At a Halloween party in 2011, I met a girl. I was holding my camera trying to shoot the limbo contest that Mike was attempting to win and she said, "Oh, what kind of camera is that?" and I told her. I asked, "Do you know about cameras?" She did. From there, she told me about her etsy shop and I said "Oh! What a coincidence! I love to shop on etsy!" Then, we talked about her two boys and I said "I have two boys too!" She mentioned her blogging and at the time, I kind of had a blog that I'd write on about once a year but just went ahead with an enthusiastic "I have a blog, too!!" I went home from the party and straight to her etsy page so I could use the excuse of buying something to get back in touch with her. (The stalkerish tendencies can be more rationally explained as I was new to VA and wanted to make her my friend. It worked.) I bought a plate to match my son's upcoming birthday party -- and that sealed the deal. Parties. We both LOVED parties.
Over the last year, we developed a standard playdate of Chipotle lunches and Pinkberry dessert over which we'd discuss kid stuff, photography, blogging and owning a business. Somehow we started convincing each other that we could join forces and work together to create some really amazing parties that would showcase her awesome designs and my photography. First, there was Henry's Monster Bash. And then, we cut ourselves off from the standard Chipotle and decided to put on a holiday-themed playdate for our toddlers.
We LOVE this party. It was so much fun to host, to photograph and to see the little boys enjoy!
Here's a look at some of the details...
The dessert table was amazing! We had so many goodies for the boys! It's the holidays, so in my opinion, that means sugar should be the biggest part of any gathering! We had vanilla cupcakes with fondant gingerbread toppers, gingerbread cake pops, dipped pretzels, dipped oreo cookies, and of course, gingerbread man cookies!
I just love the way a set table looks -- could that be because I'm a Southern woman with a grandmother who made it her mission to make sure I knew how to properly place the dinner and silverware by the time I was five...? Probably. But, whatever the reason, I just LOVE a party table with a pressed tablecloth.
One of my very favorite things about this table {and the party} were the embroidered aprons we had hanging on the backs of the chairs for the boys to wear when they arrived. Lisa of Elegant Embroidery was able to match the gingerbread from our invitations just perfectly! They were amazing and so, so cute!!
In a room adjacent to the party table, we set up a favors table.
The boys took home a copy of the Gingerbread Man story as well as a custom coloring book. They also received a gingerbread man and gingerbread house set of cookies from J&J Bakeshop, which were amazing! They were absolutely beautiful and soooo delicious!
All of the adorable printables from this party are available for FREE download HERE
We have not had Chipotle in a really long time. Let's fix that. And thanks for being committed to stalking me... I'm grateful you didn't give up!
ReplyDeleteAlso we should probably write a special blog post about the grossest part of the Gingerbread party--the peeps.