My younger sister, Bailey, constantly mocks me for having wedding blogs in my feed reader. She laughs at my mantra that weddings can be a great source of party inspiration. I defend my position and don’t see why I should miss out on great entertaining ideas just because I’m not married or engaged! I mean, a wedding is just a big party, right?!

My friend Alexis, who you might remember from the Blushing Bride Bridal Shower, helped me strengthen my case when she emailed me photos from a recent party she hosted where her menu was inspired by a wedding she recently attended.

Alexis is always on trend, be it in fashion or entertaining, so I was not surprised when I learned that she took one of the biggest wedding trends right now – “mac-tinis” or “bow-tinis” as she calls them, and used it at her at-home get together.

“I first saw the idea at a wedding where the bride and groom opted for a laid-back heavy hour d’oeuvres buffet in place of a more traditional sit-down meal,” Alexis writes. “At the buffet, there were martini glasses with bow tie pasta and a dozen or so toppings that guests could choose from. ‘Bartenders’ served guests and mixed the toppings into the bow-tinis. It was cute and delicious!”

In Alexis’s at-home adaptation, she opted for a self-serve buffet. She set out toppings in colorful bowls filled with chicken, sausage, shrimp, feta cheese, Parmesan cheese, sun dried tomatoes, pesto, and pine nuts and allowed guests to mix and match.

“They turned out really cute and everyone loved them! It’s a great way to serve guests dinner when you don’t have the room to seat them all – a common dilemma for apartment dwellers like us!”

Alexis also noted that you don’t have to use bow tie pasta. Any small pasta will do! Mac and cheese is also a great choice for those without time or space for a topping buffet. Alexis’s last tip for recreating this pasta-licious idea — add olive oil to the pasta to prevent stickiness.

An great idea, seen at a wedding, used at a real-life party. Take that Bailey!

{Photo Credits: Top left: Alexis Orf, Bottom right: Matt DeTurck}

Unlike hot dogs and ketchup, sangria and empty stomachs are not a good combo. Knowing we were in for a two-hour premier I wanted to serve substantial food beyond the usual appetizers.

Hot dogs were the obvious entrée choice and I’ve been dying to do mini mac & cheese for a while. I also dreamed up Bachelorette themed cupcake toppers so I rounded out the menu with a sweet cupcake finish. Throw in some chips and a veggie tray and voila… a perfect dinner for 10 in front of the TV! Pictures and recipes after the jump!

Continue Reading »

HOT DOG! The Bachelorette is back! And what a better way to celebrate than a party appropriately themed to reflect our new bachelorette’s philosophy on men and hot dog condiments?!

As many of my readers already know, my girlfriends and I are huge fans of the Bachelor. For those non-bachelor fans out there, last season Jillian immediately caught the attention of Bachelor Jason when she explained her theory regarding men and hot dog toppings:

“Ketchup guy is a good, strong, loyal, loving guy. He loves his mom and talks to her several times a week. Sauerkraut guy is the bad boy who they all go for. The onion guy – they all love him, but he’s never going to get married. And the mustard guy, that’s the guy who they all want to settle down with, because he’s part ketchup, part sauerkraut.”

While Jason claimed to be a mustard he acted like a kraut, leaving us with a brand new Bachelorette, and even more important, a reason to party!

Decorations

Since the theme was based on hot dogs, the food ended up becoming the central décor element of the party. In fact, I’m doing an entire post on the menu! Instead of plates, guests used ballpark-like hot dog boats. (24 for $2.99 at Hobby Lobby) I used larger ramekins to serve chili and cheese and set out relish, ketchup and mustard on a white platter.

I found some great striped scrapbook paper and choose coordinating solids to create detail elements like cupcake picks, napkin rings, beverage signs, drink markers and more.

My favorite part of the décor was the cupcake toppers with pictures of all 30 of Jillian’s potential suitors. Not only did they add to the decoration, but the girls had a great time hovering around to decide who was the cutest before the show began!

Continue Reading »

As my loyal readers already know, I’m a huge fan of ABC’s The Bachelor. Last night I hosted a premiere party. It was so fun and you are going to love the pictures! To tide you over until I can get those I wanted to share a review of the new online invitation service I used.

There has been buzz throughout the blogosphere about the new online invitation service, Purple Trail. I’ve been waiting for a chance to try it out and my Bachelorette Premiere party presented the perfect opportunity.

An avid evite fan, I was hesitant to stray from the familiar. I decided to take a leap of faith on a small party where I knew I could call people if it didn’t work for some reason. Here is my feedback!

Design

The feature I loved best about Purple Trail was the ability to create a custom design. Evite’s system is kind of clunky and I’ve learned it is just best to go with their premade templates. Purple Trail allowed me to upload a picture that I created in Photoshop and customize the background color to match.

Usability

Filling in all of the party information was simple and self-explanatory. The thing I liked best was how quickly the site loads.

Features

A first time user, I decided to try out some of the “Modules” PT offers. First, I found a video preview of The Bachelorette premiere and embedded it on the invite. I also added a poll of my guests to see which condiments they liked on their hot dogs. (This ended up being very helpful when grocery shopping!) I also added the Google Map which I found worked much better than evite’s mapping solution.

Final Review

All in all, I had a positive experience with Purple Trail. In fact, I just received an email asking if I wanted to post pictures from my event or send thank you notes! I did notice slower responses than I normal but most guests ended up responding eventually. I liked that guests could keep their messages private or make them public.

Would I use it again? For the Bachelorette, definitely. But for an event with more people (especially events with guys) I’d be hesitant to stray from what everyone is comfortable with.

Martini glasses are effortlessly chic but notoriously spill-prone. How chic can you really look with a pink cosmo stain down the front of your shirt? Renee Williams, inventor of the SIPATINIZ, has come to the rescue! Pronounced sip-a-tee-neez, this  uniquely designed beverage holder is designed to  prevent spills while still serving up your favorite cocktails and mocktails in style.

Though price is a little steep — $74.99 for a set of four — you might end up saving yourself a bundle of cash in dry cleaning bills!

To purchase a set of Sipatiniz, visit Fabulous Touch Gifts.