Pea in the Pod Guest Dessert Table + Ask Amy

How cute is this pea-in-the-pod guest dessert table feature from Whitney of Sweet Celebrations by Whitney? Whitney is a baker based in Las Vegas and was inspired to do a dessert table after seeing our work. This table is perfect for a kid-themed event (showers, birthday parties, brises/christenings). All of the sweet pea details on the table are adorable and I love the fresh green color palette. I also love how Whitney used the paper lanterns on the table instead of hanging them. I haven't seen them used that way, but it works for this table.

A little before the event was supposed to start, Whitney heard a loud crash. It turns out a kid at the event was tempted by all of the goodies, jumped on the table, and broke a few of Whitney's vessels. Whitney was paralyzed with panic. I know exactly what she was feeling. When I first started my business, I did a lot of birthday parties and this happened often. What kid wouldn't be tempted to jump on a table filled with goodies? Believe it or not, I've had adults do this as well at parties! I even had a gorgeous table set up for a very important client and she didn't see it until after all of her guests bombarded it {at least they liked the desserts and she saw pictures!} In Whitney's case, after a brief moment of panic, Whitney quickly called on friends for other vessels and pulled the table together very nicely. Well done, Whitney.

Whitney asked about how I have dealt with last minute emergencies so I will give you a few tips below...

(1) Make a list before your event of everything that is being packed. This will help you keep track of your items and will remind you if you forgot anything. I am very meticulous about this and while it may drive everyone around me crazy, it keeps me sane.

(2) Bring a little bit extra candy, desserts, icing, etc. It is a little tricky because you don't want to over bake/order, but you should give yourself a little room for error. In Whitney's case, the glass bowls broke and she had to throw away the candy that was in that bowl. Luckily, she had extra and none of her guests noticed anything missing.

(3)Bring a few extra vessels to your event. No matter how well we pack our items, there is usually one casualty. I always pack a few extra vessels to ensure that we have options in case a vessel breaks. I usually bring extra of the items that can't be easily purchased the day of.

(4) Give yourself time to set up. If there is an emergency, then you'll have time to make the adjustments. I'm a stickler about getting things ready early for this reason.

(5) If need be, have someone guard the table until your client sees the table. Yes, sounds crazy, but your client should see your work of art before it gets touched.

(6) Try not to panic. Okay, maybe you can panic for a minute, but that's it. If you are prepared, you will be able to make adjustments that will look just as good as your initial vision. Even though you will notice the difference, you will be the only one that does.

Thanks for sharing, Whitney!

Woodland Guest Dessert Table Feature

Katie Henry of Katie Grace Designs sent over some pictures of a dessert bar she created for a boy's woodland inspired birthday party. After discovering our dessert bars, Katie has created dessert bars at all of her events. I am totally loving the s'mores kabobs, tree cupcakes, and the trail mix containers. Maybe we can get Katie on here to do a how to for the s'mores kabobs? I also love the use of the tree stumps for vessels and brown gingham fabric. I think this could be great for both a kids party and adult party. It is also great for a boy's party, something we don't see a lot of around on the blogosphere. Amazing job Katie!

Guest Dessert Table Feature from South Africa

This guest dessert table comes all the way from Durban, South Africa. Zalita of Cupcake D'Lights sent us pictures of a recent dessert table for a young girl's princess birthday party. Zalita makes cupcakes but was inspired by us to try out a dessert table. The wrapped lollipops are SUPER cute. Dressing up lollipops with tissue paper is an inexpensive and easy way to instantly dress up pops. The Zoe banner is also really sweet. Okay, some tips from the dessert table designer - next time dress up some of those jars with decorative ribbbon. You could use solids or a patterned, but I always think a princess table could use some bows! I also would have used more delicate {less bulky} vessels for the marshmallows since the overall princess feel is fanciful. Overall, great job Zalita!

DIY Project - Papier Mache Planets

In my last post about my son's space birthday party, I mentioned that Linda Facci of Facci Designs would be joining us here to share DIY tips on how to make papier mache. Linda created the papier mache planets for Zach's party. Linda is an incredibly gifted artist. She was the design director for InStyle magazine for many years, and now owns her own graphic design boutique in NYC. She also happens to be a master crafter and is skilled in a variety of techniques, including papier mache. So when I was looking for papier mache planets for Zach's party, I knew that Linda was the person to turn to.

Here are Linda's DIY tips for creating the papier mache planets...Keep in mind that this is quite a labor-intensive DIY project!

Linda gathered an assortment of round balloons



She then created her papier mache mixture by mixing flour and water



Linda dipped strips of newspaper into the flour mixture



Linda applied three layers of strips to each balloon, allowing each layer to dry in between



On a damp day, this helped speed up the drying process



A closeup of the wet papier mache



Once dry, Linda painted each planet with a coat of white primer before applying the color. Then they dry again.. I love how Linda rested the planets on flower pots!



Linda used acrylic paints. The colors are easy to mix and they clean up easily with water.



The first layer of color. Then more drying time. Linda also added hooks to each planet so I could hang them.




A closeup of Neptune and Venus. With two coats of base color, a second darker or lighter color is sponged on to bring out the texture. A gloss coat is then sprayed on to give the planets some shine and protection.



The eight planets!



To view Linda's portfolio, visit her site or her blog.

1, 2, 3...Blast Off!

Last week was my son Zachary’s birthday and we threw him a birthday party that was out of this world! It was a small party, with just his pals from school, and all the kids had a blast! The party was at the Craft Studio (they were amazing, btw!), an adorable kid's birthday venue in Manhattan. His small table (I didn’t want to go crazy, after all…he is only 5!) came with a space cake, space cookies, and earth ball chocolates.

Here are some details that had Zach over the moon...

Keeping with our signature monochromatic look, we limited the colors to red, white, blue and silver.

We had a space cake created with ufo cookies, planet cookies and rocket cookies.



Remember satellite wafer candies? We used these nostalgic candies to create a flying saucer garland to border our cake plate. It was really fun making that! We also used a milkglass cake stand with a ring around the stand to mimic the ring around Saturn.



We included a cookie favor board so that the kids could take cookies home after the party. We found fabric with little red stars and used it to tie around cello bags on a space cookie favor board.




We provided these personalized rocket-shaped favors for Zach's friends to take home. We filled all of the rocket favors with foiled chocolate earth balls.



We provided these personalized rockets hats for Zach and his friends to wear during the cake festivities.



We hung this personalized rocket garland above the cake.



We hung papier mache planets over the table. DIY details from my dear friend Linda Facci of Facci Designs on how to make these later on my blog!

The kids did space-inspired activities (space face painting, space plaster projects) on these customized constellation table mats. The table was also filled with more papier mache planets to make the kids feel as though they were in space!



Other favor goodies included star brownies, astronaut food and space2-0 water from the the space store, as well as rocket lollipops.


Photography by Jen Huang Photography.