The Secret to Throwing A Party

What is the secret?
Really.... I want to know.... What is the secret? Do you know?
Because I would like to know for the next time I throw a baby shower and then a bridal shower in the next month. Yes, I did that, but it was so fun. The first baby shower and first bridal shower I've ever had the privilege of putting together.
The baby shower was for my pregnant friend, Chelsea. Whom you have seen on my photography blog, Crystal Rae Photography. I loved throwing the party, it was very fun to put together too. I wanted to be a little more creative with the decorations and I have seen two different ideas online that I kind of meshed together. I saw pictures on clothes line with paper baby clothes on a clothes line in seperate websites. So I kind of meshed those together by posting pictures of pregnant mommy and clothes that she had gotten before for little Eliza. I didn't have to pay for paper, or find paper baby clothes or print them and use my ink. So I saved money there. It turned out so cute!





What I saved from paper and ink from the clothes line decorations I used to make the banner... which said, Celebrate Eliza. I designed each circle in Photoshop and printed it on my card stock paper. I bought different colored and styled ribbon to put each letter together and came out with this....



Chelsea had a great turn out and her and Eliza were BLESSED!

The Bridal shower I threw was for my BEST FRIEND, Brittney. She is getting married July 9th and I'm so excited for her to start a new chapter in her life. To help her celebrate her upcoming wedding I threw I black and white themed shower. The decorations I used were easy, simple, and fun.



I found the 2 sided frames at Ikea and they only cost me $0.99, that's right. If you have never been to ikea you need to find your way to one. It is one AWESOME store. In the frames I put a black and white picture of the bride and groom on one side and a love quote on the other. I used quotes from movies, the bible, and books. To help add to the frame center piece I made the flowers. I did see the idea on a blog, if I could find it I would link it up, but I can't find it again. :( What I did was made a flower template in Photoshop, which can be found in
custom shape tool, you go to the Shape: menu and there you pick the flower shape. I put 2 per page, once I printed the flowers out he one side I put the paper back in the printer to print a book on the opposite side. That way when I cut the flower out you didn't see the black likes on the top. I actually used the first chapter of New Moon, one of the books in the Twilight series, which happens to be a love story that Brittney enjoys reading. To keep the 2 flower pieces together I bought a jeweled brad from Michaels and poked it right through the center. Then I kept one prong out and stuck it into the stem (bought at Michaels) and hot glued it in there so it wouldn't fall out. Whala! You have a homemade flower! I then bought pearl garland I guess you would call it to wrap around the frames and to just add a little something more to the tables.



And these gorgeous cupcakes were made by my friend, Emily, who happens to be a baker. They were awesome!!! When I saw a cupcake like this online I knew I wanted these for the "cake" rather than buying a huge sheet cake no one would eat. She did such a great job on them, they went perfect with the theme.



We most definitely were not lacking in the food department. We had food galore. All of it tasted great and we still had some left over to bring home. :)

She then floated away on her balloons!!



Brittney was one blessed chicka!

2 great parties and I got to be a part of both. Thanks gals for letting me throw you a party!

Oh... and when you figure out that secret, be sure to let me know!!!

Toodles