THE SPECIAL EVENT SHOW

This week I have been attending and volunteering with The Special Event Show - http://thespecialeventshow.com/ - which is a conference and trade show for event professionals. It's been a great week and I'm learning so much and have been exposed to so many great ideas!




Today I volunteered to get ready for the Welcome Event at the World of Coca Cola. A tent was constructed for the entertainment and party area.



Here is the section that I helped worked on. I love the colors - copper, peach, browns, and a little touch of animal print. I also really liked the use of the feathers. And I must say the carnations looked great. I've always hated carnations, but they are really starting to grow on me!





The Blue Section

The Ultra Hip Dance Floor

Buffet Centerpieces

It's SNOWING! As we finished up for the day, what do you know, it started snowing!

TIFFANY'S 30TH BIRTHDAY

Tiffany turned 30 and wanted a special evening with friends and family to celebrate. She didn't know where to start for a theme or decor. All she could tell me was that she liked the colors aqua and lime, butterflies and bling! And that's where I come in.
(Photos courtesy of Snap Atlanta Photography- http://snapatlanta.smugmug.com/)

INVITES

The invitation always sets the tone of the event. It gives the guests an idea of what's to come. When the invitation is unique and interesting that guests know to expect a great event.

For Tiffany's birthday we used the color scheme she liked and incorporated the butterflies and bling with aqua and lime rhinestones. You'll be able to see later how this helped us to develop the palette and decor for the birthday party.

These beautiful invites were made by my great friend Alicia at Artistique Designs.

CUPCAKE TOWER

A great way to save money but still have a beautiful cake display is to do a cupcake tower.

Here is a close-up of the birthday cake. We used lime tinted icing and placed aqua and lime butterflies as accents and then trimmed the bottom in matching polka dot ribbon.

Yummm.... I love this close-up picture of the cupcake. I dream about these cupcakes they're so good. Anyone who has been to my one of my events and tasted the cakes always remembers them and often talk about them long after the event is over. The cake and cupcakes were made by my favorite bakery Sugar Plum - http://sugarplum-visions.com/

FLOWERS

For flower arrangements we used hydrangea and gerbera daisies that we tinted lime and aqua and placed into blume boxes - http://www.blumebox.com/. Blume boxes are a great way to display flowers in a disposable box which makes it easy for guests to take the flowers home after the event. People often complain about the flowers being a waste. After this party, the birthday girl was able to take the arrangements to enjoy at home. The blume box arrangements were made by my florist Angie at Birch Blooms - http://birchblooms.com/

I accented the bottom of the box in matching ribbon and of course had to add a little bling with a rhinestone "T" for Tiffany.

The arrangements had butterflies "flying" out of the top. These are the same butterflies used on the cake.

On the tables we had simple bud vases with lime and aqua gerbera daisies.PARTY FAVORS

Party favors are often a source of debate for my clients. Some feel (particularly men) why should they have to give a gift to their guests when they're already paying for everything! I personally feel that party favors are just a little touch to let your guests know how special they are to you. Favors don't have to be extravagant or expensive. For Tiffany's party I took a small white favor box, tied with ribbon and used a rhinestone "T" on top of a lime cardstock. Inside each box was a chocolate truffle.

CANDLELIGHT

Besides flowers, to me lighting is the second most important design element of an event. The easiest and most inexpensive way to add ambiance to your event is to uses candles. We used an assortment of candles to add color, interest and ambient lighting to the space.

A CHRISTMAS SPA PARTY

I recently planned a Christmas party for one of my corporate clients at Aetna. The party was for their clients at the Intercontinental Hotel Group. As a treat for the Intercontinental guests, we planned a special spa evening, which is not your typical Christmas party. The colors were wasabi green, cream and gold.


I setup a cloth and drape in the living room to create a spa retreat. The guests were able to enjoy a chair massage courtesy of The Spa Flow.



I tied the cloth back with wasabi green satin ribbon, which gave the cloth a nice pop of color.



Inside the spa retreat we set up candles all around the room.
The party favors were custom made pomegranate sugar scrub, soap and lip balm in custom logo packaging. These spa favors were put inside a white "take out" container, tied with ribbon and finished off with an embossed holiday label.

The food buffet set up in the dining room was complimented by a centerpiece of white flowers and gold candles.



To continue with the spa theme, we used pillow sachets to display buffet food names.




White orchids were used to accent the bar area.




And of course we had to add a little Christmas decor with green and gold ornaments.

2007 OPEN HOUSE SOIREE

2007 was a slow year for Lemiga, basically because I gave birth to a baby girl in April which prevented me from taking on too many events. To jump start business again I decided to have an Open House Soiree. This was a great opportunity for me to really showcase the range of events that I can do. (ALL PHOTOS ARE COURTESY OF SNAP ATLANTA PHOTOGRAPHY - http://snapatlanta.smugmug.com/)



The soiree was held at The Chocolate Pink Cafe - http://chocolatepinkcafe.com/ in midtown Atlanta. They have a great event space above the cafe which was perfect for my event. Here are some of the wonderful desserts from Chocolate Pink Cafe And my beautiful logo cake!

BUTTERFLY GARDEN BABY SHOWER



This was a spring inspired baby shower table. Wheat grass served as a base for the "garden", and we had shades of purple and green flowers along with butterfly picks coming out the top.





I just love the richness of the purples against the greens.



These are adorable onesies place cards with a purple accent butterfly at the top corner. And the party favor boxes with simple ribbon and a silver baby shoe charm to finish it off.







The menu cards were made with a grass stamp and butterfly punch outs to tie into the butterfly theme.
SWEET SIXTEEN


I love sweet sixteen parties because you can be really bold with the color schemes and do fun elements that wouldn't fly at any other type of event. I chose for my sweet sixteen table a pink and orange color scheme.

Party favors included a sweet sixteen drink holder and an orange and pink trinket box. Also rock candy sticks tied off with pink and orange ribbon. Rock candy is so great because you can find it in just about any color.

The centerpiece vase was topped with a pomander made out of tissue paper flowers. And just to be completely different, I added goldfish swimming around in the vase. Don't worry, these fish found a good home after the event!

SPA

I wanted my soiree to be interactive and not just a showcase. So I included chair massages from Bliss Mobile Day Spa in a "spa room"

BRIDAL SHOWER

For my bridal tea shower, I wanted to do a table that was elegant but still a little different than a usual tea.

I had a wire bridal form wrapped in satin and tulle to create a bridal dress and hydrangea and orchids accent the top.

Tea Forte tea sachet and trays provided the perfect modern interpretation of a bridal tea, instead of using plain tea bags.

Each place setting had a place card accented with ribbon and a tea cup filled with orchids and hydrangea. Party favors included a blue pattern favor box with green ribbon and a tea tin.

WEDDING

The wedding colors were tiffany blue and silver. The tone was set by this exquisite 4 tier tiffany blue cake provided by Sugarplum Visions - http://sugarplum-visions.com/

White roses, blue hydrangea and white stephanotis topped the candelabra dripping with crystals. It's a little hard to see from the picture, but the Tiffany blue table linen was topped with a crystal overlay, which tied in nicely with the candelabra.Guest party favors included mini Champagne bottles and chocolate truffles in a blue candy dish.The menu cards used the colors of the wedding and included one diamond rhinestone at the top.
CASINO

Continuing the interactive aspects of the soiree, I had a casino room. I am never too literal when I do themed events. I like to use themes in a way that is not expected. For instance, I used black and red vases to bring a modern and upscale feel to the casino room. I used a martini glass vase to float playing cards, casino chips and dice.For flower arrangements I used a black blumebox accented with ribbon and topped with gorgeous red dahlias and tulips. I LOVED the way these turned out. They look so perfect that they almost don't look real. All my flower arrangements were done by my wonderful florist, Angie at Birch Blooms - http://birchblooms.com/And of course a casino room wouldn't be complete without a casino table! Everyone loved the blackjack table and there was never a shortage of people at the tables.

THANKS!

Thanks to all my wonderful vendors and to everyone who came out to support me at my first open house. It was so successful I hope to possibly make this a yearly event. I was especially excited when my designs were featured on the national Hostess Blog - http://www.hostessblog.com/2007/11/lemiga-event-planning.html