Special thanks to Ruby the Fox and Sugar Chic Designs for helping to make everything extra beautiful!

 This super fun yellow, pink and brown party featured the most adorable paper products from Party Plan-it Designs.  They do such an amazing job and everything comes packaged together.  I must admit, my personal favorite was the custom birthday banner.  It was not only super cute but came beautifully assembled and ready to hang! The products that Party Plan-it provided were countless but included invitations, tent cards, water bottle labels, cupcake toppers, welcome sign, stickers, favor tags and thank you notes! The yellow and white paper straws with customized pink flags came from Babs Giddy Gappers, the cupcake wrappers were from Olivia’s Paper Shoppe and the chalkboard labels (used on the bottles) came from Bugaboo Gifts. It’s worth mentioning that all of these vendors are on etsy!

The guests were treated to delicious banana cupcakes from Truffle Truffle and I think it’s fair to say the birthday girl really enjoyed them!!  Then everyone played the afternoon away on the bubble filled play floor and left with delightful gift baskets full of party favors.

Thank you to Samantha from Puddle Jumpers Photography for all of the attached images.

All and all it’s fun to be two!

It is always good to welcome a new year by reflecting on the previous one … So here are some of our favorite memories from 2011 including weddings we have coordinated as well as events we have participated in within the wedding industry.  It was hard to narrow them down and they appear in no particular order.  I hope you enjoy taking a walk down memory lane with us  (and you can always look back through the blog for more details about each event!).

A special thanks to the following photographers for the above images: Amanda Hein Photography, Bellissima Photography, Danielle Aquiline Photography, David Wolfe Photography, Fred Fox Photography, Gerber + Scarpelli Wedding Photography, Jennifer Kathryn Photography, Jeremy Lawson Photography, Megan W Photography, Simply Jessie Photography.

We are so proud of the work we have done with the eleven eleven WEDDING Giveaway.  The event is extremely near and dear to our hearts since we created it in 2010.  This year’s exceptional event took place yesterday at The Chicago History Museum and was featured on the ABC 7  News 6:00 pm broadcast and in the Chicago Sun Times.

Working with the winners, Amy and Howard, was a truly exceptional experience.  They are the kind of people you just want to be around all of the time, infectious, generous, gracious, funny, kind (I could go on and on). It was such a pleasure to introduce them to each of the sponsors and work with them throughout the planning process.

It is important to note that none of this would be possible without the constant support from the vendors in our community. We are so blessed to work with these amazing people who give of their time, talents and resources so willingly and with such grace. We are truly humbled by the experience and thank you simply does not seem to be “big enough” but we hope it will do.

Keep an eye out for some sneak peak pictures from Amanda Hein Photography.

The eleven eleven WEDDING Giveaway for 2012 will be announced sometime in February so please check back often and send in those applications, as you can see,  dream weddings really can come true!

You can find all of our sponsors listed below.  We thank them all, from the bottom of our hearts.

All images are from the Chicago Sun Times Article.

We are so excited to be a vendor at Indie Wed next January!  This is such a be fantastic bridal show (and the only one we will be participating in all year).  We will be sharing a booth with our friends at Fleur. Kelly and I are hard at work designing the booth and cannot wait to show it off on January 28th so be sure to join us, you can buy tickets here (and you get an early bird discount if you purchase before December 17th!).

Indie Wed also has a fantastic new Blog so be sure to heck it out and learn all about the vendors that will be at the event.

I am so thrilled to show you a few sneak peak pictures from Olivia’s Rockin’ 7th Birthday Bash at FitzGerald’s Nightclub. Thank you to Samantha from Puddle Jumpers Photography for taking such stunning pictures!  There is no better way to capture a special birthday celebration!

This event was chock full of rockstar glam from the VIP Ticket Invitations and Backstage passes designed by Once Upon a Bash (and all featuring Olivia’s personalized logo!) to the killer sweets table  from Truffle Truffle featuring such delicious treats as Mini Cupcakes, Mini Woopie Pies, Double Dark Brownie Pops and Tripple Chocolate Wandering Cakes!

The crowd rocked the day away to a private performance from Ralph’s Worlds front man, Ralph Covert.  It was a truly amazing concert complete with Ralph bringing all of the kids on stage for a “Band Photo” and to sing Happy Birthday in true rockstar style.

The kids headed home with all of their Rockstar merchandise including custom bags, bottle cap necklaces, tattoos, t-shirts and a collection of Olivia’s favorite rocker chick classics along with glow stick bracelets, blow up guitars and blow up microphones.

Some of my favorite elements were the Musicians Ryder proudly proclaiming the “artists demands”, the concert posters and the parental music disclaimer (all of which are featured in the images below).  From the very first note this party was a rockin’ success and we wish Olivia a very, very happy birthday!

Everything, as you can imagine, was decorated in shades of orange.  We featured all orange foods (this is no easy task), the centerpieces had hand made DIY Flowers, custom made buttons from Harry’s Button (fun idea and great cause) and fun facts about the color orange. The delicious orange flavored cake was from Berghoff Catering.

The birthday girl even wrote a play that inspired the entire event “The Land of Orange and O” and thanks to some talented theatre friends, they performed the play during the party. The kids had a blast!

Thanks to Puddle Jumpers Photography for these fantastic Images!

We are so excited to see the eleven eleven WEDDING Live Reveal Party up on their site!  We are honored to be part of this amazing wedding and completely love working with Amy and Howard!

Thanks again to ZED451, Poetic Productions, Amanda Hein Photography and BKO for helping to make the live reveal party so amazing!

Please read, watch and enjoy all of following pieces.  We will add more as they come in!

ABC 7 Video featuring Amanda and Katrina

10 Thousand Couples featuring all of our couples

NBC  5 Article featuring Kati and Esther

We loved this beautiful Blessing Ceremony to welcome and celebrate a precious new life.

The celebration was held at Cafe de Luca in Forest Park and the ceremony was performed by our good friend Toni Hassett from Unforgettable Ceremonies. This sweet little girl was welcomed to the world with the love and support of her family and close friends.  The tables were decorated with white Chrysanthemums  (the November birth flower)  from Fleur, Inc. and each guest was asked to take a potted Chrysanthemum home to plant, nurture and love just as they would the baby that was being honored.

Each guest was also asked to make a wish for the baby and write it on a blessing stone.  The stones were collected and sent home to surround the sweet baby with their goodwill and blessings.

The baby’s beautiful handmade Chantilly Lace gown was  from Bewitching Stitching.  The adorable cupcakes had monogrammed white chocolate toppers from Flour Cake and Pastry and the pictures are from SnoStudios.

Enjoy the pictures and remember to always count your blessings.