Taylor Turns Two Party was Featured!

I am very excited to announce that Taylor's recent birthday party was featured on Catch My Party. Visit the site to see some fun details of this party and to check out other great party ideas.

Taylor Turns Two - Kai-Lan Red & Aqua Party

Time has flown by and our little one is now two! To celebrate, we created a Taylor Turns Two party with a whimsical combination of red & aqua, with touches of her favorite character Ni Hao Kai Lan.




I had to purchase some of these fun touches from Etsy! The sign was customized to match the colors and type seen throughout the party. These straws were a fun accent that added to the whimsical feel of the day.




I created these fun cupcake toppers used to add subtle touches of Kai Lan throughout the party decor and we had a fabulous cake made by Jennifer Stonebarger.




Jennifer also helped make all the delicious and very cute dessert shots and cookies on our fun dessert table.





We had a bright and colorful drink table, stocked with Jones soda for the adults and lots of juice & water for the kids.

Everyone that knows me, knows how much I love my gourmet food trucks. We had our good friends at TacoDawg cater kid-friendly hot dogs & tacos. I also created handmade cones and had a dipping sauce options.




I also bought our daughter a beautiful handmade dress from the Creative Bee shop on Etsy.



Photo Credits: T & H Photography
Event Design: Virginia Strickland

Taylor's First Birthday

The year has gone by so quickly that I can't believe Taylor is already turning 1. For her birthday, I decided to go with a sherbet color pallet accented by polka dots. I took my inspiration from various Martha Stewart ideas for a sophisticated, feminine yet fun party.

The cake and cupcakes perfectly represented the theme of her party. A friend's mom made these delectable treats in flavors that matched tied in the colors: funfetti, strawberry & lemon. The cake was topped with a blinged-out number 1 that I found online at Wedding Factory Direct.

Taylor had custom made outfits that I found on Etsy. Her sherbet tutu dress was purchased from Trinity's Tutus. The lady was amazing to work with and was able to match the color of the outfit to her party colors. Her custom bloomers were purchased from That's Too Cute. Again, amazing to work with and matched all the details to a T (literally).

Another amazing find on Etsy, were the mini cookie favors by Sugar and Flour. They were the perfect size for a take-home treat for the guests, plus they tasted amazing! I purchased them by the dozen, individually wrapped each in mini cellophane bags and finished them off with a pink bow. Each guest had one waiting for them at their seat.

To make sure the kid's had a good time, I made a kid's play area which included a bounce house and a play table that the kids could literally draw on, as well as make crafts. I purchased a few coffee tables and kid's chairs from Ikea to make the play table. I covered it with paper so the kids could write/draw on the table. I also had coloring books and really cute Martha Stewart puppet crafts that came with pre-cut, pre-stickered pieces so the kids could easily assemble their puppets. They also had their own cooler filled with water and capri suns.

All of the amazing photos were taken by Laura at Evinaura Photography. She did an great job taking photos of Taylor before and during the party, as well as caught all the subtle details. I love waiting for her photos to come back because they always take my breath away and make everything look even more stunning then I remember.

Backyard Baby Shower

For Taylor's Baby Shower last fall, we were tasked with throwing a baby shower for 65 guests. Since we had just moved in to our new house, we decided to tie the baby shower in to a house-warming and threw the bash in our backyard. The theme was bright yellow & hot pink, which we used throughout the event and in the invitations.



We rented a couple large white canopies, tables & chairs from Emanual Party Rentals in Anaheim for a really good deal. We purchased colored lanterns from China Town and hung them throughout the seating area and the food area. We also strung some large lights throughout the tent, for when it got dark.



For drinks, we rented a margarita machine from Jump-O-Rama. What I like about renting the machine from them is that it is a double-sided one, so you can do alcoholic/non-alcoholic (which is what we did here) and you can get the drink mixes from them. All we had to provide was water & the alcohol. We also had a couple large containers of regular and pink lemonade (to stay with the color theme).




For food, we had a really excellent taco guy cooking on-site. I found Taco Queens on Craig's List & the company all together was really great to work with. The price was very reasonable and broke down to about $6/person. The food included a choice of two meats, tortillas, onions, cilantro, lime, salsa, guacamole, chips and all the napkins/utensils/plates. They also brought mac n' cheese as an option for kids... without us evemn asking. They even asked about our colors so they could coordinate the table cloths with our colors.



For favors, we had little chinese takeout boxes that decorated the tables and had a note that asked guests to visit the candy station to fill them. The candy station was filled with pink & yellow candy, adorned with pink & yellow ribbons and labels letting everyone know what kind of yummy treats were inside each glass jar.



We also had an amazing photographer with a great eye for detail. Laura from Evinauro Photography not only took some great photos of the guests but also caught all the amazing details you see on this page.