Sizzlin' Summer's Night Baby Shower

Event Description:

HOT! HOT! HOT!

The vivid colors of the linens and flowers HOT!

The wasabi at the sushi bar HOT!

And the heat...it was 98° degrees! HOT!

Uncommon for southern California, it was also muggy-humid. We were waiting for the temp to go down after the sun went down, but it never happened - it was still sizzlin'. But it was a blast. I don't know which was better - the food or the live music.

But before I get into that, here are the details: The event was for my VIP client, Maribeth & Mike and they wanted to host a baby shower for one of their employees. The colors were inspired from the color of the ribbon Maribeth selected for the invitations - fuchsia, lime, orange & yellow. Each invitation also had a fuchsia wooden "M" tied to the front in honor of the forthcoming baby whose name will be Maysen.

The drinks offered when the guests arrived were frosty piña coladas, an orange creamsicle punch (my fave punch for summertime!), Maribeth's secret killer spirited lemonade, bottled beers and old fashioned bottled sodas. The amazing food was catered by 24 Carrots Catering. The menu included a station with a sushi chef, a chef exhibition risotto station, a display appetizer station and tray-passed appetizers. And for dessert, we had to have ice cream for a summer soiree! We scooped up three awesome gourmet flavors of freshly made mango sherbert, watermelon sherbert and chocolate macadamia nut ice cream! And on display was yummy sugar cookes with swirled frosting in our event colors, with a sweets tree made up of chocolate-dipped marshmallows and strawberries made by Wonderland Bakery. That was a popular station!

And the highlight of the evening was the live music I booked with Anthony Jasso. Wow, what talent - he was a hit with the hosts and guests. His musical range was everything from Marvin Gaye to the Gypsy Kings. To check out his music visit his website.

I created and made the floral arrangements and centerpieces, made the pillows and procured the other props and rentals. Maribeth is always great about letting me have full event design freedom! It was memorable and fun event. Towards the end, a huge gust of wind came through and knocked over the table behind the risotto station and the orange umbrella floral arrangement and martini glasses were knocked over and broken. Always get rental damage insurance! It was a good thing we got it!

The take home favors inclued a custom made fortune cookie, rice candy (one of my childhood favorites - you know, how cool when the wrapper melts in your mouth) and other goodies enclosed in chinese take-out boxes. Some guests had stayed and were hanging out in the inner courtyward smoking cigars and sipping cognac. The host’s have a beautiful view and with the funky weather, we were entertained with a gorgeous sunset. Then when it got dark there was lightning in the horizon (luckily no rain). Another successful event in honor of baby Maysen...

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Michelle & Michael's Wedding

It was a very special wedding filled with deep appreciation and love for family, friends, faith and their church family. Both the fathers of the Bride & Groom are ministers, and they both officiated the ceremony. The wedding turned out beautifully, even though we only had an hour and a half turn-around time for set-up! This is a very popular venue for weddings, in the summer they do a lot during the weekends. So the wedding prior to ours was to end at 3:30 and our ceremony began at 5:00, expecting 340 guests! That's a lot of tables to set up.

The colors were gold and "peony" with black as an accent (in the wrought iron accessories). Hardest shade of pink I have EVER tried to match in finding fabric, ribbon etc. The MOB and Bride gave me full creative freedom, which was fun and I enjoyed designing their elements.

I made the aisle demi-banner signs, directional banners, the cake plateau riser, the pillows for the lounge area, the cookie buffet, the "T" stands draped with fabric, and the centerpieces where I procured the wrought iron stands and fashioned the design, and the florist did the flowers for them.

In addition to some of their friends who helped out, I had an amazing crew (thank you Barbara, Jennifer, Kim, and Lloyd!), they worked tirelessly in the heat and never complained, I was so proud of all of them. After the venue staff changed the white linens, we put down gold organza overlays, set-up the wrought iron centerpiece stands (which I own), place votives, menu cards and matches for the wedding wish lighting. Then we set-up the sign in table, cake table with my "T" stands draped in fabric, lounge area and ceremony area.

The MOB also like my idea of having an Espresso/Coffee Cart with Smoothies idea. There was no alcoholic beverages offered, so this seemed like a fun way to have cooling smoothies on a hot day, then coffee drinks with the cookie buffet for dessert. It was a HUGE hit! There was a constant line of guests waiting to have a drink made. The two servers worked their tushies off!

"Blessed Are The Cookie Makers" The cookie buffet was a very personal way to include the friends and family of the bridal couple. They asked of them to make their favorite cookie recipe and provide for the wedding dessert. When they passed off all the many tupperware containers of cookies to me the day before the wedding, half of my van was packed with cookies! But you could just feel the love that those delegated bakers put into making them by the carefully packed layers of cookies. Right before the DJ announced that it was officially open, the Bride presented each of the bakers a wrapped pink spatula with a tag "Blessed are the cookie makers" (a term I came up with) ;).

Overall it was a great and successful event, even though there were some audio/DJ snafus, which I was not pleased with at all. I loved the client, the colors, the creative process and seeing everything come together. I just wished I would've had more time to "fluff" with the set-up but you do what you can with what you are given. We set-up the cookie buffet in less than 10 minutes in the dark!


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