A Lovely Design

Vintage Carnival Party

I have been wanting to style a Vintage Carnival Party for forever! So when my daughter Bella who was turning thirteen told me that's what she wanted, I couldn't wait to get started!
Like always, I can't wait to start designing the invitation and the printables. The invitation sets the tone for the whole party and gets all the guests who receive it excited in anticipation for what's to come! And who doesn't love a carnival! I decided to go with black and white with accents of red, yellow and turquoise. This set the tone for the rest of the decor.

I spent the next couple weeks going to yard sales and antique stores in search of the perfect vintage finds to accessorize with. One of my favorite finds was this antique bubblegum machine. Isn't it adorable?

I displayed that along with some other great finds on the "Sweets & Treats" dessert table. The sprinkles cake was so much fun and super easy to decorate thanks to a fabulous tutorial by
Jenny Cookies.

The festive popcorn and cotton candy sugar cookies were certainly a big hit along with the mini cherry pies and classic vanilla cupcakes!

One of my favorite elements of the dessert table was the glittery "SWEETS" letters popping out of a vintage wooden box filled with yummy red and yellow jelly beans. These letters were made by my sweet friend Nancy over at AtoZebracelebrations.com.

Another one of my favorite things to style is the tablescape. I started with a turquoise blue table runner, then placed two large red and white striped popcorn buckets filled with white hydrangea to resemble popcorn. So fun!! I then hot glued yellow carnival tickets to straws and popped them in the middle of the arrangement.

Set on top of the super cute black and white striped plates were these adorable clown duckie mason jar favors. I found all the supplies to make these cuties from Oriental Trading. They have everything and anything you could ever need when it comes to parties! I simply painted the jar cover white, hot glued on the duckie, painted his nose red, added a cute party hat, some bakers twine, a darling vintage tag and filled them with some yummy taffy! It's probably one of the cutest party favors I've made to date!

After some delicious carnival inspired fare of mini sliders and hot dogs with all the fixins, the real fun was ready to begin! Because what's a carnival without classic carnival games! We had Balloon Pop, Matching Ducks Game, Ring Toss, Ping Pong Toss and last but not least... Face Painting! These games along with the ever so popular photo booth kept everyone occupied for hours!

The party finally ended when all the prizes had been won and everyone was stuffed with all the popcorn, cotton candy, and cherry pie they could eat! Fun was definitely had by all!
Thanks for stopping by! I hope you found a little inspiration for your next party!

Supplies and vendors:

Invitations, Printables & Styling: A Lovely Design

Plates, straws & dessert cups: Tomkat Studio

Mason jars, carnival tickets, DIY ducks, blue & white taffy, pompoms, matching duck game:
www.orientaltrading.com

Glittery "SWEET" letters: atozebracelebrations

Mini white frames: IKEA

Pendant & tissue tassel banner: Target

This review is based strictly on my opinion. I was provided samples free of charge by Oriental Trading to provide my honest review. No other type of compensation was received. All ideas and opinions are my own.

Let's Do Brunch!

Ladies Brunch Baby Shower!

This past month I had the pleasure of styling and hosting a lovely ladies brunch to celebrate a dear friend of mine and the upcoming birth of her daughter. I also had the pleasure of partnering up with Shutterfly on this event to create a warm, welcoming and cohesive look by using some of their lovely home decor pieces throughout the party!
I started like I always do by designing the invitation, as this sets the tone for what the guests can expect when they arrive. The theme I chose was simple and rustic yet very beautiful. I think it's important for the theme to reflect the personality of the guest of honor. I achieved this look by using a wood element and a lace element mixed with gorgeous hand painted floral clip art from www.createthecut.com. They are definitely one of my go-to's when I need a hand painted floral feel!

I carried this theme over to the beautiful "Welcome" sign that greeted the guests as they entered the party and again onto the stunning canvas that graced the dessert table. These are just two of several wonderful home decor items Shutterfly offers that you can easily customize to go with any party theme!

Another quick and easy way to customize your party is by adding some fun throw pillows that reflect your theme.

I can never seem to throw a party without overdoing it a bit on the flowers! What can I say... I'm a sucker for beautiful flowers! I wanted the guests to be able to enjoy the flowers after the party ended so I decided to double the table's flower arrangement as the favors for the guests to take home. I had these lovely mason jar mugs etched with each guests initial, then lined them down the center of the table runner and filled them with loads of vibrant flowers! The ladies were thrilled to be able to take home their own personalized flower arrangements!

For refreshments, I set up a fabulous Mimosa Bar on a darling gold mirrored beverage cart I picked up at Cost Plus. Having all your drinks and glassware in one place is not only convenient and functional, it looks great too!

Because there was so much wonderful brunch food to choose from, I decided to keep the desserts to a minimum. I made a beautiful 5 layer naked chocolate cake with a vanilla buttercream frosting and adorned it with what else.....flowers of course! And why not add more flowers to the mix in the form of gorgeous flower sugar cookies, which by the way were so much fun to make.

     I decided that instead of playing silly shower games, I would ask each guest to bring a special book for the baby and I included a darling sticker for them to put in the cover with their own special message inside. Everyone seemed to love this idea, including the guest of honor!
     I was thrilled to be able to honor my friend with this very special brunch for her and baby and I can't wait to meet the newest addition to her family!
      I hope you found much inspiration and ideas to use for your next gathering!

Party Styling/ Photography/Invitations/Desserts: Misha Perritt/A Lovely Design
Metal "Welcome"sign/ "Let's Do Brunch" canvas/ Etched mason jar mugs/ floral pillows: Shutterfly

Valentine's Party!

A Valentine's Day Par-TEA!

Better late than never! I just couldn't let Valentine's Day pass by without designing and styling a sweet celebration! I've been dying to use my antique red glass tea set which belonged to my grandmother and what better time to use red than Valentine's Day.
The color palette for this party was inspired by a darling favor box I had from Meri Meri.
I loved mixing the traditional Valentine's colors of red, pink and white with the not so traditional colors of bright orange and just a hint of mint green.
One of my absolute favorite parts of designing a party is designing the invitation and the printable suite that goes with it. I just love how everything turned out!

The decor was pretty simple and easy to create. I made a traditional tissue paper tassel garland and added some felt hearts in between. The wall decor turned out so sweet and added such a statement but was so easy to create. It was a simple wire heart decoration I found at Hobby Lobby and all I did was simply cut strips of different color tulle and tied them on all around the heart. This could definitely hang just like that or you could add a fun saying behind it like I did!

I LOVE using fresh flowers every chance I get so I decided to incorporate brightly colored roses and hydrangea into the cake design by simply creating a beautiful flower topper for my naked cake.
My daughter Bella and I had so much fun baking and decorating all the sweet treats! We made vanilla cupcakes with pink and orange frosting, a naked vanilla cake and some deliciously iced sugar cookies. My youngest daughter Talula thoroughly enjoyed attending the tea party and eating all the delectable treats!
I set up a darling child sized table in front of the dessert table that was set upon a lovely white dresser. I adorned the table with a table runner made from a perfectly matched orange and pink fabric I found at Hobby Lobby. I then set up the sweetest tea party using heart shaped melamine plates and Grandma's antique red glass tea set. I just adore the place cards that were placed inside the tea cups to resemble tea bags. So sweet!
Check out all the adorable details below!