Modern Take On A St Patty's Day Party

We're just about a week away from St Patrick's Day & it got me thinking about how people celebrate the Irish holiday.  The most obvious way is to head out to the bar for some green beer & Jameson (if you dare) dressed in as much green as possible.  The holiday falls on a Thursday this year and it will fall on a workday most years.  So what if you can't afford to get crazy when you have to work the next day or if you are like me and afraid to indulge since there will definitely be alcohol checkpoints set up across the country?  I have a solution for you.  I was inspired to create a modern take on SPD by Hostess with the Mostess blog's post on a SPD beer tasting happy hour.  My twist is to make it less of a happy hour tasting and more of a full-fledged party. 

The idea of a beer tasting is a great concept, but can get very pricey both with beer costs and based on the amount of guests.  Since the weekend is directly after SPD this year, why not have friends over to celebrate that Friday or Saturday?  For hosts looking to do a potluck, ask everyone to bring their favorite Irish food or drink.  There are so many great options; Irish soda bread, beer bread, cornbeef and cabbage, a mashed potato bar just to name a few and I would definitely have some Guinness & Jameson available.  Maybe even include Irish coffee.  The type of beer is up to you and don't feel obligated to dye all the beer green if you have a lot of light carpeting in the house.  Be sure to ask your guests to dress up in their Irish best and decorate your house in tons of green too.  The final touch is to put out tons of sweet treats with an Irish flair (shamrock cookies, cupcakes, etc).  Here are some pictures for inspiration.  Enjoy!

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Inspiration Station: Oscar Is On His Way

I.am.obsessed.with.award.shows.  That is a basic fact about me.  My top three favorites are the Emmys, The Golden Globes, and best award show ever is of course, the Oscars.  Luckily there are more than a few likeminded people in the event planning world and I found a complete Oscar party set up already!  As if that was not enough excitement for me, this post also includes FREE printables to create your own party!  Hello, free is always awesome.

This being said, I have not held a full-on Oscar party yet.  I usually get together with a few girlfriends to enjoy some wine and give our opinions/yell at the tv during the red carpet- and this year is no different.  Seeing this set up makes me really excited for possibly planning a party next year.  I would love to incorporate a pool to see who guesses the winners and maybe add in some delicious desserts in a nod to the nominees- this year I'm making Black Swan brownies and I believe there was mention of True Grits being served.  Since variety is the spice of life, I was really excited to see this post  with some great ideas on creating your own affordable (key word!) Oscars party.  Creating a movie snack area with popcorn, sno-cones, and milk duds will definitely be a hit.  And this post offers more great ideas plus an Oscars themed cake!  It really is up to you on how elaborate you want to be- from Oscar invitations to prizes to framing past winners as decor, there are so many options.  Whatever you decide to do, I hope you enjoy Hollywood's biggest night as much as I know I will!

 

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Delicious cocktails are a must! (Source)

Inspiration Station: Halloween Done Right

As much as I love all things wedding related, event planning is a year round love for me.  From birthdays to holidays, being creative and infusing tons of details for people to enjoy is key.  With Halloween coming up this weekend, I wanted to show some great ideas for entertaining of the spooky variety.  Although some of these set ups are pretty elaborate, I want to point out that you do not need to spend a lot of money to have a great presentation.  It is always better to have a few items with spectacular details than have a bunch of items that were thrown together.  So whether you are holding a Halloween party or going to one, I found a few posts on the interweb for some inspiration.  Enjoy!

 

Check out this post for the full sweets table photos