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

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The Stylish Soiree on Style Me Pretty

I decided to plan a networking Halloween party so the younger, talented wedding industry crowd in Los Angeles and Orange County could network and have a great time. I never thought it would end up this big but lo and behold, as soon as I got some amazingly talented professionals involved as sponsors (top So Cal caterer Nathaniel Neubauer from Contemporary Catering, event and floral designer extraordinaire Carissa Jones from JL Designs,  ridiculously talented and super sweet photographer Meg Perotti, and ‘crazy delicious’ dessert and cake baker Melody Brandon from Sweet & Saucy Shop), the guest list exploded and so did the party plans. And the icing on the cake was having “A Very Vintage Halloween” featured on my favorite eye-candy wedding blog, Style Me Pretty (Read Part I and Part II here).

We went from a laid-back, intimate 40 person affair to a decked-out Halloween bash with a vintage decor scheme.  The soft, romantic look with vintage touches is close to my heart, so planning a vintage themed Halloween party was a dream.  By the time the party was held in Franklin Canyon Park on Tuesday evening, we had over 175 RSVPs from top wedding industry professionals and even more fantastic sponsors, including the fabulously chic (and super fun) Mint Photo Lounge, Wildflower Linen, super premium IS Vodka (pronounced ‘ice’),  DJ Crash (former resident DJ at the Playboy mansion!) and talented Katrina Centeno from Calligraphy Katrina.

Carissa from JL Designs took the decor to a whole new level and integrated so many gorgeous details for the vintage theme, and I spent many a sleepless night hand-stamping vintage patterns onto cocktail napkins as well as printing vintage animal drawings and vintage Halloween postcards onto water color paper for hanging banners. 🙂 It was a true group effort, and I couldn’t be happier with the results – working with so many amazing young, talented wedding industry vendors was an absolute joy and the party was such a blast.

My favorite part of the night was when a big group spontaneously burst in the ‘Thriller’ dance, led by the Sweeney Todd and an escaped inmate. 😉  And that, my friends, is a successful Halloween party. I was also impressed with all the fantastic costumes – people really went all out, which I loved! Thank you to everyone who helped make this such a success, and a big thanks to all the great people who joined us despite the dark roads, gale-force winds and chilly weather! Can’t wait to do it again next year… hope you can join us. If you want The Stylish Soiree to plan your next Halloween bash, check out our official website for more info.