Party Cape Cod

2012-03-06T08:35:00.002-08:00

We resisted the siren's call of pinterest for as long as humanly possible. Once in a while we'd log on and start scrolling down and get lost for a while before remembering we had other work to do, alas. But we can't resist anymore, and have started to actively pin things we love -- both our own stuff and inspiration from across the web!

DIY Roundup!

2012-03-01T07:23:00.000-08:00

I have to confess that I have a file folder at home chocked full of these DIY ideas, and I keep telling myself I need to finish a few to thin that folder out before I add anymore. But then I see ideas like these and before I know it I'm adding to the folder again. Who can resist a bit of inspriation?

From CRAFT we found a link to Leigh Graves Wolf's DIY Instagram photobooth, which we think is beyond a brilliant idea for smaller parties and showers. So cute!

Also via CRAFT is this tutorial from The Art of Homemaking for making your own sweet little tins of lipbalm -- not just a great favor, but a great indulgence for yourself too!

The always brilliant Sweetest Occasion blogged about these great yarn wrapped favors that double as place cards. So sweet and cheerful!

New item: Glazed Sea-Glass platters

2012-02-28T07:09:00.000-08:00

We are very excited to introduce another one of our new favorite items, our glazed sea-glass platters. These gorgeous platters are in the soft colors of sea foam and aqua, and we think they are a perfect complement to any Cape Cod event! We have limited quantities of these unique pieces, so make sure you call to reserve them!

(Photos courtesy of Katie Hall Photography)

DIY Thursday: Round Up!

2012-02-23T10:31:00.002-08:00

It's a balmy (if grey) day here on the Cape and we're starting to think that we might be out of the woods as far as this winter is concerned. We've been so very lucky to have a wonderfully mild winter (cue knocking on wood) and our thoughts are happily turning to Spring and spring parties!

Valentine's day brought out some of the cutest DIY crafts we've seen in a while, so we're excited to share these ones today!

From the always awesome Oh Happy Day comes this mini-crepe paper flower tutorial. It looked lovely with Valentine's day pinks and reds, but it would be gorgeous with any spring event we think! They're so lovely, they remind us of pressed flowers (always a romantic item!)

We're always on the lookout for both kid friendly projects and sweet favor ideas for smaller parties. This heart shaped surprise ball from Celebrate The Big and Small is perfect for both! (link via Not Martha). We love the sweet little embellishment and the idea of unwrapping one of these to find all the trinkets hidden inside.

Continuing with hearts, how cute is this origami heart garland? We love how cheerful it is, and how the papers chosen by How About Orange really draw the eye to the whole thing. Swags on a food table at a shower? A sweet row of these connecting Bride and Groom chairs? Or as a backdrop to an engagement shoot? Super sweet and easy, a perfect little project!

New Item Spotlight!

2012-02-21T09:59:00.000-08:00

We have a lot of new inventory for this season that we're exited to highlight, but today we thought we'd start with the one we're most excited about. One of the best parts about living on Cape Cod...well, there are a lot of best parts, aren't there? There's the ocean, and the charming towns, and the beach, and the water...and the seafood. The seafood is a big part of Cape culture, and it shows in how many clambakes, lobster bakes and chowderfests our clients throw every year.

So we thought about it for a while, and then we spotted the perfect addition to our rental inventory: a raw bar made for shucking!

This raw bar is ready to use. Pack it with ice and shellfish, load the handy sauce tray up with the perfect sauces, and throw some cocktail napkins and picks and forks in the center, and you've got the heart of your next party.

Shucking platforms at the back of the table are at the perfect height for your shuckers, and boat cleats on the sides can hold bags or buckets for shells.

(all photos are by Katie Hall Photography -- thanks so much Katie!)

Built into the front of the bar is a strip of glass holders for convenience. Skirting completes the nautical look.

We're so excited about this new raw bar, and we know it's going to be a big hit this summer! Give us a call at 800-28-Party and reserve it now!

2nd Annual C&I Wedding Group Bridal Show

2012-02-02T10:41:00.000-08:00

Correction: We're already thinking it's mid February! Of course we meant join us NEXT week -- February 12th!

Please join us next week at the New Seabury Country Club for the 2nd annual Cape and Islands Wedding Group Bridal Show! This show features some of the best vendors the Cape has to offer, and even better the group is donating all proceeds to the Making Strides Walk for Cancer! As members of the C&I WG we are proud to support a great cause.

Space is limited at the show, so book your ticket now!

http://www.capeandislandsweddinggroup.com/?page_id=356

Virtual Showroom

2012-01-31T10:25:00.000-08:00

We know why you Party on Cape Cod. And we know that for a lot of our clients, Cape Cod is a destination -- it's not where they live, or work. In fact, many of our clients are planning from states as far away as the West Coast (and even occasionally from abroad). Some of our clients have a family member who is local and can come see their table set up in person, but others have to rely on swatches and pictures and a strong imagination as they make their tablescape choices.

Photo by Tom Davis/Northern Images Photography

We decided it was time to make life easier for our out of town brides and grooms. Give us a call and set up an appointment, and we'll set up a virtual showroom for you. We'll connect with you on Skype or Google +, and then we will be your assistant, setting your tables with colors of your choice and trying out different china, glassware and silverware setups. Just like a regular showroom visit, you can try out an unlimited number of combinations of our linens -- we want to find the tablescape that is perfect for you, and we'll work with you until we've found it.

Photo by Joe Mikos/Joe Mikos Photography

We'll also take pictures of the setup and email them to you, so you can have a visual representation of your tablescape to have as you make choices about centerpieces and other decor. If your colors change or you decide you're looking for something different, just give us a call and we'll set up another virtual visit!

Give us a call at 800-28-Party or email us at pcc@partycapecod.com to set up your virtual showroom visit today!

Our weekly DIY Roundup (it's finally winter!)

2012-01-19T07:40:00.000-08:00

There's rumors that there might be some snow in the air tonight, and still some more this weekend. Despite quite a few days where we shivered and complained bitterly about the cold, we've had a relatively easy winter, so it's hard to complain about a few flakes falling. All the same, we think it's wise to come up with some cabin fever projects, just in case!

First up, from Ruffled is a handful of DIY chalkboard ideas -- perfect for weddings or showers. I can imagine collecting good wishes at a baby shower or a bridal shower with one of these! There's another cute idea on there with playing cards as escort cards -- with an old-fashioned style of card, this would look so perfect at a rustric wedding!

This one is my personal favorite from this week's roundup. These votives are so dreamy and gorgeous, and all they require is old pictures, a steady hand and a little patience. This DIY is from FellowFellow, found via Poppytalk. LOVE it.

Last up today is this Piano Key banner idea from Rock and Roll Bride -- it's a cute, unique idea for any party -- especially any party with a lot of music lovers or musicians!

We hope the snow fades away this weekend and everyone has a lovely time! See you here next week.

New This Season: Tabletop Packages

2012-01-17T11:56:00.000-08:00

We spend a lot of time brainstorming about ways to make life easier for our clients, from the caterers and venues we work with year in and year out to the first time party thrower trying to plan a graduation party or family reunion. One of the questions we hear a lot is, "what am I forgetting? What else do I need?" We thought about it, and last year we put together our reception tent packages which include all the essentials for big events, from the tent to the silveware. This program was a huge hit!

So we decided to expand upon the idea this year -- after all, smaller parties can be a headache to plan too! We thought about the most common parties our clients throw -- showers, barbeques, cocktails and clambakes, and we created tabletop packages (click through and take a look!) to match. From clambake cookers to umbrella tables, we have put together the essentials.

Of course, we're always happy to help you plan YOUR next party. Give us a call at 800-28-Party and start now!

Venue: The Borsari Gallery, Dennis

2012-01-10T12:42:00.000-08:00

We love partnering with the lovely Borsari Gallery in Dennis. It's a unique, beautiful location for weddings - a renovated barn along route 6A, and since it opened in 2009 Bob and Kathy have been growing the number of events they throw, from weddings to rehearsal dinners to birthdays. These gorgous pictures from Hike Photography give you a sense of the space -- warm and inviting with a rustic flair and filled with gorgeous artwork on the walls.

Bob was kind enough to write us this testimonial, and we are so happy to be a part of their growing business! Make sure you scroll down to see more pictures!

Borsari Gallery Cape Cod has enjoyed a terrific working relationship with the great team at Party Cape Cod since our opening in 2009. We consider Party Cape Cod a key partner in our mission and enthusiastically recommend Party Cape Cod and Sitting Pretty for your rental needs. At Borsari Gallery Cape Cod, we host intimate and elegant Cape Cod weddings and private events within our historic, 1800’s barn and art gallery venue. We strive to deliver warm, personal service turning our client’s event vision into a reality. PCC is able to accommodate and excel in providing just the right touch to help us bring out the best in our unique venue and property. PCC offers tremendous event experience, professional client services and an impressive, in-stock inventory of rental items. We believe, PCC is the best choice in the event rental industry and we look forward to continuing our successful partnership in 2012.

Bob and Kathy Borsari

And check out a picture of one of our owners, Charlene, taking the opportunity to enjoy a classic car outside the Gallery!

DIY Roundup

2012-01-05T10:45:00.000-08:00

January is not a month of many weddings, but that's no reason not to party. Really, the winter is a fantastic time to throw a bash -- people have fewer post-holiday plans, and when the chill of midwinter kicks in, everyone's looking for a reason to celebrate.

It also helps that so many of our favorite blogs are doing 2011 retrospectives and we're stumbling upon diy projects we missed the first time around.

We're a little out of season for this project, but when we saw Bryn of Paper Tastebuds' link we were charmed. Paper banners are such a cheery way to brighten a space without having to make any major decor changes, and this would be an awesome project for kids as well. Etsy hosts the how to from Yreina Flores Ortiz here.

When I was little, my best friend taught me that a really great way to get rid of excess emotion was to smash an egg on the floor. We think this how to from Oh Happy Day is a great extension of this -- imagine all the cabin fever you give outlet to by smashing an eggful of confetti, or glitter! Of course, like smashing a real egg, you're going to have to factor in the clean in time.

If you follow wedding blogs, you know how popular photo booths have become. Oh Happy Day also posted this great prop tutorial -- we love the monacle, and the replica of Princess Caroline's hat!

We hope the warmer temps have kept YOUR cabin fever at bay!

Welcome to 2012!

2012-01-03T11:57:00.000-08:00

The blur of the holidays is behind us, and we're taking a deep bracing breath of the suddenly chilly air. We LOVE January. We love New Year's, and the chance to start fresh. We love engrossing ourselves in the details of our 2012 weddings, working alongside our clients to create the perfect day. It's odd to think of June when you're in January -- odd to think of the warehouse bustling with our crews, the trucks full to the brim and on the road, our tents rising up all over the Cape, the air warm...ok, maybe we're daydreaming of the warmth. This cold really was a shock!

With the turning of the calendar, we're feeling the push to finish up our projects from the past year and turn our thoughts to the upcoming season. But when we stumble upon bits of the past season, we can't help but feel a little warm nostalgia. We've linked to the beyond gorgeous pictures from this Winslow Estate wedding -- Kim Thiel's photography is so perfectly evocative of late summer on Cape Cod, and everything about this day is stunningly beautiful. And then we saw this video:

I Vow To Hold Your Hand | Stasia & Carrie {Sneak Peek} from Kim Thiel on Vimeo.

First of all, we cried. We're not ashamed to admit it! Second of all, when we saw Dave -- one of PCC's owners -- make a brief appearence, our jaws dropped and we cheered, and then watched the video about ten more times. Maybe more -- because we love everything about this video.

Kim Thiel Photography also posted some more pictures and details from the brides on her blog. Make sure to check it out -- we love that each choice for this wedding was made with such thoughtfulness, and that so many local vendors were used.

We hope all of you had a happy holiday season, and we are so looking forward to sharing the best of 2012 with you!

Sneak peak: Inspirations!

2011-12-15T10:30:00.000-08:00

We're pretty excited today. That's honestly an understatement -- we are beyond happy to show off a few sneak peeks of a recently finished project. In the coming weeks, we'll be showing you more pictures of each setup, details and how to make this look yours, but we couldn't wait to get a few of these up today!

We have to say a huge thanks to all the vendors who worked with us. Katie Hall Photography did a stunning job on these pictures, and All About Flowers, Bee & Blossoms, Bourne Florist and CMS Flora provided absolutely breathtaking centerpieces. Jen from Dulce Press created stunning menu cards and place names for us. And a big thanks to our own Dave and his crew who patiently listened to our ideas for the paper lanterns and then made it a reality.

Do Good and Party More

2011-12-13T08:15:00.000-08:00

We've mentioned it before, but we're Cape locals here at Party Cape Cod. We are committed to the community that we live in -- dedicated to helping Cape Cod preserve and protect its unique atmosphere. This area is made up of many towns linked together through a shared appreciation of the land we live on and the ocean that so many make their livings from. It is truly a place like no other, and we're proud to be a part of the community and to offer our support to other members when we can.

We are proud to support the Nicholas G. Xiarhos Memorial Scholarship Fund in their fundraising at the Borsari Gallery during the Dennis Christmas Stroll. We create the tenting for the event, held on the rear deck of the Gallery.

The Borsari Gallery had 1,131 visitors during the event, and they were able to raise over $1,000 for the scholarship. The East Dennis Oyster Farm, Chapin's Restaurant & Catering and Cakes by Rebekah all contributed to this fundraiser. We are thrilled to be part of this event and to support the scholarship fund.

Thanks to Bob Borsari and Scott Williamson at the Borsari Gallery for sending these pictures along!

Bear with us for just a little longer! Also, Pantone's 2012 Color of the Year

2011-12-08T12:01:00.001-08:00

Today was a bit more of a whirlwind than expected, although everything is falling nicely into place this afternoon and we have a moment to breath and collect our thoughts. We're delaying showing off some of our more exciting projects until we have the chance to write a post that does them justice, so we're just updating quickly today!

We're excited that today is the day Pantone announces their annual color of the year. Although this is bigger news in the design community than in the wedding community, some of the Pantone choices in years past have made a big impact. Last year's choice was a summery, soft coral that we loved, especially paired with 2010's turquoise (in fact, we put them together for this table:)

This year's color is a bright and cheerful tangerine, and we're happy to find that we already have a match for it in our inventory with our tangerine crush runner. This red-orange is more of a carribean color than a traditional Cape Cod hue, but used as an accent it really pops and brings so much warmth and energy to an event. In the interest of full disclosure, it's also one of my favorite colors anyway, so I might be projecting a bit -- but everyone in the office agrees!

And here's our tangerine runner, which has more of the red tones of the Pantone color when you see it in person (it's so hard to get good pictures of fabrics!)

And remember, no matter what colors you choose for YOUR event, we'll help you find a perfect match!

We hope you all have a great weekend, and stay warm -- even here on mild Cape Cod the temperatures are forecase to be in the low 20s -- brr! We already miss our long, mild fall that just ended...last night!

DIY round up!

2011-12-06T09:54:00.001-08:00

One of the best parts of the late fall and early winter is all the fun, unexpected opportunities that crop up. Our office has been darting here and there while we make the most of every one. Normally on Tuesdays we like to show off some of our own tablescapes, events and ideas, but we're switching the schedule up a little bit so we can bring you the results of one of those opportunities later on this week. So today we're bringing you a diy round up -- just in time for planning some holiday parties, right?

Maggie of MightyGirl put together this brilliant list of gift wrapping ideas. I'm snagging that yarn wrap one for sure -- how pretty and cheerful!

This list of homemade gift ideas warmed our hearts -- there's something so personal and sweet about creating a gift by hand, thinking of the recipient the whole time. Sarah Bryden-Brown curated this collection of 12 stocking stuffers by diy bloggers all over the web, and there are fantastic ideas throughout. Make sure to click all the way through the slideshow! We're big fans of the glittery this year, so these little snowglobes caught our hearts.

Over on Oh Happy Day!, there's an amazing tutorial for watercolored confetti. We love that you can match your confetti to your events colors, and we really love the unique, soft look of the dots. So pretty!

We hope everyone is enjoying the good things of this Holiday season -- the chance to be with family and friends, the joy and fun of parties and celebrating, and the chance to spend the darkest days of the winter surrounded by light and reflection!

Tablescape: Sweet Lilac

2011-11-29T07:51:00.001-08:00

We love the sweet, old-fashioned nature of lace. We're afraid that we're going to over use those words in this post, because there's no other way to describe this tablescape. It's retro and warm and lovely. We are so excited to see that lace is returning to favor. After renting out our overlays a few times we decided it was time to show just how pretty lace can be.

Photo Credits: Lilac from Robb North, Lace from Shetland Arts, Garden Roses from Aussiegall, Romance from UggBoy<3UggGirl

Because lace comes in so many patterns and weaves, it can fit into almost any atmsophere, from current and hip to retro. Our lace feels quite soft and oldfashioned in its pattern, so we decided to embrace it. We stared our search for inspiration with those ideas in mind -- romance, sweetness, old fashioned warmth.

We thought about what kind of party this would be used for, and we pictured a bridal shower or baby shower -- something where sweet is called for. We used a lilac linen underlay on an eight foot banquet table and topped it with a pair of white lace overlays. White rimmed china kept things simple -- with the lace we didn't want to busy things up too much with any patterned china. Hammered Stainless flatware, highball and lowball cocktail glasses for water and drinks, and iris napkins completed the look. We added some small votives and a low centerpiece, and added on one of our new town table names from On Cape Time.

We wish you a happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-22T13:30:00.001-08:00

We're buzzing around this week, helping our clients plan the perfect Thanksgiving setup and planning our own at the same time. We brought in an armful of new speciality linens today that we've been oohing and awing over all day -- especially the sweetest lace you've ever seen, we can't WAIT to get it on a table and show it off. Even if it is more of a spring item -- it'll be no time at all before we're longing for spring anyway, right?

(Just a sneak peek of a few of the new additions -- we'll be showing these off properly soon!)

We also received a very exciting link yesterday, to one of our September brides' weddings on their photographers blog. These pictures blew us completely away -- we love how the love just shines out of the brides' faces and out of the faces of all their family and friends celebrating with them. Just stunning. We can't wait to show you more of these pictures, but make sure to check out the post for some SERIOUS eye candy.

http://www.kimthielphotography.com/blog/weddings/a-cape-cod-wedding-part-13-carrie-stasia/

In the meantime, we're hoping that you all have a warm and safe Thanksgiving! We'll be back on Tuesday with another tablescape and inspiration post, so be sure to check back then.

New Tablescape: Thanksgiving

2011-11-17T09:37:00.001-08:00

We spent a long time this week re-doing the showroom to take it from summer finery to winter warmth. We try to keep things seasonal and fresh, so we pick a day (nicknamed "get it DONE" day) and start fresh. It's really satisfying to stand back at the end of the day and see what we've come up with. It is truly a team effort with lots of feedback on each table, too!

We thought we'd start showcasing these tables with a look at our thanksgiving inspired table. First up, here's our inspiration board:

(photo credits from l-r, top to bottom: nlmAdestiny, Adam Baker, Zitona, orangeadnan, me, Martin Gommel)

Last year we were drawn to sage greens and ivorys for thanksgiving, but this year we are yearning for gold. It could be because this fall has been so long and mild, and the trees are only now fading into the monochrome greys and browns of winter, or it could just be because we feel like a little glitter in our lives right now, but we were all about shine and warmth with this table. Our inspirations included glitter (champagne bubbles always look like glitter to us), autumn leaves, the glint and glimmer of winter textures, the warm intimacy of candlelight, and underlying it all a deep gratitude for the harvest and for having a thanksgiving to celebrate.

So here's what we took from our inspiration board. We brought shimmer and shine with a satin gold underlay, but we softened it with a beautiful gold embroirdered organza overlay. We set the table with gold chargers to anchor the underlay, and topped them with gold-rimmed ivory china and champagne satin napkins. Our long stemmed vina wine taster and water goblet bring that little bit of crystal shine, and our silverplated flatware has the warm tones that work perfectly with this table. We dressed our garden padded folding chairs in chair covers tied with a champagne satin bow to complement the embroirdery of our overlay and napkins.

(I apologize for the over-editing of these photos! Flourescent lighting isn't kind for photography).

The champagne and gold linens evoke the warmth that we were looking to highlight, and the centerpiece with its tapers and glittery foliage brings out the season and cheer. Our plates are decorated with glimmering golden pears to celebrate the harvest.

How are you planning to decorate your thanksgiving table? Give us a call and we can help you find the exact look to match the mood you want to set!

Thursday Cool Idea Round Up (with a touch of diy)

2011-11-10T10:17:00.000-08:00

Our warm reprieve from fall has faded away and the rain is coming down in buckets out there. We saw a few trucks with plows on drive past and frantically checked the weather to make sure the forecast hadn't changed -- luckily, no freak snow storms are in our future! All the same, we're glad to be inside where it is bright and warm, and ponder more ways to take our parties from ordinary to amazing.

We saw these garlands on Princess Lasertron (via CRAFT) and thought they were a brilliant way to reuse some of those perfect glossy magazines and catalouges we have hanging around. This is a nice, easy anytime decoration, and can even be done in colors to match a theme. Super cute!

We used to make fortune tellers as kids, and loved coming up with the most absurd fortunes for our friends. It's no surprise we LOVE this chandelier made by The 3 R's Blog. All you need is a paper lantern, and a LOT of patience. That patience definitely pays off with this gorgeous, textured and sculptural piece. We're loving it. Check out the link at the bottom of that post for a drum shade project as well.

And finally, we don't usually link to kickstarter projects, but Etchpop is one we'd really like to see take off. Create your print, email it to them and receive a wood block for printing goodness -- absolutely brilliant, and perfect for those sweet vintage weddings out there, or for thank you notes or for...well, you can tell how much we love it.

Busy Week

2011-11-08T13:24:00.000-08:00

We're having a busy week at the office! We've spent the day poring over lookbooks and figuring out what new linens to bring in for the 2012 season -- lots of fun options out there! We're already seeing some trends for next year -- aubergine is such a hot color! (We feel quite British saying aubergine, by the way). We're still getting lots of requests for burlap, especially in runners, so there's no doubt that rustic is still in. And of course, here on Cape Cod there's always a desire for blues and neutrals to reflect the unique environment here.

We also wanted to remind everyone that we will custom make runners for you in any of our fabrics and colors -- and in any size. Our standard size is 12"x108", but if you have an extra long table, we'll make the runner to match it. We find people don't always consider runners as an option until they see them in action and see how crisp they make a table -- they bring a splash of color without being as showy as a full overlay.

Today we brought in a new item that we are SO excited to share, but we forgot our fancy office camera today so we can't share pictures just yet...look for some Thursday, though! We predict this one will be in high demand next season. Check out some of the other new items we've brought in over the past season -- adirondack chair rentals (complimentary with wedding orders over $3000), lots of new nautical accents like our rope table sign holders, our market umbrellas in navy and white -- and our gift to happy couples, a Happily Ever After sign.

And last but definitely not least, we're so excited for our own Emily and her husband Matt, who welcomed Baby Madeline this weekend. Congratulations, you guys!

It's a good day for DIY

2011-11-03T13:05:00.000-07:00

We admit that we were still thinking of Christmas today when we saw this adorable how to video on Poppytalk, but really the technique could be used for any sort of event. Absolutely adorable.

Jordan from Oh Happy Day had this quick and easy favor idea -- perfect for when favors are the last priority but you want them to look like they were your first.

Speaking of favors, these hammered spoon name cards are amazing and since they're customized they double as fantastic favors. We found these through Poppytalk on Babble, and the tutorial is Elizabeth Ann Designs

Heading for the Holidays

2011-11-01T08:40:00.000-07:00

We all know how it works. The day after Halloween, suddenly the stores are chock full of holiday displays. Your local radio station starts their 24/7 Christmas music program. Supermarkets are stocking up on Turkey and the fixins'. And the ads on tv? Those started a while back!

Photo Courtesy of Faith Goble/Flickr Creative Commons

Well, there's a lot to celebrate in the holiday season, and one of our favorite things is the tradition of welcoming people into your home to celebrate with you. As the days get shorter (and colder), there's something comforting about gathering your loved ones close and sharing food and joy.

Photo Courtesy of Clarity/Flickr Creative Commons

With that thought in mind, we wanted to remind you all that we can helptake some of the stress of those parties away, so you can focus on that joy. From china (that you don't have to wash yourself!) to linens (pressed and ready, and again, no washing!) to match any decorations, we can help you make your party memorable.

Photo Courtesy of Bert Kaufmann/Flickr Creative Commons

And in the meantime, as you're planning your holiday season, check out this handy link courtesy of Mrs. Lilien -- she'll help you set the perfect table.

DIY Thursday

2011-10-27T08:02:00.000-07:00

My goodness is it raining out there! We are currently thanking our lucky stars that snow isn't in OUR forecast, although even Boston is due to see some flakes. We guess winter really is just around the corner, sigh.

Well, being stuck indoors means that you have more time for crafty projects, right? So we're bringing you your weekly round up of sweet ideas!

We LOVE these sweet favors (that double as place tags) from Jordan at Oh Happy Day. They are so pretty and so unique, who can resist them?

Because we see a lot of trends come and go, it takes a really special one to catch us. We are in love with gold leaf -- gold leaf chevron stripes? Gold leaf letterpress? Or how about these gorgeous gold leaf paper mache bowls from The Happy Home Blog? Yes, please.

(PS, we found this link the the next via PoppyTalk on Babble)

We've also noticed a lot of individualized white porcelain pieces -- whether it is washi tape on jugs as we featured previously or drawing with sharpies and baking. Wit and Whistle has a great how-to featuring porcelain paint and a mug, which seems particularly perfect for this season of cold and rain (and the next of snow and hot chocolate!)

Happily Ever After in Orleans!

2011-10-25T12:53:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to say how much we adore this picture, sent to us from Ann and Anne's wedding. What a great spot for our wedding gift! We also loved the rest of the pictures they sent. What a beautiful spot for a wedding, don't you think? (the venue was the Captain Heman Smith house in Orleans).

DIY Thursday!

2011-10-20T12:19:00.000-07:00

We're settling into our offseason posting schedule (Tuesday and Thursdays, with some extra posts weekly here and there!). We thought we'd ease ourselves into it by a quick recap of some amazing diy projects we've seen recently!

We've been seeing some wooden pictures around lately and have thought them super charming. How perfect would an engagement picture printed on wood be for a rustic farm wedding? Check out a diy video below!

(found via 22 Words)

We're LOVING all the new uses for paint chips that have been appearing lately. This paint chip bunting is super cute and would look nice at a shower, a kids party ... well, anywhere, to be honest! Via Craft!

Martha Stewart's DIY projects never fail to be amazing -- these lace embellished candles look so sweet and romantic. We spotted them on Apartment Therapy's list of crafty hostess gifts -- love it!

Made Our Day

2011-10-18T12:17:00.000-07:00

As things start quieting down, we're taking time to take stock of the past season. It was a great one, full of great clients and amazing events (stay tuned for more real wedding photos)! Now it's time to consider what items we want to add to our ever-expanding inventory and to put new programs in place and set new goals for ourselves. While winter isn't our "busy" season in terms of rentals, it is a busy time on the operations end of the business.

We also cherish this time as a chance to check back in with some of this seasons clients and hear firsthand how we did -- what we did right and how we can do even better. We are grateful for all feedback that comes our way because we strive to be the best. So it made our day to get this wonderful email from a client last week:

"Yes, everything went great. You guys were my favorite vendor in this whole process!!! Always very easy to talk with, quick to respond and update things and very pleasant and professional. Your set-up team was timely and we felt horrible when it poured rain on them!!!!

Also – THANK YOU so much for our “Happily Ever After” sign – we love it! We used it for the arch and now have it proudly hanging in our home. I also used the koozie this weekend while watching the Patriots beat the Jets."

We believe in getting excited for our clients, because we know how important their big days really are. Rentals may be our business, but each event is hugely important to our clients and so we are determined to make it important to ourselves, too. Hearing that we've met our goals for a client really is a fantastic feeling.

We hope we can do the same for YOUR next event. Give us a call at (800) 28-Party and see how we can help!

Real Wedding; Robin & Joey/Elin Photography

2011-10-14T07:49:00.000-07:00

We gave you all a sneak peak of these before, but we are SO excited to share many more photos of Robin and Joey's wedding from Elin Photography. The wedding planner was The Perfect Plan, and the flowers were by All About Flowers for Weddings.

This wedding was STUNNING, and these pictures are absolutely gorgeous. We love how this one came together, with the help of super talented vendors, a gorgeous piece of property, and a beautiful couple.

You've seen our new adirondack chairs before -- we add these to the reservation at no cost for tented weddings (along with bride/groom, bride/bride or groom/groom signs) for perfect picture opportunities, like this one!

We love how the custom lantern shades made by Judy at All About Flowers for Weddings looked with our paper lanterns!

We ALSO love the gorgeous flowers (also by Judy at All About Flowers). What pretty centerpieces they are -- the clusters of varying heights really works well for family style seating.

We had the runners custom made for this event -- and that's something we can do for your event too! We have a huge variety of linens and runners in stock, and we can get anything in for you.

The details of this wedding are fantastic, don't you think? From the chalkboard sign to the gorgeous menu cards, everything is so pulled together and lovely.

We spy another new item in our inventory -- a special gift that we give to newly wedded couples. Our Happily Ever After sign is made by a local artist, On Cape Time -- we're all about local! She also made the Bride and Groom signs on our adirondack chairs.

We were so excited and please to share these gorgeous images. Make sure you click on the collages to see the pictures in all their stunning detail. Thank you SO much, Elin Photography! You definitely will want to click over to her site to see more of her images -- they are so beautiful.

Real Wedding: Ocean Edge/Click Imagery

2011-10-08T08:51:00.000-07:00

We're back with a vengence this beautiful October morning (seriously, how lucky did we get with a holiday weekend and temps in the upper 70s on the Cape?!). Megan from Click Imagery was nice enough to share these gorgeous pictures from a wedding at Ocean Edge.

First of all, how gorgeous are these pictures from Click Imagery? They're absolutely stunning. Ocean Edge Resort in Brewster is pretty stunning, too, so Nicole and Nick made some fantastic choices for their wedding.

We LOVE how the royal sashes pop against the linens. We don't think you can go wrong with choosing colors -- lots of bright colors are lovely, subdued pastels are lovely -- whatever fits your vision.

But sometimes our clients are nervous about too much neutral, and we are always quick to reassure them -- and to point them to pictures like these.

The pops of color are very effective -- and very lovely. Between the chair sashes and the beautiful centerpieces, this room looks PERFECT.

We love the table signs, too. You know we're all about the local touches in weddings. In fact, we are going to be unveiling a special table sign project of our own shortly!

Thank you so SO much, Megan, for sharing these pictures! We are so happy we get the chance to share such lovely pictures & such a lovely setting. Make sure you guys check out Click Imagery's website -- there are tons of gorgeous images to get inspiration from on their blog and facebook.

Welcome, Autumn!

2011-09-24T10:12:00.000-07:00

We're excited that the fall is officially here, although we wish we could have nice weather to welcome it in. All the same, you can definitely feel the change in the weather -- though the days have been humid and warm, the nights are chilly and you can smell woodsmoke in the air.

It's been a busy few weeks here at the office. We're starting to get photos from the September jobs and should have some absolutely stunning Real Weddings to share with you soon. In the meantime, we thought we'd share a little DIY Saturday inspiration!

The Sweetest Occassion has this simple and adorable confetti/garland project -- we love the simplicity of it. It would be a good rainy fall Saturday type of project, we think.

Poppytalk featured this smart tutorial on how to make your own envelopes based on ones you already own. Imagine using a picture of a bride and groom, or a graduate, or the birthday girl or boy to create a custom gift tag or card envelope. Brilliant!

100 Layer Cake posted this tutorial for a fabric chandelier a while back, and we've been meaning to share it ever since. It's not a time consuming project, but the payoff is huge -- this would look AMAZING at any party, and would look lovely gracing the home afterwards, too!

DIY Fabric Chandelier from 100 Layer Cake on Vimeo.

Robin & Joey: Real Wedding Sneak Peek

2011-09-14T07:20:00.000-07:00

We were so excited to see Elin Photography post some teaser photos from Robin and Joey's Labor Day weekend wedding. How gorgeous does everything look? And Robin and Joey look blissfully happy and in love. Check out the album here!

We ALSO adored the video slideshow Elin posted with more stunning photos -- watch that here!

Thank you to Robin and Joey for letting us be part of your wedding, and to The Perfect Plan for coordinating everything so beautifully. And thank you, Elin Photography for your beautiful photos!

We can't wait to share more pictures from this event!

Wedding Weekend!

2011-09-10T09:15:00.000-07:00

There's a chill in the air when we wake up in the morning now, and weekday traffic during our commutes has started to abate. Still, this morning you would not believe that fall is arriving -- not with all the happy wedding couples up and down the Cape, taking advantage of an auspicious date (9/10/11!) and the beautiful weather. And really, this weekend is stunning, after a week of rain and fog. So, we're wishing good luck, happily ever afters and warm wishes to all of this weekend's couples!

We're coming back next week with more custom content and real weddings, but we thought we'd end this week with an inspired DIY Project we spotted on Project Wedding.

These rustic centerpieces are simple and gorgeous. We love them, and the fact that there are wooden escort card instructions to round the project out! Make sure you click through for more gorgeous pictures!

Happy Saturday!

Happy Labor Day

2011-09-03T11:07:00.000-07:00

We hope everyone is having a fantastic & relaxing Labor Day weekend! We're making the most of it, coming off a busy week and heading into a REALLY busy, short week -- we love September!

Today we're bringing you some fresh inspiration that we've culled from around the web. Check it out!

From 100 Layer Cake, these awesome fabric feathers. The feather trend is definitely not going away, and we love it! Just yesterday we had some special visitors in the office showing off their new hair feathers, celebrating the start of the school year. Awesome! So of course we loved these fabric feather embellishments.

Speaking of back to school, fresh new school supplies were the best part of September, we think. And why should that stop now that we're grown up? When planning an event, there's nothing better than having coordinated, gorgeous equipement to keep things organized, so we loved this Apartment Therapy post.

Over on WeddingBee, we saw these beautiful invitations that Miss Warbler posted, via Kari Dyas. I'm a confirmed book worm, so my heart melted a little bit when I saw these.

Have a happy, safe holiday weekend, everyone!

On Irene and Tenting

2011-08-31T10:06:00.000-07:00

Like most of the Eastern Seaboard we watched Irene very closely as she made her way up the coast. While strong hurricanes aren't common this far north, Cape Cod is no stranger to high winds through nor'easters and blizzards. As the Cape Cod experts, we know exactly what to do when a storm is coming up! So we watched the projected wind speeds, the rain and the path of the storm, and we prepared. We spent time making sure that every tent we installed was completely secure, and we kept in constant contact with our clients to keep them updated on what our plans were.

We pride ourselves on the quality of our equipment and the quality of our team -- and we lived up to that pride this weekend. Because of the extra time that we took, all of our tents withstood the near hurricane force (70mph!) gusts and the sustained high winds. Trees fell, electricity went out, and the tides rose, but our tents stood through it all. Now all of our clients have a great story to tell -- "We partied on Cape Cod the night before Irene!"

When choosing your vendors for your next event, remember that having the local experts on your side means you can rest secure that your function will be cared for at every level and in every circumstance. Choosing Party Cape Cod provides you with the very best -- the very best service, the very best equipment, the very best local knowledge. We look forward to working with you!

Weekend Inspiration

2011-08-27T11:18:00.000-07:00

It has been quite the week, and it's hard to believe Labor Day is just around the corner. We're gearing up for quite the month -- September is a hugely popular month for weddings on Cape Cod, as the weather is usaully gorgeous and mild, and the scenery impossible to beat.

Today we thought we'd take a moment and share some more inspiration -- this time from the new kids on the wedding block, BHLDN. We LOVED their table top inspiration pics this week. A lot of our clients describe themselves as visual people -- they need to SEE everything together before they can really make decisions on specifics (which is why having our showroom available for sample table top setups is so useful). We loved that BHLDN put together such gorgeous settings with their items so you can see how different pieces work together.

We hope everyone has a safe weekend as Irene approaches!

Wedding Wednesday

2011-08-24T11:32:00.000-07:00

What a week it's been already! We know all the west coasters are rolling their (collective) eyes at the east coast's minor earthquake, but it was a strange sensation for those of us who never experienced one. Meanwhile, we're all keeping a close eye on Irene's course up the coast, sending prayers and good wishes to the Carolinas and hoping with all our might that the storm continues to track EAST, far out to the Atlantic. Just as we did with (non) Hurricane Earl last year, we're taking precautions as we set up for this weekends events, and we're continuing to keep the safety of our clients as our top priority.

Meanwhile, amid all the buzz and craziness of an August weekend, we're still working away at projects and promotions to give our clients more options and more customization for their event! Today we're sharing a sneak peak at something coming down the pike!

We can't wait to share our plans for these gems from the talented On Cape Time!

Meanwhile, we hope everyone stays safe and dry in the coming days! We'll be back here on Satuday.

Wednesday Inspiration

2011-08-17T11:54:00.000-07:00

Today we're sharing some super cute DIY ideas, collected from our browsings all around the web!

From Utterly Engaged, these super cute twists on tissue paper flowers. We love the idea of using these to brighten up a space for a party -- since they're so large, just a few make a huge impact.

We spotted this one on 22 Words -- a video tutorial on converting regular old envelopes to awesome gift bags. This is an awesome craft project for a kid's birthday party, we think!

These are such charming save the dates, a DIY tutorial we found on Oh So Beautiful Paper. We're suckers for truly personalizable projects that don't rqeuire perfection -- the imperfections are part of the charm here!

We hope you're all having as busy an productive a week as we are! See you here on Saturday!

New on partycapecod.com!

2011-08-13T10:24:00.000-07:00

In the few quiet moments we've had over the past few weeks, we've been working steadily on some new features on our website. One of the most common questions we here from clients planning events is: "What else might I need?" We know how overwhelming it can be to plan a big event, especially a wedding, and we've been working to make that whole process easier. We've already announced our complete wedding packages, which include all the basics for a wedding. But we wanted to go further than that -- we know not event is a wedding and even a casual party can be overwhelming. So we've created a new category -- part of our Destination:Party Cape Cod! program -- where we put together lists of popular rental items for your next event.

We're continuing to add items to our rental inventory, and we'll continue to refine these categories, so make sure to check back as you plan your next event.

And remember, our Cape Cod experts are only a phone call or an email away -- let us help make your next event great! (800) 28-Party or pcc@partycapecod.com

Wednesday Inspiration

2011-08-10T07:42:00.000-07:00

It is a busy summer week here in the office, and we're still in shock that it's already the second week of August. Summers fly by! We wanted to share some more inspiration with you today, fresh from the blog roll!

From the Project Wedding blog we found these adorable viewmaster invites. All of us in the office remember playing with viewmasters when we were young -- putting them up to our eyes and seeing these pictures full of depth. What a fun idea for an invite!

This DIY project from the Sweetest Occasion made my jaw drop. What a fun, easy project for any party -- the animals bring a touch of whimsy but spray painting them gold keeps them unified and a step above kids' party favors. I'm definitely filing this one away for personal use!

The Bride's Cafe visited the farmers market to take in seasonal summer blooms and put together these beautiful bouqets. Zinnias do well in the sandy soil of the Cape, so we love seeing them featured in any arrangment. They are such bright, cheerful flowers!

DIY Wednesday!

2011-08-03T06:56:00.000-07:00

Today's a good day for inspiration, don't you think? Let's go:

100 Layer Cake features these rustic, lovely table numbers -- perfect, we think, for a farm wedding. And not an imposingly difficult DIY project, either!

PaperCrave has this awesome idea for gift wrapping your next present!

An awesome favor idea from Ruffled -- air plants are so lovely, and terrariums are so hip right now!

Real Wedding: Bourne, MA

2011-07-30T08:42:00.000-07:00

We've posted bits and pieces of this wedding here before, but it deserves its own spotlight. This seaside wedding in Bourne is absolutely stunning, and we want to highlight some of the details we haven't before.

Everything came together for this wedding. The weather was beautiful, the site unbelievable, the vendors fantastic, and the couple so in love and happy.

Navy flags flapped merrily from the top of the genesis pole tent while the ceremony took place facing the sea. Inside the tent, turquoise accents from the lanterns, organza chair sashes and napkin ribbons set off the champagne satin underlays and embroirdered organza overlays.

Vendors: Tent and rentals: Party Cape Cod, Planner: The Perfect Plan, Photographer: Tom Davis/Northern Images, Cake: Creative Baking Co./Amber Kingston, Stationery: Dulce Press, Catering: Jacqueline's Catering

Destination:Party Cape Cod!

2011-07-27T07:25:00.000-07:00

We are Cape Cod experts here at Party Cape Cod. We've grown up here, thrown parties here, gotten married here. We love being able to share that knowledge with our clients, helping them find the perfect spot for their party or the perfect vendor for their needs -- and helping them find Cape Cod inspiration with accents and items for their events.

One of our new programs this season is giving our brides a chance at an iconic Cape Cod photo op -- the happy couple relaxed in adirondack chairs, holding champagne and celebrating. We are excited to announce that qualifying orders of $3,000 or more will receive a free rental of a pair of pristine white adirondack chairs. To make that photo op just a little more sweet, we'll be throwing in a gift -- a sign bearing the name (or names) of the wedding couple!

Real Wedding: Chatham Bars Inn

2011-07-20T11:08:00.000-07:00

From the moment we received the intial order from Cara, the bride of this gorgeous Chatham Bars Inn wedding from 2011, we knew it was going to be something quite beautiful. Cara and her photographer, Joe Mikos, were kind enough to share a few outstanding pictures with us.

Gold organza sashes dressed up the chairs -- you can see a glimpse of the "before" chair in the picture below.

The centerpieces were lovely -- the soft blush and deep pink are set of so nicely by the champagne satin and embroirded organza.

Thanks again to Cara and to Joe for the beautiful photographs!

Where we draw inspiration:

2011-07-16T09:18:00.000-07:00

This sunny Saturday, we're sharing some more of our favorite inspiration sources. We're veering a bit away from the wedding-centric blogs, though, and sharing some unexpected sources for party planning!

Delphine Ephemera is a letterpress design studio that makes beautiful products. We also watch this blog for the gorgeous colorboards they putt ogether based on photographs, and for their overall design aesthetic. There's always something gorgeous to look at here!

Apartment Therapy focuses mainly on home decor, of course, but a lot of the diy projects featured here translate surprisingly well to wedding and event planning. Even as we write this the top post on the page is about summer entertaining. From unexpected lighting to papercraft, you can find a wealth of projects on AT.

Design Mom is an American blogger currently living in France with her husband and six children. While her day to day posts are fascinating, her diy projects are sources of great inspiration. Her balloon bannerwas irresistably cute!

Oh Happy Day is another blog full of stunning DIY projects, a few of which we've already linked you to. It's especially easy to navigate to her stunning projects by clicking on the navigation links at the top of her page. To make it even better, she keeps an eye on other blogs and shares some of the best ideas she's found, making it twice the reward.

Sitting Pretty Real Wedding: Boston

2011-07-13T12:41:00.000-07:00

You may have heard it said that chair covers can completely change the look of a room. We'd like to show you some pictures from a beautiful wedding at the Boston Park Plaza hotel last year that PROVE it's true. How gorgeous was this wedding?

The bride paired ivory chair covers with gold organza sashes, and dressed her tables in gold organza overlays. Her gorgeous centerpieces and candles set off the tables for a shimmery, formal and stunning look.

It doesn't hurt that the Park Plaza is a gorgeous spot, of course. This room is beautiful to start with!

But, in our naturally unbiased (!) opinion, we think the chair covers dress it to perfection.

Saturday is for inspiration (for a change!)

2011-07-09T10:27:00.000-07:00

The storms and rain of yesterday did a nice job of drying out the air, and it is turning into a lovely summer weekend on Cape Cod! On a day like today, what could be more fun than planning out your next party, hopefully while you sit on the beach or on the deck with a delicious drink of some sort! Or maybe that's just our summer dreaming talking.

We all already know Martha Stewart has brilliant party throwing ideas, and when we saw this the other day we gasped at how perfect it was. If you have lots of time these would be lovely save the dates, but we can think of a lot of uses for all sorts of parties. Kid's party invites would leap to mind -- what kid wouldn't love to receive a scratch off invitation?

We loved the idea of handmade hammered spoon place cards, which we spied on Craft. What a lovely, unique touch these would be for a formal dinner party!

As we settle into the dog days of summer, we have lots of cool things to share with you. Real weddings filled with unique, handcrafted touches are on the slate, as well as more how-to tutorials. We can't wait to share them all!

Napkin Folding 101

2011-07-02T10:01:00.000-07:00

Happy July 4th weekend, everybody! Today we thought we'd post a quick and simple tutorial on one of our favorite napkin folds.

Whenever we have a table set with napkins folded in this shape, clients are sure to ask if it is an easy fold to master. We can understand why -- this fold provides a nice texture to a table! Luckily, it's a pretty simple task!

We started with a navy satin napkin today so you could see the difference between the "top" of the fold and the bottom.

Lay the napkin out flat with the side you eventually want showing down.

Fold each corner into the center

So you have a square that looks like this.

Fold each corner into the center again

And hold the middle to keep the folds secure while you turn the napkin over.

You should now see a flat square.

Fold each corner to the center again, making sure to hold them in the center as you do so.

Your shape should now look like this.

Reach underneath each corner and pull the fabric out. The corner will lift and will now stay in the folded shape.

Your wend result will look like this. We often hear that this fold looks a bit like the paper fortune tellers they made in school, and from the top it does!

We love the height the napkins gets when folded like this.

And how it dresses up a table so nicely!

We apologize for the somewhat dark pictures -- while the sun is shining and the weather lovely today, it was a bit dim inside while we took photos.

We hope you are all having a wonderful holiday weekend! We will see you here on Wednesday.

Mid Week Inspiration

2011-06-29T13:39:00.000-07:00

We can't believe June is almost over! It's gone in a whirlwind of beautiful weddings and joyous graduations, long backyard barbeques and formal cocktail parties. What a happy month June is! We're heading into a busy July, starting with this most patriotic weekend!

We thought we'd share some midweek inspiration with you as we get back on track with our blogging schedule. As folks in the wedding industry could tell you, sometimes June has its own plans about how you will be spending your time!

First up, these absolutely beautiful painted votives we spied on Once Wed. We LOVE how delicate and personal these look, and we love the short time committment required to make them.

We also liked this handy tip from Apartment Therapy -- an unexpected source for some seaside accents on a reasonable budget.

This weekend we're looking forward to sharing some real wedding images with you from a gorgeous wedding at the Chatham Bars Inn!

Inspiration on Wedding Wednesday

2011-06-15T11:34:00.000-07:00

The sun is peeking out from behind the clouds that settled in last Friday. What a sight to lift our souls!
Today we thought we'd share this amazing guest book idea we saw on Utterly Engaged a few weeks ago.

Etsy seller Bleu De Toi ("Crazy for You") created this amazing piece -- what a wonderful way to have something lovely and personal to display after your wedding. We can see this framed on the wall of any home. Just make sure to provide something for people to wipe their fingers with after stamping!

The rainbow hues in the guest book project are echoed in this stunning DIY project from Love the Day (via Project Wedding). We LOVE seeing brides who aren't afraid to use color -- these carefully curated items make such a cheerful and lovely rainbow. Definitely click through to see more pictures!

Are you looking to add color in a more constrained way? OnceWed featured this brilliant, easy and free idea -- paint chip escort cards! Since paint chips are already arranged by hue, it would be easy to make a slow transition between colors or to highlight your wedding colors.

As the summer season heats up (no pun intended) we'll be moving this blog to a new schedule -- look for new posts here on Wednesday and Saturdays!

Tablescape, new hours

2011-06-01T08:39:00.001-07:00

Every time we put one of these posts up, I think THIS one is my favorite table. That's a nice feeling to have!

We couldn't do a summer showroom without incorporating Pantone's color of the year, honeysuckle. It just so happens that our coral runner is a match, and so we used it as the jumping off point for this table.

We paired with turquoise napkins, folded as placemats, to make both colors really pop.

We created this custom centerpiece for the table, continuing our showroom wide nautical theme. We LOVE the simplicity of it!

We think the total effect is breezy, fun and, most importantly, colorful.

As always, we welcome you to make an appointment and visit our showroom to create YOUR perfect table! We're excited to announce our new summer hours: Monday through Friday from 9-5 and Saturdays from 9-3!

Inspiration: Sources

2011-05-23T11:19:00.000-07:00

Today we wanted to share some more of the practically countless blogs and sites we keep an eye on for inspiration.

Lydia from Ever Ours finds some of the most beautiful images of all things wedding to share with her readers. She also shares music recommendations, which is an invaluable service for people looking for wedding playlists, or just plain work music (that might be us -- we get terrible radio reception in the office!).

Bryn from Paper Tastebuds does absolutely lovely calligraphy that blows me away. She also has fantastic gifts for sale, including calligraphy address stamps and thank you stamps. Bryn ALSO shares wonderful music selections!

Utterly Engaged is an online bridal magazine with absolutely stunning submissions. They also have a wonderful blog with lots more inspiration. This is absolutely one to bookmark!

Cocktails by the beach ...

2011-05-20T08:41:00.000-07:00

That sounds wonderful right now. Despite a week of rain and the threat of rain this weekend, the sun is out and it feels like summer out there! It feels like summer in here, too -- we're hitting the season running with a busy, packed week. We love the start of summer.

We put together a(nother!) nautical inspiration piece with this cocktail table. Shells, stripes and ropes -- you can see that these iconic maritime images make multiple appearences in our tables!

We chose a beige linen to set off our royal striped tray -- sand and ocean. The champagne glasses in their flipflop coasters are ready for toasting with!

We wrapped the legs of our cocktail table in rope and encircled the base with some buoys for an added authentic touch.

We hope you are all having a fantastic end to your week, and we look forward to seeing you back here on Monday!

Had to share!

2011-05-17T12:18:00.000-07:00

Most of the time we're content to file all those amazing inspirational images away in our fodder folder, and have the joy of picking through them when we need a dose of creative energy. Sometimes, though, we see something and feel like we need to share it right this very minute.

We've already shared our slight obsession with Washi tape, and when one of our favorite blogs, How About Orange, posted this tutorial our jaws dropped. Absolute BRILLIANCE. What a great way to transform an ordinary piece into something custom -- and extraordinary. And changable, which is always a huge plus. Re-use it party after party!

PS: Also, how about orange, really. That's a color that doesn't get enough love! It's a cheerful, warm and (ocassionally) retro color. We've already shown that it looks great paired with hues of blue -- so consider it for YOUR next party!

Our monthly newsletter

2011-05-13T12:32:00.000-07:00

We've just sent out our monthly newsletter, but thought we'd share a link here as well for anyone not on our list! This month we're highlighting some of the items we've added to our inventory this season, as well as announcing our new summer hours -- starting May 28th, we'll be open on Saturdays from 9-3!

Read it all here!

Inspiration Monday

2011-05-09T11:48:00.000-07:00

You know how it is, a beautiful weekend, a busy week ahead and a fresh Monday start. Sometimes you need a little inspiration to jump start the day -- visual caffeine! We wanted to share some inspiration with you, too.

We think these sweet cards by Jane Foster featured on papercrave would make adorable invitations to a baby shower, or a birthday party...or thank you notes!

This paper bunting from The Sweetest Occasion is awfully cute as a decoration, isn't it? And since they're made using stencils the customization is endless. Little animals from the cards above for a themed party, anyone?

How fantastic would these streamers from Project Wedding be as a bride and groom send off?

We hope you're having a wonderfully productive start to your week!

BHLDN: decorate

2011-05-06T12:12:00.000-07:00

BHLDN absolutely has their fingers on the pulse of the wedding industry. When they debuted their new decoration collection this week, we were completely wowed -- not just because some of these items are stunning (they are!) but because they are echoes of what we've been seeing in wedding blog after wedding blog. The good news is, a lot of these items are craftable or thriftable by the patient and crafty soul, but for those who aren't, it's nice to see another resource to help in planning the perfect party.

Here are some of our favorites!

Mercury Glass candlestick holder

Paper Garland

Silver leaf place tags

Paper bouqet

Mariner Stripe

2011-05-04T13:04:00.000-07:00

This table had a relatively simple inspiration board because we already knew what linen we wanted to use -- our Mariner Stripe Overlay. With a name like that, is it any wonder that our thoughts went to all things maritime?

(Photo credits: In Awe of God's Creation, PlanetLight, Per Ola Wiberg, Mediafury)

Dinghys and bouys, flags and traps all have pops of bright color that come alive against the relatively subdued backdrop of the ocean (or weathered docks and houses).

When we put together our table, we dressed it with pops of color against the mariner blue of the overlay. A colorful photocollage served as the centerpiece, and we built off the oranges and reds with our napkins and flower container.

Don't be afraid to add pops of color to your tablescape! If you're looking to branch out from your main color, consider adding its complement. Blue and orange are complementary colors: they occupy opposite spots on a color wheel, and so when paired they become vibrant and play off of each other well without clashing. In color theory, the effect is said to be particularly pleasing to the human eye!

Inspiring us today:

2011-05-02T11:34:00.000-07:00

Things are in bloom across the Cape, and we're finding some inspiration in florals today!

We LOVE these Garden of Love stamps designed by José Ortega for the USPS -- how sweet and lovely are these for invitations? They'll be out on May 19th!

ParcelPost has some adorable Washi tapes to showcase. We love that these are showing up more and more these days! They're such a sweet adornment for everything from envelopes to gifts.

NicePackage has instructions on how to create paper pompoms on the top of gift boxes -- ok, these aren't technical flowers so we're pushing the theme a bit, but how cute are they! We couldn't resist!

Tablescapes: Dockside Dining

2011-04-27T12:28:00.000-07:00

Today we wanted to show off a more casual table, a contrast to our elegant nautical look. When we started thinking about the showroom we considered all the different atmospheres of Cape Cod. For this table, we were inspired by the sweet, slow-pace of summer afternoons spent waterside.

(Picture Credits: Me, Spigoo, Normanack, Studio 280, Studio 280, Victor Berukov, Studio 280, Studio 280, Edu Alarcon)

As before, we thought about texture for our inspiration board. Glass floats wrapped in rough rope were once used on nets and are now common decor items across the Cape. We added in images of wood planking from docks, piers and beach stairways. We thought about summer vacations on the beach and the simple joy of relaxing under the shade of a beach umbrella. Afternoon drinks and the festive look of tent flags helped us pull it together.

For the actual table, we pulled in one of our market umbrella and umbrella tables to evoke that relaxed feel. We decorated the umbrella with a string of lights in the shape of glass floats, and set the table with chargers made out of wood to bring in the dockside feel. We paired whie linen with aqua sashes and napkins to complement the lights, and set the table with white rimmed china, hammered stainless flatware, Vina Wine Tasters and crystal highball glasses. All together, the look is perfect for a festive summer party.

Do you need help creating your perfect look? Come visit our showroom and we'll help you match your inspirations to your look! Give us a call at 1-800-28-Party to set up a time!

Thinking of midsummer parties!

2011-04-25T12:40:00.000-07:00

Today on the way to work I saw a sight that made me literally cheer -- there were tiny green leaves finally gracing the trees on my route to work. That's old news for the rest of the state, but around here it was a welcome site. We have a long cool spring, thanks to the still cold ocean water surrounding us, so while everywhere else greenery is well in progress we're just beginning.

As always spring has us thinking of summer -- of the slow lazy summer nights under the stars. And how perfect is this little jar from the Neatorama shop? These would be a really cute accent to a relaxed summer wedding or party.

And maybe for the invites to the summer party, some delicate papercut style invitations, like these beauties we spotted on Oh So Beautiful Paper?

We'll be back with more tablescapes and inspirations on Wedding Wednesday!

The Look: Nautical Elegance

2011-04-20T13:34:00.000-07:00

When we started thinking about what tables we wanted to showcase this spring, we started by thinking about what is really iconic for Cape Cod, and what we love about it. The list is pretty much never ending -- we live and work in one of the most beautiful, unique places in the country! No wonder people from all over want to get married on these shores.

Next, we created an inspiration board for each table. For this one, we were thinking about the deep navy of the ocean and of all the different textures in our landscape. We also knew we wanted to create something quite elegant. People often think of rustic, vintage weddings here, and we love those too! But you can absolutely create a formal, lovely nautical wedding.

(photo credits, from top left: Psyberartist, Clearly Ambiguous, Studio 280 Photography, Horia Vallan, W J (Bill) Harrison, Studio 280 Photography, Personal photos )

We started by looking at some previous tablescapes we've created, added in bursts of textures through ship rope, starfish and the woven texture of a Nantucket style basket. We added touches of ocean and sparkle to finish off the board.

The last step is the most fun: we created the table. We paired a navy satin tablecloth with white satin napkins and set them with gold chargers, ivory with gold double rim china and silverplate flatware. Finally, we added a wine taster and a water goblet from our Vina collection to complete the place settings. Our table runner is a custom piece. To add the texture from our inspiration board, we added the Nantucket-style basket and the lit-branch coral centerpiece and some oversized starfish and added our favorite new item from our inventory -- a sailor's knot table sign holder.

One of the things we often hear from clients who visit the showroom is how overwhelming planning the perfect table can be. Starting with an inspiration board is a fun way to help clarify your vision. It helps you narrow down exactly what you're imagining when you think "nautical" or "oceanside" or whatever it is you're dreaming of, and it helps inform all your decisions when planning a table. Plus, you get to spend time looking at amazing pictures from all over the internet. Many sites, from Picnik to Style Me Pretty, have inspiration board templates for your use, and you can find extra photos in the creative commons section of flickr (make sure you choose the license that's right for your use!)

And, of course, you're always welcome to drop by the showroom and try some different ideas out on a table here! Just give us a call at 800-28-Party to schedule an appointment!

Coming up on Summer!

2011-04-18T11:18:00.000-07:00

Among the many projects that kept us extremely busy the past week (and the natural business that comes with the start of the summer season here on Cape Cod), the one we had the most fun with was a showroom redo on Friday. We stripped all of our tables, scrubbed the showroom down and pumped the music.
We are completely inspired right now by all things nautical. After a long winter, our minds go directly to the beach, to the ocean and to long sun drenched days by or on the water. With that in mind we thought we'd bring together some of our favorite setups and nautical designs to showcase here in the showroom.

This week on the blog we'll be showcasing each table and also sharing with your our inspiration boards and tips on how to create your perfect nautical event.

We hope you're enjoying this fabulous sunny Patriot's Day as much as we are. Don't forget to check back in on Wednesday!

New Inventory!

2011-04-04T11:39:00.000-07:00

We've recently added a few new items to our inventory and we're so excited to share them! First, we've added a variety of Chivari chairs:

White or Silver Chiavari Ballroom Chairs with White or Ivory Cushions

Gold or Black Chiavari Ballroom Chairs with White, Ivory, Black or Champagne Damask cushions

We've also finalized an item that we've been developing this off season -- customizable table flags! These flags are available in of our linen and polyester fabrics at a cost of $0.75 per flag, and we can picture them used in a variety of ways, from lining tables with an extra pop of color to hanging above the entrance to your tent.

Interested in learning more? Check out our website or give us a call at 800-28-Party.

Tips from The Perfect Plan; Tented Weddings

2011-04-01T10:02:00.000-07:00

We love working with Connie Nye Clark, and all her staff, at The Perfect Plan, and recommend her to our clients every chance we get. Perfect Plan weddings are, well, perfect in every detail. Just take a look at their gallery to see all the stunning details of some goregous events and you'll see exactly what we mean.

As an experienced planner (she has more than a decade of event planning experience), Connie knows exactly what it takes to make an event shine -- and how to avoid any problems. She recently wrote a blog post with some invaluable tips on creating the perfect tented affair, and she was kind enough to allow us to repost it here. Thank you so much, Connie!

Make sure to read and bookmark The Perfect Plan's blog for more inspiration and tips!

Mastering the Art of the Tented Affair

At The Perfect Plan, we have done countless tented weddings over the many years in business. Some have called us crazy for our absolute love of doing these amazing yet logistically challenging events. Don't get me wrong, I love working on Cape Cod at some of the most beautiful and charming indoor venues as well, but the heart of the planner in me just LOVES planning a tented wedding. There is something refreshing about a blank canvas where the creative juices flowing in our office can be channeled. We have done many three day events involving flipping tents three to four times per weekend in order to utilize the tent for rehearsal dinners, weddings, and post wedding brunches. From Cape Cod Casual beachy themed weddings to elaborate, elegant weddings complete with tent liners and chandeliers, we have skillfully mastered the art and logistics for successful tented weddings and events. If you are a bride thinking of a tented wedding, we would love to help you execute the logistics with our planning services. Can't decide whether to enter into the tented wedding territory? Here is our bullet list of things to consider when having a tented wedding or event:

Does the venue have adequate power supply for all vendors involved...caterer, band or dj, tent lighting, restroom trailer, photo booth etc. We always do a power assessment for each property, trust us you do not want to have power troubles on your wedding day!
Is there parking on site or nearby, if not how do you arrange for transportation for your guests to the venue and then home. Transportation logistics is a big part of what we do leading up to the event and then coordination with transportation vendors on the big day. We field the phone calls from drivers not you or your family.
Back up rain plan if ceremony is to be outdoors onsite as well. We have moved many ceremonies due to weather in our years of planning, we always have a plan B and our staff puts it into play efficiently.
Always get sidewalls for your tents, at least have them onsite if not installed, we spend alot of our time putting them up and taking them down depending on weather, ocean winds and comfort of guests. Depending on time of year, heaters may need to be rented as well.
Restroom facilities, do you need to rent a restroom trailer, if it is a private home, will they allow all your guests to use the indoor restrooms. Generally we advise renting a restroom trailer for convenience of guests and less traffic thru the indoor facility, especially if wedding is at a private home.
We advise having bar and music shut down at same time and always check the noise ordinances in the town your venue is in prior to booking times for these services. Some venues and properties set their own end times and some fall under town noise ordinances.
Is a tent permit required
Designation of someone who will oversee vendors and or delivery and setup of tent and rental equipment, we offer this service and are available to oversee tent setups and deliveries and takedowns as well.
Always ask your caterer what additional equipment they will need, such as ovens, cook tent, heating units etc. Many times you will have to rent such items for your caterer and you should budget for this cost.
Will there be additional charges from vendors for a difficult load in, long walk or hilly or beach terrain.
What underground utilities are on site and could it pose a problem with your tent stakes
Trash removal, who is responsible and who incurs the cost

These are some of the things we educate our clients about when planning a tented wedding or event. These facts are in no way meant to deter you from doing a tented event as there is something amazingly fabulous in the creation of events under tents with nature's scenery as your canvas. I hope you find this information enlightening and helpful if you are planning a tented event or wedding or are entertaining the idea. We have many photos of REAL weddings that are tented on our galleries page of our website. We would love to hear from you, if you are in need of assistance with your special day!
Happy Planning
Connie

Inspiration Monday

2011-03-28T12:00:00.000-07:00

When Monday rolls around, sometimes we need a kickstart of inspiration to start the week off right (although to be fair we want that inspiration every day of the week). As always, we love sharing what we find with you -- and as always, click through to see the original source!

Once Wed featured some really lovely shots of a relaxed, vintage tablescape, complete with paper boat escort cards. We love the sweet, casual look of flowers in vintage cans as well!

Mason jars already have a healthy spot in wedding decor, from favors to drink holders to centerpieces. But we liked seeing unplugged's round up of lighting uses of the common jar -- how pretty would sun jars or led filled jars be at a dusk ceremony? We love how the latter look like fireflies in a jar, which is so evocative of summer and carefree pleasure.

Oh Happy Day! always has something original brewing, and we weren't the only ones to adore these amazing confetti invitations. How fun and happy are they? She includes instructions, which means this project instantly got bookmarked for my future reference!

We love rounding up all these great projects from every corner of the web -- and we hope they might give you some good ideas for your next event, too!

Summer dreamin'

2011-03-25T12:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we looked out the window and saw this:

Luckily it didn't last and by the afternoon that meagre coating had melted back into the ground, but it was a reminder that Spring in New England isn't all fuzzy lambs and new green grass!

Still, we're doing some summer dreaming today, looking back at some of the jobs of summer past. One of the things we're excited about this year is bringing you fresh looks at events as they happen, so we're practicing with some collages of pretty events of the past -- especially ones with pretty spring colors and summer colors!

Photos courtesy of Sherri Dennet Photography

Photos courtesy KML Photography

Wedding Wednesday

2011-03-23T11:25:00.000-07:00

It's Wedding Wednesday and we thought we'd share some more DIY projects that caught our eye! AS always, click through to take a look at the original source and find some instructions on how to recreate!

These gorgeous crepe flowers from Blush and Bashful make me want to dig out some pretty paper and make one of these just to sit on my desk. It certainly doesn't hurt that the colors picked are so lovely together!

We know we weren't the only ones to see these amazing custom paperclips on The Sweetest Occasion this week, but for anyone who missed it, how cute are they? What a fantastic idea to add some customization to almost any project.

It's officially Spring, and we're celebrating!

2011-03-21T12:22:00.000-07:00

Although it may be cold and snowy outside today, it is the first full day of Spring -- and we want to celebrate! From now until May, we are pleased to offer a 10% site inspection discount to our clients.

Schedule your complimentary site visit with Party Cape Cod and recieve a 10% discount off of your entire reservation!* We will send one of our tenting experts to meet with you on site, measure your property and provide potential layout options.

Give our showroom a call today at 508-564-6900, or go to our website to request your site visit today.

*50% deposit must be received within 10 days of placing your reservation.

For Japan, With Love

2011-03-18T08:28:00.000-07:00

Please considering donating. Our thoughts remain with the people of Japan.

Rainy Day Inspiration

2011-03-16T10:44:00.000-07:00

On twitter, Wednesday is Wedding Wednesday (#WW for short). It's the day of the week where all the talented professionals in the industry work to keep the community going. Links to favorite vendors appear, stunning weddings are featured, and The Knot even hosts a weekly wedding etiqutte hour! Basically, it's a fun day for everyone in the industry to be on twitter.

Although to be fair we think most days are fun days to be on twitter!

At any rate, for our Wedding Wednesday, we thought we'd share some fun nautical inspirations we've been collecting here and there!

We love these charms from etsy seller harvestgoldcharms -- wouldn't they make great bridesmaid gifts?

We have been obsessed with these canvas Cape Cod themed Save the Dates since we saw them on Oh So Beautiful Paper back in January. So lovely!

Speaking of obsessed, we loved this classic Newport Wedding featured on Style Me Pretty. It was such a lovely blend of classic and preppy and seaside. Plus the navy, white and yellow colors are so crisp! We were especially charmed by the table signs in this wedding, searching feverishly till we found our own (you can even see them on our tablescape at the WellWed show, next post down!)

WellWed's Cape Cod Wedding Affair

2011-03-14T11:37:00.000-07:00

We had a blast this weekend at WellWed's Cape Cod Wedding Affair at the Chatham Bars Inn!

Emily's seminar was a success, with lots of interested brides looking for tips on how to make their wedding vision come true -- and how to keep to their budgets while doing it.

Today we are back to work on a million different projects, which is a normal start to the week. We were excited to start the day off by changing the clocks -- a true sign of spring! We hope your week is starting out wonderfully, too.

Tent, from start to finish

2011-03-11T13:42:00.000-08:00

It's not a great day for tenting jobs, but our crew is tough and somewhat like the US Mail Service, with neither wind nor rain...

At any rate, we were out putting a tent up this morning, and one of the crew snapped some pictures for us so you can see the evolution of a frame tent!

On a far more serious note, all of our hearts and prayers here at Party Cape Cod go out to Japan. The pictures of the devestation are very sobering and heartbreaking. There are many ways to help; consider texting REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation (will appear on your phone bill or be deducted from your prepaid balance) to the Red Cross.

This weekend: WellWed's Cape Cod Wedding Affair

2011-03-09T07:22:00.000-08:00

We are so excited for the WellWed Wedding Affair at the Chatham Bars Inn this weekend. This is one of the shows that are looked forward to all year -- it is a real showcase of what the Cape has to offer brides.

We're especially excited this year because Emily will be cohosting a seminar! If you're at the show, make sure to stop by.

3:45 pm - 4:15 pm - Wedding Coordination, Budgets & Priorities
Jessica Harris of Alden Blair Events partners with Emily Fronius of Party Cape Cod to bring you the most tested tips for budgeting & time lines, vendor management, design & decor tips on a budget.

Mondays are for making!

2011-03-07T11:53:00.000-08:00

We find we need some creative inspiration on Mondays to kick start our week. Maybe you do too, so we're happy to share some starred items from our inspiration folders!

We saw two seperate posts on yarn wrapped words and letters recently and saved them both immediately. First up are these letters found by Hello Lucky. These would look so sweet on a cake table or with the escort cards, don't you think?

Craft Magazine also found and posted a tutorial on yarn wrapping -- full words this time. These would also be such a fun accent to a reception, or a shower, or any party, really!

The Sweetest Occasion posted a quick tutorial on maing your own stamps out of rubber erasers. We can see about a million fun ways to use these, and we promise most of them don't involve stamping mustaches on pictures, as tempting as that may be! Stamping gift tags, thank you notes, invites to all sorts of parties ... well, you get the idea!

Hope you're having a lovely and productive start to your week, too!

.

Dressing Chairs to Impress

2011-03-04T11:17:00.000-08:00

We were at the Salem Waterfont Hotel today dressing 134 chairs for a wedding this weekend. We thought we'd share the before and after photos with you (from a cell phone, forgive the quality!). Chair covers make a world of difference, don't they?

Before

Midway, just waiting for the sashes!

And done!

Spring, in like a lamb.

2011-03-02T11:05:00.000-08:00

Doesn't March just have such a nice sound to it? The summer season is just around the corner now! We're hard at work on some design and showroom projects. As much as we love finding inspiration around the web, sometimes we like sharing a little of our own! These tablescape pictures were taken for us by Tom Davis of Studio 280 Photography.

Monday is for link love!

2011-02-28T10:03:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday everyone!

We saw the fall color forecast for designers the other day, and so this post from Flights Of Fancy pulling those same colors together in a wedding palette (featuring BHLDN dresses) caught our eye.

If you're looking to bring an element of DIY to your next event, we love the idea of making your own birthday/cake candles -- we spotted a tutorial on Design Mom:

Looking for more DIY? These handmade clay table numbers and signs are completely charming and the instructions on The Sweetest Occasion make the project look simple!

I must admit I've used tissue paper version of these pom pom flowers for present wrapping decorations many times, but we love the sweet color of these true pompom flowers over at poppytalk (with links on creation!)

We hope everyone's having a wonderful start to their week!

How to make our day:

2011-02-25T08:02:00.000-08:00

How to make our day? Bring us that little bit of spring we were dreaming of! Yesterday as we were in the midst of hanging new pictures and trying new arrangments, Anna Holmes of Flowers By Anna dropped by with a beautiful spring arrangment that completely charmed us. Thank you so much, Anna -- today is quite miserable and gloomy out, and we're treasuring the pretty flowers brightening up the showroom!

We're wishing you all a lovely (and hopefully dry!) weekend! See you on Monday!

Spring is in the air...Inspiration!

2011-02-23T08:44:00.000-08:00

I bought an armful of tulips yesterday at the store. I know they don't last, but how can I resist the bright cheerful colors? It's a floral dose of sunshine for the few days the tulips live.

It's no surprise that when I saw the pretty pink tulips in the painted glass mason jar on Project Wedding this morning, it was instant love.

We also gave Style Me Pretty's new inspiration board a try this morning, inspired by thoughts of tulip and spring. It took us a bit to realize you could search by color but once we did we found it addicting. With thoughts of spring in mind we put together a little inspiration board to show you what you can do with the tool -- well worth checking out!

Monday Link Love

2011-02-21T10:00:00.000-08:00

We hope you’re all enjoying this President’s Holiday, even if it means the return of (sadly seasonable) cold weather!

We spend a lot of time reading blogs and wedding magazines – we’re not just interested in color trends, we also like to know what brides are thinking and what is frustrating them about the planning process. The upside of all this research is that we have a huge list of bridal sites we follow – and GoogleReader, that invaluable tool – gives us more suggestions every day. We thought we’d start the week off with a few recommendations!

1) Style Me Pretty: We are proud to be listed on SMP’s Little Black Book of vendors, but we have been fans of the site for a long time. Every day they post about stunning weddings that span every part of the spectrum, from DIY gorgeousness to upscale glamour. Plus, they’ve just introduced a new feature – virtual inspiration boards. There can never be too many inspiration boards in the wedding world!

2) Wedding Bee: We follow this one for a couple of reasons. One, their hands on nitty gritty details the bee bloggers provide about every aspect of planning. When they talk about vendors who shine – or vendors who have given them nightmares, we take note. Two, we LOVE seeing these weddings come to life. Real wedding inspiration is invaluable.

3) Project Wedding: More real weddings, more wedding shoots, more detail inspiration. We love every bit of eye candy Project Wedding supplies! We especiallly love that they host so many diy tutorials on everything from cupcakes to bouquets.

4) Ruffled: Ruffled has it all, from wedding shoots and real weddings (are you sensing a trend?) to expert advice to suggestions on lovely everything. They’ve recently run a series on lovely bridesmaid dresses in a complete rainbow of colors – I love colors. Seeing teal next to blush next to sage -- dreamy, romantic colors!

2011-02-18T10:29:00.000-08:00

We have a busy weekend ahead of us, our favorite kind! Tomorrow I’ll be in the showroom for three client meetings. I know we say it all the time but we love love love having brides here in the showroom. It’s honestly fun setting tables and trying out linens, like a grownup version of playing house. Plus, we find it fascinating to see how real life brides are using and innovating on all this seasons trends. Cape Cod brides have an aesthetic to themselves, and we love watching it take shape with each bride’s unique vision.

Meanwhile today we’re busy preparing for the Foxboro Expo Bridal Show on Sunday, packing up all of our samples and goods. A lot of work goes into getting ready for a show, but experience has it down to a science for us. We hope to see some of you there!

We know it gets boring to talk about the weather all the time, even here in the northeast where it has been in the news and on our lips since December. It’s been a winter like no other, that’s for sure. But the sun is streaming into the windows of the showroom and gilding every table. The showroom is lovely all the time, but it’s impossible not to find it charming in the sun. We hope you’re having a lovely Friday and a wonderful weekend! See you here on Monday!

Midwinter Energy

2011-02-16T09:04:00.000-08:00

Today the sun is out and we’re looking forward to temperatures rising up into the mid 50s by Friday. It’s a mini-spring thaw, and just what our winter weary souls needed – an injection of energy!

I’m sure we’ve mentioned before how the winter isn’t really just a time for us to recover and prepare for the upcoming season. We make the most of this time. The warehouse is organized and every piece of equipment and linen is checked and rechecked, cleaned or repaired. In the office we go over the previous year and our goals for the coming year. Our aim is to provide top of the line service and equipment, and we’re all dedicated to making sure that happens. We bring in new stock, new changes, new ideas. We reconnect with other wedding professionals who are also using this time to prepare.

That’s not to mention all the wedding shows, meetings, and networking events we attend. The offseason has a buzz all its own! As we roll up our sleeves and dive into the next project, we make the most of the thaw and the energy and put it to good use. We hope the nice weather is happening where you are, too – and that you’re getting a little boost of energy too!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T08:00:00.000-08:00

The sun is shining and the last hunks of snow are starting to melt away -- at least here on the Cape! It's a lovely day for sweethearts all around.

We wanted to take a moment and share a couple of new wedding resources that have recently appeared. First up is a brand new wedding line from Anthropologie, BHLDN (beholden). We tweeted about the teasers we started getting a few weeks ago, and the site has finally launched!

We love the range of dresses, from sweet old fashioned to modern glamour. BHLDN has everything, too -- from shoes and accessories to gowns and veils. There's even an easily managed inspiration board, an essentianal tool for envisioning your entire look all together.

The second tool we wanted to tip people off to is the Google Weddings. Google already has some handy tools for planning, from online spreadsheets and documents that can be edited by multiple people to photo organizing/editing software that makes keeping track of your albums and inspiration images a breeze. Now they've gathered those tools -- and added a few new ones -- into one place for ease of use.

Our favorite new tool is Picnik, which is an online photo editing/collage making program. A fair word of warning, it definitely has some kinks to work out yet! It can be frustrating to only be able to work on one project at a time in the program, and a lot of the features are premium only. Still, with a little bit of patience we found the results were worth it. I don't think the collages will ever replace real stationary suites -- or the editing replace real, patient photoshop editing, but for fun graphics for your website or blog, it's worth the look!

P.S. - Our showroom looks even better in person! Why not stop in to see some of our tablescapes and linens?

Vendor Spotlight: Dulce Press

2011-02-11T11:18:00.000-08:00

As part of our Destination: Party Cape Cod program, we have linked with some of the best local artisans and vendors on the Cape. We're lucky enough to display some of Dulce Press' fabulous work here in showroom, and the sample invitation cards get a lot of admiration! So Jen Halpert, the owner of Dulce Press, was the perfect place to start with our Vendor Spotlights.

Although we're technically still in the off-season, wedding professionals will tell you that the season is getting longer and off-season prep and the wedding shows we all love keep us quite happily busy. Jen was nice enough to take some time to answer a few questions for us!

We hear you're opening a new storefront, congratulations! Tell us how you got started in the business?

I started out designing birth announcements and birthday invitations for my 3 beautiful little girls. Then other people started to ask me to do ones for their kids and soon for their weddings. My loving and supportive husband encouraged me to build a website and offer my services to anybody needing custom designed stationery and we've been getting busier and busier every year since!

What (or who!) do you look to for inspiration?

I love to keep up with the latest blogs and see all the new trends and styles. I design a lot of nautical invitations and sometimes I'll see a pattern or a layout that I really love and think "how can I incorporate the ocean into these?" I also like to do very feminine and floral invitations with lots of detail.

What's your favorite part of the process?

I love meeting new clients and being a part of what they have envisioned for their wedding! New color combinations and really fabulous new patterns and layouts get me so excited for their big day, you'd think I was the one getting married all over again.

Do you have any words of wisdom for brides who are just starting to pick out their bridal suite?

I always tell all of my clients to pick out their colors and look around at all of the different shapes and designs that are out there. Simple things like figuring out what shape you like best is helpful, do you prefer a pocketfold, or a ribbon, or a vintage theme. I tell my couples that we can change any colors, fonts and graphics easily and we will work together to find something that they absolutely love!

Thank you so much, Jen! You can find Dulce Press on the web -- and soon at a brand new storefront in Mashpee.

More pictures from the show!

2011-02-09T08:30:00.000-08:00

Kelly Hike from Hike Photography shared some more images from the Cape & Islands Wedding Group Bridal Event -- gorgeous pictures! Here are some more views of our tablescapes and our booth!

We have to admit that this is a real favorite -- Navy and Raspberry look so sophisticated and classy together. All About Flowers' centerpiece helped pull the whole look together.

Have we mentioned how much we love having pictures from our events? These are just a sample of the pictures decorating the walls in our showroom -- not only are they lovely to look at they can be great inspriation for our clients!

Love these looks? Give us a call (508.564.6900) and make an appointment -- we love having brides in the showroom and we can help you create the perfect tablescape for YOUR vision!

Show Weekend

2011-02-07T10:47:00.000-08:00

We had a blast at the first annual Cape and Islands Wedding Group Bridal Event! The event was at Willowbend Country Club on Saturday and was a huge success. Here are some of the tablescapes we put together -- the gorgeous centerpieces were from All About Flowers.

Linens: Navy satin accented by iridescent raspberry runners and raspberry satin napkins.

China: White rimmed dinner and salad plates

Flatware: Hammered Stainless

Glassware: Vina Wine Taster, Vina Water Goblet, Champagne Flute

Linen: Shell Game Runner with aqua napkins and sashes

China: Mikasa dinner, salad and bread and butter plate

Flatware: Hammered Stainless

Glassware: Vina Wine Taster, Vina Water Goblet, Champagne Flute

Linen: Navy linen, white linen napkins and a sneak peek at a soon to be formally introduced item!

China: White Square dinner plate and salad plate

Flatware: Silverplated

Glassware: Vina Wine Taster, Vina Water Goblet, Champagne Flute

We are proud to be members of the Cape and Islands Wedding Group -- we are thrilled to work alongside some of the best vendors the Cape has to offer.

2011-01-24T07:56:00.000-08:00

This morning is about as cold as it ever gets on Cape Cod. It's the kind of morning that makes us crank up the heat here in the showroom and daydream about summer. In fact, we've been doing a lot of that this winter, remembering the brides of 2010 and thinking about the beautiful events our 2011 brides have planned.

This weekend we had two great showroom visits. One of the things that clients are always eager to do is to set up a table here with their chosen linens and china. It's hard to pick colors online or even from the swatches we email out, so we encourage people to come in and take a look, experiment with color until something feels completely right.

One of the surprise colors of last season was jade, and we're continuing to see it as a popular choice for the upcoming season. Our first bride came in with really beautiful jade, teal and gold patterned napkins that her future mother in law was making for the wedding and wanted to build her table around it. A jade underlay with a crisp white overlay was the winner -- the table looked pulled together and lovely, and the napkins were the star of the show.

A lot of our clients are planning Cape Cod weddings from distant locations, and planning from another state can be a headache. Luckily for our second visit, this bride has parents living just around the corner in Sandwich who were willing to come in and put together tables for her so she could still see the full affect. She's getting married near the water and wanted something that reflected the setting. We started with a color -- a hydrangea toned blue we call periwinkle -- and set up every table we could possibly think of to give her a variety of choices. From a fairy princess table with a white embroidered overlay to a sophisticated setup with ivory satin stripes, we sent pictures from every angle. The winner was the last table we put together -- as soon as we finished setting it up, we all knew that this was the one. A periwinkle underlay with a white overlay looked crisp and summery, and was dressed up by square tablesettings and silverplated cutlery with a periwinkle napkin. We co-ordinated the chairs by adding a periwinkle sash.

We can't say enough how much we love meeting our brides and seeing them bring their wedding visions to life. We'd love to see you! We're open from 9-5 on weekdays and by appointment on Saturdays. Give us a call at 508-564-6900 or shoot us an email at pcc@partycapecod.com to set up your visit!

Helpful Advice via Project Wedding

2011-01-19T11:36:00.000-08:00

Here at Party Cape Cod, we get to see brides at every stage of the planning process -- from newly engaged and swimming in ideas to checking off the final details before the big day. Project Wedding recently published an article with some helpful advice from moving from that first stage to a bride with a vision -- definitely worth a read!

When designing your wedding, think about what you really love and find a way to pull it together. It doesn't have to "match" it just has to reflect your style.

--Creating Your Wedding Concept -- Project Wedding

DIY Ideas: Sea Glass Candies!

2011-01-14T10:05:00.000-08:00

Sea-glass is one of the iconic images of Cape Cod for me. I've spent countless hours on the beach combing through miniscule shells and piles of seaweed, hoping to find just one more piece to add to my collection. Finding a rare color -- red, or even blue -- felt like the biggest treat. I love the idea of using the candies as a nautical accent for a wedding -- a great diy project to try out on a cold winter weekend!

Find instructions here, courtesy of Not So Humble Pie!

2011-01-11T10:46:00.000-08:00

We're hunkering down before yet another storm, and looking for warmth wherever we can find it. January and February seem to last forever, but we know that the wedding season will be on us again in the blink of an eye. We are using the relative quiet of the off season to research new trends and ideas so we can be as knowledgeable as possible for our brides.

(Bella Figura)

Luckily for us, looking at pictures of beautiful summer weddings and inspired color palettes makes us feel just a little bit warmer! We love how Bella Figura presents such beautiful and tidy color boards!

Stay warm and safe!

Announcing a New Weekly Feature: Destination Party!

2011-01-07T09:18:00.000-08:00

One of the best reasons to choose Party Cape Cod for your event is the opportunity to take advantage of our local knowledge and expertise. We are so excited to talk about a new program that brings the best of the Cape here, to our showroom and on our website.

We want to share that knowledge with you to help you find the most amazing local artisans and vendors.Whatever you are looking for, from bridesmaid and groomsman gifts, favors, out of town welcome baskets to gorgeous invitations, save the dates and escort cards, we know the best local talent to suit your needs. Starting next week we'll be profiling those vendors so you can have a chance to see for yourself why we consider them to be the best of the best.

We've also put together new packages for the upcoming season that will help make it simpler to ensure all your needs are covered -- we'll be highlighting those and our new items to show you just how easy covering your rental items can be.

Finally we're thrilled to bring you weddings from this season's brides. Our brides throw amazing parties, and we want to share those images and stories with all of you.

Welcome, 2011!

2011-01-03T11:55:00.000-08:00

The New Year brings with it lots of hope, excitement and (most importantly!) energy for the upcoming year. Here in the office we're getting things in shape for a busy summer wedding season, reviewing the events that made last year amazing, and brainstorming ideas to make our clients lives easier and their events more spectacular. We're also LOVING hearing from all the newly engaged folks, fresh from the holidays and just starting to think about their events.

This year is shaping up to be something special. We can't wait to show off some of our new packages and linens, and to showcase amazing events from start to finish. We're also excited to show you some of the best vendors on Cape Cod, who can truly make your event something unique.

Watch this space!

Thank you!

2010-12-16T08:02:00.000-08:00

This Christmas season, ee were able to donate some tables and linens for Christmas In Cotuit for the Cotuit Federated Church. We received this lovely thank you in the mail:

Nothing like a "Dressed Room" to add to the beauty and success of an event and we have ... Party Cape Cod to thank! When over 200 people arrived ... the were delighted by the well appointed room of covered tables full of donated foods and beverages all made more lovely by the tables from Party Cape Cod -- thank you for your time and efforts to make this community celebration so perfect.

Our goal is to provide the best of everything -- customer service, quality of items, local information. Knowing that we help make an event the success shows us that we are doing our job right!

Cape and Islands Wedding Group: Bridal Show

2010-12-07T12:46:00.000-08:00

Party Cape Cod believes in the power of networking with the best vendors on Cape Cod, and we are proud to be a member of the Cape and Islands Wedding Group. We are very excited to announce that we are participating in the first annual C&I Wedding Groups Bridal Show, being held at Willowbend Country Club on February 5th. For more details and to purchase tickets, visit the event site -- and we'll have plenty more to share as time goes on.

Speaking of Thank You Notes

2010-11-11T11:34:00.001-08:00

Every time I receive a gift, I can all but hear my mother chiding me to send a thank you note. She would sit us down the day after christmas and we'd dutifully write our notes. As we got older, she taught us how to make the notes gracious, the things that should be covered, and the proper length of a note. The training paid off and these days I can whip up a thank you note that would make her proud. I was happy to see this guide on Apartment Therapy this morning, though, as it's a nice summation of everything I learned at my mother's knee: How To Write a Thoughtful Thank You Note. I thought it might be a good reminder as we near Christmas!

Capturing A Memory

2010-10-23T11:49:00.000-07:00

I found this video on Design*Sponge, and was really taken by the whole idea. What a fun, non-traditional way to capture the course of an entire wedding day.

Real Weddings and Other Inspirations

2010-10-06T11:52:00.000-07:00

Glossy pictures in wedding magazines are fantastic sources for ideas -- but sometimes they feel a bit impersonal. Looking at pictures from real weddings is a great way to find inspiration. I love seeing how each bride uses the small details to create something perfect. WellWed posted a winter wedding at the Borsari Gallery and the pictures are fantastic. Plus I couldn't help being charmed by this detail from the bride:

"[the dj] played "We Belong" by Pat Benetar while they danced, and the crowd linked arms and swayed to the music with them. "It could have been straight out of an 80's movie!" Kim remembers, "It was so sweet, hilarious, and really touching, my absolute favorite moment of the night."

See more pictures, and the rest of the story, here.

Paper ephemera is a favorite of mine, so I love reading Oh So Beautiful Paper. Not only can you find ideas for paper goods ranging from invitations to guest books, they also post unique details from more (real!) weddings. Take the table number idea above (from a recent post). I love how the thread is delicate and the nails and marine wood industrial -- the contrast works perfectly. This would be an easy (but apparently time consuming!) project for any party.

Stationer Dulce Press (based out of Mashpee) is a fantastic local option for customized stationary for your wedding -- or any event! Jen has really beautiful options for your event, as you can tell just by looking through her site. One of the immeasurable benefits of using a local vendor is finding personalized, local items -- like this amazing Cape Cod themed wedding invite. Spend a few minutes browsing and you'll see Dulce Press has everything from whimsical to elegant to suit every taste.

June Wedding, Catumet

2010-10-01T11:53:00.000-07:00

We just uploaded a gallery of photos from a stunning wedding in Cataumet this past June. Special thanks to Tom Davis of Northern Images Photography for sharing these with us! Here's a sneak peak; be sure to go here to see more!

(photo credit for all: Tom Davis, Northern Images Photography)

Wedding Ideas: Custom Cake Toppers

2010-09-15T11:53:00.000-07:00

Wedding Ideas: Custom Cake Toppers

September 16, 2010

(photo credit: Sarah Neuburger)
How cute -- and unique! -- are these wedding toppers by Sarah Neuburger of The Small Object? She makes custom ones, too, with a huge variety of details. Check out her blog for more pictures, or hit up her shop to learn more.

Party Cape Cod

Pinterest

DIY Roundup!

New item: Glazed Sea-Glass platters

DIY Thursday: Round Up!

New Item Spotlight!

2nd Annual C&I Wedding Group Bridal Show

Virtual Showroom

Our weekly DIY Roundup (it's finally winter!)

New This Season: Tabletop Packages

Venue: The Borsari Gallery, Dennis

DIY Roundup

Welcome to 2012!

Sneak peak: Inspirations!

Do Good and Party More

Bear with us for just a little longer! Also, Pantone's 2012 Color of the Year

DIY round up!

Tablescape: Sweet Lilac

We wish you a happy Thanksgiving!

New Tablescape: Thanksgiving

Thursday Cool Idea Round Up (with a touch of diy)

Busy Week

It's a good day for DIY

Heading for the Holidays

DIY Thursday

Happily Ever After in Orleans!

DIY Thursday!

Made Our Day

Real Wedding; Robin & Joey/Elin Photography

Real Wedding: Ocean Edge/Click Imagery

Welcome, Autumn!

Robin & Joey: Real Wedding Sneak Peek

Wedding Weekend!

Happy Labor Day

On Irene and Tenting

Weekend Inspiration

Wedding Wednesday

Wednesday Inspiration

New on partycapecod.com!

Wednesday Inspiration

DIY Wednesday!

Real Wedding: Bourne, MA

Destination:Party Cape Cod!

Real Wedding: Chatham Bars Inn

Where we draw inspiration:

Sitting Pretty Real Wedding: Boston

Saturday is for inspiration (for a change!)

Napkin Folding 101

Mid Week Inspiration

Inspiration on Wedding Wednesday

Tablescape, new hours

Inspiration: Sources

Cocktails by the beach ...

Had to share!

Our monthly newsletter

Inspiration Monday

BHLDN: decorate

Mariner Stripe

Inspiring us today:

Tablescapes: Dockside Dining

Thinking of midsummer parties!

The Look: Nautical Elegance

Coming up on Summer!

New Inventory!

Tips from The Perfect Plan; Tented Weddings

Mastering the Art of the Tented Affair

Inspiration Monday

Summer dreamin'

Wedding Wednesday

It's officially Spring, and we're celebrating!

For Japan, With Love

Rainy Day Inspiration

WellWed's Cape Cod Wedding Affair

Tent, from start to finish

This weekend: WellWed's Cape Cod Wedding Affair

3:45 pm - 4:15 pm - Wedding Coordination, Budgets & PrioritiesJessica Harris of Alden Blair Events partners with Emily Fronius of Party Cape Cod to bring you the most tested tips for budgeting & time lines, vendor management, design & decor tips on a budget.

3:45 pm - 4:15 pm - Wedding Coordination, Budgets & Priorities

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Mondays are for making!

Dressing Chairs to Impress

3:45 pm - 4:15 pm - Wedding Coordination, Budgets & Priorities
Jessica Harris of Alden Blair Events partners with Emily Fronius of Party Cape Cod to bring you the most tested tips for budgeting & time lines, vendor management, design & decor tips on a budget.