Believe it's Cake
Olivia Wu of Zoie Events


The second editors choice award went to ...
Table 1, "Sparkilicious"
Desiree Patterson of Good Gracious!
Joanna Park of Floral Sense
Linda Ly of Grand Soirees
Lindsey Sinatra of A Wish And A Whisk Cakes
Therese Hernando of Whimsical Designs


Table 2 "Posh Pastel Pop Art"
Vanessa Van Wieren of Alchemy Fine Events
Tam Ashworth of Isari Flowers
Mary Lallande of Jay's Catering


Table 3 "Primary Petals and Tusssk"
Samantha Santana of Primary Petals
Jehoaddan Kulakoff of Tusssk
James Lively, Holly Santana and Mary Lively


Table 6 "Modern Rustic Winter"
Paula of Bliss Artistic Floral Design
Adrienne Coerper and Diane Klumb of Custom Programs
Paula Vasin of Bliss Blossoms


Table 7 "Creative Spice" (Loved the glam apples by Kreative Kandi Apples
Tatiana El-Khori and Anisa El-Khori of Creative Force Floral
Danelle Hairston and Karina Orzco of Sugar & Spice Event Design


Table 8 "Pop Wedding"
Meghan Shrinderle and Katie Webb of Intertwined Events
Amy Schoenbaum of Bride and Bloom Florals
Erica O'Brien of Erica O'Brien Cakes
Jordan Peister of Mintwich Design
Henry Chen of Henry Chen Photography


In addition to the design tables there was also a fun photo booth by Photocube. Tish and I of course took advantage of this and got a fun photo souvenir!


Next to the bar, an entire wall was covered with envelopes.

Everyone could jot down a little note to their future selves and stick it in an envelope on the wall. In 2012 Utterly Engaged will mail the postcards out to everyone! This was a cute idea and a perfect activity while you waited in the long bar line.

If you'd like to see more (and prettier) photos of the event check out Issue 14 of Utterly Engaged.

{Event Recap} Zzzebra 33rd Birthday Slumber Party

Since my husband was scheduled to be out of town for my birthday weekend, I decided I would have a big girly celebration! I know kids' events are all the rave right now, but let's face it, we're all just big kids at heart! I think everyone of us deserves a big extravagant party. So I unleashed the party planner in me and became my own client.

A few months back I found some adorable zebra plates at the dollar store. I loved them and knew I had to get them for some future party. These fabulous plates became the beginning of my theme!


With zebra on the brain, I chose to pair it with a purple and green. I didn't want to throw the traditional hot pink and zebra party. I wanted a different color scheme that would be fun, funky and girly!

Having a color scheme and girly slumber party theme, I set off to design the invitation. Invitation designing is one of my favorite aspects of party planning. It's typically the first glimpse into the party that a guest will get and I think first impressions are so important! For the finishing touch I used a standard white outer envelope but added a zebra envelope liner.


As I started accumulating items for the party, I was having difficulty deciding what to do for the favor, without breaking the bank. I had lots of ideas but nothing affordable. Then, I struck gold! I LOVE the Target bargain bins! I always peruse them whenever I shop because they have so many amazing, little, affordable finds. I found purple and black damask boxes, eyemasks in both purple and a black and white stripe, purple and black damask pedicure sets, lipgloss and nail polishes! I cleaned out 3 Targets to assemble my favors.


Next, I contacted Rebekah over at A Blissful Nest to help me design the rest of my printables. I sent her my invite and she re-sized it all for the rest of the printables and added a cute little black band to the design.


Sandy of Sandy's Baking Memories (soon to be Firefly Confections) agreed to design some cookies for my dessert table. She was amazing to work with. We emailed back and forth to figure out the design, then she let me know as she completed each step of my cookies, including emailing me pictures! They turned out so cute! I love the ribbon she tied to it.

I also relied on a few of my friends to assist me with filling out the food and dessert table. I knew I wouldn't have time to make a cake for myself so I called up my friend, Fenella. She agreed to create the fabulous cupcakes I wanted and they were everything I imagined and more!


I continued to look high and low for items that would create a fun, youthful and yet elegant atmosphere for the party. I lucked out because Target is currently FILLED with zebra prints. I filled out the rest of my decor with items from Ikea and Michaels. My favorite new additions, however, came from the fabulous Layla Grayce. I won a gift card to their fabulous store from a giveaway on Kate Landers Events and got myself some beautiful new serving dishes and definitely put them to good use.

My guests’ ages ranged from early 20’s to early 40’s so I really wanted an event that would be fun and energetic for the younger crowd and nostalgic for the older girls. Keeping that in mind I tried to design each room with a slightly different mood. The first room was the lounge. This room had a dessert table, beauty bar and a big comfy couch with lots of floor pillows in front of a roaring fire.















Brownie Hugs


Cherry Bon Bon Cookies


Grape Rock Candy


Cake Pops
(both had yellow cake but the purple was dark chocolate frosting
and the green was buttercream frosting)


Chocolate Covered Zebra Cookies (tutorial)
with Regular and Chocolate Milk


Candy Jars

Next was the game room. In this room I had "Dance, Dance Revolution" and "Guitar Hero" set up and ready to be played.



I also set up the snack and drink tables and displayed the favors.




Sangria, Apple Vodka in an ice sleeve and Scooby Snacks in ice shot glasses


Grape and Lime Jello Shots


Purple People Eaters and Apple Martinis



The final rooms were a make your own pizza station I set up in the kitchen and the dinning room, which was set with chargers so people could sit and eat as they finished assembling their pizzas.







Of course my favorite part by far was spending the
evening with some AMAZING friends and family!






Enchanted Events & Design: party styling, photography, printables
A Blissful Nest: Collaborated in designing the table printables and door sign
Firefly Confections: Eye mask sugar cookies
Fenella Higgins: Cupcakes

{Giveaway} #1 - Free Zzzebra Printables! - ENDED

Yay! My 33rd Birthday slumber party was posted on Pizzazzerie today! I'm hosting two giveaways in celebration of being on this wonderful site. For the first giveaway I'm giving away a FREE copy of the following printables, which I designed with assistance from the lovely Rebekah of A Blissful Nest, to all of my blog followers!








If you'd like a copy of these for you to print at home just leave a comment with your email address or send me an email (info@eeadesign.com). You must first be a public follower of this blog to receive the file so make sure you include your blogger name when you email me! You will then receive 3 PDF files with all of the files above.

If you like these printables, but prefer not to make them yourself please stop by the EEAD Etsy store and have them customized and made for you!

If you send a request and don't receive your files within 48 hours please check your spam folder. If you still don't have the email please let me know so I can make sure it gets to you. Enjoy!!!

This giveaway ends on February 14, 2011 February 17, 2011 (extended)!

And stay tuned for a full post on this blog about the slumber party and a tutorial on how to make the zebra cookies!