Happy New Year, Beauties! It’s officially 2015 and I hope you celebrated in style with the ones you love. Here at Sleepless in Sequins, we threw a New Year’s Eve bash at our home. It was a spontaneous party, that we decided upon just two days before NYE! I’ll admit that I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I wanted a themed party with a color scheme, an abundance of flowers, crystal cocktail glasses, the perfect hors d’ouvres, plated on lovely serving pieces and…well, you get the point. I want everything perfect. Always. I spend hours on Pinterest (check out my inspiration boards here) at 2am searching for party planning inspiration. This is the exact reason that entertaining people always overwhelmed me. I love being creative, but the entire production of a party always seemed to be too much for me to handle. If you know me personally, you know that I am by no means a domestic diva. My cooking skills aren’t quite up to par. I’m not kidding…I can burn toast. Therefore, I leave the culinary creations up to the superstar chef of the house, and Sleepless in Sequins photog, Grant. On a side note, I’m great at chopping vegetables and I can make a mean salad.
I do love the entire creative process of entertaining. I enjoy choosing the color scheme, picking a theme, creating the table-scape and ambiance of the room. I love arranging the food by color, and I’ve found a recent love for floral arrangements. I could spend all day in the flower district. That being said, I’ve recently fallen in love with entertaining! I’ve learned that practice makes perfect, and I love giving each event a different theme. It started with our Blogger Birthday Bash, back in November, and it felt so successful, that I decided to throw our New Year’s Eve Bash. To be honest, I’ve never had so much fun at my own party. I think our guests enjoyed it too.
I decided on a black and gold color scheme (check out my hostess guide here). I picked up a dozen mylar, star shaped, metallic balloons from Party City. Transporting them on the subway, was an adventure. Let me tell you; if you want to be noticed in New York City, walk around with a dozen balloons bigger than your body. Needless to say, I looked like a crazy person. They sure looked gorgeous at home, though! The blood, sweat, and tears in transit was totally worth it! I taped up metallic streamers on the wall, and surrounded it with balloons for a DIY photo booth backdrop, so guests could take selfies. I created fun, props using mustache and lip free, printable cut outs from Kristen Duke Photography. These are great, and they are free! All you need to do is print them, cut them, and tape or glue to a wooden stick from the craft store. I also bought New Year’s crowns, hats, and party blowers as props. The photos were such a blast to take!
To decorate the table, I used silver and gold cylinder vases of different sizes. Since I chose a metallic color scheme, I kept the flowers simple, and used white hydrangeas. I used a mix of real and silk hydrangeas, which I found at Gracious Home. In all seriousness, if you find some great quality silk flowers, they look even better than the real ones and you can reuse them for parties. Our serving pieces are from Michael Aram, Mariposa, and Waterford Crystal. I mixed metals and used silver and gold for our serving pieces.
For food, we served cheeses, olives, nuts, mushroom puffs, risotto balls, mini pizzas, etc. It’s best to keep food small and simple for guests, as they are usually mingling and nibbling at the same time. They won’t eat anything that is too difficult to hold. For dessert we served mini cupcakes from Baked by Melissa, which are always a hit, and Crumbs cupcakes as well.
For our beverages, we served champagne, wine, and scotch. I created DIY, metallic gold cocktail stirrers inspired by a blog post I read by one of my favorite bloggers, Fashionable Hostess. If anyone knows how to host parties, it’s this girl. I’m absolutely in love with her style. To create my cocktail sticks, I used a wooden stick, and wrapped the tip with a few inches of gold garland. I held in in place with my fingers and wrapped thin gold wire around the garland with my other hand in order to secure it. It was perfect! No need to buy fancy cocktail stirrers for your champagne flutes, when they can easily be made! Another great idea is a piece of crystal rock candy to the champagne flute to make it a little extra fancy. It’s the intricate details in party planning that make such a difference.
We were ready for our big bash and our guests arrived in style. We toasted to the New Year, laughed and made the very best of our night together. New Year’s Eve is always special for us, as it is the night we got engaged under the fireworks in Central Park several years ago. To carry on our tradition, we shared this moment with our friends, walked to Central Park and as the clock struck midnight, they released our balloons into the air, and the fireworks began in celebration of 2015. Another year, and another special tradition shared together.
My Sleepless in Sequins Beauties, we thank you for you love and support over the past year an always. I promise we hope to inspire you during the upcoming year with our style and our photography. Keep dreaming with us and cheers to a fabulous 2015! xo
Featured Pieces
- Waterford: Lismore Crystal Cake Stand
- Michael Aram: New Molten Double Snack Bowl Set
- Michael Aram: Molten Cheeseboard Knife
- Michael Aram: Molten Cheese Knives
- Michael Aram: Ginko Chip and Dip (similar style)
- Crate and Barrel: Champagne Flutes
- Ricci: Crystal Candlesticks (similar style here)
- Waterford: Crystal Lismore Essence White Wine Glasses
- Crate and Barrel: Champagne Flutes
- Luigi Bormioli: Bach Martini Glasses
- Mariposa: Beaded Napkin Holder
- Mariposa: Heart Weight
- C. Wonder: Gold Leopard Appetizer Plates
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