I’m so excited to be giving away this collection of chevron stripe Big Game party printables! You can satisfy both team fans with these stylish designs by Meredith at MJ Paperie!  Thank you, Meredith, for letting me share.

The collection includes: cupcake toppers, tented cards, and drink flags. Take a look…

DOWNLOAD THE HIGH RESOLUTION FILES FOR PRINTING

Thank you, Meredith. I love your designs! To see more of Meredith’s designs, check out her shop,  MJ Paperie.

If you’re thinking about a menu for your buffet, how about trying our Buffalo wings and caprese salad recipes. They are delicious!

Courtney D’s {Love Bites} Valentine’s Dessert Party

Savvy Moms Guide’s Rock of Love Play Party

Merydwen P’s Valentine Collab

Erica S’s Always the Bridesmaid Valentine’s Day Party

Natalie L’s A Budget Friendly Valentine’s Day Party

Laura M’s Valentine’s Day Playdate

Bird’s My Sweetheart

Kahliah G’s Valentine’s Day Love Birds Photoshoot

Melissa C’s Beatles Theme Valentine’s Day

Fara M’s Bee Mine Valentines Collection

Take a look at all our gorgeous Valentine’s Day parties on our main site, and also check out our free Valentine’s Day party printables. You’re just in time!

I just talked to Abigail, a graphic designer and mother, whom with her partner, Kira, also an artist and mother, started Paper & Cake from their kitchens.  Kira’s the illustrator with the eye for color, and Abigail is the typographer and layout expert.  And together they have come up with some beautiful party theme designs.

They’ve got themes for kids’ birthdays, grown up parties, holidays, and baby showers.   The most expensive design is $10.

So the question is what to do you get for $10.  Well, for their most popular Pirate Kid party package (which is only $8, by the way), you get:  an invitation, a front door sign, a pennant banner, cupcake picks, “ship” cake decorations, favor bag tags, cone party hats, jar labels, party food labels, a treasure map craft activity, a birthday boy pirate crown, cupcake wrappers, a photo frame, a gift log, and skull and ship artwork saved as .png files for you to apply to extra printables as needed.

Here are some pictures to see what I’m talking about.

From their Underwater Themed Baby Shower Collection

An assortment of their cupcake wrappers -- I think these are absolutely beautiful!

From their Pool Party Collection

From the Bon Appetit Collection

From their most popular Pirate Birthday Collection

From their Fairy Wonderland Party Collection

Abigail promises me that you don’t need to be computer savvy or good at crafts to pull this off.  You just need a printer, a pair of sissors, and some good ol’ Scotch tape.  To see some inspirations, check out their Paper&Cake blog.

What I do when I’m a fan of someone is I call them up and tell them.  So while I was talking to Ashley, I asked her how she and Mike achieved this feel and she said “we really love people.”  The first thing they do is get to know everyone in the wedding before it starts.  That way, when the cameras are later placed in front of them, they feel much more comfortable being “real.”

Ashley and Mike don’t follow many of the traditional rules of wedding photography.  For example, instead of asking the bride and groom to “pose” like they’re in love, they let the bride and groom be who they are and allow the love speak for itself.   Their goal is to capture the beauty, the fun, and the emotion of the day.

I asked Ashley if she had any advice for brides and grooms about to get married.  She said they are usually so stressed the day of the wedding and want everything to go so perfectly, they have a tendency to almost want to “just get through it.”   But Ashley advises the bride and groom to embrace their feelings, even if that means the bride’s mascara runs down her face in the middle of the ceremony.  Let it.  Those will be the best pictures.

I asked Ashley to send me some of her and Mike’s favorite shots.  Here they are.  Lovely.

Snap Photography

Snap Photography

Snap Photography

Snap Photography

Snap Photography

So I asked her some questions to get her expert advice on how to approach throwing a party that doesn’t quite stick to the script, and here’s what she said…

What are your favorite kinds of parties?

I love parties that are guest-centric and the party hosts are relaxed, greeting all of their guests to make them all feel welcome, and all are having a great time.

For weddings, I really love it when the personalities of the couple getting married shine through, and when you feel that they have put a lot of thought into their guests’ experience.

Let your guests know what to expect. The best option is to let your guests know what to expect before they arrive at your party by posting information on a website or even sending out a follow-up to the invitation in the form of a newsletter. You can share things such as what the weather may be, if the party is inside or outside, where the entrance is, what food is being served, if you will have dancing, etc. Let your guests know that there will be some fun surprises, though!

Also, the flow of a party or wedding is extremely important! If your guests are left waiting for things to happen, they will be either bored or starving or both! Keep the flow moving and the food and beverages readily available. If your guests aren’t left wondering when they will finally have a drink or something to eat, they will be much more relaxed and in the moment with you. Also, have a place for guests to set their coats and any gifts that they may bring with them so they aren’t left lugging large items around.

It is so important to think of ways to involve your guests and to let them know that their presence is appreciated! Say hello to every guest if you are the host or guest of honor! And keep everyone happy and entertained!

Describe some of your favorite ideas to “shake things up.”

Have your cocktail hour before your wedding ceremony, but make certain that you serve an array of food items with the drinks. Try two specialty cocktails and lemonade/iced tea/or other summer winter non-alcoholic beverages. A full bar can be fun, but if you do it that way, keep the pre-ceremony time to under 1/2 an hour or your guests may start to become “unwieldy.”

Instead of a photo booth, try a photo backdrop with a camera that can capture more than 3-4 people. http://www.theflashdance.com/ has a great “Smile Booth.” See here: http://www.theflashdance.com/index.cfm?catID=19

To really make it fun, provide costumes! You can keep it simple with feather boas, giant sunglasses and mustaches on sticks. Or, you can really go nuts with full costumes from your local party rental store. In LA, Hollywood Toys and Costumes is a great place to purchase costume items: http://www.hollywoodtoysandcostumes.com/

Not everyone loves to dance, but everyone loves to be entertained! Interactive entertainment is what guests love. Try a balloon-maker, cotton candy spinner, a cigar roller (great if you have a lounge area), or, my favorite are mobie trucks for food stations. Think “In-and-Out Truck”. In LA, you can hire a mobile truck to bring you mini ice-cream sandwiches (my favorite is ,http://www.eatcoolhaus.com/, sushi, beers on tap, and more!

You can even follow many of them on Twitter to find where they are located on any day or at any time to go to an impromptu “menu tasting.” http://twitter.com/COOLHAUS (mobile ice cream sandwiches that you can even put your custom writing onto), http://twitter.com/fishlips_sushi (mobile sushi), http://twitter.com/letsbefrank (mobile hot dogs), http://twitter.com/sprinklesmobile (mobile Sprinkles cupcakes).

Think of your favorite things to do when you go out and incorporate that. Consider your guests. For example, when you are invited to a wedding, do you think, “Yea! I can’t wait to go!” or do you think, “Another wedding. There goes my Saturday night.” Make it fun for your guests and it will be fun for you, too!

Here are some pictures from one of Suzanne’s recent parties where she “shook things up.”

Flowers by Flower Wild, Photography by Phil Cosby

Having a party with different gathering areas minimizes the amount of centerpieces that you need, but you can still choose an area to flood with flowers for a huge impact.

Pepe on Guitar, Photography by Phil Cosby

Choose different styles of music for different lounge areas. It is really affordable to hire solo musicians for a few hours.

Rentals from Classic Party Rents, Photography by Phil Cosby

Keep your decorations simple. These are vintage table cloths owned by the bride. Flowers were purchased at the local Floral Mart and then arranged in jelly jars.

Big Mista's BBQ, Photography by Phil Cosby

Serve comfort food buffet style to save money on a formal dinner. Guests love food that makes them feel like they are a kid again. This buffet features amazing BBQ by Big Mista’s and good ol’ mac and cheese!

The Middle Class jug band, Photography by Phil Cosby

Save money by hiring a band that specializes in one type of music as opposed to a large entertainment group that does multiple types. You can cut your band budget in half!

(P.S. That is Billy Bob Thorton on guitar.)

What locations do you like the best for throwing unusual parties?

I love unique wedding locations. Unique locations are my specialty!

Two of my favorites are the Marvimon, downtown, and the Smogg Shoppe in Culver City (which is also eco-friendly despite the ironic name). http://www.marvimon.com/ The Smogg Shoppe (“LA’s greenest oasis”) is in a refurbished and beautified automotive center and has now achieved the US Green Building Council’s Platinum Certification. Not to mention that it is a great location and perfectly laid out for a smashing party!

The Marvimon is another oasis of vintage beauty nestled in the hills near China Town. Many beautiful weddings have been coordinated there. My favorite is one designed by Jo Gartin of Love, Luck and Angles. http://www.loveluckandangeles.com

One location to seek out is the rooftop of the Mercury on Wilshire. http://www.themercuryla.com/23.cfm It is a new, stylish condo complex, but we rented the rooftop for our event. It has stunning, almost 360-degree-views, of the city. You can see the Hollywood sign, the Griffith Observatory, the nearby Downtown skyline, the South Bay and the ocean. It has a grass area perfect for a ceremony and a pool area for cocktails. You could cover the pool with plexiglass for your ceremony, have cocktails in the grass/patio area and your reception with dancing in the pool area again. They also have room for caterers and you can have a custom tent pitched in case of inclement weather.

Have your reception in a restaurant. The ambiance, amazing food, tables, chairs and china are already in place. I went to a wedding at Lucques on Melrose that was just amazing. The ceremony was on the outside patio and the dinner was inside and served family style with dancing back outside on the patio. It was great fun! The Foundry on Melrose, owned by chef Eric Greenspan, is another great option with wonderful food.

More favorites of mine are the locations owned by Cedd Moses, such as the Broadway Bar, Cole’s Downtown (great vintage event space!), Seven Grand and the Golden Gopher. I am waiting for the perfect couple who has rocking style for a reception (or even an engagement party or rehearsal dinner) in Coles. The possibilities are endless!

Speaking of restaurants and unique locations. The Waffle on Sunset and Vine on the lowest level of the House of Blues headquarters. Chic diner fare and a patio, inside diner seating and an upstairs bar = crazy, cool, 50′s-chic reception! http://www.thewaffle.us/Site/Index.html

The Art Deco Society also has links to some of the swanky-est historic places in LA, perfect for a vintage, classy and elegant affair. You would not only have a stunning location, you would be aiding in the preservation of LA’s unique and storied history! http://adsla.org/links.htm

A very current and little-explored idea for weddings is something that Martha Stewart Weddings did this Summer in New York called a “pop-up” wedding. http://ritzybee.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/06/pop-goes-the-wedding.html There are so many unique locations that have been left vacant as the result of our economic downturn. You can approach the property manager and ask to have your wedding reception in one of their vacant buildings. You would probably need to do this on a shorter timeline as they would rather rent the space to a retailer, but you could haul in decorations and rentals and have your wedding in a gallery-like space that would probably never be duplicated. I would definitely suggest you seek the assistance of a wedding coordinator for this one! There are a lot of logistics to sort out, but everyone would always remember your one-of-a-kind wedding event!

What are ways that throwing a non-traditional party can help you save money?

Well, for starters, you can save money on the food. You don’t need to serve a 5-course meal. You can keep your party fun and alive by serving elegant comfort food or just good food period. It doesn’t need to be expensive. Think of your favorite foods to eat and serve those.

Love mac and cheese and BBQ? Go for that. Your guests will have more fun eating food that they enjoy. Also, if you have a lot of places for people to sit and eat as opposed to a formal seating plan for the entire night, guests will have the opportunity to mingle with more people. In LA, a great BBQ caterer is: http://bigmista.com/

Save money on your bar. Have 2 signature cocktails and an array of non-alcoholic drinks. That is a huge money saver! If you want, add wine and beer and include a few basics such as vodka, bourbon, and rum. Definitely have free something to drink, though. Include sodas, tea, coffee and water. No one has fun while dying of thirst.

Bands that are not formal are much cheaper! A local jazz band, bluegrass band or even a jug band will cost you around $2000-3000 or less as opposed to $5000-$10,000 for a band that can play jazz, swing and top 40. One couple whose wedding I coordinated found all of their musicians at their local Farmer’s Market!

Save money on wedding favors. No one really wants a wedding favor unless it is practical. Except for your parents. And you for your keepsake box. Seriously, no one else wants a mini candle with your names on it. Sorry to break it to you. Your guests DO want a candy bar, cotton candy, make-your-own sundaes, cupcakes, funnel cakes, and all of the things that they only eat when they are at a carnival or celebrating a major holiday.

So, instead of the traditional favor, give your guests the gift of entertainment and food. Wouldn’t you rather leave a party with fresh chocolate chip cookies and a mini milk, or a cheeseburger, or hot coffee in a to-go cup?

You can forgo a traditional wedding cake all together or you can have a small ceremonial cake for a topper on a cupcake tree. That will save you money on the wedding cake overall because cupcakes are apx. $2 each instead of the usual $6 per slice for wedding cake.

Instead of splurging on expensive centerpieces for every table, rent fun props from a prop shop. You could also use personal photos in frames with a few blooms on the table. Or, use live potted plants or succulents in boxes that are live and can be replanted. These are usually much less expensive than cut flowers.

Do spend money on lighting and candles, though. You need ambiance to set the mood!

How do you keep things feeling intimate and personal when throwing a big party?

Have different areas where guests can mingle and chat. If you break up a large party into 3 areas (more than that and your party energy becomes too diluted), guests can feel free to check out other things to do and meet more guests.

Have an area where guests can dance and then stage ottomans and benches around the dance floor where guests can rest their feet or watch the dancing.

Have an area for cigar smokers and whiskey drinkers. You could even throw in some card games where guests can place “bets” redeemable for tickets to a drawing.

Have a lounge for the kids with activities, games, coloring books and hire off-duty nurses or LVNs (Licensed Vocational Nurses), or Certified Babysitters who know First-Aid (just in case) to watch and entertain the kids.

Think about the flow of your party and imagine yourself navigating your event in your mind. Where would you enter? Would someone greet you? How would you know where to go next? Having live people guide guests is the ultimate guest service. Navigational signs are a great option, too. You can also have frames staged throughout the event that describe what is going on in that area and what guests can do there.

Thank you Suzanne for your fabulous advice. We may steal some of your awesome ideas like the mobile ice cream sandwiches, the photo backdrop, and the “pop up” location (I love that!) for our Catch My Party launch party. Stay tuned…

It turns out Kiva is a micro-lending site, that lets you “lend money to a specific entrepreneur in the developing world — empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty.”  Already interesting, I thought.

So, you lend someone as little as $25 and over 6 months to a year, you get updates on how your entrepreneur is doing and his/her repayment schedule.  Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend it to someone else.

This speaks to me on a variety of levels.  First, it helps people help themselves, which I’m a big believer in.  Second, there’s tremendous transparency about how your money is being used so you never feel like you’re paying for some non-profit’s expensive logo redesign.  And third, many of the entrepreneurs are woman, and as a female entrepreneur myself, I can’t help but feel a special kinship.

So if you have an extra $25, and want help someone make a better life, like Mrs. Zainabu Mariam of Uganda, who is still trying to raise $625 to to buy charcoal to sell, check it out.

A wonderful way to help others

http://www.kiva.org

There was the issue of the picnic tables.  My nanny and I staked them out early in the morning.  But I hadn’t officially reserved them and multiple parties were now arriving in need of a place to sit and my tables were the only ones in the “open” section.   And there was also the issue of picking up food but not wanting it to sit out too long, which meant spending the morning in my car going back and forth and back and forth from my house to the park.

Anyway, I just finished packing the sandwiches in the car for my last trek to park.   The temperature outside was in the mid 80s, which meant the temperature in my car was in the mid 90s and I didn’t want the mayonnaise to spoil.  Plus, I just got a call from my softie nanny that a large Russian family who were having some sort of non-determinant party would now be joining us for the day at our tables.

So my daughter, whom I had been too busy to say hello to while in the midst of my “efficiency mode,” runs over to me with pure delight on her face, saying, “Mommy, Mommy,”  then trips, falls, and starts crying.  And since I’m so wound up, I barely notice and start heading to the door, leaving my crying daughter, who is still on the floor, to the care of my husband.

Now understand, my husband gives great care, but he can also call me on it when I’m not making the best of choices, so he picked up my daughter, handed her to me, and said, “Hold her.”  Of course I protested, we couldn’t afford the hospital bill if 35 people got sick.  But I also knew he was right.   So I stopped what I was doing, and I held her, for probably only 53 seconds, which is all it took for her to be back in fighting shape.  But more importantly, I remembered why I was doing all this in the first place.  (Then I rushed to the car to get those sandwiches out of the freakin’ heat.)

Overall, the party turned out great.  Everyone, including the Russians, had a wonderful time.  And after it was over, I held my daughter for a lot longer than 53 seconds.

Here I am helping Lainey blow out her candles

I’d love to hear from you.  Who else has let the stress of a party cause you to make some bad choices?

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/02/18/america/NA-FEA-US-Bar-Mitzvah-Redux.php

I’m a big believer in milestones and rituals.  I feel they’re more than a part of our culture, they’re a part of our DNA.   They help tell the story of who we are as human, and any time we can tell that story, we connect to others on a whole different level.

I love this quote:

“…those who go through a bar or bat mitzvah later in life describe it as an incredibly spiritual experience, and one that can transport them back to a different time.”

So mazel tov to you, older guys and gals, and I’d love some pictures for the site!

CATCH MY PARTY is more than just a place to have fun.  It’s a place to celebrate yourself — with friends, family, and even strangers — at a time when you are your most radiant and beautiful self.

And because your party lives on forever here, that radiant, beautiful part of you live on forever, too.    So if you ever need a jolt of self-esteem or splash of happiness or those warm fuzzy feelings of being loved, here’s where you come, as often as you need to, and we’ll remind you how phenomenal you are.

…And that’s why this site matters.

http://www.instyle.com/instyle/package/general/photos/0,,20051412_20045503,00.html