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DIY Bars

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Desserts

Easter Dessert Table with Swoozies

 Happy Easter! My goodness Easter sure has snuck up on me this year! Between all of the wedding planning for both me and my best friend, my holiday preparation has, unfortunately, taken the back seat. Whether you’re like me and short on time or have a big sweet tooth (also like me!), join us in setting the perfect Easter dessert table this year!

I partnered with my friends over at Swoozies to put together this adorable, bright, and festive Easter sweets display that’s the perfect addition to any Easter brunch or is also bold and beautiful enough to stand on it’s own! Check out all our fun details below!

      

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Desserts

Ice Cream Social

If y’all checked out our recent ice cream social inspiration board, you know how much we love incorporating this theme into our end of summer soirees, birthday parties, and school gatherings! I mean what’s not to love? A fun party theme with a beautiful pastel color palette and a bar filled with all your favorite toppings to dress up your ice cream sundae! No guest can complain about that!

Now this is one inspiration board we just HAD to bring to life! And that we did! With a bright color palette of pink, yellow, mint and lavender, we threw the cutest ice cream social complete with a DIY topping and sundae bar!  Check out the original inspo board here and see how we brought it all to life below!

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Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day Bar Cart

Valentine’s Day is almost here! Hooray! No matter what your plans are this holiday, an intimate dinner with your guy or a stylish party with your gals, it’s time to start decorating in all our favorite holiday reds and pinks!

This year, I am bringing out the brightest and boldest shades and having so much fun making my Valentine’s day decor pop, starting with my bar cart!

I’ve partnered with my sweet friends at Swoozies to decorate a festive and stylish Valentine’s Day bar cart. They have the absolute cutest Valentine’s Day party decor (well, really party decor for everything!) but I am just loving their adorable selection of products this year!

Check out all the details and be sure to swing on over to Swoozies online or your local store to create a stunning party!

Happy Valentine’s Day!
xoxox

Kate

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4th of July

Nautical Summer Brunch

We’d love to thank Laurie Louis Design for sponsoring this post. While products were supplied for this post, all opinions are my own.

Searching for the perfect baby shower idea to celebrate the mother-to-be in your life? Drop anchor and settle in for our nautical baby shower brunch co-captained by our friends at Laurie Louis Design!

I’m thrilled that this brunch was our maiden voyage at our new house (that finally has a real dining table!) and am absolutely swooning over the nautical theme with a southern, beachy and classic flair.

Jump on in, the water’s great!

This baby shower screamed summer prep with our red, white and blue party decor from Laurie Louis Design, which we paired with some of our favorite nautical lanterns, ship wheels, fishing net, and, of course, life ring buoys! Laurie specializes in custom and southern-inspired stationery and gifts, so I knew that there was no better way to bring our vision to life for this nautical brunch than with some of her custom decor – especially her crab themed line, which helped pull this entire party together!

The invitation sets the style and mood for every party, so it had to be a stand out! We loved creating this adorable “Ahoy It’s a Boy” invitation using Laurie’s designs.  

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DIY Bars

Build Your Own Pizza Bar Party

In honor of Landon’s birthday this year, we are sharing inspiration for our favorite build your own pizza bar parties!

This year for Landon’s birthday, we celebrated it, as he would say – “sorority style,” meaning he had a week long celebration (that lucky guy)! We started the week off with a fun gathering with all his friends at Peticolas Brewery to enjoy good beer and games, had a delicious dinner just the two of us at his favorite restaurant, Texas de Brazil, and completed the week long celebration with a make your own pizza bar party with our family!

Lauren Conrad

Now I have to admit – the pizza bar party started off a little selfish. We have been so bogged down with moving and unpacking, that I just didn’t have the energy to make a full sit down meal for everyone, plus I honestly don’t know where all our kitchen supplies are right now – HA! No matter what the motivation was – this ended up being one of the best birthday parties we have ever thrown!

The pizza bar was a total hit! It was interactive, fun, creative and everyone could personalize their meal to their preference!

So – How to set up a pizza bar!

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DIY Bars

Hot Chocolate Party Inspiration

Hot Chocolate Bars are the perfect addition to any winter party. Whether you’re inviting some friends over for a low key hang out or looking for a reason to celebrate and want to throw a winter soiree before Valentine’s Day, a hot chocolate bar is the perfect set up to include!

We recently shared all our Hot Chocolate Party Entertaining Essentials but if you’re looking for a little extra inspo, we’ve got you covered here too! Check out some of our favorite Hot Chocolate Bars from our fellow styling friends to help getting those juices flowing!

Project Nursery

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DIY Bars

Hot Chocolate Bar – Entertaining Essentials

January is the hostess’s purgatory. Santa is on sabbatical and Cupid hasn’t yet strung his bow, plus we’re all still focusing on our New Year’s resolutions.

But we’ve got just the party for you that’ll warm you up and doesn’t have to count as a full “cheat day” — a hot chocolate party! It’s chilly all over the U-S of A, and who doesn’t love snuggling up with a blanket and a mug of hot cocoa?!

To help inspire you and pull your gathering together, we’ve rounded up a few of our entertaining essentials for hosting a kick a** hot chocolate bar party! Enjoy!

 

The Essentials:

 PS! If you really want to mix up your party and make it more interactive, consider making these hot chocolate mason jar gifts with your guests! Or check out this post for some Hot Chocolate Party Inspiration!

Also – Pro tip: Add Bailey’s. Always add Bailey’s (21 and up, of course!)

Shop the Post!

 

 

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DIY Bars

Ice Cream Social Inspiration Board

Are you screaming or ice cream?! We sure are! In our house, we find all the excuses we can to host an ice cream social. And this Labor Day weekend is no exception.

Whether you are celebrating the start of the school year, a birthday, a baby shower, or start of summer, an ice cream social is always the perfect party theme to incorporate into your soiree! It’s fun, festive, and oh so tasty! 

To help with your next celebration, we’ve put together an inspiration board with everything you need (including our new favorite menu from our shop!) to throw your own ice cream social at home!  Enjoy!  

Check out how we brought this inspiration board together HERE!

Shop the Post!

 

Photography by Luisa’s Secret

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DIY Bars

Valentine’s Day Tablescape

Where has this year gone?! I can’t believe Valentine’s Day is just a few short days away! As you all know, this year is just absolutely crazy getting ready for our wedding in June, plus my best friend is getting married a couple weeks after us, so we are filled to the brim with exciting wedding prep and parties!

With showers and meetings galore, I have to admit, our Valentine’s Day celebrations are not as elaborate as they have been in years past (remember our Valentine’s Brunch last year?). This year we are taking it a little bit slower and enjoying an intimate dinner for two at home, which is actually perfect since we have been running, running, running so much. I’m really looking forward to a quiet night at home with my fiance.

To create a quiet and more relaxed environment, I wanted a formal and classic dinner table set up this year. I started with a sweetheart table dressed in a white tablecloth with pink and gold accents. Once I set the table, it just looked too plain to me, SO, I employed my new favorite dinner party trick! I found the cutest gold lip wrapping paper (yes, wrapping paper!) from Swoozies and cut it into the shape of my table and used that as the table topper! It put a whole new spin on my table and was exactly what I was looking for! It took literally no time to set the table, but the patterned wrapping paper gave it a very intentional and styled look.

Does this not just completely change the look?! I am so thrilled with how it turned out. It still looks formal and more traditional, but has a certain pop to it that really brings the whole table to life!

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Chili Bar

Chili Bar

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One of my favorite ways to spend cold and rainy days like today is curling up on the couch with a big bowl of homemade chili. Since my house is the primary gathering spot for all our friends, my boyfriend and I set up this super cute Chili Bar for them to come and enjoy as well!

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This setup is really easy to throw together last minute. The morning of our Chili Bar party, I whipped up a batch of my favorite chili recipe and let it cook all day on the crockpot then about an hour before our guests came, I made some quick and easy Jalapeno Cornbread Muffins, threw a few baked potatoes in the oven, and a skillet chocolate chip cookie for dessert! A quick and simple menu, but filling and SO delicious!

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Since chili is a pretty casual dish, you don’t need a super elaborate set-up either.  To put together this simple and casual-rustic styled bar, all I did was use some extra burlap as a semi-tablecloth to create texture, used my favorite wooden crates to hold the baked potatoes, beverages, and corn muffins and most importantly add some height to the tablescape,  added a cute “Chili Bar” sign that I downloaded and printed at my house from Etsy and then just placed the chili stockpots on the table for easy serving!

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But seriously, how cute is this sign? This took 5 minutes to purchase, download, and print off of Etsy, but it makes the whole bar look like I put WAYYY more effort into it than I really did. It really is all in the details, my friends!

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Don’t forget to lay out some toppings for the Chili! I just picked out my four favorite condiments and put them in some mason jars for guests to serve out of. Mason jars fit perfectly with the casual-rustic feel I was going for, plus they are easy to clean up! All I had to do to put it away was screw the tops back on and put it in the refrigerator for next time I needed them!

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As for beverages, I just picked up some cute Coca-Cola bottles from the grocery store and served them with paper straws. Once again, super easy and convenient, but looks like we put way more effort into the whole set up than we really did!

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Now sit back and enjoy this chilly afternoon with some tasty chilly and great friends! Enjoy!

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For the full details of the set-up, check out some of our favorite products below!

Decor:

Chili Stockpot: Le Creuset (similar) | Wooden Crates: Amazon

Burlap: Amazon | Chili Bar Sign: SprinkledDesign

Lantern: Amazon | Natural Wood Slabs: Save on Crafts

Food:

Easy Crockpot Chili | Jalapeno Cornbread Muffins

Design:

Styled By: The Everyday Hostess

Photography: Beckley & CO.

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