The vision of the party was built by Mary Sue's daughter and party host, Suzanne. She pulled pictures from the web and over a couple of coffees at Starbucks, we designed and planned the whole thing together. The party was held in a private room at Boxwood Bistro, located at the Factory in Franklin, TN. The idea of a warm spring Saturday and boxwood started the brainstorming. We incorporated coral pink, bright yellow and summery greens into all of the paper details.
Mary Sue showed up thinking that she was just having a quiet lunch with a couple of close friends. She had no idea that she was getting a custom made party with all these details and was completely surprised!
The back room at Boxwood Bistro, over looking the deck and courtyard, was the perfect room - lots of light and room for one big table and displays. The dining room was transformed! Linens were by Southern Events in Franklin - sage table cloth and pin point corn silk yellow napkins with large square white chargers. The runner was custom made - more on that later.
Every part of this party had touches of Mary Sue - a baker, and gardener and grandmother, a "Paula Deen", a mother and a friend. On top of the charger, we folded the napkin to show off the custom menus and (one of the many) party favors, an olive wood spatula. The place cards sat on top of hand folded paper boxes. The paper was chosen to specifically match the color palette and just happen to also have lilies too. The box was filled with green moss and another party favor - lily bulb for guests to plant at home. We even were able to find coral pink striped paper straws on Etsy from Dandy You. For all of these goodies, we had favor bags with a custom sticker. Mary Sue's seat was marked with a custom monogrammed sign.
One of my favorite favors was a little box of custom designed and baked chocolates from Schakolad Chocolate Factory in Cool Springs. They last thing you can give a person who bakes cakes everyday is more cake, so we gave her what every woman can never get enough of - chocolate. They created a special 3-piece chocolate box, with dark, champagne and cheesecake chocolates, with a custom 60 piped on the center treat. We matched the ribbon to the coral ribbon used in the rest of the party. This cheesecake chocolate was to die for - Schakolad is serious about chocolate. And you can get just about anything you want there.
This is just the beginning of the beautiful birthday party. Part II later this week!
