So the invitations to my daughter’s party are out.  The responses are trickling in.  While my intention was to keep it small, I don’t think I’m going to be successful.  Now I’m planning on about 30 kids, 45 adults.  That’s a lot of mouths to feed.  So for my menu…
45 inch sandwiches from Bay Cities [...]

Every time I plan a party, I’m always amazed at how many details there are and how much work the whole thing is.
For my daughter’s 3rd birthday party, my goal is to create a hip, fun, and relatively simple shindig, with low stress.  A tall order, I know, but here’s how I’m thinking of doing [...]

I was just talking to Christine Long-Plotkin, who recently added her wedding photos to our site.  She got married in November 2009 in Los Angeles, and threw a $30k wedding on a budget of $13k.
How did she do it?  With a “can do” spirit, by finding people who were willing to work within her [...]

So many of the parties I write about are big parties, so it was fun talking to party planner Chris Nease, owner of Celebrations at Home in Richmond, Virginia, about some of the smaller events she throws, and the creative things she comes up with to make her parties special.
She just put together a candy [...]

So here’s an interesting idea.  You go to Paper & Cake, buy some inexpensive, but cool party themed design files, download them, print them (or take them to your local Kinkos or Staples and have them print them for you), cut them out, tape them together, and voila! and you’ve got professional-looking partyware at a [...]

I consider myself a mild foodie, I shop at the farmer’s market almost weekly, and I go out of my way to avoid trans fats. 
However, my husband and I were recently in North Carolina visiting family and we went to a local Walmart, walked down the snack aisle and couldn’t resist the Hostess Cupcakes.  [...]

I was talking to LA based party planner, Suzanne Carvlin, also known as Suzanne The Party Girl.  She specializes in throwing parties that are a little less conventional than your typical hotel ballroom wedding with rubber chicken.
So I asked her some questions to get her expert advice on how to approach throwing a [...]

Again I wanted to blog about Liz Coopersmith, my friend and LA party planner, because she’s leading monthly workshops in LA, called the Recession Bride’s Workshop, to help brides and grooms save money while throwing their dream weddings.
So I posed her some questions to get the skinny on what really matters and what doesn’t, and [...]

This is a brilliant cost-saving idea.  Let’s say you’re throwing a party and want one of those beautiful designer cakes but don’t want to spend the money, what do you do?  Buy a fake cake instead.
The fake cakes are covered in fondant, which is what cake designers use, but underneath it, pure Styrofoam.  And the [...]

“One-third of brides marrying in the US this year will be wearing a polyester wedding dress from David’s Bridal that costs as little as $99.”
I found this fact so interesting, that I went directly to David’s Bridal to see what I could get for $99.  I have to say, the dresses I found at that [...]