Party Planning: The Final Invite

As we talked about in an earlier post, the invite is an important first step in party planning. Today, I'm really happy to share with you the final concept we came up with for the invitation to my Celebrations book launch party.  But first, I have to say that I loved hearing all your ideas for the potential concept of the invitation.

Here are some ideas you shared with me:
• The invitation as a puzzle
• Me as a shirtless gladiator on a chariot
• Me on a bed of roses à la American Beauty
• An invitation in the shape of flower, using a color scheme of different shades of purple
• An invite told in a story format handwritten on a brown card
• Champagne bottles as invitations with custom labels

I actually loved the American Beauty concept so much that we tried it out. Here's the image of me in comparison to the original image from the movie (you can click on the image to make it bigger):

As you can see, I'm no Mena Suvari, so we nixed it.

Luckily, I have a private creative consultant (who also happens to be my partner) Theo Bleckmann, who has helped me create concepts for some of my past party invitations. We were talking about New York City landmarks and became inspired by the statue of Atlas holding up the world on his shoulders in Rockefeller Center. It is such an iconic image in a landmark destination.

I was so fascinated by the image that I felt it was the right direction to go in. Here's the final invitation:

I'm working with the fabulous Ellen Weldon to produce these invitations. She is such an amazing, innovative invitation designer and definitely one of my go-to ladies when I need a beautiful invite designed.

What do you think of the invitation? Let me know in the comments.

First Step in Party Planning: The Invite

The first step for planning most parties is choosing the right invitation. You want to choose something that evokes the mood of the party while also expressing your own personality. There are many directions you can take. The two spectrums are generally a very elegant and proper invite or something fun and funny. I like to choose an invite that’s a combination of the two, with a little bit of tongue and cheek humor thrown in. You can see examples of this in my past party invitations.

This is the invite for my last book launch for Inspirations. When I chose this invitation, I never thought that Martha Stewart would show it on air.

This is the invite from my birthday party last year. The Benjamin Button theme was perfect for a 60th birthday.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about possible concepts for my Celebrations party invitation. Feel free to post your ideas* in the comments or email them to my editor Karell at Karell@Prestonbailey.com with the subject: Preston’s Celebrations Invite. If you send me a concept I really love, I may post it on the blog and send you an invite for this fun evening.

*Please see below for important legal information.
IMPORTANT LEGAL NOTICE – PLEASE READ:  By emailing, posting or otherwise transmitting (collectively, “transmitting”) any ideas, concepts or other material (collectively, “Material”), you acknowledge and agree that such Material will be treated as non-confidential and non-proprietary, and may be used by Preston Bailey Designs, Inc. and/or Preston Bailey Online, LLC (individually and collectively, “we,” “us” and “our”) and/or our respective affiliates and/or licensees (collectively, the “PB Parties”), for any purpose, including, but not limited to, reproduction, disclosure, transmission, publication, broadcast and posting. Furthermore, the PB Parties are free to use any ideas, concepts, know-how, or techniques contained in any Material you transmit, for any purpose whatsoever, including, but not limited to, developing, manufacturing and marketing products, services and other materials using such Material. By transmitting any Material, you further acknowledge and agree that others may have transmitted or otherwise submitted, or may hereafter transmit or otherwise submit, similar or identical ideas, concepts or material which we will have the right to use, without any obligations whatsoever to you, and you waive any and all existing or future claims that any idea, concept or other material used by us (or our designees) may be similar to any Material transmitted by you. You acknowledge and agree that the PB Parties do not and will not have any duty or liability, direct or indirect, vicarious, contributory, or otherwise, with respect to the infringement or protection of any copyright in and to your Material. Any controversy arising out of or in connection with your Material will be governed by the laws of the State of New York, and you hereby consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts of New York for the resolution of such matters. You further agree that, in the event of such controversy, you will assert such claims within 6 months after the date on which you first learned or reasonably should have been aware of our use of any portion of your Material, and that your rights and remedies, if any, shall be limited to an action to recover money damages in an action at law.

Holiday Inspiration Photo: Paper Christmas Decorations

It’s the week of Christmas. You’ve wrapped all the presents and now you have all this extra gift wrapping paper left. What to do? How about incorporating some of that paper into décor for your house? You’ll be surprised at how versatile gift wrapping paper can be (unless, of course, you chose that Sponge Bob as Santa gift wrapping paper—that may be more limited). A few pictures to inspire you:

Here, I used gift wrapping paper as a table runner. I also used the same paper to decorate plain votive candle holders. More on that below.

I wrapped pine tree patterned wrapping paper around votive candle holders and placed them on cake stands to form a faux-Christmas tree.

Another take on the paper as decoration for votive holders, but this time I cut the paper out for the holder to sit in.

Tomorrow, I’ll have some more last minute décor ideas for Christmas (in case you’re still trying to figure out how to make your home look extra special for the holidays).