Monaluna Design + Textiles

I came across this beautiful DIY blog today written by an Oakland, CA based textile designer, titled “Mona Luna Design”.  I am not one to ooh and ahh over textiles but after spending some time on her site reading and viewing what she posted, I am hooked.  The blog is filled with beautiful quilts, paintings, prints and lots of textures and patterns.   Quite inspirational for events and table design if you think about it.  I think I also secretly want to learn how to make a quilt and match material together so I found her blog to be intriguing.

 Here is a series of paintings that the blogger painted herself after an inspiring walk during the month of May.  I really like how the flowers were deconstructed and clustered in different colours and angles.

via monaluna

via monaluna

via mona luna

via mona luna

via mona luna

Ink & Peat Flowers

Ink&Peat Floral (via House Martin Blog)

via apartment therapy

via besottment

via lisa warninger

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:

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!):

Antique Wedding Theme

A childhood friend of mine is getting married in about five weeks time and I spent the afternoon with her today browsing for place cards and thank you notes. While we did not find anything that stood out, she did share her desire to create an antique theme or antique colour palette look at the event.  When I think of antique colours I think of pastels, golds, silvers, deep blue, deep purple and black.  So there is quite a range to play with if so desired.  My friend is sticking with a silvery, grey, violet colour from what I can gather from our conversation today.

When I got home, I thought about her theme some more and decided to do a bit of digging to see how an antique theme is interpreted online?  What does antique mean to people?  What colours do they choose to embody a vintage feeling?

Here are some ideas and colours that I came up with in my research:

photo via southern weddings magazine

Eco Venue + Veg Menu = Fun Wedding

Nicole and Blake

I attended a wedding cocktail reception on Saturday for a friend of mine who was celebrating her return from a destination wedding ceremony.  It is the third reception-only event I have attended following a destination ceremony, and I have to say I am really enjoying the trend.  From the guest’s perspective, you are there to party and celebrate and can relax and enjoy the evening because all the stress associated with a big formal wedding is out of the picture.  Likewise, the reception only events are typically shorter than a ceremony + type event, so it is more fun for those of us who can’t sit still! 

The event I attended was held in Toronto at the eco friendly venue, The Richmond and because the bride is vegan, she went with a vegetarian cocktail reception which I thought was just great. 

Event Venue, The Richmond (photo via the richmond website)

The food was from Elite and the decadent desserts were from LPK’s Culinary Groove.  For apps there were your standard rice paper rolls, the refreshing strawberry, mint and watermelon on a stick combination, some falafel, some mini pizzas, veg dumplings and something else that tasted great but I can’t recall what it was.  On the stylish dessert table set up at the back of the venue, there was a beautiful little cupcake tower of mini cupcakes done in four flavours.  My favourite was the carrot cake mini cupcake with lime frosting and a ginger and sunflower seed candy on top (I think I got all the flavour combinations right on that one).  The chocolate truffle bites were also rich and tasty. 

LPK Culinary Groove dessert (photo via JDHowell Photography)

Wedding Cake from LPK Culinary Groove (photo via JDHowell Photography)

(photo via JDHowell Photography)

photo via JDHowell Photography

Photo Via JD Howell Photography

Overall the eco venue and veg menu were a really nice combination.  I don’t think anyone went home hungry in contrast to common belief that one must serve meat at a wedding. 

I took pictures at the wedding but unfortunately they are not loading.  I am going to request some from the bride when she receives her proofs.

photo via JDH Photography

Photo Via JDHowell Photography