Colour Palettes – Beach Dreams

Thousands of people can stare idly at a rolling sea and find inspiration and ideas about what to do next in their lives. The beauty in the crashing waves and the amazing colour spectrum it can make end up sparking a great imagination for an event, whether it be for a wedding, a beach birthday party, or some other sea breeze style party. Here are some amazing colour palettes I found from Sally Lee by the Sea that can really help you come up with the perfect colour combination for your beach themed party!

This one simply screams Tropical Paradise with it’s amazing over water beach villas and crystal blue waters. You can create the Tahitian dreams feel by using tans and browns that would usually be found in the material of villa huts. Using actual wooden slats in your event is a great way to give the same feel in a different aspect, giving the colour palette a more 3D visual experience than just simply using the colours you would find in this particular slice of paradise.

This colour palette goes along the same theme, and would be a great combination to use in a South Coast beach wedding as it follows that particular style of coastline. Use tan tablecloths and white starfish and shells to create the rock ambiance and add a touch of blue to the flowers on your centrepieces. Beautiful!

If you want to bring an aspect of the beach to your event, but don’t want to go too overboard with the blues and seafoam greens, you can focus on a more sandy, shelly colour palette than a sea based one. I would suggest still using the kind of colours in your event that you would find in the water, but make their influence small and rare. Use the majority of your decorations as a mutual tone, like tans, sandy browns and pearly whites. It’s natural, but oh so elegant!

If you want to go the other way and use vibrant natural colours, but want to stay away from the blues and clear colours you would find in your average beach, you could take a more lagoon feel to the decorations you would use at your event and focus more on the teals, darker greens and less highlighted aspects of the beach. When you think of the ocean you think blues and sand and crests of white, so take it a more unique way and focus on the deeper ocean and what lies beneath it. This would also make a great colour spectrum if you were having a Creature From The Black Lagoon kind of party!

Star Wars Candy Buffet

I know I might be a little late for May the 4th be with you, but if your into the fantastical world created by George Lucas, Star Wars is with you any time of the year! This cute idea for a party, which would work well for any avid Star Wars fan, small child’s birthday, or May the 4th celebration, comes from the  Hostess with the Mostess‘ blog and rides on the back of my discovery of a Han Solo in Carbonite phone cover that I found for my brother  (I’ve seen the real Han Solo in Carbonite that they used in the movie!) so here are some cute ways that you can heavily feature the Star Wars universe in your candy buffet!

These adorable cupcakes are a great idea to bring all the characters together in one delicious movement! Gold should be your main colour theme (with a black starry background) so use gold baking cups or ice cream cups to house the cupcakes, and do what they did here and add a mountain of delicious chocolate frosting.

Use food picks to bring together the Star Wars theme, and if you want to make your own you can get photos or pictures of your favourite characters, zoom in on the picture, and print on circular cardboard pieces. Attach to food picks or paddle pop sticks for an instant decoration. I love Chewbacca’s cake pick above!

One thing that I thought gave an extra kick to this Star Wars themed party (besides the amazingly intricate Millenium Falcon chocolate birthday cake!) was the   serving stands shaped like different space ships from the movie. It came as everything, from the Falcon, the Death Star and the Star Destroyer. Now if you want your own Star Wars serving stands you can check out Hello My Sweet at Etsy to get your own!

Every party has to have a source of libations, and vintage style milk bottles are one of every party must have! For a Star Wars theme, you can lay out bottles of lime green cordial and call them Yoda Soda! Use the Hello My Sweet print decorations form the link above, or make your own Yoda ears to add that little something extra to your Star Wars drink!

Last but least, you need more substantial food to serve that have a Star Wars twist. Use a play on characters and themes from the series to name your food. one of the most popular idea plays on Princess Leia’s hairstyle, which has been likened to a pair of Sticky Bun pastries. Serve some up and call them Leia’s Buns! Make some chocolate crackles and call them Wookie Hair and use Ewok ears. You can really let your imagination run wild!

Now if you have some tips or tricks you use when making your own Star Wars event, let me know! Email me at thepartyconnection@hotmail.com

Colour Palettes – Calming Joy

Most celebrations get you in a party mood, the kind of mood where you drink champagne and dance on the tables. Parties aren’t usually a chillaxing experience, but if you have the right occasion, you can turn any celebration into a sedated but enjoyable affair. You can do this by picking calming colours and light tones to help decorate your venue and give it a relaxing air, instead of the hyped up party hard mood.

The first idea is to use a calming mix of light purples, lavenders and lilacs. Purple is a popular colour choice for many occasions, but by only using lighter colours it gives a pleasing appearance that would work perfectly for a stress head mum having her first baby, a baby shower for a girl that goes against the regular pinks, or a Kitchen Tea that is hosted by your nanna. Use actual lavenders to help transform even the fragrence of the party into a healing retreat.

The next idea is along the same vein. It is using not only pastel pinks and light hues, but mixes a variety of these colours to create a calming effect. If you want to be a little more daring and use a colour as a centerpiece for your decorations, use a light colour that still stands out. You can use a pastel blue as a background colour, but use a salmon pink to draw in the main focal point, whether that be a cake or a specific decoration.

Now, maybe your having a boy at your baby shower, or you don’t like salmon and lilac as a colour scheme. You can go the other way and use a more muted caffe latte colour scheme instead. Go off the idea of a white tarnished wood table as a base colour of white and a delicate teacup and saucer to bring in the mixture of muted blues that are still dark, but not as dark as a royal blue. I believe the colour idea is more of a Prussian Blue, or a bluey gray. Mix it with a tan or sandstone coffee colour and you will have a great colour scheme for a teenage boy’s birthday or a sedated high tea.

Colour Palettes – Eye Popping Colour

Let’s face it, even after the stress of getting everything together, parties are supposed to be fun! And this fun feeling is supposed to bleed through the event right down to the decor! If you want a fun, vibrant style event, you have to go with fun and vibrant colours. Here are some fun colour palettes that can help you convey the right party hard mood for your event!

One thing you can do is get one main bright colour that pops out from the other decor. Make everything on the dessert table blue (table cloth, plates, styling tags etc) but make the cake a bright yellow. If you make one thing a different colour, it will be the centerpiece of the whole event and bring attention to the item that you want the most attention on.

If you have more than one thing involved in your decorations that demand the same amount of attention (all of the food and not just the wedding cake, or maybe the lanterns hanging above the dance floor) you can still go with the main features in eye popping colour, but just make the two (or three) different colours similar in hues and use a contrasting colour as the background colour. That way, the brighter items still get more attention. As an example, decorate the buffet table in dark blue with dark blue plates, but make the cake a bright yellow and all the food a mixture of bright yellows and orange. This way the colours still go together and still maintain focus over the darker colours.

Another way to explore your colourful side is to use similar shades to create a colourful, relaxing but vibrant look that isn’t too dramatic and makes the main feature stand out, without really demanding the attention. You can do this by using a mix of yellows, oranges and red, but making your main feature a light pink or a blue. The colours will still go together, but just not be as a dramatic contrast as bright orange on a purple background.

Colour Palette – Inviting Bakery

When your planning your party, do you have an image in your head about what’s going to work well together? If you love to plan parties like I do, you know that you do! You can’t live on advice like “blue and green should never be seen unless there is a colour in between” when it comes to a party and it’s decorations if there is a specific feel and concept that needs to be conveyed to guests and party attenders. There are many different colours and hues that can be used in conjunction together to create the perfect balance, feeling and sentiment for an event and you might not have considered them all when you are putting all the organisational pieces into place. This is where a colour palette will come in to play!

Colour palettes are a fun but organisational way to work out the best hues to convey the image you want for your event. Sit them together and you can see which colours pop, what the feeling about them together will bring (will a bright yellow item be lost in translation, or will it tie everything together?) and how you can best utilize the colours in your decorations for your event. They work really well for weddings, where there are many different vibes and passions involved in the planning process and the reason you are getting married in the first place!

I found these amazing Colour Palettes from a cute little page called Sally Lee By The Sea on Pinterest where they celebrated the colours and how they work together (Technically, my Graphic Designer fiancee Byron Carr found them!). I thought it would be a nice little page for you if your struggling with your own colour palettes for your own themed events.

This first entry talks about all the colours that could work well for a wedding (or other type of event) that is taking place in Autumn, or a vintage style venue, where the decor is usually tones of brown and has a warm comforting effect on the venue and the event. Leaves may be a great centrepiece for the tables, in their rich hues, as well as different styles of driftwood and candle flames. Ahh, lovely!

You could also go for a more deeper and bolder style hue, such as warm and rich colours in dark chocolate, chocolate brown and vanilla colours. They will always look great together – but don’t forget to serve your guests some chocolates or they might get a bit ravenous and start eating the decor! However, just make sure that either one light colour or one darker colour is the main effect of the decorations – otherwise they might not mix as well together!

You can focus more on having a lighter palette than a darker one, but introduce some subtile differences in colours that will stand out but blend nicely with the lighter hues. Pastel colours work well if you are going for this style of palette, so introduce some mint green, pastel blue and limoncello. Try not to make it too bright a colour or it will drown everything else out and just look too stark and contrasty.

Or you could just go for the paler effect and use colours that are all similar in shade, with one colour never outdoing the other. This kind of colour scheme would work for a very simply designed and decorated event.

If you used any of these wonderful hues for your own wedding, let me know! Email me at thepartyconnection@hotmail.com

I will have some more exciting and fun colour palettes for you very soon!

Paper Eskimo Classics

If you know parties and event styling products then you would know Paper Eskimo. They are one of the biggest suppliers when it comes to cute and kooky paper products that transform any party into something special! Well, they have a brand new range out at the moment, with some brand new styling ideas, and I thought I would share some of their ideas with you!

First up is their new Black and White Classic Designs. Stylish and simple, their black and white range would be perfect for any black tie event, gala dinner or wedding. Pair the black and white striped cupcake cases, loot bags and food picks with silver service style serving platters and cupcake towers, as well as crisp white linens and plain bottles of champagne to complete the sophisticated look!

Next, try their fun but adult Pink and Black Party range, perfect for any bachelorette or hen’s party, 21st birthday party or kitchen tea. Channel the Pink Floss coloured cupcake wrappers and loot bags instead of the Marshmallow Pink range and mix it with black bowls filled with red wrapped chocolate hearts, pink macaroons and pink and red roses. Use black, ornate style cake and food stands to make the pinks pop and use Black Tie straws and cups to keep the focus of pink on the main elements.

The Paper Eskimo’s last amazing arrange is the Red and White Circus Extravaganza! Perfect for a child’s birthday party, carnival or circus themed event or retro party night, the Candy Cane styling tags, cups, straws and cupcake cases will bring the extra edge to any of these stylised parties. Make little hotdogs and burgers, serve mini fries in cupcake cases and make a cute sundae stand to appease your guests. With so much to choose from, there is no excuse!

Big Top Candy Buffet

I know I’ve done a lot of posts about circus parties, carnival themed events and big top food buffets, but the circus is a theme I can never look away from for an event! Maybe it’s because I haven’t thrown my own circus themed party yet – but don’t worry, that will be for my 24th birthday! A culmination of many different circus parties? Where am I to begin?

The answer is right here. These amazing ideas and photos came from Kara’s Party Ideas – a blog I have just recently gotten my teeth into. You will be sure to see a lot more inspiration from the likes of Kara! Anyway, here are some more fun ideas that would be great inspiration for your next circus themed party (and mine):

A circus train is almost as whimsical as a circus tent. It moves the millions of different pieces required to get a circus together, and when you say the word “circus train” you see little cabooses all lined up together like boxes of animal crackers, with giraffe’s necks sticking out the top and bears behind ornate bars. A circus train is a great feature you can use for things like your food table, your drinks table and your candy buffet and would look amazing all lined up together!

You can channel the above photo by getting leftover baby cribs and removing the side panel that is on one side of the crib. Make sure all the cribs are the same colour (you can do circus colours of red and white to get that circus feel) and make sure the base is flat to put all your food and sweets on!

To give it a train feel, get some coloured rope and tie the cribs together to show the different cabooses. You can use tissue paper fans (found from any good party decorating store under either “Tissue Paper Fans” or “Paper Daisies”) of different colours to act as wheels on the front of your train. You can get these tissue paper fans in any colour so you could go red and white to keep the whimsical feeling going, or go with plain black to represent actual wheels.

Next, decorate the cabooses with ornate patterns and streamers and you have one delicious looking circus train!

As I have mentioned before, it’s never a circus party without carnival food so you should stock up on popcorn makers, red and white popcorn boxes, cones of cotton candy and rings of mini donuts. You can get most of these fun carnival food machines from Kmart and other “everything” stores for as little as $20! Get yourself a hot dog maker as well and set up squeezy bottles of mustard and tomato sauce for the carnival feel and set it up on one of your food cabooses. Instant circus!

But if you want something a little more you can get some snacks that would be a normal aspect at any style of party and put a circus themed spin on them by calling them something related to the circus. You can do like Kara did above and get licorice whips and call them “Lion Tamer Whips”. It’s easy and simple and just makes it that little bit special.

Animal crackers are something you couldn’t get here in Australia, but if you are in America you should definitely pick up some boxes that could act as a take home gift for your guests. If your a little short of these kind of crackers, buy a box of delicious cookies and design your own packaging to create a circus theme (or use a designer, like Byron Carr). It’s something a little bit different that would make an excellent circus themed gift for your guests!

Hey, Mr. Postman! I saw a legitimate strongman as part of a burlesque performance while working at the Spiegeltent and everyone in the crowd fell instant in love with him. He gave the idea of a circus strongman a revamp and you could do the same with these cute strongman candy weights!

Basically, make toffee by melting heaps of sugar and adding food colouring to the mix (to make the blue weights). Dip in a blue and white straw or piece of cardboard to make round weights at the end. Delicious, fun and super strongman looking!

If you want to go a bit different to your circus theme candy buffet, you can use red silk draping (like the kind you would find at on a circus tent) and make the little steampunk hot air balloons as a decorational feature. A great way is to utilize the animal element on the tables and get some circus animal figurines as centerpieces. I love the above giraffe head!

If you have any more cute circus ideas, I would love to know! Email me at thepartyconnection@hotmail.com