I came across this blog post and thought this was a great way to throw a party without having to pay for it.
Instead of an official Sweet 16, with invitations, food, and the lot, this guy sent out a text,  said that he was having his Sweet 16th birthday at a certain local skating rink [...]

So Lainey’s 3rd birthday party is this Sunday and I’m excited.  Even for this “nothing special” party at a local park for 25 kids and 35 adults, it’s amazing the number of lists I have going, and the amount of time I’ve spent planning instead of blogging.
Now that it’s all set, here are the details… [...]

If I were having a Quinceanera, I would want Hugo Benson of Hugo Benson Photography to be my photographer.  He’s based in San Diego and doesn’t come cheap (his packages starts at $2,000), but he gives his Quinceaneras the experience of a lifetime and turns them into bona fide celebrities!
Hugo is one of the main [...]

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 love this… an entire blog dedicated to people throwing Twilight-themed and New Moon-themed parties.  It was started by Tara who was turning 30, wanted to throw a Twilight-themed dinner party, couldn’t find a lot of ideas on the web, so she started her own blog.
Some pictures from her Twilight-themed 30th birthday party.
And some other [...]

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 [...]

PART 2 in my series on wedding photographers…
Yesterday I talked with Jules Bianchi, of Jules Bianchi Photography in Los Angeles, because I love her photographs and needed to understand what inspires her.
Jules, who is very close to her family (her sister, Joy, is her partner and still cries at every wedding they attend), feels that [...]

PART 1 in my series on wedding photographers….
One of the first things Kate Watson, of Kate Watson Photography in the San Francisco Bay Area, said to me was, “I shoot love.”  And that’s exactly how she sees her job.  Of course she cares about aesthetics and shooting beautiful pictures, but her main concern is capturing [...]