A Crazy Wedding Find

I was actually looking up how to do an awesome way to display cut fruit.  A friend needed some assistance, so I went looking for inspiration.  I stumbled on something that may thrill some brides looking for cheap wedding ideas.  Maybe, maybe not.  But I gotta pass on a cheap party idea when I find one.  Enjoy this link to HOW TO CATER YOUR OWN WEDDING RECPTION.

Cute Bridal Party Idea or a Great Girl’s Night

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Here is a suprising celebration that could be a wonderful idea to get your bridal party on the same page, and have a blast doing it. As I was reading my Flylady daily digest this morning, I was thrilled to read a “flybaby” testimonial. One of the ladies had purchased some calendars and pens and clingies from the flyshop. The suprising and delightful part is what she did with them.

As her family and friends (I would assume this is a rather intimate gathering) got together for a casual meet and greet, she passed out numbered index cards to each guest. On the index card, next to each number each woman wrote her favorite color, favorite birthday she ever had, favorite past time, favorite collectible, favorite animal, favorite season. Then each person signed the card. If you have five guests, each guest should receive 5 cards. Fill out each one and then hand a card to each person at the table. Then, explain to the guests that you plan to use these as jumping off points for celebrations, craft and gifts ideas.

This woman then went on to present her friends with calendars and pens and stickers. They all got a big kick out of learning about each other and chatted their time away with each other in grand fashion while sipping sodas and nibbling on chips and salsa.

One thing I have done in the past with my calendars is I’ve been very deliberate about the one I use most often. My central calendar, so to speak, (yes the old-fashioned kind you write on) hangs in my kitchen. The one I picked out this year looks like this.  It can be purchased at Calendars.com.  Click on the pic.

Pretending to be Normal Central Calendar.

I write my bills on it as they come in the mail along with balances. I also put stickers (shiny ones always) everyday that I workout. This gives me a quick visual as to whether I am on track with my fitness plan.

What a great gift to give each other, and yet another cheap party idea! Love it.

Cool Confetti: Who knew?

Confetti and parties, such a lovely combination.  As I was researching a bit for this confetti blog entry, I found so much more information than I ever could have imagined.  So, I am going to run through a few ideas for using confetti for weddings primarily, but use your noodle, and I am sure you can get so creative with what I am about to share.
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This particular entry is inspired by a bride on a budget,  Because she was having trouble making he tables look fab without having a lot of cash, she decided to use circles cut from paper in three different colors.  Brilliant.  Big color impact for  little coin, you gotta love that. 

Next, I found a site that sells confetti of every size and shape, and oh, yes confetti cannons. 

BUT WAIT!  What would a confetti blog entry be without a confetti launcher youtube tutorial.  Holy cow, this dude shows the mechanically inclined how to construct their very own confetti cannon.  How cool is that!  I am not suggesting you try this.  I just thought, hmmm, super cool.  If I share this with hubby, I wonder if he would make one for me.  Hey all you bar owners, maybe for your New Year’s Bash?  Hmm.

So that’s my confetti wisdom for the day.  Party on.

Gooseberry Patch: Where I Met My Heroes

I’ve been jumping out of my skin to share this with everyone, and now is the time.  I met Jo Ann Martin & Vickie Hutchins, co-founders of Gooseberry Patch at the Country Living Fair this Summer in Columbus, OH!  (Did you hear me screaming?) Of course my camera weirded out, so my picture with them turned out purple, but thank Gooseberry, I got the autographs.  

See my autographed copy of Coming Home with Gooseberry Patch! BTW: Crustless Pumpkin Pie on Page 32 is the Bomb!  I have already made it three times since getting the cookbook this summer.

Proof that I was in the presence of my Heros!

The only picture that turned out well in the bunch. The line to get in!

  If you’ve read my blog, or know me at all, you have to know that I LOVE Gooseberry Patch.  I could get all weird and make a list of 100 reasons why, but I’ll keep it simple and try to keep myself from looking like too much of a fanatic. 

While Gooseberry Patch offers a mail order catalog that is too cute for words, I’m in LOVE with their cookbooks.  Why?  Because every recipe I have EVER made from their books (I have a few) has turned out great.  Each one is simple to make, and doesn’t take you to some crazy part of town searching for strange ingredients that you have to spend time learning to pronounce. 

 Last year, I received Cook’n with Gooseberry Patch.  What is this?  Cook’n is software that you load via CD onto your computer.  What does this software do?  Oh my, let me tell you.  There are a few pre-loaded Gooseberry Cookbooks from which you can hand click your recipes for the week.   Then print on your little ol’ menu for your family and boom,  you know what’s happening each day for meals.  BUT THAT’S NOT ALL…before you  print out the grocery list, you can take off the items you already have in your pantry.  Let me tell you, this has saved me loads of cash on my grocery trips, and even more mental energy in avoiding the whole “what’s for dinner?” conundrum.  Here’s the glorious part.  You can even enter your own recipes.  So say you wanted to cook your mom’s famous chilli one night.  No problem, enter it in one time (takes maybe 3 minutes tops) and click it over to Monday.  Dude, all the ingredients will be on your grocery list and you just go to the store, and its fabulous.  No more guesswork or freaking out.  Love that! DVO is the company that makes this software (another fabulous company) and they offer other recipe dowloads so you never run out of goodness in the kitchen.

Gooseberry Patch also offers calendars and the cutest gifts and kitchen/service ware you could ever want to see.  Be sure to check out the Gooseberry Patch website. when fulfilling that Christmas list because you can definitely pick up some unique items that will please both the recipient and your budget.  Gooseberry Patch carries items like the Hostess Twinkie Baking set.

Make your own twinkies! Yeehaw.

And remember my cake ball post?  Yeah, they have a pan for that. 

It’s always awesome to find a company you can feel good about supporting, and Gooseberry Patch is definitely one of those companies.  Women who are making it happen, and having a good time doing it.  Thanks Jo Ann and Vickie!

Halloween Party: Last Minute Decorating Inspirations

I thought I’d throw in a few pics of what I have going for my Halloween Party and a couple of ideas to help with any last minute brain malfunctioning.

Hit the road or the garden. Find some dried whatever, and haul it in. Nothing like FREE.

 

These have got to be getting cheap. I've been watching those prices drop at Walmart. Pick up a few for last minute if you're desperate.

 

Print Out some letters on card stock, cut them out and string them on ribbon or string, or whatever you have. EASY I will admit I bought this one last year, but I did feel kind of stupid bc this is pretty easy to make!Don't forget to label your food. If you're not the best chef, well you'll look like one. It's all in the presentation anyway. Cheap, quick, big bang for littel buvk. Love that.

 

Red alert. These labels are on sale at select Dollar Tree stores. 8 in a pack. 2 of each kind!

I have a party lights post where I use these little individual battery powered led lights you can find in the wedding section at walmart.  If you put a bobby pin through the loop at the top it will rest perfectly at the mouth of the bottle.  I’m not puttin liquid in bc I am a big chicken.

These little boxes can be found at Hobby Lobby. 3 for about $8. If you have a coupon all the better. Just hang on wall and put whatever you have inside!

Remember, you could just buy some different colored light bulbs too.

Here’s a last minute rundown of cheapie stuff you can use.

• sticks
• spider web
• candles
• silver trays from dollar tree
• balloons
• streamers
• pumpkins
• pics of guests and placed in cheapie frames from dollar tree.

Now get Crackin!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cake Balls: Take Two

Spooky AND tasty, oh and of course CHEAP!

The first time I made cake balls, I made the cake, threw it in a bowl and mixed in the frosting.  THIS time, I made the cake, let it cool, frosted it, and chilled the cake.  THEN, I shaped the cake balls.  I actually shaped little ghost shapes for the Halloween Party.  The shaping part was easy.  The not so easy part was the white chocolate melting.  I tried microwaving white chocolate chips, and it was a fine balance to keep them from seizing up.  Needless, to say that didn’t work.  Next step, using the baking chocolate verison in a double boiler.  Still not as thin as I would have liked.  Then I remembered.  I needed to add a little bit of butter to the chocolate and a teensy bit of cream for a more ganache like consistency.  Voila!  Cake ball magic.

These will probably not grace the pages of Living, but dang, they’re good.  I may still thin out my chocolate enough and add some food coloring.  These goblins need faces.

 

I’m committed. Project Halloween is underway.

I am, after all, the cheap party chick.  So how could I not, throw another Halloween Party?  This will be the third annual.  And I am going to PROVE that you can do this totally on the cheap, and have it ROCK!  It shouldn’t be too hard to prove, because my Halloween party is going to have to be on a budget, but I’m here to tell you, it can be done.

Halloween Party The First Intallment.

 

This picture is from the first Halloween Party I ever hosted.  Good times, good times.  We had a haunted house in our basement and did mostly potluck.  Believe me, follow this blog for the next month, and I will show you, step by step, how to pull off a cheap Halloween Party that will make you the superstar of the neighborhood. 

 

 

 

Another Round One picture of our Halloween Party

Each week until Halloween, I will allow you to see the inside secrets of how I pull off a Halloween Party on a budget.  If you’re thinking of hosting a Halloween Party this year…Do It!  Just check in with me, and I’ll be with you every step of the way, from planning  to party day.  My first year we had nearly 100 guests in our house!  And there was no freak out, only fun.  You can do this.

Last year's Halloween Party.

See those smiles?  They are easy to achieve.  I can help you do that on a budget.  Don’t worry, I am on one myself.  Especially this year, but does that exclude me fromhosting a bad butt Halloween Party?  Heck no.  And it shouldn’t exclude you either.  You can so do this. 

Next blog installment:  The date!  Beware my blog is going DARK.

Don’t go insane. It’s a party. No panic allowed.

Ok, I just saw on yahoo’s omg column someone throwing a $100,000 birthday party.  And America is in a financial crisis?  If a crisis is only being able to spend $100,000 on a party, we’ve got more than a crisis going on, we’re insane.

So I am going to give some quick tips on keeping it cheap!

1. Color/Decoration.  See my archived blog entries on color.  This has big visual impact.  Take your theme and find stuff that is already that color, or paint things you already have so they fit into the scheme.

Examples:

• Buckets for containers
• Baskets you may already have
• Flower pots
• Ribbon
• Fabric (cut up some old tshirts, tie die them, and hang them as banners, sew together for a table runner, rip them up and use them as ribbon to tie backs)
• Coffee mugs
• plates & platters
• Use mirrors/mirror tiles for quick duplication of color
• candles
• Photographs (print some out 8×10 size.  Hang a string and just fasten the photos to the string with clothespins…I used this and it was a huge hit.  I of, course had pictures of the party goers, and allowed them to take these home as favors.)
• Pop Bottles
• Candy
• streamers (big impact little money, take the time to use this old party standby especially with kids, but adults love them too
• balloons (a couple bunches of three or 5 can make a bigger impact.  I like to do 2 table length and one floor length.

2. Invites:

Parody a song or poem, or nursery rhyme and include the details of your party within that.  Really play up the theme.  For example: If your doing a Fouth of July party & you’re hand delivering the invites, consider wrapping a sparker box with cute scrapbook paper and tying with ribbon, or attach a pinwheel to the top.  Tuck a slip of paper with the details inside or make a quick tag from cardstock (with time, place etc) and attach to the ribbon.  Cheap and easy party invite…love that.  This also communicates that you care about the event.  Flyers don’t do that people.  Flyers communicate, well, if you want to come that’s fine, but I really don’t want to put too much work into this and could really care less.

3. Food

Freash is best.  I know it is tempting to go out and buy premade because it’s easier.  But cooking from scratch can be easy and will definitely taste better.  Take 5 minutes to write down a menu and the ingredients that go with each dish.  Then plan them into your grocery list/budget each week.  The things you can make ahead and freeze do so in advance.  A day, or even a week would be better before the party, get out the table you plan to house the grub, and make little labels as to where you will put each item.  This will give you that little bit of extra time to be creative and imagine what it will look like, what will go where and to dress it up a bit.  Don’t forget about your serviceware, beverages and ice.   

4. Music

Take 10 minutes and compile a quick list of your favorite lively fun music, then make your cd. Or let your dj (aka your brother) know.

Games:

I’ve shared a few, look in my party games category.  Mostly people just love to talk and hang out.  So don’t sweat this too much.   Give them something to talk about.  hand out some lone ranger masks for everyone to wear.  Set up a temporary tattoo stand.  Rent a photo booth for a bigger event, of if you have a polaroid, make one yourself with a shower curtain and assign a photographer.

These are just some quick pointers.  Stop panicking. It will be ok. It’s a party.  Please lighten up and have fun.  You’ve got one life.  Live it and enjoy it.  It really doesn’t take $100,000 to do that.

 

One More Week for a Strawberry Stretch

Strawberry Shortcake. Oh my goodness!

This past week my mom, my kids and me packed the van and headed to the strawberry patch.  For $9 I picked a giant bucket of strawberries.  Talk about a cheap party food!  Here’s what I was able to squeeze out of God’s little rubies of summer.

STARberry shortcake.  Homemade and scrumptious.  The kicker about this recipe is, while it’s rich, it isn’t loaded with a bunch of foreign chemicals that our bodies weren’t made to digest.  And the strawberries were carted down the road for days in some truck,  just 20 minutes in a mini van!

But shhhh, only special people get this recipe.  And I do mean special.  I took some over to my neighbor and she returned the bowl to me and never even sat down.  That tells you something.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 quarts of strawberries to feed 26 people
• some sugar (about 3/4)  if you like your straberries sugared! They’re already sweet.
• 4 cups of flour
• 4t baking powder
• 1t salt
• 1 1/2sticks butter (cold not softened)
• 1 c heavy cream you can find this near the milk at the store (it’s expensive but worth it)
• 1 container of yoplait light yogurt (I used strawberry sunrise or something like that)
• 1 large egg yolk

Put your strawberries in a bowl and sprinkle with sugar, put ’em in the fridge.

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

For the shortcake:

1. Combine your dry ingredients in a big ol’ bowl. About 1/4 c of sugar or whatever is left.
2. Chop the cold butter in little pieces into the dry ingredients and then use two forks (I use my hands) to kind of make a crumbly mixture.
3. Add 1 c of cream and the yogurt.  Here’s where things get sticky.
4. You want to kind of mush the dough together but lightly, because your shortcakes will be kind of tough if you’re too tough on the dough.  That seems fair.
5. Now, on a floured surface, roll out your dough to about a 1/2 inch thick.  I used 2″ star shaped cookie cutters to cut my shortcakes, but you could use a glass or whatever you have handy in your kitchen.  Heck, use a knife and cut it into strips or squares.
6. Don’t skip this part! Take the egg yolk & about 1T of cream and brush the tops of your cakes.  I dusted them with some decorating sugar I had left over from another recipe.
7. Bake about 12-15 minutes on a prepared cookie sheet. They should be a golden brown color.

For the cream part, I pour about 1/2 c cream and a few tablespoons of sugar and a drop of vanilla in a mixing bowl and beat until fluffy.  This takes a long time, that’s why I only do it 1/4-1/2 c at a time. 

Top your baked shortcakes with strawberries and cream and you have an awesome, filling dessert for your next party.  Beats the heck out of a pack of chips ahoy.  And feeds a lot more people too.  26 in this case.

Sunshine and Wedding Cakes…Who knew?

Wedding Cake.  Yummy!  I LOVE IT.  And this is something I would ALWAYS let a pro handle.  I am one of those gals who likes her guest to have the best.  How can you do that, AND be a Cheap Party Chick?  Well, I asked Sunshine Stewart of…

Sunshine Stewart’s Website

to let us in on a few of the tricks of her trade, and boy did she deliver.  Check it out in the interview below.

 

 

 

Jen:

  OK, Sunshine, I’m a bride, I’m coming in and have 150 guests coming to my wedding what should I expect to spend to feed them all?

Sunshine:
Our wedding cakes start at $2 a serving so you should expect $300 – $500 for a cake to feed 150 people, THOUGH – we will work to fit your budget.  There are many ways to save money and many options to add if you are interested in spending more. 

 

Jen: I’ve seen people do “cupcake cakes” is that any cheaper, or about the
same?

 

Sunshine:
Yes – cupcakes can be less expensive. Our cupcakes start at $18 a dozen.  Again, we can add edible glitter to make them sparkle, filling, or fancy laser cut cups if you have money burning a hole in your pocket. 

 

Jen: What options are available to me as far as mini cakes, tiered cakes,
cupcakes, sheet cakes?  What’s the most expensive way to go?

Sunshine:
We have done many cupcake weddings.  That seems to be the big trend right now.  I have also seen smaller cakes on each table to use as center pieces or to make different flavors available.  We have done a smaller tiered cake for pictures and cutting with sheet cakes for feeding the masses (this is probably the cheapest way to go). We even have an order for “wedding pies”.  This is something that was highlighted on Food Network a while ago.  This particular couple is ordering 8 different pies that we will decorate with hearts and their initials and such for their big day.  I think the most expensive option is to get a great big, multi tiered cake covered in fondant. 

Jen: In general, when I walk in to a bakery and want cake for my wedding,
what should I be fairly clear on before I even hit the door?

Sunshine:
You should have an idea of what you are looking for and your budget!  It is easy to get caught up in all the extras and the scent of icing and cake will numb your brain into believing that you Have to have it and you can afford anything!  There are lots of websites out there, if you find a cake online that you fall in love with print it off and take it into the bakery with you.  They will tell you if they can do that or not.

Anything else you would like to add……..

SUNSHINE: I would also like to add that this is still cake and you (and your family and friends) are going to eat it – I sure hope it tastes good and you don’t have to take out a loan to pay for it.  Our bakery can fit any budget – let us know what you can afford and we will work with you to accomplish your dream wedding cake at a reasonable wedding cost and it will taste AWESOME!!  I put my name on it!!!

 

One last note from Jen.  It is always important to me, when choosing vendors, that the people I work with are genuine, fun and enjoy what they do.  I was blown away by Sunshine.  She is the real deal.  And as my sign said at the show, “You can have your cake AND pay the bills.”  Sunshine is here to help you do just that!