GOOD LOOKS - Themed Parties

love birds

Many a bride often has post wedding day blues. After spending months and months (sometimes even years) planning your big day, you find yourself at a bit of a loss. No more trawling the internet for ideas, no appointments with the florist and dressmaker, no more crafting your own personal DIY projects. So, we have found the perfect solution!

Gather your closet friends, most likely many from the original bridal party, put to use all those wonderful goodies that you got from your gift registries, and have a First Year Anniversary Dinner Party!

INVITATION

The Gift of Paper

With the traditional first anniversary gift being paper, it goes without saying that your stationery suite must be something special. We will share all the details about this stunning collection from The Wedding Chicks in our IN GOOD HANDS column on Wednesday.

DECORATIONS

Home Sweet Home

This is a great opportunity to entertain in your own home, so rather than buy “disposable party goodies” invest in one or two home décor items that you may have had your eye on that will permanently make your living space something special. New cushions for the lounge? A set of brightly coloured vases?

TOP TIP:

Consider using décor items from elsewhere in your home for the dinner party: in this case our little bird house and white ceramic birds were actually from a bedroom.

TABLE

Complete the Collection

Setting the table should be no problem, hopefully you got everything you need as part of your gift registries: table linen, crockery, cutlery, glassware. For anything that is lacking, consider using this as the excuse to get the last bits and pieces to complete your collection. Especially, as you don’t want to be two years down the line and find that the items have subsequently been discontinued.

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If you are struggling to find a fabric to suit your colour scheme, consider looking in the bed linen section of the shop, our tablecloth is in fact a new Pip Studio Bed Sheet. Most of the time, the bed linen is cotton, which is pretty much exactly the same thing that is used for most tablecloths. So with a little bit of cutting and hemming, you will have an original tablecloth.

Love is in the details

I love the idea of using the same flowers that you used on your wedding day for the flower arrangements. Possibly, you would like to do the exact same design, or maybe try something a little different. In this case, uncomplicated bunches of pinks peonies were arranged in all different shapes and sizes of white vases.

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Personalise each place setting with pretty place cards and miniature paper bunting napkin rings. For our party, we included each guest’s name on the place card but added below their wedding day role “bridesmaid”, “bestman” etc.

MENU

Dinner Deja vu

For something special, consider replicating one or all of the courses from your wedding day. If you are like most brides, this will probably be the first time that you actually enjoy it! Speaking of which, see if you can get your hands on the same wines, and naturally serve champagne – and as it is for only a few people, this time splash out on the really, really good stuff!

TOP TIP:

Take the pressure off trying to do a full three course meal by yourself, and spoil yourself too with the help of a caterer or how about contacting one of the many companies that specialise in making ready made home cooked meals.

Another idea I like to do is to divide the menu up into three categories:

Course 1 – something I am good at making and can do without even trying.

Course 2 – try something new and surprise myself and my guests – hopefully in a good way.

Course 3 – outsource – buy it already made or only requires minimal effort from my side.

FUN AND GAMES

Relive the moment

Hopefully by this time your wedding photo album is complete, so use this opportunity to show it off. You may also have your wedding day on video, so you could have a little mini screening. But the emphasis here is on “little”, just plan for about half an hour of reminiscing.

FAVOURS

Let them eat cake

Have your wedding cake design and flavours made up into cupcakes, package these in little cupcake boxes, tie on a disposable fork, and your guests can enjoy them on the way home or for a late night snack!

Be sure to check back tomorrow for all the details of how you can get this look!