Meet Mahaffey - "Scarlet Silhouette"

Vignette #1

The "Meet Mahaffey" open house was a huge success!! The entire night was filled with rave reviews of the event design and decor, food, entertainment, and VIP treatment. If you missed it-lucky for you we are going to blog all about it.

Social Butterflies designed five vignettes to showcase Mahaffey's new linens, tables, chairs, glassware, plates, chargers, and napkins. We added lots of special little details (of course!) along with the beautiful florals from Haute Horticulture. The first vignette is called "Scarlet Silhouette." The inspiration was scarlet red roses and sophisticated black candleabras. We used red chiffon fabric to create a dramatic curtained area for our table scape. A long eight foot table with a custom silk linen that boasted contemporary circles in shade of red and black was the base for our design. Couture Ghost Chairs with red silk pillows added a VIP touch to the table.Two black candleabras held rose ball arrangements along with other shallow glass cylinders of roses, calla lilies and anemones. Our menus were housed in sleek red frames and our place cards in mini black mirror tiled frames. Lots of silver accents and candle holders with black chandelier silhouettes on them were the backdrop to tie in our theme. We used four large red rose balls placed on tall silver candleabras adorned with crystals to anchor the area and all was placed on a shiny black floor.

Scarlet Silhouette is the perfect look for a wedding reception or special event if you want to impress your guests and create a "Hot/Passionate" or Romantic atmosphere. Red lighting sets off the design and takes it up a notch!

Give us a call to help you create your next event today!

Social Butterflies, LLC 901.828.9321

Stay tuned for Vignette #2 - Shabby Chic theme!

Meet Mahaffey!

Come on out tonight and "Meet Mahaffey" -a rental company that has expanded their inventory with a lot of great products and linens for all your special event needs!!
Tonight (Tuesday, February 23,2010) from 4:30pm-9:30pm at Mahaffey Tent and Rental Company. Located at 4161 Delp Street
Memphis, TN 38118-6927

This promises to be an exciting night filled with great food & cocktails(CFY Catering),haute florals (by Haute Horticulture) & fabulous decor (designed by us- Social Butterflies)!Live entertainment by Kevin and Bethany Paige band and also Jeremey Shrader Jazz Quartet....plus sooooo much more!
We hope to see you tonight so you can see the 5 vignettes that we have designed, using Mahaffey's new rental inventory. You are sure to gain some ideas for your own special event or wedding and will find the resources here to help you every step of the way!
Be there so your not the one missing out!!
It's going to be Over the Top- in true Butterfly style!
Ta Ta!
Complimentary valet parking :)

Estimating Alcohol Orders!

Hello readers, happy Monday! What better time than the first day of the week to begin thinking about throwing your next soiree? Once the fun stuff is decided on- theme, design, entertainment, etc- you still have an important step to complete before the big day. You need to estimate how much alcohol to provide for your guests!

Fortunately, there is a great little resource for this. It's the "Drink Calculator" on evite.com!

http://www.evite.com/pages/party/drink-calculator.jsp

With this tool you enter in your estimated number of guests, if they are light, medium, or heavy drinkers, and what genre of libations they will be enjoying at your event. Enter all this information in and ta-da! You will know exactly what to order.

So now you have just another good reason to throw a party- have fun with it!

Happy planning! xo- Addie

Juliana's "One"derland Party Pics!!

Jules' is now One! I'm so excited to report that our Very Merry Un-Birthday Bash was a huge success!! We had an absolute blast and I was so proud of all the kiddos- they were very well behaved for tea!

Here are all the pics I promised to post- sorry they are a day late-I'm still exhausted and have not had a moment to catch my breath. TIP:This is the MAIN reason you should always hire a party planner-so you can truly enjoy your own event or your child's party- and not have to sleep for a week to catch up afterwards!! As a Party Planner-I don't have the luxury of getting to hire someone nor would I be able to surrender that much control since I know what I want and how I want it. But for anyone that does not do this for a living- it's so worth every penny to hire a professional to take care of things for you and make sure you are making wise decisions financially. Not to mention all the time that you will save on set up and break down!

Enjoy the pics and give Social Butterflies a call to help you with your little flutter's next birthday celebration-we would love to make every moment unforgettable and over the top!

Ta Ta!

PS! I'll post the professional pics by Creation Studios as soon as I get those-I know they will be so much better than what I took with my camera!

Alex's Sweet Sixteen

I'm so excited to tell you that we are in the beginning stages of designing and planning my niece, Alex Swanson's, Sweet Sixteen.  She told me she wants lots of glitz, glamour and diamonds!  We are in the process of designing her monogram now as well as determining a date for her Bash!  Here is the inspiration board I created for her so she could see what I would like to do for her party.  Stay tuned as we work on other details!

How to Create a Wedding Monogram

In the past few weeks, I have been blogging about how to add personality to your wedding. One of the ideas I suggested, and one I assume most brides are familiar with, is to use a wedding monogram. This can showcase the colors and personality of the bride and groom and can be used in many aspects of the event design. However, how does one CREATE a wedding monogram? Rather than buying expensive graphic design software or hiring a graphic artist, I am going to tell you how to do this in plain old Microsoft Word:

1. Choose Insert -  Textbox. Type and format each letter in your favorite font and color. Do this three times, one for each initial, each one in it's own separate textbox. Remember that the brides first initial goes on the left, the groom's last name initial goes in the center, and the groom's first initial on the right. 

2. Click on all textboxes and choose Format- Textbox. Choose Color: No Fill (so you can overlap letters) and Line: No Line. 

3. Select all of the letters, right click, and choose Group to lock in the arrangement. This will lock your letters into one monogram. 


4. Save as a .JPEG format, and you now have a monogram to use on anything you like!


Remember to play around with colors, groupings, borders, etc. Here are some examples I recently worked on for a client's wedding. Happy monogramming!

Stay tuned for next week!

Eventfully yours-

Addie

It’s Tea Time!

We are only 3 days away from our “One”derland birthday bash and I’m making major progress on my lengthy “to-do” list!! Of course-I have made some revisions in the décor along the way so I’ll give you an update on that and a sneak peek of what some of it looks like!

I have been painting tea pots and yard sticks and the card soldier-and glittering all the little place cards with the children’s names on them until the wee hours of the morning! I can’t wait to see it all come together after all this DIY work :)

Here is what I have changed: Instead of a large tree as my table centerpiece- I went with the stacked tea cups and fabulous hats as toppers (3 of them). These turned out so cute that I changed my mind on the tree.

For the kids table- I found 2 over sized party hats and embellished them with pink feathers, glittered hearts, and pom-poms instead of making candy cone shaped hats. This saved me time and money!

I also have a variety of tea pots that I decorated (found them at the thrift store) to scatter about.

For the adult table centerpieces I decorated 6 fabulous hats and will place them on red & glass hurricanes-on top of a square mirror surrounded by some votives. I decided not to use tea cup stacks for all these tables mainly because I have no clue what I would do with that many after this party-and it would have taken a ton of cups and saucers to do 6 tables plus the 3 for the food table.

The card soldier is so cute- I still have to add legs and arms which will be red gloves and red paper gift bags glued to the base (anchored with rocks down inside the bag). And I’m going to find a sphere that I can put an upside down heart on-so he will look just like the one’s in the movie!

The grand entrance will consist of the card soldier, directional signs and 2 cone-topiary style trees that will be adorned with red roses.

The fun little details that have been tedious are my favors and place cards. Each little girl will have a tea pot with her name on it, tied to her furry purse (filled with heart shaped playing cards, jewelry, bedazzled heart shaped sunglasses, heart shaped compact mirror, and a candy ring).

For the boys- I have actual playing cards with their names on them-tucked into the side of their black top hats. A favor bag will sit underneath it with play candy watches, round shaped playing cards, little monster squeakers, and some fun dip.

Food! Other than cake and ice cream for all-the adults will also have 2 dips (Pimento Cheese Bake served with Pepper Jelly and a Cold Spinach Dip served in a sweet bread bowl) a fruit salad, and a bruschetta bar (so guests can choose their own toppings). I will have a coffee/tea bar along with some iced tea & cucumber infused water as well.

The kids will have pizza rolls, sweet mushrooms (made from heart shaped marshmallows and pretzels) and butterfly shaped crackers decorated with easy cheese. Very simple, kid friendly snacks, all the perfect size for tea and little hands. Red, pink, and white tea cups will also be a take a way item and what their drinks will be served in. I’m doing a decaffeinated fruit tea for the little ones.

I decorated some cute red and pink baroque fames with glitter that will contain food descriptions. TIP: It is important to let your guests know what they are eating! Food allergies are prevalent and you want to prevent any unfortunate incident from happening.

I will also put the “Eat Me” and “Drink Me” tags on all the food displays, in keeping with our movie theme!

I will do a post on Sunday with all the pictures from the party-so you won’t have to wait in suspense until next Wednesday! ;)

I really hope you have some fun stories to share on how my ideas gave you inspiration to create a fabulous party or event of your own! Thanks for fluttering by each week and stay tuned for my next topic- “Meet Mahaffey!” (an upcoming open house for a rental company Social Butterflies is designing/ planning).

Have a Very Merry Stupendous Day!!

Viking Lord meets Southern Damsel

How do wedding planners help clients decide on the theme of their wedding? They listen to what they like to do, see, where they live, hobbies, etc. and help them design their wedding around the things that are important in their lives. Take for instant one of our brides who is a Southern Girl by birth (loves Magnolia trees and Cameos) feel in love with a Viking Reenactor. He gave her a leather bracelet, silver ring and the key to his heart. So we combined the two into one event. Here is how!

FLOWERS: Using green moss, trees with white flowers cascading (Gardenias which look very similar to Magnolia blooms) out of a tree trunk and using black lava rocks as one centerpiece. The groom is from Iceland and they have one beach that is nothing but black lava rocks and the other side of the country is a beautiful lush green landscape. Another way is we are using the Viking braid (this is the braid that is on the bride's leather bracelet and silver ring) by using the design on the outside of the wooden boxes that will hold green wheat grass and flowers. These are the lower centerpieces for the reception centerpieces.

The brides bridal bouquet will be tied with ivory ribbon secured by a baby blue cameo to match the blue cameo she is wearing on her dress.

Karin Woodward of Haute Horticulture is also making a floral swan like this one from Preston Bailey's Celebration book for one of the food tables because the Yellow Billed "Whooper" Swan is a tourist attraction in Iceland.

The florist is making a floral shield with this crest design (the same design for the groom's cake) and we are going to use it as the centerpiece on the fireplace.  The groom is also making a wooden shield with his crest to go under a glass piece as the centerpiece for the guest book table.

VENUE: They booked the Teton Trek Exhibit at The Memphis Zoo. Great lodge/log cabin interior, huge rock fireplace, rustic furniture, giant waterfall, and Timber Wolves to make you feel you stepped into an Icelandic lodge. They will get married in front of the Giant Giser (Old Faithful) because they have tons of gisers in Iceland. They actually have one place over their that is called The Blue Lagoon which is fed by hot steamy gisers.

CAKE: One side of the bride's cake will be a lace design and the other half separated by a white fondant ribbon (cake is a baby blue fondant) will be the Viking braid going around the edge of the tiers. The grooms cake will be a replica of his Viking shield.

INVITATIONS: Baby blue card stock with ivory wax seal of the blue cameo at the top of the card. The header of the invitation will be the Viking braid and the wax seal on top of the braid. Each piece of the invitation set (i.e., rsvp card, thank yous) will incorporate the braid and cameo in different directions so that each card is different but using the same idea.

CATERING: All I'm going to say is that I'm glad they decided not to do "Blood Pudding," but stick with a more Southern menu!

I can't wait to see all the pieces of this wedding come together. I will post some of the pictures after the wedding.

Wedding Personality Tips... Part 2!

If you remember from last week, I wrote about tips to add personality to your wedding. Well, here are some more! Get creative, and most importantly, let your true self shine through to really WOW your guests...

4) Candy! By now, everyone knows about candy bars and how cute and fun they are at weddings. Why not take them a step further by personalizing the wrappers! Try www.etsy.com again and see who can create custom wrappers for a good price. They make fabulous favors, and you can share your favorite candy flavors with guests! Play up your colors with a monochromatic look like the one below!

5) Theme! Theme weddings are not for everyone, but when done right they can be downright FAB! The key is to keep the theme tied into your passions as a couple and who you both are as people. You must also keep details thoughtful, personal, and not cheesy. Focus in on a couple of your favorite details about a theme and keep it simple yet memorable. Darcy Miller spoke about a nautically themed wedding for a sailing-enthused couple that was recently covered by Martha Stewart Weddings. They incorporated the nautical alphabet (the colorful flags) to spell out quotes of love and the couple's names and family names. Classic nautical ropes were used as accents and of course navy and white were used as the backdrop for the brightly colored nautical flags. The picture below is from a wedding featured on the Martha Stewart Weddings website.

6) Food and Drink! Cuisine is a wonderful way to add personality to your reception. Think about your favorite foods and offer them in creative ways to your guests. Are you a late night eater? Serve a snack late in the evening such as milk and cookies or the classic PB&J. We have passed out sliders for clients or personalized ice cream bars. Are you a soul-food gal? Offer a mashed potato bar or shrimp and grit martinis. A popcorn bar is a fun alternative to a candy bar, or create a junk-food bar to indulge the guilty pleasures of your guests. A signature cocktail is another way to add personality. You can even have a his and hers! You can serve you and your groom's favorite cocktails, or research colorful and tasty exotic drinks to offer guests. Then create a custom name for the drink and frame it on the bar. This can be a way to punch up an open bar, OR a great way to add a liquor option and save money on a beer and wine only reception. Check out the cute s'mores bar below! Making your food an activity is always memorable AND yummy....

The Tea Party & Such…..
So we are getting closer to the very “Un-Birthday” tea party and I’m more excited every day! Here is a glimpse of what I’m doing for décor and event design at the wonderful venue- La Pavillion.
I’m planning on having a card solider at the entry way with my signs stuck in red paint cans that say “This Way”, “That Way”, “Yonder”, and “Up”- and hopefully 2 large rose bushes with red roses-to bring the movie to life before my guests even walk into the door!

The adult tables will be in black and white damask linens with red and pink accents in my fun center pieces. The center pieces are going to be custom made Feaux-Mad Hatter tea cup lamps! Stacks of tea cups and saucers glued together with a funky decorated hat as the topper! I have 3 different lamps in each room. With the party on the eve of Valentines Day- I’m trying desperately not to use too many fresh flowers- for budget sake and to push me to be more creative for all those people who don’t want to do flowers for events J The long children’s table will be decked out in fuchsia satin linens and have an array of tea pots that I’m hand painting (yikes!) along with some fun candy made birthday hats. I’m using Styrofoam cones and gluing on colorful candy like jelly beans and red hots-in all kinds of fun designs- topping them with cotton candy and marshmallows! Another fun center piece you can do for any party theme- with out using flowers.
Each child will have a heart themed tea cup with a tag that says “drink me” and we will serve a kid friendly version of sweet tea in the cups J I’ll have some non-sweet snacks for the kids that say “EAT ME” as well- so we don’t over load them with sugar too much!
I’m going to hang the favors on the backs of the adorable white chairs that will have red satin bows tied on the backs of them-so little and cute!
Our cake table and food tables will be in red and fuchsia coordinating linens and I have some large red and white polk a dot tea cups on saucers that I’m going to fill with roses for centerpieces. I will probably do a tree in the center of the food table-like the one Alice sits under and climbs on in the movie-for some height- and hang butterflies from it-of course!!
I have two rooms for games- one for toddlers and one for big kids. The toddlers will have a rabbit hole to climb through, giant tea sets to play with and a fun elephant game that blows butterflies in the air that they have to catch with nets! The big kids will be battling it out in a game of croquette!
Alice and the Mad Hatter-themselves- will show up in the beginning of the tea party to sing Happy Birthday and offer face painting for the kids. And the movie will be playing the courtyard on a big screen for anyone who wants to watch it. I do have one special surprise that will happen during the Birthday Cake portion of the party-so stay tuned to hear all about that and see pics!! The kids are going love it!!
I will have one room set up in the back of the venue for opening gifts- so I can use bean bag chairs and Juliana’s special pink chair for her to sit in- for all of that action (which I admit I dread the most-we do NOT need any more toys!! J )

Knowing your audience/guests is important in planning any party and keeping kids at a long table for too long is a train wreck waiting to happen! So the party will be short and sweet (1 ½ hours) and we will keep them moving so they don’t get bored!

Now you have almost all of the party details and low down on my décor!
So much to still do and so little time-but my hope is that not just Juliana-but all the kids invited will never forget such a fun party. That is truly why we do what we do- we love creating memories and over the top events do just that!!
Go be inspired and throw a fun party today!! And blog all about it when you do- I can’t wait!!

PS- a great option for entertainment at parties is having a party hat station for guests to decorate their own hats!! Any theme can be done and there is a fabulous company that can help pull all of this together for you or your clients- www.partyhats.org!! That is where my pic came from-check them out!

Miranda & Drew's November Wedding

Watch one of our recent weddings at Le Pavillon! Thank you to Creation Studios for the video clip! http://vimeo.com/9106013