beloved favors

To favor or not to favor, that is the eternal question!

For what it's worth I happen to think that favors, like almost all elements of a wedding or party, are optional. A big key to lowering party planning stress is to prioritize what is actually important to you. If favors will make you happier, go for them. If you aren’t inspired by the idea or they are stressing you out, skip it. In 5 years the majority of your guests won't be able to remember IF you gave a favor or what it was anyway!

This being my philosophy I'm hit & miss about giving favors at my events. It depends on the event, the budget and whether I'm in the mood or not. However when I do take the plunge to favor I'm a huge fan of eatable favors. Things that don't have to be dusted or stored make the best favors in my book. Also if it's something tasty you never have to worry about what to do with the leftovers (and it doesn't matter what you do, there are always leftover favors!).

Simple is always better. Favors should make an impact but there is no need to make things too complicated or expencive. Seriously no one really cares anyway.

Case and point? The favors for the Beloved Dinner-Dance, which came out pretty darn cute if I do say so myself.

the container:
a 2x2 silver favor box, from efavormart.com,
black dots, made from cardstock & a Creative Memories shape maker
wooden snowflake table confetti, from World Market

the inside:
blue cello wrap,
four coco powder covered chocolate truffles, from Costco

the cost: $.65 a piece
the verdict: yummy! Lots of empty boxes were found, so guests didn't even take them home but enjoyed them then and there!

a romantic winter wonderland

I so pleased with the way the Beloved Dinner-Dance event turned out! It’s hard not to love a room full of soft candlelight, silver candelabras and silver sparkles. It was definitely romantic and not typically “St Valentines Days” so mission accomplished I think. Yay!

glitter!

Rule # 26841
Glitter gets everywhere.

My house, my driveway, my cats and my favorite black sweater are covered in silver glitter... so who's idea was the theme for Beloved anyway?!

Oh yeah. That would be me... *looks sheepish*

Valentine's Day event styling

I am in the last few days of prep for my next event, styling the "My Beloved" Valentine's Day Dinner-Dance for my church.

This is the third time CCF has hosted this event but the first time I've been involved with it. In the past the look has been a fairly standard "Valentine’s Day" with red, pink, roses and hearts. Both the pastor's wife and I were keen to do something a bit different and unexpected this year.

I won't give too much away, so it's a surprise to the guests on Friday, but I will give you a sneak peek at the favors I was working on this weekend...

girly tea tasting

My first event of 2009 was coordinating one of the "Ladies Night Out" evenings at my church. Ladies Night Out is a ministry that provides activities once a month for the ladies of our fellowship to get away and have some girlfriend time.

For this event I invited a local tea business to come and do a tea tasting for us. About 20 ladies came out for this very laid-back evening tea.

The decorating (always my favorite part!) was simple. I wanted to give the ladies a departure from the drab cold that is late January so the color scheme was light and girly, heavy on the pink and yellow. I used pink tulle to add some fantasy to the food area and pink rose petals and votives to pull everything together. Every element I used came from the church's storage closet (except for some new paper napkins and plastic forks). It felt really good to be reusing things and gave me more budget to spend on food!

Because this was an after 7pm event I created a menu that was heavy on the desserts and one that was mostly store-bought goodies to save my sanity (I prepared everything!). I did make the pineapple & cream cheese sandwiches, some yummy chocolate-chip meringues and chopped up a fruit salad. The rest of the menu consisted of bunches of red and green grapes, chocolate torte cake, caramel cups, raspberry Pims, éclairs, mixed nuts & mints.

Our Tea Lady provided four yummy teas for us to try, including my favorites Sticky Toffee Pudding & Chocolate Vanilla Mint. She also made up little tea samples as favors for us - cute!

Based on the feedback I've recived it was a sucessful event - yay!