Let's go wild!

     As I have mentioned in a few previous posts I am currently planning my cousins baby shower with the help of my mom, aunt and grandma. I'm having a blast with it so far and going a little over board, I must admit, but hey bringing a new life into the world is something to be celebrated. She is 3 weeks older than I am and we haven't had any baby's in our family since we were born so this little one is going to be pretty dang spoiled, especially if this shower is any indicator. I am currently working on the invitations. We won't be sending them out for another 2 weeks when she finds out the sex of the baby but they are pretty much complete. I have also been working on the menu and games that we will be playing along with the decorations. My cousin has always loved leopard print, her whole room is decorated in it along with basically everything else in her life, so it was no surprise when she said she wanted to do the shower in a Safari theme. It has been so fun finding cool decorations and coming up with awesome ideas. Animal print is SO in right now and I'm loving it! So here is what I've got so far-

The different prints I am using.

Yea...there are quite a few invitations

Her favorite leopard print

All the cards outsides complete except for the either pink or blue bow I will be adding.

I've already learned a few very important things, like the difference between cheetah and leopard. And that working with 3 different generations on party is not the easiest thing to do but we are really learning to compromise and remind our grandma that its okay that we are doing things a little different than they used to. I will keep you updated with the other fun things I come up with!

-A



Aaaargh Mattie!

     On April 9th I catered and planned a child's pirate themed birthday party. This was so much fun because I really got to sink my teeth into the event planner part of my job that I love so much! This event was for a little boy celebrating his 4th birthday--so much fun and energy in the 16, that's right 16 little ones that were in attendance. It was quite the interactive party with interactive games, Craft projects and of course a pirate ship pinata.
     There were 30 guest in all and I provided two different menus, one for adults and one for the kids. The adults were served chicken strips or fish and chip baskets with home cut french fires. The kids had Golden nuggets and ruby sauce (chicken nuggets and ketchup) golden treasures and cheese (mac n cheese) "peg-leg" veggies and assorted jewels (grapes orange slices and apple slices). They also had pirate punch and root-beer to drink. I was really pleased with how the food turned out and it seemed to go over very well with guests of all ages.

The kids working on their craft project with the help of some parents.

The amazing cake courtesy of C.J.'s bakery of Black Diamond

The kid's "loot bags"

Matthew's personalized banner.

The craft project was "ocean in a bottle" including sand shells and sequence.

Assorted jewels

Peg Leg Veggies

YUM!

     Decorating for the party was also something I really enjoyed it was fun getting into the theme of the party. My helpers and I even dressed in awesome pirate costumes along with many of the children guests! I am the youngest in my family and don't have any children so I have never planned a kids party before and wow, so much goes into it! Also who knew pirates were so in these days. Every party store I went to had such awesome decorations it made decorating that much more fun. The night was awesome and a lot of work but well worth it. I learned many more things mainly about how much energy children have and that pinatas take a lot longer to break open then I ever remember! I think I am almost to the point where I'm ready to do another kids party. Bring it on!

-A

My First Event Was Golden

February 19th I hosted my first catered event. I was really nervous how things would turn out and how my clients would like everything. It's easy to pick out and plan something I like but pleasing other people is not always quite so easy! This event was a 50th Wedding Anniversary party for a friend of a friend's. The theme was "gold" of course which represents the 50 year mark of a couple. I provided a sample menu for the couple to choose from and they chose Chicken Cordon Bleu served on white rice with a green salad and French bread. There were 50 guest in total and it was a great gathering and fun event for everyone. I was pretty nervous at the beginning but I felt very accomplished once it was over. I had help with serving and waiting on guest from my cousin and my aunt helped serve and prepare the food. It was a great learning expirence for us all.

This was the Personalized Banner for the couple.

I made the guest book and hundreds of labels that had the year of their marriage and 2011 on the bottom of golden Hershey's kisses.

This was the welcome table.

This was how the tables were set up with menu cards and wrapped silver ware adorned with a golden bow.

The cake table

-A

You Can't Plan Everything

     I've always considered my self a kind of crazy O.C.D. planner. I like being busy and having a lot on my plate-I tend to get bored if I'm not working on some kind of project, so planning out my time efficiently is important. In recent years however I've started to understand that life hardly ever sticks to your plans. This used to make me so frustrated and crazy when little things would trip me up and keep me from accomplishing everything on my to-do list but lately I've started to understand that not everything goes as expected.

     A great example of this has happened to me not to long ago. It may not be surprising that I've been planning on starting my own catering and event planning business. It was my goal to start after I finished my AA degree this June, but in January I was approached to do a couple from my cafes 50th wedding anniversary. I was thrilled! The event went pretty great considering it was my first real event. I've done many family gathers over the year with help form my mom and aunt but this one was so exciting to really be in control and decided on all the particulars.

     Since then I have also planned a children's birthday party, a baby shower and also used our facility to host two memorial service. So much for starting my business in June, but i couldn't be happier. Things have really just fallen into place and things are taking off! I'm enjoying building and promoting my business. Of course when I am done with school I will have much more time to spend on advertising and menu development. So even though I wasn't planning on this taking off so suddenly it just goes to show that sometimes planing just doesn't work. I plan on posting lots of fun pictures and details on the events that I have done in the next few weeks. Also-- keep your eye out for the post coming about my exciting upcoming event in August, its going to be Wild ;)

-A