Knot At Your Wedding Party

Today, the ever-so-fabulous Mary Straton from Olive You, Darling is here to talk about an awesome party that she recently hosted at her house for some friends of ours! It was a complete blast, as you’re about to see!

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Make new friends
But keep the old
One is silver and
The other’s gold
(But I bet they all like to talk about fancy dresses)

One of the things I love about being in my thirties is having multiple circles of good friends – childhood and high school friends, college friends, couple friends, friends with kids the same age as my little one…

I’m incredibly fortunate to be a part of a great life group at our church. I know it shouldn’t matter, and it’s what’s on the inside that counts, yada yada yada, but these women are just really CUTE. And fun. And stylish. I mean when the Bible says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another,” who’s to say one friend can’t sharpen another’s style and inspire cuteness? Can I get an “amen?!”

My husband dug our wedding album out the other night, and he must have sensed the internal cartwheel I was doing (I love to reminisce) when I asked if he wanted to look at it together. He shot me down with a simple “no” and flew threw the pages with the speed I have when I’m trying to pretend to care about the football media guide.

That got me thinking – surely some of my friends would like to wax nostalgic about their weddings, too? But I went to the weddings of my childhood friends and college friends? Eureka! I hadn’t attended any of the weddings of the ladies in my life group. Oh, it’s ON now.

I asked the group if they were interested, but truthfully, in my head I was pretty much demanding that we have this party and if I got shot down, I just wouldn’t invite them. Humph. And so the “Knot at Your Wedding” party was born!

Let me first say that I LOVE a theme. In fact, it’s kind of hard for me to not establish one when I’m having friends over. Fajitas on the menu? It’s Cinco de Smith night! “What will our honey bee?” gender reveal? Local bees are working overtime for those recipes. Your birthday boy like Harry Potter? Get outta my way.

I got to work on Smith Wedding: Part Deux (well not really). I embraced the tacky and decorated my house with paper wedding bells, white silk “rose petals” from the dollar store and an armful of white daisies from Walmart. And you gotta have a getaway car! Enter cozy coupe. That redneck wedding reception we’ve all been to just threw up all over my house.

Heaven forbid I miss a chance to use my china and silver, though!

I baked a “wedding” cake, complete with almond-flavored frosting and served little white sweets – Jordan almonds (a Greek tradition!), white chocolate pretzels, white M&Ms, and powdered donut “diamond rings.” And what’s a reception without champagne (and Baptist punch for the buns in the oven)?

My friends arrived heavily laden with huge albums and wearing their veils, shoes and jewelry from their weddings. In between bites of cake and sips of champagne, we oohed and aahed and giggled and blushed at the parts of our wedding we still love and now love to hate. And because we were already thinking it, we voted and awarded prizes for things like “hottest groomsmen” and “best shoes.”

We could have talked and gossiped for hours, but since we’re all grownups now, we had to end the party at a decent hour, but not before everyone left with a Ring Pop. After all, just because I wasn’t there, it doesn’t mean he didn’t put a ring on it!

I hope this inspires you to share an important day with some of your new friends. Get together, serve some snacks, pop some corks and make it happen!

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Mary Straton, thanks again for hosting! It was seriously a blast! And I still can’t get over the fact that I didn’t know who MS’s brother-in-law was until flipping through her wedding album… I’ve known both of them for years and never put 2 and 2 together! Oh, the things you can learn at a Knot At Your Wedding Party…. 🙂

Have a fantastic weekend! Thanks for dropping by! XO!

Spring Fever!

The beautiful weather we’ve had peeks of the past week or so has really given me a case of Spring Fever!! I heart spring because it means being outside!

It means parties on the patio…

… and planting our garden…

… and enjoying evening bonfires…

… and green grass…

… and fresh flowers around the house…

… and trips to the beach…

… and SO MUCH MORE!!

I’m a warm weather lover (I’d much rather be sweating than freezing, any day!) so the glimpses of the temperatures to come make my heart happy. Thank you God for the excitement a new season brings!!

What are you most looking forward to about the coming season?!

Boy + Girl

I’ve been working hard lately getting some inventory together for the On a LARK show that I’m going to be in on December 7th! (That explains why I’ve been completely MIA all this week on here!)

In doing so, I’ve made up a few new patterns, gotten some Christmas goodies underway, and added to my confetti repertoire!

For some reason, confetti gets me super excited… Possibly because I heart parties and confetti goes at them! And since I’ve found out in the past two weeks that two of my dear friends are pregnant (which potentially means gender reveal parties!), the lip and mustache confettis have been top of mind!

I updated the Etsy store today with new color additions… Nothing super special, but fun nonetheless!

New color! Gray ‘staches!

The old colors… Tried & true! Coral and Black

New lip color! Persimmon

The lips and staches are also super fun for couples showers! Any boy + girl funtion, really, would be a great setting for these fun little guys (and gals!) I hope you like! You can click on any of the pictures and it’ll take you to the etsy listings!

Stay tuned for some more recent projects. I’m pretty stoked about the Christmas stuff and the collection of stationery that is done out of all whites and creams… SO DREAMY!! You’ll see it soon! 🙂

Flatware of the Gold Variety

Lately I’ve had this crazy desire to throw a huge outdoor dinner party on our back deck. I’m not really sure why, but I’m guessing it’s because it’s starting to feel so nice outside at night these days! Fall weather is the best, and so is spending time with friends and being outdoors, so the outdoor dinner party actually seems pretty natural now that I think about it!

As I was feeding my party hunger via Pinterest, (check out my party board here) I discovered a new love. It’s something I’ve always kinda liked, but never really paid a whole lot of attention to until now. And that new love is GOLD FLATWARE.

Isn’t it beautiful!? It just takes a set table up a notch if you ask me, and I love how it can go casual or dressy. It’s simple enough to use during the week to make everyday meals a tad more exciting, but it’s got enough wow factor to use with your nicer dinnerware, too! So versatile! 🙂

(Sources from the images above can be found via this pin board.)

I found these two sets from West Elm that I’m just dying over… I think I might be adding some gold flatware to my Christmas list this year (even if that is still months away!)

I love this soft gold…

… and this rose gold!

Choices, choices!!

Another major plus to these two sets from West Elm: They’re dishwasher safe! score.

So do you love gold flatware as much as I do? I’m seriously crazy about it!!

Lately

Wow, what a crazy/busy past couple of weeks I’ve had!! There are so many fun things going on that I can hardly keep up (which explains my M.I.A. status on the blog!) I’ve had so much fun the past couple of weeks that I’ve got to let you in on it!

One really fun opportunity I had earlier in the week was to attend one of the super fun Chef’s Table events put on by Eat Y’all! It was at Walker’s Drive In in Fondren and it was absolutely delicious! The menu was allll seafood (which I normally would not order), but I ended up eating and loving every single course! Perhaps my favorite course was the first one, which had nothing to do with seafood: A Cathead Vodka cocktail called Bee Sting!

The biggest flavors in the drink were honey and jalapeno, and it was absolutely DIVINE. Cathead was kind enough to share the recipe here on their website!

Props to Eat Y’all for a fabulous event!

Another fun recent event was in honor of my brother-in-law Jesse and his soon to be wifey, Mary Margaret! They had a really fun Stock the Bar shower in Belzoni, so I tried to get a little creative with their gift by using lips and a moustache. (Going back to Cathead Vodka… That’s what we got MM! And we got Jess a bottle of his favorite– Jack Daniels Old No. 7!)

For the box, we used an old cigar box left over from Price’s 30th birthday party! I cannot tell y’all how handy having a bunch of empty cigar boxes has been!! 🙂

Along the lines of the wedding, Mary Margaret’s bachelorette party was this past weekend in Orange Beach and we had an absolute blast!! Our theme was animal print so MM’s sister and I went a little crazy with the theme… We even had animal print snacks! These were super easy, made with the square pretzels, Hershey’s Hugs, and Reese’s Pieces! Mmmm mmmm!

We also got animal ears for everyone to wear the night we did dinner and dancin’. They were extra fun props to use in the photo booth MM’s sister and I surprised everyone with! (Long story behind the Hot Mess Express saying, but it was also one of the themes of the weekend so we incorporated it + animal print into the photo booth!)

Me, MM, and her little sister Anne Tatum!

The photo booth ended up being extra fun!

Price and I had a little shower for Jesse and Mary Margaret at our house earlier in the week, so stay tuned for a post all about that coming soon! It ended up being a near perfect night! 🙂

Have the best weekend!!!

The BEST Punch Recipe EVER

A couple of weeks ago, my soon-to-be sister-in-law had a bridal shower at the church in Belzoni where our hubbys grew up going. The ladies in Belzoni are always so hospitable and lovely to be around, and one thing new I learned that day about them was this: They know how to make punch.

I think I had literally 6 or 7 glasses of the punch served at this shower because it was THAT good. (Self Control, where were you that day?? It’s not like I have a bridesmaids dress to fit into or anything…)

ANYWAY, I posted a picture of it on Facebook and Instagram and had probably 10 people ask me for the recipe so I was able to get up with the maker of the fantastic punch to learn her secrets! (Thank you, Jane Twiner, for divulging!)

The BEST Punch Recipe EVER

You’ll need:
one 64 oz. Ocean Spray White Peach Cran Juice
one 12 oz. Minute Maid Frozen Lemonade
one 2 liter of Ginger Ale (or Sprite if you like it sweeter)

Just mix the cran juice and lemonade and freeze it at least a day prior. Put it in the fridge the night before you want to use it. It will start getting slushy. Set it out about 30 minutes before serving it if it’s not slushy enough. Pour ginger ale over it right before party time!

That’s it! Sounds easy enough! Hope you enjoy!

One Hundy + The Top Ten

As I hit “publish” this morning on today’s planned post, WordPress was so kind to let me know that I had just published my 100th blog post!

That’s CRAZY to me!

I know 100 isn’t a crazy huge number or anything, but I still got excited. It’s enough to realize how much I’ve learned in a short period of time, and I definitely feel like I’ve gotten in a blogging groove. I love it!

Because of this personal landmark, I thought I’d go back and share a couple of my favorite posts from the past several months! (Speaking of, I think I started this little blog adventure known as { THE HIVE } back in August… but I’m not patient enough to take the time to look… Still, that’s a handful of months! #moreexcitement!!!)

These top ten posts are, in no particular order, either my personal faves or the most popular ones!

1. Fashinspiration: The Chambray A Different Way
This was the first Fashinspiration shoot where Elish and I decided to get real creative and take pictures in the back of the SummerHouse truck. It turned out really well and is probably still one of the Fashinspiration posts that gets the most views!

2. A Homegoing

This little tribute to my darling brother who passed away ten years ago still makes me smile when I re-read it. What a guy Dooley was… 🙂

3. Mail Art
I LOVE this post! None of the images are my own, but they’re all completely beautiful. Pretty mail is just the best!!!

4. Bits of San Fran
San Francisco is a photogenic city. ‘Nuff said!

5. Navy + Coral Love
Still one of my favorite color combinations ever!!!

6. White Christmas
I love Christmas and I love white!

7. Holiday Highlights
This was a fun post highlighting a bunch of parties and get togethers over the holidays. One of my favorite parts about Christmas is getting to catch up with friends and fam, and to have an extra great excuse to throw a little get together!

8. Christmas With Cousin Eddie Party
Speaking of holiday parties… This was such a fun party that I still hear people talking about it (and it’s MARCH!) But you can’t really go wrong when you theme a party around Christmas Vacation and invite super fun guests! 🙂

Price = Cousin Eddie…

9. Cigars & Stars | 30th Birthday Party
Continuing on the party theme… (Can you tell I love parties?!) This 30th surprise party for Price was waaayyyy fun, and the best part was that Price was actually surprised!

10. The Ultimate Skinny Margarita
A great (low calorie, all natural) margarita recipe for all of my fellow marg lovers!

Welp, those are my top ten right there! If y’all have a favorite post, I’d love to know which ones y’all like best!! That would actually be super helpful to know! 🙂

Birdie Confetti = Spring Party Time!

Earlier this week I got a really fun order for some hostess gifts from a dear, sweet friend who is getting married at the end of the summer! She wanted several sets of birdie cards to give to those throwing her showers and parties, so as I was working on her project, all I could think about were birds and parties, which in my mind equal spring! (My math is right, isn’t it? Birds + Parties = Spring? Yeah, pretty sure I added that up correctly! :))

Quick snapshot of the bridal birdie project!

So, what better way to spruce up a spring party than with birdie confetti?! With my awesome new cutter, I was able to make some confetti fairly easily! It took a while, but the result was well worth the time put into it! And it is now for sale on the etsy store! YAY!

I am SOOO in the mood for spring parties that my next guest post on Coffee Rings & Southern Things is going to be all about spring partyin’! If you’re in the mood to add some springy birdie confetti to your next seasonal gathering, it’s available through just a few clicks of the mouse right here! 🙂

Do y’all have any fun upcoming parties in the works?

Holiday Highlights

H I , H E L L O !
(Imagine me saying this the way Josie Gellar’s Spanish teacher said it on her first day of class. If you haven’t seen Never Been Kissed then this will not make sense…)

I hope everyone is having a great week so far! As busy as mine has been, it has been pretty great! I’ve been up at SummerHouse a lot which is always fun. 🙂 Anyways…

So I was flipping back through all the pictures I’ve taken over the past couple of weeks and wanted to share a few highlights from Christmas and the start of 2013! I’m so thankful for wonderful friends, an amazing family (on all sides), and the health and ability to travel. Sure does make life exciting! Can I get an Amen?

Highlight 1: MISTLETOGA

2012 marked the 5th year of the always exciting Mistletoga celebration! Five years ago, my roommates at the time and I were dying to throw a great Christmas party, but wanted it to be different from the typical tacky Christmas theme. Somehow we came up with the idea to have a toga party and call it Mistletoga! Toga-like attire is strongly encouraged, and the more creative the better! This party has been a blast for all five years, so I look forward to the 6th annual in, oh… 11 months!

At this party, we had some fun beverages like Rudolph Royale, which was champagne and cranberry juice, accented with frozen strawberries. Simple and delish! We also had what we like to call “Sethnog.” See, last year, my friend/old roommate, Avery, whose apartment is still the home of this yearly shin-dig, asked her boyfriend to make eggnog for the occasion. It was so good that since then we’ve referred to the drink as “Sethnog.” This year we lacked a proper pitcher so the nog was served from a coffee pot! It just added to the party vibe 😉

The snack mix, which I like to call “S’more Pretzels, please!” (corny, I know…) was sort of born out of my need to clear out the pantry of random things… I mixed mini marshmallows, pretzels, and MnMs into some melted bakers chocolate and got everything all chocolate coated. Then I poured it into a big ziplock bag, threw some graham cracker crumbs and a little powdered sugar in there, then shook it up! It turned out pretty well, I’d say… I’ve made it twice since this party and it all gets eaten every time, so that says something! 🙂

Overall, Mistletoga 5.0 was a ravishing success! Moving on…

Highlight 2: TEA TIME!

Two of my best friends, both of whom I’ve known basically my entire life, and I got to get together for tea the Sunday before Christmas! See, one of these friends (named Lindsey) lives in Nashville, so my other friend Mandy and I don’t get to see her too often. So we make a point of having a 3-woman pow wow every year around the holiday.

Since Linds and I lived in England together (and became obsessed with tea and scones), I thought it might be fun to have a mini tea party! We were meeting at around 4:00, so it kinda turned out perfectly, since that’s official “tea time” anyway!

I made some scones which turned out… eh… Let’s just say, I’ll probably use a different recipe next time… But the three of us had a great time! And I had fun getting ready for it, which is a plus for me! 🙂

Highlight 3: The getting and giving of gifts! 

Okay… I admit… I heart gifts… But let’s be honest. Who doesn’t!?

I got some super great stuff this year, all of which I really love (and most of which was off my list! Yay! No returns!) I’ve had a little too much fun with some of my gifts (insert OPI for Sephora gift set that had like 16 different polishes) and others I’ve been wearing non-stop!!  A few faves include Versace Yellow Diamond perfume, Vintage View handmande earrings, nail polish (I also got a gorgeous Butter London color in addition to all the Sephoras!), and the Pantone for Sephora eye shadow palette… I. LOVE. THIS.

I also really enjoy giving gifts because wrapping is uber fun for me… I could spend hours with all sorts of papers and strings! I think we can all agree that gift giving is a very good thing… Yeah?

Highlight 4: The beginning of a NEW YEAR!

My family and my husband’s family all got to travel down to Jacksonville, Florida to celebrate the new year Mississippi State style! We went down for the Gator Bowl, which ended up being maybe the worst football game in history, BUT, other than that, we had a spectacular time! Lots of shopping, eating, and laughing involving the entire MillerHoo clan! (That’s what we call ourselves… Miller + Donahoo = MillerHoo.)

Yay for huge, beautifully decorated trees, fireworks, and an excuse to wear nearly every sequin garment I own! Good times for sure.

I hope you had a wonderful holiday, too!
What was the highlight of YOUR Christmas or New Year?

Parties and Fall Flowers

Last night was the Jackson Restaurant Week VIP Party at the Mississippi Museum of Art! It was a beautiful event and the Art Museum is one of the most gorgeous event venues I’ve ever been to! The party kicks off a week of eating out for charity! See, every time you eat a a participating Jackson Restaurant Week restaurant from 9/30 until 10/6, you get to cast a vote for your favorite of the six charities in the running for a $10,000 check! It’s a really fun week to get familiar with Jackson’s culinary scene, all while supporting six very worthy charities!

As the head party planner for this particular event, my hands were in almost every aspect of it, from restaurant coordination to table decoration! The part of the party prep that I had the most fun with was the flower part!

I got several bunches of stems at Kroger’s flower shoppe and created 14 different small groupings for centerpieces on the smaller tables. I am so in love with how beautiful these flowers are that I must’ve taken 100 pictures of them! Sadly, the party was so chaotic that I forgot to take pictures of the flowers actually on the tables! I did get a few pictures of some of the individual arrangements, as well as most of the arrangements all boxed up and ready to go to the museum!

I’m not usually a fan of roses, but I could not get over how SPECTACULAR these were! I am, however, a huge fan of tulips! 🙂

All boxed up, and looking ever so smashing!

One amazeballs rose!

After the party, the girls from Ole Tavern on George Street took home a few of the flowers to brighten up the bar at their restaurant, and a few also went home with another party-planning friend. The rest came home with me! 🙂 I stuck a few of the tulips in one of my favorite little mercury glass holders and stuck them on a side table in the den.

What a day-brightener!

Although I won’t be planning the next Jackson Restaurant Week VIP Party, I fully plan to attend it and I think you should too! Those parties are always a blast, and a GREAT way to sample some of the fantastic food that will be served up during Jackson Restaurant Week. Here’s to lovely local food!

Another plus about the VIP Parties? The tickets are always so cute they’re almost frame-worthy!