Mardi Gras Bliss

One of my favorite parts of the party planning biz is being able to use our talents to celebrate friends and family that are near and dear to us. That’s exactly what I got to do a couple of weeks prior for my friend Swanna. About 5 years ago I met Swanna through a good friend of mine from Toronto and I’m so glad she made the introduction. Over the years we’ve spent a lot of time together and have grown very close. Swanna went through the typical NYC dating routine…and I met many of her suiters. But it wasn’t until Christian came along that I knew she had truly found her match. Christian gets Swanna’s quirky ways and loves her unconditionally. Always a beautiful thing to watch. When Swanna told me Christian proposed to her I was nothing but thrilled for the two of them…and immediately jumped all over the opportunity to partner with her best friends and throw her the bridal shower of her dreams.

Swanna is from New Orleans and will be marrying Christian there at the end of this month. Since they have spent so much of their relationship visiting New Orleans I thought it would only be appropriate to throw a Mardi Gras themed shower. We made it co-ed so Christian and his family could join in the fun which was so fab. The only catch was…I wanted to make it really chic which was a bit tricky since most of the fun in Mardi Gras is all about being super cheesy…so here’s how I did it.

Let’s start with the bar…Bourbon. What else? I had my friends over at Four Rosesset me up with a variety of Bourbon for a tasting. I set out Mexican Cola to mix though most of the guests took it straight up…some with ice. Of course Ali designed up some adorable labels for our bottles of water and we set out bottles of pellegrino along side.

Since the party was a brunch and called for 11am I set up a coffee station where I dressed up a regular urn with some artwork to bring some life to something that would otherwise look pretty dull. To round it all out we served plenty of beer, prosecco and white wine.

Moving on to the food…my favorite part of this party…
We brought in a chef from Cobblestone Catering and he helped us serve a New Orleans inspired menu consisting of: Blackened trout po-boys, Oyster po-boys, Grilled cajun shrimp, Mini chicken & waffles, Fried green tomato topped with pickled okra and gumbo tumblers. Out of this world!!

For the sweets…we set up the most gorgeous table full of color, character masks and beads. Swanna’s friend and one of my co-hosts for the party – Stefanie Markman – also happens to be a pretty incredible pastry chef. And not one by design…she just does it for the love of baking! Well she killed it with the desserts…mask shaped sugar cookies coated with gold edible glitter, chocolate ganache bites in metallic gold liners, mini King Cakes and a King Cake inspired cake! Everything was so delish and I reaped the benefits of having this shower at my apartment by getting to eat the leftovers for days to follow!

As for decor – it was one of my favorites so far. We worked with a beautiful color palette of emerald green, deep grape purple, canary yellow and bright white. The colors pulled together so beautifully through the flowers and vases that we used to decorate my apartment with. I loved filling the glass jars of beads and adding in some gold dipped feathers. I also had some fun with gold spray paint and gold glitter for the S & C that I put on my wall over the dessert table and then gave to Swanna and Christian to keep…which they are going to reuse at their wedding!

Lastly, we set up a station where our guests could snap a photo and leave a message for the King and Queen to be. I kept the scrapbook and added some of the absolutely gorgeous photos that Raquel took of the event. It was a keepsake Swanna & Christian gushed over when I gave it to them and will cherish forever.

Not only did Swanna, Christian, their family and friends have a wonderful time at the event…but Amy Atlas ran a feature for us! Check it out here. We’re always so excited and proud to be recognized on Amy’s blog!

Congrats on your upcoming nuptials Swanna & Christian…cannot wait to continue the celebrations later this month with you!