Dark Romance at Little Owl - The Venue

When my friend Ilana asked if I wanted to help her style an intimate birthday dinner I knew exactly where and how. I have been dying to throw a party at Little Owl - The Venue. Little Owl is one of my favorite restaurants in the city located in the West Village, serving seasonal comfort food. When I noticed they had opened a private event space, I was dying to work there. My mind was instantly rolling with ideas as soon as we saw the space. And Ilana was sold as soon as she tasted their famous sliders. The staff couldn't have been kinder and more accommodating the food proved to be insanely delicious. They made specialty drinks for the night and set up a cocktail hour followed by a sit down dinner. Of course we designed beautiful menus to go at each setting. After brainstorming with my sister a little bit, dark romance quickly became the perfect theme for this space and dinner party. Michelle had recently discovered Drop it Modern, who sells gorgeously chic balloons in metallic colors and marbled patterns. There was a wood bar that set up perfectly with these fabulous balloons. I worked with our friend Clarelicious on chocolate dipped pears accompanied by kraft paper leaves to write each of the name cards for the place settings. For the cake, I found lots of inspiration on Pinterest and sent it over to our friends at Empire Cake. I brought over fresh flowers to have topped on the cake and they nailed it with the sugar rose cupcakes. Dare I say the desserts were too pretty to eat... To wish Ilana well we set up a station where her guests could write a note, snap a photo and create an instant scrapbook. She was elated and so happy to have such a sweet memory of the evening. To send everyone home on a sweet note, we set up Mast Brothers chocolate bars with belly bands that were personalized from Ilana. The evening was a huge success, the guests had a blast and Ilana the birthday girl got to celebrate in style!

*All photos above were taken by Karilyn Sanders.