Katherine's Christening

June 10th, 2017 marked another special celebration in our family. We celebrated our little girl's Christening. After church, we headed to our home for a backyard party. It was spent with close family and friends in a family style dinner followed by lots of dancing and dessert. The weather that entire week was in three digits, so I rented some umbrellas for each table since the celebration was in the afternoon. Well, luckily, that day turned out to be in the 80's but then I was fearing I should have rented heaters instead because it got overcast at some point throughout the party. I love backyard/outdoor events but one thing you never have control over is the weather conditions. You just gotta hope for the best and deal with the outcome on the day of I guess. LOL. Maybe it's just an LA problem. But, we got lucky, it turned out to be a gorgeous day with no winds or rain.

After the date was set with the church, I began planning for this gorgeous event. I knew from the beginning I wanted something feminine yet classy. I definitely wanted a vintage vibe to the theme so I opted for lots of lace details and light pink roses with an abundance of baby's breath. I had lots of store bought wine corks that I wanted to put to use, so I made a slit into each one and placed the guest seating cards into them. When I started moving on to centerpieces, I thought "why not wine bottles" to go with the corks. I'm not a wine type of gal, so I turned to my sister and mom who both love wine and asked for their help - to save all the wine bottles. That was not a problem for them and they had an excuse to sip on more wine just to get more bottles sent my way. They are welcome! I had a total of about 40 wine bottles. So, of course, I turned to Pinterest for some help on how to remove wine bottle labels easily. And, I never thought it was so simple but hot boiling water is all that you need. Pour the bottles with boiling water (be sure water reaches all the labels) and wait for 5 minutes. I did about 5 bottles at a time. And, after that it was a breeze peeling off the labels. Some people use this method to save the labels for scrapbooking projects and what not. Be sure to wear some mittens to hold the bottle with one hand and use the other free hand to peel the label off. I even reused some of the used water and poured into new set of bottles (the water in the bottles were still hot). After all the bottles were free of labels, I washed them to remove any excess residue. There were about 3 or 4 bottles that did have really sticky labels. Some scrubbing with soapy water took care of that. I also added some dollar store wine glasses in different sizes to set the winery theme. Then, I spray painted all the bottles and glasses in gold, rose gold and heirloom white (all Rust-oleum brand). They turned out so gorgeous. Don't you think?

As far as the cake table, I wanted to keep the look simple and small. So, I went for a 36" inch table instead of my usual 6' to 8' feet cake table. The overlay lace which was a rental was the first thing I saw and fell in love with that set the colors for the rest of the party. How gorgeous is it? Then, for the backdrop, I hot glued some silk flowers onto a thin twine and hung them from a copper piping (that's what I had so I put it to use but you can use thick dowel as well).

I opted for a donuts table instead of the standard cake/dessert table that I normally do. I thought it fit the theme and because there were many kids at the event, it was the perfect dessert. They all loved them. My original plan was to have a donuts wall but timing to get that done was an issue. So, this style was what I had to come up with last minute. For the stacked donuts, I used a crate and filled it with some green flower foams and covered with a few doilies and poked wood dowels through to stack the donuts. I think it turned out cute.

As for the decorations above the dance area, I used some embroidery hoops. I unscrewed the hoops, placed the lace fabric over one side, then closed them up and cut the excess from all around. Tied some fish wire and hung them up. So simple and easy.

Tracy Reese dress - sold out (available here) // Katherine Christening gown (here) // Mason suit (here) // Cake (Butter Cake Shoppe) // Photography (Nairian Images)

xoxo,