Party Inspiration: Backyard barbecue cartoon screening!

What a fantastic idea to keep the little ones entertained while the adults catch up! Here is Ruby at our family friends' summer celebration. Peggy hung up a tablecloth for a screen and projected cartoons in the backyard. So fun!

Wedding Inspiration: Celebration of Love, Life, and Land

Went to the wedding of some dear friends in Upstate New York this weekend. It was one of those special days where the sky opens up and makes you contemplate all that is lovely and wonderous in this life. Katie and Alex are special people alone, but even more so together. Their wedding was a celebration of their love, the life they share, the joining of their families, and their passion and appreciation for natural beauty. I went with another girlfriend (road trip from NYC!) and we basically cried all afternoon/night. It was an emotionally draining weekend!
The wedding was on Alex's family's land.

This was the view from my seat during the ceremony. Not too shabby.

Gorgeous cakes made by a family member.

Alex's talented brother is a wood sculptor and made this installation piece for the wedding. Gorgeous.

Laughter is so important!

Party Inspiration: Stella's Dora party = tutu cute!

Ruby is lucky enough to have a cousin exactly her same age (I went into labor with Ruby the day Stella was born. Granted, I didn't give birth until two days later, but that's another story)! We went to Wisconsin to be there for Stella's big day. She had a Dora-themed party that was so much fun!

Sweet sweet Stella was a doll in her fluffy Dora outfit.

Party Inspiration: Ruby's Teddy Bear Picnic

We already had Ruby's second birthday party last weekend. The "Teddy Bear Picnic" song has special meaning in our families for a number of reasons and it quickly became one of Ruby's favorite songs this year. She knows all the words (with a couple of adorable mistakes, like "You  better go not alone" and "See them catch their underwears") and asks for it constantly, so I decided it would be a perfect theme for her party!
A "picnic" theme is easy because you can do picnic foods and there's ton of stuff out there in red gingham checks. And what toddler can resist the addition of tons of teddies? I sent out the invitations for our little cub's party with a BYO for teddy bears and asked people to RSVP to Mama Bear or Papa Bear. We ended up having about 35 guests and had a GREAT time. When Ruby woke up the next morning, the first thing she said was: "Can we have a picnic?!"

In any case, here are some of the my favorite things from the party:

I made a banner of teddy bears by cutting out the teddy bear from a Teddy Grahams box, putting a little flag in his paw, and then photocopying him a bunch of times.

Mama Bear, Baby Bear, and Papa Bear. A family friend made a slew of these bear ears (cut out from furry fabric and hot-glued to cheap headbands) for people to wear at the party! Kids got to take them home and I tucked away a couple of pairs for Ruby's ever-evolving dress-up box, too!

 Ruby and her posse! I tied checked bows around the necks of all of the bears that belong to our family.

 Setting the scene...

 Ruby in her special outfit, waiting for guests to arrive.

 Simple decor.

 Gift bags and a teddy bear picnic-themed paper doll stage.

 The goodies inside the goodie bags.

 I made little sets of homemade recycled crayons for each kid in the shape of teddy bears.

 "Beary" lemonade with muddled raspberries, strawberries, Thai basil, and lemon basil. All of the ice was pink lemonade frozen in ice cube trays so that it wouldn't get watered down as ice melted.

"At six o'clock their mommies and daddies will take them home to bed, because they're tired little teddie bears..."

 Flat marshmallows for a bed and a piece of fruit roll-up for a blanket. Cozy little napping teddy grahams.

 Mason jars (these are our everyday drinking glasses) tied with ribbon for utensils.

One activity that I set out for kids was sticker art. I made photocopies of a simple drawing of a picnic scene and left out lots of sticks. Here is the aftermath.

 Ruby's adorable friend Leo came prepared with teddy bears spilling out of his backpack. Here he's giving Ruby a good-bye smooch.

Wedding Inspiration: Lucky-in-Love on 07.07.07

Speaking of my wedding...Here are some of my favorite things (aside from my hubby and all of our friends and family, of course) from our big day:

Gift bags I hand-delivered to the hotels to greet our guests at check-in. This included little gifts, maps, snacks, a crossword puzzle about me and Jude, and some one-pagers about our favorite places to eat and things to do around town:
We had a LOT of kids coming to the wedding, so we put out teddy bears that they could have as keepsakes:
Each of my bridesmaids had a different bouquet and mine was a compilation of all seven of their flowers. I picked them all out from seed catalogs and had a local gardener grow all of the flowers for the wedding...not only did this save money, but I don't like the idea of the energy involved in bringing my flowers from Europe or Australia (where most florists get theirs from): I was lucky enough to have my mother's Belgian veil, so I chose a simple dress (actually a Vera Wang bridesmaids dress!) to accentuate the lace.

My amazing mother-in-law made every program by hand. They were gorgeous and each one was bound with a little twig. We also knew it would be hot, so each guest got a fan.

The name cards had a photo of the guest with either the bride or groom. Sure, there were a few people here or there that needed a different image (like one of our parents with that person), but you'd be surprised how many I came up with!

Our adorable flower girls! In the spring, I picked out cute Easter dresses from Target ($17.99 each!) for the little ones. I also loved the flower crowns I had the flower lady make for them!

Our adorable ring bearers! Their little guayaberas matched Jude's and the pillow is a family heirloom (Jude's parents and grandparents used it).

Jude's lovely cousin, Maya, performed the ceremony. It's a big commitment to ask someone to do this, but it was so special to have someone close do this!

We decorated the entire rim of the tent with phtoos of the weddings of our friends and families. This was so fun and a great conversation starter for our guests. Here is my parents' wedding photo (with the veil!):

Our cake topper was my favorite! This was made by a small company in Brooklyn to reflect our outfits and everything. So cute!

Jude made the playlist and pumped it from his iPod. I have to say: best wedding music ever! It had everyone dancing.
I had a costume change! Ha! This is my flower crown from the rehearsal dinner party and a sassy little dress from Banana Republic.

After the reception, we headed out on the town with some of our friends. What a day!