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J Bachelorette

The green bachelorette party I was working on took place last week and boy was it fun! 

In terms of planning, it was a really simple affair with not a whole lot to run around to do and make except my tissue paper pom poms which turned out okay.  Martha’s were a lot prettier than mine, but they did the job!

 What made it so enjoyable for both the bride to be and her guests was that the event was personal.  My fellow hostess and I took elements of the bride’s life, her love of crafts, mojitos, games, dress up, music and food and put it all together in an intimate setting tied together with a “green” colour scheme, at her best friend’s house and voila- a recipe for a great bachelorette party.

Now for the details:

We started out the evening with a scrapbooking activity.  Everyone was asked to bring two photos of the bride that they wanted to offer up for her scrap book.  We provided the tools, paper (from Stamping Bella), glue, glitter glue, scissors etc.. and our guests provided the creativity.  In the end the bride ended up receiving 12 personalized scrapbook pages from her friends that she could take away with her. 

Following the scrapbook activity we toasted the bride with homemade Mojitos, one of her favourite drinks.  Next onto a tasty dinner catered by the ever so talented, Andrew Underwood from Rustico Fine Foods in Toronto.  We served three types of salads, salmon party sandwiches, grilled chicken with a mango chutney, belgian endive bites with cranberries, chicken and almonds and veggie wraps.  There was more than enough food to feed an army let alone 12 girls!

We played three fun bachelorette party games with the bride:

1. The Newlywed Game (ask the groom 15 questions about the couple and see how the bride answers)

2. How well do you know the bride (ask the guests 15 questions about the bride and see who knows her best)

3. Guess who I am (ask the guests to write about a memory involving the bride and see if the bride can figure out which guest the memory is about)

Saving the best for last, cake.  Two cakes in our case.  A mint chocolate chip cake from Baskin Robins (bride’s favourite flavour) and a salacious looking vanilla cake that represented the groom’s bits.  We all had a good laugh including the mother of the bride and mother in law!

I could not imagine spending a nicer evening together with the bride, friends and family and I am excited to attend the wedding this weekend at the picturesque, Vaughan Estates.

More pics:

Stamping Bella

Day two of green bachelorette inspiration and product hunt lead me to Stamping Bella in Thornhill.

One of the components of the party is a scrapbook (I hope the bride does not read my blog!) and a friend of mine recommended I check out this three year old business and going concern in the scrap booking world beside my favourite natural health food store, Ambrosia located on Doncaster Avenue.  It is funny how you can go to a place so often yet not notice something.  I shop quite often at Ambrosia and when my friend was recommending the visit to Stamping Bella, I could not place where the store was located, especially when she said it is right next door to Ambrosia in the same plaza.  I could not believe my eyes when I pulled up in my car to find the Stamping Bella sign staring me square in the face.  I had never looked for scrap booking products beside the health food store so my eyes did not register that it was there.  Interesting how visible a business really is to a potential consumer if they are not reminded they need you.  I digress.

Back to my review:  Stamping Bella is owned by Emily from Montreal and she has a collection of scrap booking products and accessories that anyone would go crazy for.  The store also does parties or if you feel like dropping in to nurture your inner scrapbooker, that is okay too.   The colours, the assortment of products, the things you think you don’t need but realize you do; are all there merchandised from floor to ceiling of the small retail shop.  I picked up some cool paper for the creative exercise at the party this week and a heart shaped paper punch. 

Emily and her assistant Deena are both very knowledgeable about paper, design and scrap booking and are a pleasure to speak to.  Emily also maintains a blog which is very “forward thinking” for a small Toronto business.  While the rest of the world has jumped on the web 2.0 train, I still meet people all time who have yet to embrace social media as a means to enhance their brand and business experience be it product oriented or service based and I don’t know what they are thinking.  Good job Emily!

Tissue Paper Pom Poms

Taking all these questions into consideration, I stumbled onto the tissue paper pom pom idea on the Martha Stewart Wedding site and have decided to dedicate my post today on different visions of tissue paper pom poms as they relate to events!

First and foremost- the Martha Stewart site gives a great how to on making these spiffy looking globes of colour.  So if you are up for a DYI project, check it out here.  This is what I will be following this week to create the pom poms.   They look easy enough to make- famous last words.

Tissue Paper Pom Poms via Martha Stewart Weddings

Other pom pom ideas I found (I even found a green example!):

Rainbow Colour Board

Southern Weddings Magazine is a go-to, never fail resource when looking for some colour inspiration for an event.  I found the ultimate colour board today that isone big board featuring every colour split up into sections.  It’s for the “I need to see all the choices laid out in front of me in one shot” type person!  (aka me)

I love this magazine so much.  

Enjoy the weekend.  I am off to go join a friend for dumplings downtown.

via southern wedding magazine