Las Vegas Inspiration

I had the honor to work with a FABULOUS couple a couple months ago to decorate their reception,but had been working with them for over a year. Stacey (the bride) was awesome to work with, I believe she has been by far the funniest bride to work this thus far this year - She was honestly open, just like me, likes to have fun, kinda of a DIY'er, & just fun, fabulous & down right appreciative for EVERYTHING.

The couple had gotten married in Vegas earlier this year, but came back to her home town of Mandan, ND to hold their reception. So I had a Vegas Theme inspiration, but didn't want it to scream Vegas in a tacky way - I wanted to keep it classy, not trashy ;) Hope you enjoy the pictures

When you walk into the venue you are greeted by the adorable guest book table with cute touches

The decor was up lights, bling & over the top red rose arrangements with over 288 candles!

Easy as 1,2,3 Dessert

Here is an extremely easy, quick, delicious, light, & half way healthy dessert. All you need is 3 ingredients!! I needed something to bring to our family Fourth of July potluck & I had like no time to make something gourmet, so I looked around my house to see what I had on hand . Even though I had no time I wanted it to appear I had spent hours on it, thinking about it & creating it and of course I wanted it to be festive in red, white & blue...... this is what I came up with.

You want to create this? You can it is SUPER EASY & made with things you probably have on hand already

Ingredients:

1 Box of Angel food box cake

1 1/2 big containers of light Cool Whip

Fresh Fruit

Directions:

1. Make angel food cake as directed on box & let cool completely

2. cut the cake up into bite size pieces

3. start with a layer of angel food bites, then a layer of cool whip, then I did a layer of fresh blueberries

4. repeat the angel food bite & cool whip layer  then add your fresh raspberries on the top

5. eat & enjoy!!!

Red, White & Blue

Red, white, & blue, parades, candy, swimming, eating, and of course fireworks......yep we are talking fourth of July! Any holiday is a wonderful time of year that I look forward to each year..........when I was a young kid we had our traditions for each holiday that we could always look forward to. My parents were great at putting their kids' needs before theirs and making sure that we had a lifetime of great memories and lots of family time & I strive to carry out that tradition to my kids.

I like to make a big deal of their birthdays, holidays, big achievements, & milestones _ and I don't mean making a big money sucking production out of these things, but making it a big deal for my kids. It doesn't take a lot of money, toys, & gifts in order to make it "the best day EVER" for your kids.....Just use your creativity & spend time with them & they will love it, remember it & cherish it forever. 

This past week was July 4th & one of my husbands traditions & memories of July 4th as he was a kid was taking part in the kiddie parade in our small town & since our children are now all about the age to go into the parade by themselves I wanted to make it a memorable tradition for them also, so they decided that they each wanted to ride their own bikes threw the parade. In an attempt to keep them involved in the process I had asked them if they had ideas or how they might like their bikes to be decorated in red, white & blue. My oldest son was all about superheros, My girl was about sparkle, & my littlest one (not quite 2 yrs. old) was just excited to be doing whatever his siblings were doing ;) So we put our heads together, gather things from around the house & got to decorating and this is what we came up with.

My girl had a blast & was decorated on the front & back of her bike

 Using bows, ribbon, straws on some of the spokes & creativity we got them red, white & blue

 My youngest loves to make noise so we had to give him noise makers on his bike :)

Notice the Captain America Shield we created for my oldest son's bike....it may not be perfect but he LOVED it & couldn't wait to show it off

My girl got her sparkle by adding blue glitter to her name plate we created

Memorial day traditions

Memorial day is a day of appreciation, honor, respect & admiration for those that have served in our country.

When I was a kid our Memorial weekend tradition was to go camping with the family & close friends enjoying & celebrating the first weekend of summer with lots of mouth watering foods, laughs, stories & outdoor games. Today my own families traditions are some what the same in the sense that we always have an abundance of mouth watering foods, laughs, spend it with lots of family around & enjoy outdoor games if weather permits. But since my husband is a farmer we don't go camping as this time of year we are busy planting making sure we can feed the world. We start our morning off by having our own flag raising ceremony at our house followed by us & many others partaking in the Memorial Day Ceremony at our local small town cemetery where a lot of my husbands loved ones that have past are buried. They have a group that comes to raise the flag, talk briefly, shoot off some blank rounds & then we go around & visit the grave sites. In the afternoon we all go back to the farm to enjoy a bountiful buffet & good company.Another tradition of Memorial Day is the potluck & that is how we choose to do our food selection on Memorial Day. My in-laws supply the hamburgers & hot dogs and the rest of us supply some other kind of dish of our choice, this year I decided to bring my fruit pizza for all to enjoy. Hope you all had a great Memorial day and Memorial day weekend, & remember to always thank a soldier for fighting for your rights to live in this beautiful country we live in!!

Top 5 DIY Centerpieces

If you happen to be a bride that has exquisite taste but happens to be on a little bit tighter budget than you may want, no fear. There are still many ways to achieve the draw dropping effect that you are looking for. Here are some our top five very easy DIY centerpieces that are sure to turn heads.

Submerged Flower Centerpieces

 

Candles

Pictures

Wine Bottles

 

Edible Centerpieces

Strike A Pose! Continuing Trend into 2013

Have you ever attend a wedding reception gone to cocktail  or social hour & you just kinda feel like there isn't a lot to do, so you are just kinda hanging out until the supper & dance starts? Well we have just the thing for you! Entertaining your guests is a HUGE part of every wedding - you want your guests to go away from your event saying "this was the best ever" or "I haven't had this great of a time at a wedding in a long time." Let's face it you want your guests to remember your event & be the first thing people think of when they hear the word wedding - fun, eventful, memorable, & beautiful! 

Photo booths used to be used more so for the birthday party & high school type of events, but why not have them at your wedding? They are fun & entertaining! Photo booths showed up at weddings in our area about 2 yrs ago & have become very popular. They are great to use as favors for your guests or just to add that extra fun to the night to keep your guests engaged & socializing.

 Now you can either hire a professional company that specializes in photo booths for you, see if your photographer offers some type of photo booth thing (as many do now), or you can create your own photo booth -adding personality & charm to your event.

The newest Trend right now is the DIY photo booth & we love this concept! I mean the possibilities are endless, you can create it for next to no money, you get to be creative, it will be one-of-a-kind & guests will feel more connected to you & your event.

Make it as fun, silly or chic as you want all these are found Via Pinterest

 

 

 

 

Up Lighting

In our area up lights is a modern way of completely transforming our old(er) hotel venues which we mainly have around here into something fabulous & breath-taking! Up lighting is also great to use with fabric like behind backdrops to really illuminate the light. Our up lights are LED up lights which means they are made up of lots of tiny small red, blue & green LED bulbs which gives us the option to make a whole array of colors to create for you, they last so much longer, & they stay cool to the touch.

Photographry by: Forever Fresh                      Via:Forever Fresh Decorators