Posted on December 19, 2012 by Kara

Pretty in Purple Baby Shower

My next feature, a PRETTY IN PURPLE BABY SHOWER, was submitted by Kim White of Two’s a Party. What a beautiful celebration! Everything is so elegant and pretty! I hope you gain a lot of inspiration and ideas from this darling event.

Kim said this about planning the party- “One of our new friends, Lauren Avila of Lauren Avila Photography mentioned she was throwing a baby shower for her best friend, who is having a girl. We jumped at the chance to offer to help! She had picked the purple colors, made candy bar wrappers, a pennant, some pom pom’s and the shower was to be held at the beautiful home of her in-laws. We took our direction from the pieces she had and styled the dessert and candy tables, brought in Deborah Fay from Romance Etc to work her magic on the centerpieces and had a blast working with Lauren, her friends and family. We brought in grape gummy bears, blueberry jelly beans and huckleberry taffy. Simply Layered created the blueberry parfaits and champagne panna cotta. German chocolate cake, carrot cake cupcakes,red velvet cupcakes and lemon pie from Bake and Broil. We loved making the small cake pennant for the cake and had fun with the different patterns and rustic elegant theme!”

Vendors and Credits:
Photography- Lauren Avila Photography
Linens- Glow Concepts
Dessert Stands- Delightfully Lovely

Items used in this party available in Kara’s Party Ideas Shop:
Mini Cordial Cups
Tissue Pom Poms
Apothecary Jars
Cupcake Liners
Taffy
Mini Electroplated Spoons
Jute Twine

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Kara

DIY Dessert Table On A Budget! Grocery Store Finds!

My next winning party feature goes to this

Grocery Store Dessert Table On A Budget

by Bride Scouts.

Only $40 was spent to create this. Yes, $40!!

‘A’ said…“I chose to venture into a DIY project that would satisfy my belly. I wanted to create a table on an affordable budget. Everyone should have the following in their house: a few square plates,a couple rectangular ones, some pretty vases and a a cake stand or two. This way, you’ll always be able to throw together a “Grocery store Dessert Table” inspired party on any given day of the week!”

“Always use white plates (or glass) for the easiest design. You can add some paper to the bottom of the plates to give some color and align with your theme. Since I was going budget friendly with this one, I did a Google image search for a pattern, found one I liked and literally copy/pasted it onto my computer (using keynotes/powerpoint). I made a list of what I wanted to offer as treats and set out to buy them.”

Grocery list:

1 bag of large marshmallows
2 bags of heart shaped chocolates (on sale!)
2 boxes of sugared doughnuts (on sale!)
2 boxes of Oreo Cakesters (my immitation whoopie pies)
popsicle sticks
some mini yogurt pretzels (aka yotzels!)
Mini marshmallows
6 dollar store jars (favors)
Pink Mints
Mini cupcake mix with frosting and cherries (FYI: my boyfriend made the cupcakes)
Mini Merengues
Heart shaped Cookies
Some Sparkling Water

Total Cost: $40.00

“I made little labels myself and printed them straight up on regular paper. The mission was to style my table with what I had around the house. I searched for card stock (to glue my flimsy labels to) + of course didn’t have any and so… desperate times call for desperate measures. I cut up a couple old valentine’s day cards from my boyfriend (sorry jam), and used those to make sturdy tent cards. Once I had my desserts, the plates, the cake stands, drinks and my favors, I placed everything down on a table and played around until it looked right to me. There are no rules so have fun and EAT UP!”