Ante up! A Poker Party on the Upper East Side
Boy has it been a busy spring here at LMP!! We have been knee deep in engagement parties, bridal showers, and of course birthday celebrations…like this fabulous 10th birthday party we had the honor of planning a few weeks ago. Our client came to us with the idea to throw her ten-year old son a poker themed party at the Vinegar Factory uptown. How fun!! This party was definitely up our alley. We just love working at the private room upstairs at Eli’s Vinegar Factory – such a fabulous space for week-day parties…and they are so wonderful to work with as well. This was gonna be a good one!
What poker-themed party would be complete without some real poker games? We found this amazing company Poker at your Place, who specializes in bringing the fun right into your home or event space. They absolutely love doing kids events, and were super excited to be involved. We had them come in and set up two poker tables complete with green felt, poker chips and wonderful dealers who were great with the kids. And instead of money, everyone received iTunes gift cards. In addition to playing poker, we also had our friend David Schwartz come in and teach the kids some card tricks. You may remember him from the 70th birthday “Loft Chic” party we planned back in April. Well, the kids loved him and the card tricks were a great addition to the action at the poker tables. Speaking of the poker tables, we of course we had to add some LMP flair to these them… green casino visors and cool shades for the kids to throw on when they were trying their best to hide their bluff! Both were a huge hit.
In between all the fun, Eli’s provided some kid-friendly bites for the boys. Who doesn’t like cheese pizza and pigs in a blanket? We love em! To protect the cards and chips from greasy fingers, we set up a separate table for everyone to eat at. We started with black linens and added red & black poker plates and napkins which anchored each place setting. We then added personalized water bottles set out on casino coasters. And wicker baskets with snacks were set out for munching.
As a fun take-home, we had personalized playing cards made, which we set out in a mesh pouch tied with a black ribbon. The birthday boy loves Pellegrino, or “spicy water” as he calls it so we personalized some of these too — how cute did they turn out ??
In the center of the table, jumbo dice lollipops were displayed in glass cubes filled with black rock candy.
We always try and come up with new and creative ways to create fabulous dessert tables. It’s all about the little details, after all! By framing playing cards and poker chips, we turned otherwise ordinary picture frames into fabulous platters for our sweet treats. Pretty cool right?
We had some fun playing card and “suit” sugar cookies, mini vanilla cupcakes served in Las Vegas decorative wrappers with playing card toppers and a fabulous cake adorned with “10” – which we propped up on a vase filled with poker chips…and also added sparklers to when it was time to sing. All gorgeous and delicious treats were courtesy of Kreated by Kristan.
In addition to the sweet treats, we filled chinese food containers filled with salty “Poker Snacks” for the kids to snack on throughout the night or even take home. Some gorgeous green flowers, a personalized backdrop and chocolate poker chips were the perfect touches to complete the dessert table…and we absolutely loved the outcome.
We love a Polaroid camera for it’s ability to provide instant gratification…so we set out a station where kids could grab silly mustaches or glasses and snap a quick pic! Before the kids arrived, Seri and I even got in on the fun.
Check out these fabulous ‘poker suit’ shaped balloons we found!! They were the perfect addition to the “TEN” balloons we strung up as guests entered the space. It took awhile to get them into place, but once we did they looked really cool.
We had such a fun time with this one! Makes us want to grab our hubbies take a quick trip down to AC and try our luck at the tables…
All photos courtesy of Melissa Robin Photography