August 10, 2015

'Moulin Rouge' Wedding Rehearsal Dinner

It all began with a dress. While wedding dress shopping at one of my favorite vintage stores in San Francisco, http://www.torsovintages.com, I stumbled upon this stunning peacock blue re-worked vintage dress, complete with tulle, lace and beading work. It was so fabulous that I created a "Moulin Rouge" wedding party - a girl needs an excuse to wear fabulous clothes!

The venue was perfect - we had already booked a renaissance style Chateau in the Loire Valley for our wedding at http://www.chateauchallain.com/. We simply needed to add some (lots of) feathers, candle light, jewel tones and velvety materials to set the cabaret mood. To complete the scene, we projected the movie Moulin Rouge onto the stone walls of the Chateau.

Flowers and Feathers Accessorized Lighting and Fixtures

Parasols with Feathers were Strung from Lights

Feathers Exploded from Architectural Features

Guests were asked to dress in cabaret attire - top hats, tails, corsets, feather boas and fishnet stockings.

For libations and provisions, we kept it rather simple (after all, we were hosting an elaborate wedding reception the next evening). A slider bar with all the accoutrements allowed guests to self-serve. And, a wine bar featuring a variety of wines from the region permitted guests to sample and indulge without the need of a bartender. Of course, no 'Moulin Rouge' party would be complete without Absinthe, so a few bottles were on hand for the select few who prefer the anise taste. Vintage French Menus found on Etsy accompanied each food table.

For entertainment, we created a photo booth in an alcove by lining it with red velvet drapes. Every photo booth requires props - we featured mustache sticks made from felt and attached to dowels, Venetian eye masks, vintage feather fans (found at flea markets and on Etsy), boas and wigs. Guests were provided a polaroid camera and asked to leave a photo for the hosts as a memento of the evening. Dancing was enabled by our iPhone travel speaker and a playlist we prerecorded on the iPhone.

C'est la vie! A special thank you to the Chateau proprietor, Cynthia Nicholson, who coordinated and implemented our design idea. Event Photos by Javon Longieliere

August 3, 2015

An Elegant Chateau Wedding - Loire Valley, France

by Brandi Brown in Fetes

A silver screen worthy wedding at Chateau de Challain in Loire Valley, France (http://www.chateauchallain.com/). Old Hollywood Glamour took center stage at this intimate soiree. A subtle color palette of creams and soft golds and plush textures intermixed with vintage details conjured the Hollywood spirit.

I have always had a love affair with France. So, having the benefit of knowing me from the youthful age of 13, it was no surprise to my now husband (James) that, if I were to marry, it must be in France. I could think of no better way to celebrate our love affair (which began as a friendship in high school 16 years prior – James is the ultimate procrastinator), than to host an intimate week-long celebration with our closest friends and family members in our favorite destination – to share what we love with those who we love most.

We envisioned a unique, vintage glamorous fête that celebrated our long (and at times long-distance) love affair. One that harkened our guests back to the golden age of travel and silver screen magic.

For the ceremony, I wore a vintage bombshell cut Ulla Maija (purchased at half-price from SF Saks' Bridal sample sale), complete with feather embellished Rene Caovilla (purchased for $50! from a sample sale). A birdcage veil with feathers along with estate jewelry completed the ensemble.

Bridesmaids wore a vintage black dress of their choice, paired with vintage rhinestone earrings that I gave them as a thank you. We kept the guys classic in tuxes. The groom was dapper in an Armani tux and bow tie that we purchased on sale at Neiman Marcus (In my humble opinion, every grown-up man should own a tux – so our wedding was the perfect excuse to stock my husband's closet with a tux).

Hollywood Glamour permeated the reception - an abundance of candlelight, cream flowers donning feathers and classic crystal and silver serving ware. Each dinner setting included a gold box, topped with a vintage rhinestone broach (for some sparkle), holding a caramel treat from the famed Paris gourmand Fouchon. Vintage love letters were incorporated throughout the reception – menus sealed like love letters addressed to each guest, vintage French postcards served as table numbers and guests were asked to send a message to the couple via provided postcards. A traditional French wedding cake (a tower of caramelized cream puffs) was served, as well a a Michelin worthy menu of foie gras, filet mignon and puff pastry topped scallops.

The town church's stately architecture was the perfect setting for the ceremony. The vintage love letter theme continued with programs styled after vintage postcards. Vintage feathers from the 1920s and rhinestone shoe buckles were incorporated into the bouquets, and the church pews were minimally decorated to add a soft texture to balance the stone architecture.

Knowing how far our guests had traveled, each guest was greeted at the Chateau with a travel "necessity kit" addressed to them in our own handwriting, containing monogrammed soap, regional postcards and jams, water and snacks. A week of celebratory outings included bike rides along the wine route, absinthe distillery tours, an excursion to Mont St. Michelle, cocktail parties and gourmet dining. Guests were entertained at the reception with a cartoonist, martini bar, DJ, fireworks and an after hours dessert bar. The party continued into the morning.

With attendees coming from three different countries, we compiled vintage-inspired postal invites, wrapped parcel style and sealed with a monogrammed wax seal, containing detailed travel tips and itineraries that would immerse our guests in the beauty of the Loire Valley. (The invites were created by yours truly.)

For our first dance ('La Vie en Rose' by Edith Piaf), I changed into a Cymbeline Paris dress scored at a sample sale. For those who know me, they find my costume change to be hysterical because, at the outset, I protested against wearing a wedding dress.

Booking Chateau de Challain was a leap of faith, for we had never visited the Chateau in person and, at the time, there were limited reviews about the Chateau. But, we knew that we had made a great choice when the Chateau was subsequently featured on MTV. The proprietor, Cynthia Nicholson, is an American woman, so coordinating the logistics was rather seamless and Cynthia executed our vision flawlessly.

Holding a destination wedding relieved a bit of the stress associated with weddings because it required us to let go of some control - to bend with the wind. It may be a surprise, but it was also significantly cheaper to hold a destination wedding with our closest 30+ friends and family than to have a 200+ wedding Stateside...total budget was under $20,000.

On to our next adventure...

STYLE NOTES

Designer Wedding Dress at Discount: Nearly every bridal store and designer holds a sample sale at least once a year. Monique Lhuillier's is in downtown LA, and well worth the trip. I initially purchased a Monique Lhuillier gown for $800 but then opted for a more modern design by Ulla Maija (but I kept the Rene Caovilla shoes that I found for $50).
Vintage Details: Flea markets, garage sales and estate sales are excellent resources for finding affordable vintage costume jewelry. Vintage shoe buckles and broaches easily fastened to my bridesmaids' bouquets for a designer pop.
Paper Ephemeral: Etsy is a great online site for scoring vintage menus, maps, postcards and other paper goods as well as custom monograms. I found a vintage map of the Loire Valley and vintage postcards of regional chateaus and enclosed copies in every guest's welcome bag. I also found blank vintage French embossed menus that I used to print the Martini bar menu and Dessert bar menu.
Couture DIY Invites: Customize your wedding invitation suite with graphics from www.graphicsfairy.com, and print on high quality Italian letter press stationary paper. I used Medioevalis, available here http://www.rossi1931.com/. Enclose theme appropriate paper goods/resources, and your invites will look like they cost a fortune!
Estate Jewelry: A great wedding memento - the bride's wedding jewelry. I purchased my estate necklace and earrings from Fortane in Carmel, Ca http://www.fourtane.com/. Whenever I wear these pieces, the associated memories make me smile.
Affordable Welcome Bags: For $5/guest, we included vintage regional maps, vintage postcards featuring regional chateaus, regional travel size jams, monogrammed soap, travel shampoo, water, and French caramels. We reproduced the vintage maps and postcards at our local Kinkos, tied in a bundle with gold bakers twine and stamped with our wax monogram. Travel size Marseille soap was picked up on sale, wrapped in drawing paper stamped with vintage postal images and sealed with our wax monogram. We saved complimentary travel shampoos (such as L'Occitane) and French jams from our hotel stays leading up to the wedding. Water bottles and caramels were purchased from the Chateau's local grocery store.
Sentiments: Personal details are the magic behind weddings. For me, it was infusing memories of my late father into the ceremony. A photo of my father was clipped to my bouquet, a memory mention was included in the programs and I walked down the aisle to his favorite song - 'Fools Rush In' by Elvis Presley (string quartet version).

July 24, 2015

Howdy, and a Toddler Dude Ranch Bday Party

by Brandi Brown in Fetes

Howdy partners! Yes, it is cliché but also the seemingly perfect way to step onto the world stage of blogging with this post about throwing a Dude Ranch Birthday Party for my 2 year old son. From the invites to the décor to the food, it was all achieved on a creative budget (other than the petting zoo - that's one area skimping is not a good idea!).

THE DETAILS

A proper Cowboy spread. (Notice the tent in the corner..we made that from a WWII pup tent that I picked up at an estate sale, add a few bamboo poles, and voila!)

Cowboy gear for kids and adults alike!

A watering hole for adults.

A DIY rope sign (so simple!). Follow the instructions available at Love Grows Wild (http://lovegrowswild.com/2013/08/how-to-make-rope-letters/). I used hemp rope because that is what I had laying around.

DIY Wanted Signs featuring the birthday boy. Template available at Martha Stewart (http://www.marthastewart.com/271584/cowboy-cutouts). I printed the template onto four 8x11 sheets.

A Dude Ranch would not be complete without a petting zoo.

A photo booth for extra fun! A few hay bales, rope signs, bandanas, and a Wanted Sign, set the scene. The photo backdrop was made from drop cloth that I picked up at Home Depot; simply paint red stripes, and there you have it. The wanted sign was cut from an old piece of plywood I had laying around the house. We burned it with a creme brulee torch to give it an aged look and stenciled the words. I picked up some bandana fabric from our local discount fabric store to create the bunting flag as well as handkerchiefs for the party goers. I left the edges raw, and we had no problems with fraying.

FOOD

The cowboy grub was easy, cheap and could be made a day before (for the most part).

GAMES

Every party needs games! We created three games that were in line with the western theme.

Lasso the sawhorse! We made the sawhorse from some 2x4s laying around the house. For hair and the tail, we added some leather scraps that I picked up from Jo-Anne's.

Tin Can Shoot-Out. A great way to reuse those cans from the Cowboy Beans! I found the gun at the Dollar Store, but it didn't have the "oomph" necessary to shoot from a gaming distance. Next time, I would splurge for a Nerf gun.

Gold Rush (dig for gold!). I picked up some kiddie sand at Home Depot, poured it into a container along with some plastic gold coins and dollar signs. The kids had a blast sifting through the sand for treasures.

THE INVITES

I firmly believe that invites set the mood for the party, and, being that I'm a self-confessed paperaholic, I take my invites seriously. I created the invites from vintage graphics and fonts available for free at The Graphics Fairy http://thegraphicsfairy.com/. Picked up some brown paper at the Paper Source, wrapped them in bandanas, and placed them in Dollar Store envelopes stamped with an "R" for Remy. I used the extra paper to create theme-consistent signs for the party.

August 1, 2014

1st Birthday - a Vintage French Cirque

by Brandi Brown in Fetes

Let's face it, the first birthday party is more of a celebration of the parents surviving the first year than a birthday party for the kiddo. So, I seized the opportunity to selfishly create a vintage French circus themed party (after all, I have years' worth of superhero and transformer themed parties in my future, and I need any excuse I can find to pull out my vintage goods).

THE DETAILS

To set the party-goen' mood, we transformed the front of our house into a "big top". We strung "big top curtains" made from drop cloth, bunting flags that I made from old sheet music, a "strong-man" photo board made by my crafty mom (which doubled as a game), and, of course, no circus would be complete without a clown of sorts. (note the gorilla statute was a compromise - I couldn't find a monkey trainer - very upsetting.) Pics of the birthday boy's "year of firsts" were plastered onto vintage circus posters.

We transformed the backyard bocce ball court into circus alley, which contained the games and the kids. The circus tent and white/black mats covering the bocce are from Ikea. Red and white pinwheels are from The Oriental Trading Company. (the carjacks were used to prop up a game.)

We created a comfortable and festive seating area with faux sheep skin picked up from Ikea for $10. I had the French flag-style red, white and blue fabric laying around the house (these are always on my flea market hit list). Tree stumps were found on the side of the road.

FOOD AND GOODIES

Every circus needs a souvenir table. Ours was filled with cotton candy, taffy, lollipops, cracker jacks, gum balls, peanuts and clown noses. I created fun signs for "lion tamer whips" (licorice), "elephant feed" (peanuts) and "ring master mustaches" (pencils with felt mustaches glued to them). To create the signs, I started with a vintage French marquee sign, found at The Graphics Fairy (thegraphicsfairy.com). Vintage animal signs were also created from images found at The Graphics Fairy - I attached them to chopsticks we had leftover from Chinese takeout. I found the cotton candy and old fashioned candy at one of my favorite discount haunts, HomeGoods.

We made three different flavors of popcorn, truffle, caramel and butter, and served them in bags I picked up at the Dollar Store and cupcake holders from HomeGoods.

Hot dogs are almost obligatory at a circus, so we featured a sausage bar with all the fixins'.

For adult beverages (every kid's party should have treats for adults), we served Calimocho (the Basque version of Sangria, and much yummier), Champagne of course, and vodka spiked slushees. My Calimocho recipe: equal halves of red wine and cola, a few slices of orange and a stick or two of cinnamon.

FUN AND GAMES

Tickets were awarded for each game, and then the kids cashed in the tickets for prizes of their choice.

French lemonade bottles worked great for the Ring Toss game. We created the rings from rope and duct tape that we picked up at Home Depot.

Remember the strong-man photo board? Here it is transformed into the ball toss game. The face and dumbbell weights velcroed to the back of the photo board (my mom is a genius).

Old (but clean) yogurt containers and clothespins from the Dollar Store were all we needed for this game.

THE CAKE

This was our homemade attempt to make a cake a la Big Top style. I used the top half of the giant cupcake cakepan to bake the cake (using Duff's colorful tied-die cake mix), and layered on icing and more icing, and finished with the red icing stripes. The bunting flags (found at The Oriental Trading Company) added the final touch. All in all, not too bad for a $4 cake. I figured that most of the cake was going to end up on the ground anyway, so why spend big bucks on the cake?

THE INVITE

I printed the invites on leftover wedding stationary. Visited my favorite free graphics site (TheGraphicsFairy.com) for the images, wrapped the invite in tickets I picked up at the Dollar Store, and voila, a party in an envelope. The kiddie guests were so excited when they received the tickets in the mail.