Transitioning From a Student: My Job Does More Than Pay Bills

One good aspect about my job is that I learn skills that are very applicable to different things such as maid of honor duties and bridal showers. My parents helped me throw a bridal shower for Emily whose wedding is in November. I have been ZERO, ZIP, NADA help to her with her wedding mostly because we don’t even live in the same state but also because I have failed as a maid of honor and WEDDING PLANNER! I keep asking her to let me help her but she’s being polite and won’t let me know what I can do. She’s extremely low key, but she knows exactly what she wants. She is the dream bride for any planner, and she’s not even using one!

We hosted the shower in our back yard in Orange. It was very small and intimate and turned out to be a beautiful day. I chose pastel orange, yellow, and pink as the color palette because those are the colors I think of when Emily comes to mind. She’s so kind-spirited and sunshiney! <--Yes, I make up my own words. :)

Sunshiney Tea Party!

I Got to Use My Great-Grandmother's China

I can’t even reiterate how helpful my parents were, along with a few other people. We decided to do a Saturday morning brunch and tea party. My mom made some fabulous quiches and we served sandwich fixings, a veggie platter, a fruit platter, and Emily’s mom made some amazing cinnamon rolls. For dessert, I ordered cake pops from a friend who is an up-and-coming baker! We also had coffee, iced tea, tea, and my dad made his famous mimosas.

Food Spread Pre-Quiche

We Had Enough Food To Feed These Handsome Guys...The girls were a little confused when they all appeared in their PJS!! :)

I learned a lot that morning, namely that I need to take some culinary classes or go shadow a caterer. I don’t know how many times my dad came up behind me to fix the amateur mistakes I was making in displaying the food.

“When you lay out pre-cut, packaged cheese, you want to separate it and re-stack it because it is too stuck together for people to separate when holding a plate of food.”

“When you wash raspberries, you want them to completely dry before setting them out because they smoosh and run together.”

“This is how you make bunches of grapes look nice”

“Crowds are not going to appreciate your healthy food makeovers.”

Don’t even ask me to cut a watermelon nicely to serve. You are better off seeking the help of a two year old.

I also realized, and feel like we planned really well, that when you have an event that starts at 10:00AM, you need to do as much prep work as possible the day before even if you are waking up a 5am to start working. We spent the whole Friday getting ready and doing as much as possible, and our morning was still pretty busy!

I also realized that floral design courses are imperative for me. I cannot put an arrangement together for the life of me. Thank goodness my dad is so artsy. We bought flowers from Costco--seriously one of the best resources for flowers--and my dad arranged them into tea pots for me. That was my mom's idea!

Until I learn more about food and flowers, this event planner will be hiring caterers and florists!

Thanks to both of my parents for thinking of the million things I never thought of! Both my mom and dad worked non-stop. My mom's a little camera-shy, but she's always there being the best mom in the world!

I'm not a completely crafter helpless because I made some vases I'm kind of proud of! I got the idea at Tip Junkie It doesn't take a college degree to make them, but one day I will be a master crafter!!

If I did this again, I would collect more china and make it more mismatched.

As an aspiring business person, I know how hard it is to get your foot in the door, and I love to use people that are in the same boat as me…as long as they are qualified. I noticed Kari, a good friend's cake pop creations on Facebook, and she has made some adorable things! She doesn’t have an official business yet, but she is well on her way, and I was excited to be among her first few clients. It won’t be long before I can’t afford her because she is so talented!

Check out these adorable tea cups she made for the shower:

I also stole pictures of past work from her Facebook:

How Cute Are These??

School Colors For a Graduation Party

Please let me know if you ever need some fabulous cake pops, and I will put you in touch with Kari and her sister. They not only look cute, they taste fabulous too! I ordered funfetti because it was a neutral flavor, and it was a big hit!

I also used Emily’s longtime friend for the invitations. She is not sure exactly what direction she wants to go exactly because she has a ton of skills and is going to FIDM this fall, but if you want someone who will put 110% into making beautiful paper goods you have to contact Amanda. I was shocked when I got the invitations from her and how much detail she added. She was also super helpful and offered to do so much for the shower. She brought a giant box of different tea sets to help my very small collection.

Sorry Amanda, these sideways poor quality phone pictures do not do your work justice!

Love How She Pulled the Ribbon Through!

Blair is not going to be able to get away from me--first, in the endless questions I send her and secondly in her designing various aspects of my events. I used the chicken wire frames that she built to display recipe cards that we sent with Emily and she designed and made the adorable banner. She created it after a 5 minute phone call and a few questions. She nailed the whole design perfectly! If you need an event planner, paper goods and decor, event design, unique rentals, and a lot more contact Blair here.