Valentines Day Inspired Cake!

What a gorgeous “naked” cake and decor,  perfect for a Valentine’s day party!

Photo curtousy of: Kelly Braman Photography, florals by Hey Gorgeous Events, and cake by Piece O’Cake!

DIY Pumpkin Ice Bucket

This is a creative and unique idea for a fall wedding, shower, halloween party, or even Thanksgiving decor! Hollow out a large pumpkin and place a similar sized metal bowl, or gallon bucket inside, fill with ice and stick your wine or beer bottles inside. Easy as that, and truly adds a fun touch to the theme that your guests will love! What other creative DIY projects have you done with pumpkins?

Original DIY: Barina Craft

Photo Credit could not be found

DIY Ice Cream In a Jar Party Favor

The summer is quickly coming to an end, but it is still hot out. This is an adorable favor to give to your guests as a fun treat to cool them off! Here is how to put together this sweet favor yourself:

You will need:

Glass Mason Jars, ribbon, small zip lock plastic bags, half&half individual packets, rock salt, and sugar & vanilla powder. Your guests will just need to add ice.

1. Pour 1 cup rock salt into the bottom of the jar

2. Pour 1 TBS sugar and 1tsp vanilla into zip lock bag and seal.

3. Put the bag of powder and 8 half & half packets into each jar.

Click here to get the cute tag and side labels for your jar. Print them out and you have a tasty favor for weddings, bridal showers, birthdays, etc.

Original DIY by Style Me Pretty

Photo Credit: Jackie Wonders

DIY Favor Bags

 

Here is an easy and adorable DIY gift bag project for party favor treats. All you will need is a printer, 5×7 white paper bags, scalloping scissors, and whatever treat you want to fill the bags with!

1. Download the graphic from here and type in the names and date in the space provided. Follow the instructions on the pdf.

2. You can add a little more detail to the bags by cutting the top with scalloping scissors

3. Fill the bags with the treat of your choice!

Original DIY found on Style Me Pretty by Twig & Thistle.

Champagne Escort Cards

 

Attach your escort cards to champagne glasses, and your guests will be ready to toast and happy to find that their seating cards come with a glass of bubbly! Cheers 🙂

Photo credit: Mike Krautter marthastewartweddings.com

DIY Chalkboard Serving Platter

 

This chalk board serving platter is perfect for serving cheese, cookies, fruit, or anything you might want to label! Originally found from the blog Whit & Whistle, with a great tutorial on how to make this serving platter that can be re-used over and over again.

 

Serving platter tutorial and photo credit: Whit and Whistle

DIY Darling Drink Decor

These cute (and super easy!) oversized DIY stir sticks would be a great addition to cocktails at a summer wedding or party. All you need to do is print out the template on 80lb card stock, use a 3.5″ hole punch to cut out the circles and glue to a popsicle or corn dog stick. Voila! You have your darling drink decor. Cheers!

Original DIY found on Style Me Pretty

Photo credit: Justin & Mary Marantz

Cake Top Sparklers

What’s better than cake? Cake with sparklers for candles! View more pictures from this beautiful vintage wedding at Style Me Pretty

Creating Pretty Displays for Dessert and Food Tables

Dessert table by the amazing Amy Atlas

Before people taste food with their mouths, they devour it with their eyes. This is the driving force behind why chefs at top restaurants put so much effort into making dishes look elegant and well put together, and even explains why burger commercials make everything look so crisp, fresh and enticing. Your eyes will tell you whether it should taste good before you ever take that first bite. And this is precisely why a well styled dessert table, buffet table or appetizer table is so important – it will actually make the food more enjoyable for your guests (not to mention it makes for a really pretty picture).

Some of the things you’ll want to consider when styling a dessert or food table include the theme of the event (for colors, cute design and decor details), the type of food you’ll be serving, the ease of eating (best to use things that can be picked up and eaten in one or two bites, or put items in single serving size containers so guests can grab and go mingle), and varying heights of the dishes so you can see everything on the table clearly.

All of the beautiful dessert and food tables you see popping up on sites like Pinterest and Style Me Pretty are so visually enticing because of a consistent theme and great styling. And one of my favorite items to use for styling a dessert or food table are cones and stands  to create visual interest and height difference in the food on display (see left photo of a fabulous – and totally affordable – bamboo cone stand from Restaurantware.com (they also supply the pretty little cones that hold the food and fit neatly inside each slot).

What I love about cone stands and cones is that they are so incredibly versatile. You can use the stand again and again a million ways (for french fries, popcorn, cotton candy puffs, veggie spears, to hold ice cream cone cupcakes, to hold favors, the list goes on and on…), and they also come in different shapes to suit what you are looking for. A big square cone stand with a ton of slots (like this one) is perfect in the middle of a table with low platters around it and elevated boxes with platters on top behind it, while the smaller semi-circle cone holders might work best flanking the center item on the table (use two for this – one on each side).

Finally, don’t forget to dress up your cone stands and cones so they match the overall look and feel of your event! Why not spray paint the bamboo stand, and wrap your cones in a wallpaper or wrapping paper that coordinates with your event’s theme for a completely custom look? You can always paint over the stand again for another event later on – the customization options are endless, so get creative!

I hope I’ve given you some fun ideas on how to style up a pretty dessert or food table… how do you plan on styling your tables? Share your ideas below in the comment section!

Note: This post was sponsored by Restaurantware.com (an amazing resource for the cone holders and paper cones), although I would never share anything with our readers that I wouldn’t love and use myself. Happy Table Styling!

Fabulous Wedding Finds!

How cute are these floral paper straws! And with the paper flags attached, they are perfect for your signature cocktail at your wedding or bridal shower!

Brides- what other cute drink accessories have you found? The chevron and stripped paper straws are so fun too!

Photo Credit: CeferinaSweet on Etsy

You can find these cute straws from Sweet Shop Lulu

And the adorable flags on Etsy