{moroccan dinner party inspiration}

Ever since we returned home from our trip to Marrakech, I have been dreaming about throwing a colorful party inspired by our time there.  Our 5 days in Morocco had such a magical feeling that only comes from being in a place that is so foreign and filled with exotic discoveries at every turn.  I hope I never forget the feeling of wandering through the maze of the souks taking in all the gorgeous trinkets or the intriguing all night dinners in ancient Riads served with the unparalleled hospitality of the region.  With the weather finally warming up I figured the coming weeks would be the perfect time to host a little outdoor dinner party starting at sunset with a decidedly Moroccan theme complete with plenty of romantic lanterns, vibrant colors and a flavorful Mediterranean menu.  Here's the inspiration board I put together for the evening:

I have a few go-to playlists that I use when we have guests over for dinner (as well as a couple for bigger parties or special trips), but I've been needing to create a refreshed version and this dinner party gave me the perfect excuse to mix some classic favorites with some more interesting moroccan inspired tracks.

You can play it directly from the playlist below or subscribe to it right here!

                                     

I can't wait to reveal some of the decor I have been hunting down and share the entire dinner party including the delicious menu with you soon!

Find what speaks to you.

Compensation was provided by Pier 1 via Mode Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Pier 1.

{Happy 4th}

I hope you are all enjoying a beautiful and festive 4th of July today! Earlier this week over on the Bliss Weddings Blog, I posted a beautiful inspiration shoot we put together for a 4th of July Fete- I only wish my day today looked as fabulous as this little soiree- see the full post here.

{4th of july party inspiration}

While I am excited to get the chance to spend another year in Huntington Beach for the 4th, I am a little sad to be missing the all out celebrations that Chicago and the midwest have for the holiday (I hear it's huge!).   In anticipation of a great day of bloody marys, bike rides, pool lounging and firework watching, I thought it would be fun to put together a little inspiration board for next week's holiday!

the attire: I love these breezy dress options from J. Crew (solid blue) & Indah (printed).  I will obviously be pairing it with my patriotic flower crown from last year (see a diy tutorial here), but if I didn't have that as an accessory I would definitely opt for the understated red/white/blue statement necklace from BaubleBar. 

the spread: I would definitely start the day out with our doctored up bloody marys and glasses of champagne from Chandon's seasonally designed bottle (although I liked last year's design better!) and in the afternoon I would serve blueberry and blackberry caipirinhas.  In addition to the normal grilling fare of hamburgers and sausages, I think Joy the Baker's pretzel dogs would make for a fun snack.  Berries make it so easy to create a patriotic themed dessert like these mini trifles, but if I didn't have time or energy to whip those up I would just stick a sparkler in some ice cream and call it a day!

the activities:  The fourth is definitely not one of those type of holidays to be overly planned.  Our day will most consist of lounging poolside and then watching the fireworks on the beach at night, but we might venture out on bikes to see the parade in our hometown. 

Hope you all have wonderful plans in store for next week's holiday!

{disco ball decor}

Ever since we used my champagne bucket filled with mini disco balls as decoration at Bliss' recent Kiki party, I have been wanting to find a way to incorporate some disco balls into our decor.  I know at first it sounds super cheesy, but I have seen it done really well in some homes.  I especially like when I see a disco ball in an unexpected place like the corner of a living room or bookshelf.  I would love to collect a cluster of disco balls to hang in the corner of our office room. Here are a few inspiring images of disco ball decor:

{we loved the disco decorations from our kiki party so much that now that bucket lives 

on the coffee table in the studio}

{our wedding: the decor}

When we set out to create all the decor for our wedding, we tried to remind ourselves not to get caught up going overboard with decorations.  This was mostly because we didn't want to take away from the beauty of our venue and partly because it is so easy to get carried away making things that some weddings can end up looking like a craft explosion.   

Chris and I picked a color scheme of grey, white and mint  green with pops of gold, black/white stripe and kraft paper- basically I took all my favorite things and threw them together.  People always try to give wedding color schemes a name (vintage modern, rustic chic, etc)- quite honestly I couldnt tell you what our focus was other than Chris didn't want it to be too girly and we didn't want to absolutely hate our choices in 10 years.  

For the ceremony, we kept the decorations to a minimum since guests would only be in that area for 30 or 40 minutes.  We put all of our effort into a ceremony backdrop since that is where all the focus would be.  We created the strips that make up the backdrop "curtain" out of crepe paper which we fringed- following this tutorial.  Each guest's seat had a program and fan with our custom crest on it since it was going to be solid 90 degrees during the ceremony.  We also asked our caterer to set up a refreshment table so that our guests could stay hydrated in heat.  I made some small labels for each drink dispenser and a dove grey braided garland for the front of the table.

The cocktail hour was held in the back of the estate around the smaller of the two pools.  Lets all just take a second and be honest here- the cocktail hour is really only about the drinking- maybe a little bit of chit chatting with people you haven't seen in a while, gossiping with old friends or debating the bride's dress choice, but mainly it is about getting a cocktail in hand as fast as possible.  With that in mind,  we mostly focused the decor for the cocktail hour on the bar.  

I created a huge bar menu sign to alert guests to their options for the evening (tutorial on how to create that sign coming next week!).  I adorned the bar with multi colored braided fabric garland, festive drink stirrers & custom cocktail napkins.  The cocktail tables sprinkled around the pool each got their own little succulent from our garden.  Alongside the pool we set up a mini croquet course and created another large wood sign to designate the area.  Floating around in the pool were two enormous inflatable swans which I thought served as a great reminder to our guests that we weren't taking our wedding too seriously.

The reception was held in the largest area of the estate next to the enormous main pool; dancing was a concrete circle in the center of it all and dinner was spread across the expansive lawn area covered in palm trees. It is surely not news to anyone that Chris and I love to entertain in our home so the dinner area was very important to us as well as overall vibe of our wedding.   

The Cree Estate technically works best with round tables because of the large lawn area for dinner is uneven, but I really wanted to have the dramatic look of long dinner tables put end on end creating a seemingly endless dinner party.  We set the tables with long runner of kraft paper topped with another thinner runner of black/white striped fabric.  We accented the place settings with custom table number napkins (diy post on those next week too!), gold flatware, a custom menu and gold chargers.

Above the dance floor we hung over 100 feet of triangle fringe garland (tutorial here) and alongside the DJ booth,  we set up the photobooth with another large wooden sign.  Across from the dinner and dancing, there was a private gazebo above the main pool where we set up Chris' cigar and whiskey tasting area.  This area became a very probably place to be late in the evening and since it was complete with several different whiskeys, bourbons and an array of cigars, it isn't hard to see why!

In addition to our traditional wedding cake, we ordered an array of desserts including mini donuts and mini cupcakes.  The dessert table was set up with my ridiculous collection of cake stands and milk glass glass containers to house all the various flavors of dessert.  On the front of the table hung a huge fringed tissue "sweets" sign created by my bridesmaids (tutorial on that one coming next week as well!)

{all images via EPLove}

next up tomorrow: all the little details

 

{engagement party inspiration}

Next month some of my friends and I will be throwing a little engagement party for newly engaged couple, Jeff & Katie.  Kay & I got to work brainstorming the decor/theme about three seconds after the idea of hosting a party was presented to us.  After throwing around a few ideas for the color scheme, we decided on following Amanda's lead with a darker more modern color scheme that while it includes pink wouldn't get too girly.   Somehow despite my undying love for all things Confetti System, I have never actually made it in a big way to decorate a party so there is definitely plans for some of that along with a big balloon statement, mini floral arrangements, cocktails and of course- champagne!  Here is a little inspiration board I put together for the upcoming festivities:

You can follow the pinterest board for this party here and be sure to check back in a few weeks for a run down on the party!

{pinterest}

{my pinterest main page}

I finally got my invite to Pinterest and I am officially obsessed! Pinterest is basically a virtual inspiration board which allows you to "pin" images you like onto your own categorized boards. The best part is that it links back to the website you pinned the images from! You can view my pinboards here or you can add the rss feeds of my "pins" by using this link.  If you would like your own invite just let me know...

{sweets pinboard}

{closet inspiration pinboard}