Party Planning: Where We Go Hard-Core and There's Glitter on the Floor.

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas, We party.
Here is a run down of my December 11th Christmas Party.

What we ate:

Panini Bar

To keep things simple and easy for me to enjoy my party, I set up a Panini Bar. Complete with cheeses, spreads, produce and deli meats. It was easy to organize and my guests were able to help themselves when they felt like eating. It's also fun, interactive and took the pressure off me to prepare food. In fact Vanessa, the foodie of the group, took over for a bit and made sandwiches for other people. I provided a list of flavor combination's to spark some ideas.

What We Drank:

Wine Sampling Selection

As part of my invitation I asked each guest to bring a wine in a paper bag to share. And we held a mini wine tasting. We sampled the wines covered in bags and discussed the flavors. All while guessing who brought what wine, and guessing what wines we thought they were. Again it was fun, interactive and took the pressure off me to provide all the drinks. Everyone thought we should do this at every party from now on.

To differentiate glasses I picked out reindeer names for all my guests and made easy-to-make wine charms. I made sure to match their personalities to the reindeer names. It was a fun way to know who's drink was who's. In case you were wondering, I was Prancer.

What We Did:

Ornament Decoration Station

I purchased the Martha Stewart glitter set (only $15 with my 50% off Coupon) and some ornaments from Joann's, at 60% off I only spent about $6.00. I set out glue guns, glitter, sequins and tinsel. My guests went ahead and decorated their little hearts out. Needless to say glitter was everywhere -- because who doesn't love to glitter things? This was such a hit we didn't even get to my second planned activity, decorating gingerbread houses. All my guests went home with their homemade ornaments as favors.

forever 21 ring, alice and olivia dress

What We Wore:

Playing Dress Up

Ya'll know I love costumes and outfit changes so I encouraged my guests to dress festively, some of who forewent their normal garb and dressed up just to appease me. Of course I had reindeer antlers, Ruldolph noses, Santa hats, and gaudy earrings and pins around the house for guests to decorate themselves with. I didn't take any pictures of my outfit but my dress is the one I am wearing in my blog header, it's an Alice & Olivia sequin dress.

Coincidentally this picture just won me $200 to Rent the Runway from Styleit Style Sheets.
I guess that means I need to plan another party to dress up for!!
For more pictures of my Christmas party click here.

Party Prep: It's My Party And I Can Cry If I Want To

Ya'll know I love parties so when it came time to celebrate Vanessa's birthday I went ahead and took care of the decorations. Because a party is never complete without decorations!

The party came together very nicely and I think it's because we all brought something to the table -- or in this case party. I brought the decor, Vanessa brought the food, Betsy brought the specialty deserts, Annie brought the wine and Jen did our hair!

I personalized water bottles and champagne coupes with all the girls' initials.

And I added Drink me labels to the water bottles.
Available here for printing.

I put stickers on the caps so people could differentiate their bottles.

I used Martha Stewart for Micheal's stickers to personalize the coupes.
The coupes were from the Dollar Tree.

Vanessa brought hummus, dips and crackers from Trader Joes to nibble on when we were getting ready.

Betsy brought yummy Pastries from Masse's Pastries in Berkley


And of course the fabulous Jen set up shop and gave us all party do's!

Happy birthday V!
I hope you had a great time celebrating!!

Things I Love: The Eternal Angel

Clearly I love Audrey Hepburn. I even hosted a Breakfast at Tiffany's themed dinner party. so when my Dad and Rena gifted me with this collection of twenty movies that she starred in you know I was over the moon (or over Moon River perhaps). I have yet to tackle this collection yet, because I kind of want to savor them all. But I will definitely have some Movie of the Moments to share with you soon.

I am really excited to watch Funny Face.

But I may start at the beginning and watch The Lavender Hill Mob.

I think current copies of My Fair Lady,
Roman Holiday and Breakfast at Tiffany's are a bit jealous.

Look of the Day: What Amber Wore

Thanks again for all your help deciding on what dress I should wear to the wedding this past weekend! My dress was a hit! I got lots of compliments on it and it was the perfect thing to wear to the wedding. I just love when I get to go to event where I can dress up for!
I was playing photographer until the real photog got there, so I got ready at the hotel but here are a few shots of me in my dress. So glad I finally got to wear her out!

Annie and I.

My best friend Johnny and I.

Between her Maid of Honor duties, Jen somehow managed to do both Annie's and my hair!
And of course a classic in the mirror shot ;)

Thanks again for your advice ladies!!

Things I Love: Friends With Benefits

I am so lucky to have a great group friends, ones that I have known for years. I am exceptionally lucky because not only are they good friends but they all have special talents that I get to utilize! For instance, my friend Jen is my personal hairstylist, no other stylist has treated my baby fine hair with such care.

Now, my friend Vanessa, is an excellent cook. On week nights we often stop by for dinners of fresh jalapeno pasta and salmon, or her famous linguine and clams. Everything she cooks is fresh, organic and healthy. So when I was planning my Breakfast at Tiffany's party I enlisted Vanessa as my personal chef.

I asked her to come up with a menu, only requesting a Moon River fish dish and a Sally Tomato salad. You know me and my themes, I have to cover all the bases! Here is the amazing dinner Vanessa made--I am trying to get her to blog to share her recipes.

Vanessa prefers small local shops to purchase her ingredients. The tomatoes from a farm, the produce and nuts from a small local market, the fish from an Asian fish market and a trip to Trader Joe's for goat cheese, and wine.

The appetizer was goat cheese stuffed figs drizzled with reduced balsamic vinegar.

Pecans for the salad.

Baby greens, strawberries, blueberries, and pecan salad.
Sally Tomato and Avocado salad.

Moon River Panko crusted Tilapia, served with homemade tarter sauce.

It was nothing short of amazing! Thanks V!!

It was the perfect dinner for our party. Now I just can't wait for another dinner party.

Party Prep: Do They Still Really Have Prizes in Cracker Jack Boxes?

Go big or Go home is often my motto. I've mentioned countless times before that when I do something like to I go all out. I also love to document every, little element, 500 pictures in one night occurs often. Yes, my poor over worked hard-rive is crammed with pictures, but that's not stopping me.
So when I host party, last minute or not, I like to include as many fun details as I can. But that doesn't necessarily mean running out to buy all new items. So I made a list of all things Breakfast at Tiffany's and tried to include as many elements as I could, and by using as much as I could from my own stock. From cigarette holders, to Cracker Jacks, to the movie sound track, I tried to cover all my ground.

Here are some of the fun details I included at my
Breakfast At Tiffany's Party:

By the door I filled a basket with cigarette holders, cat eye glasses, necklaces, turbins and the cat mask like the one Holly steals. I like people to grab things and get in the mood!
It's a great way to get a party started and the $1.oo cigarette holders from the party store were the only thing I purchased.

Holly even drank her milk out of her champagne coupes so you know we busted these out!

Cracker Jacks with Tiffany blue ribbons served as decorations and favors.
Ode to Holly of course.

Flowers are always a must. And they are a green and cheap way to decorate.
Ribbons are also a great way to incorporate color.

My Mom made trivia games for me.
And using her graphic design skills, she made them pretty!!

She also made me a Amber & Co party sign!!

Books are another way to decorate on the cheap.
I used Truman Capote's Three and Sam Wasson's Fifth Ave at 5 am to add to the everything Breakfast At Tiffany's theme.

And all cellphones had to go in the suitcase, because that is where Holly kept her phone.

And Pennie Lane ended the night on cue.
She kept running outside, and forced all us girls to frantically yell "Cat! Cat! Ohh Cat!!"
Silly Pennie Lane!And thanks to all the lovely ladies who entered my current giveaway !

Look of The Day: I've Got to Do Something About the Way I Look!

I mean a girl just can't go to Sing Sing with a green face.

On Friday night Casey was out of town so I hosted an all girls Breakfast at Tiffany's party and it was a blast. Let's just say I took over 500 pictures of the night, quite the success considering it was a last minute get- together. But we still managed to pull out all the stops, including dressing up thematically for our party.
I always like to have a variety of things for people to grab and put on, to get them in the party mood. Our outfits were complete with cat eye sunglasses, over the top necklaces, cigarette holders, and little black dresses and heels à la Holly. I just love getting festive and I don't think dressing up ever gets old.

Just call me Amber Golightly.
Did you hear that the LBD got added the the Oxford Dictionary?

Dinner Party!

My Gma's fur coats provided the perfect aesthetic to our photo-shoots.

The bloggers, Annie and I, rocking our glam jackets and cat eye sunnies.

You know it's a good night when the heels have to come off.

Don't forget to enter my latest giveaway.
The cocktail ring would be perfect for a girls night!