Moon Splash @ the "Dune Preserve"

We will continue our escape from this never ending Winter with a trip back to a Caribbean Style Beach Party we did in September.

To set the tone for the evening we lined the long driveway with torches... There were two possible entrances to the house, but only one we wanted guests to use. We positioned a birdbath in the middle of the path we didn't want people to use and created this fun arrangement of limes, lemons and a pineapple to help set the tone for the evening and block the path!



Torches lined the correct pathway up the stairs into the back yard



Guests were met at the top of the stairs by servers holding trays of Rum Punch (the credit for the rum punch recipe goes to a good friend and many trips to Jamaica... but that will have to wait to be the subject for another post)




The hostess told us that she wasn't a big fan of flowers... so we kept them to a minimum and used fruit, tropical leaves and shells for most of our arrangements. Fuchsia, Lemon Yellow and Bright Orange used in different ways throughout the party space unified the evening.



And some flowers and goldfish as the centerpiece for the food table....




Food for the evening was Caribbean style finger foods. We didn't want guest to have to try to coordinate holding a plate and fork while - so we filled the buffet with all kinds of fun treats that were easy to grab and go... and made sure everyone got plenty of food by butlering most items through out the night as well.



Later in the evening we switch the buffet from savory to sweet.... and the guests devoured them up before we had a chance to capture how beautiful everything looked!


Pink and yellow uplights in the beautiful tent gave the space a warm glow as the night went on....




Many thanks to Kristen of SnapTwoIt Photography for all the wonderful photos!

"Red & White" Birthday Party

What to do for a Surprise Party for a lovely lady with a Valentine's birthday? We didn't want to do all hearts... so we went back to basics and did a red and white theme.

Phase I of the party was cocktails with red & white specialty concoctions developed by Mixologist Warren Bobrow and a lovely selection of butlered hors d'oeuvres by Julie Sheil of Party Connections



After we surprised the birthday girl we moved to Phase II. A sit down dinner in the Great Room. We removed all the furniture and replaced it with long tables covered in beautiful red tablecloths and pristine white ballroom chairs



Our head designer Leslie outdid herself turning 500 roses into 19 beautiful arrangements.



Each place setting had a beautiful place card adorned with paper flowers



We carried the paper flowers and red & white into Phase III - the "band porch." The room was decorated with 2 enormous arrangements of rice paper lanterns and tissue paper flowers that we hung from the beams.



The dessert bar featured scrumptious desserts from Julie Bakes, and a gluten-free cake and cupcake lollis from SweetStuff. Guests were welcome to take a little "thank you" box of red and white candies that they filled from the containers on the table.



"I can not Thank you enough for working with my husband to throw the party of a lifetime for me. I'm still spinning and can not get focused on anything but thinking about how much fun it all was.

You are spectacular. Thank you for making it so special!!

Thanks again!!"