Really sorry for the delay in updating you all with Part 2 of my parents 40th Wedding Anniversary, working two jobs is keeping me super busy so unfortunately my blog has been a little neglected. I hope to post it asap. 

So in the absence of a post I thought I would share this adorable picture of Harley with you. As her owner I am sure I am biased but she really is the cutest dog ever...! 

Style Your Anniversary

As I have previously mentioned it was my parents 40th Wedding Anniversary on Sunday 28th April. I am extremely proud to have had the pleasure of celebrating this special day with my parents and also for having the opportunity to arrange the day and make sure everything was just perfect for them. 

We had a few discussions about what they would like to do for their special day and they decided upon a dinner for 20 of the family and closest friends. This ended up being the perfect number of people for such an event, it was a social fun day for everyone. So the plans began by finding somewhere ideal for my parents taste and also someone easily accessible for my Nan. So I decided upon Hotel Felix in Cambridge http://www.hotelfelix.co.uk We hired a room which fit us in perfectly and having heard the food was exceptional & reasonable I felt it would be perfect. I must say that the staff and service on the day was fantastic so thank you to @FelixCambridge for making it a day for my parents to remember. 

Next step was the theme for the party. I spoke with all the guests who had been at my parents actual wedding and they all commented that they remembered my Dad's moustache and my Mum's hat from their big day. This got me thinking about what I could do to recreate memories from the special day without it being too tacky. After lots of thinking I decided to go for a fun idea of creating moustaches on sticks. A friend used these at her wedding a few years ago, they were great fun. 

These were so easy to make. All you need are some wooden 

skewers, black card & some super glue. I found some amazing black moustaches on the great blog of 'Staceywporter' which I could print out and use as templates for my card moustaches. 

http://staceywporter.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/free-printable-moustache-brigade-in.html

I made enough of these for around two per person, so the next step was to create a way of presenting these on the table. I got my super glue out again and printed off a length of paper which included images of Mum & Dad and glued these around a tin can. This was something so easy and simple and worked perfectly. 

The next challenge was to get my hands on Mum's wedding hat, I managed this by just popping round and taking everything I needed. This included her dress, her shoes, her wedding album and a large canvas we printed for their 35th wedding anniversary. I definitely got Mum extremely worried I think she thought I would display her dress on a mannequin! I am glad I had her worried however I hope she knows I wouldn't arrange a tacky event...! 

So I had all I needed from Mum to help with the decorations. 

Next step was to create the bunting, I scanned in my parents wedding album and used the images to create triangular bunting which I attached together by folding over the top and stringing them all together using cotton. I made two small rows which worked perfectly for the event, they hung between the paintings which were already up in the room. These were easy to make and a great way of personalising bunting for that special occasion. 

My next challenge was to decide what favours to make for the event. As my Dad has always had birds I decided upon a bird seed heart to represent my Dad and for my Mum I went for a florentine as I know she loves them. So the baking and making began. I am extremely lucky to have a man who likes baking so he helped me massively with making both of these favours for me whilst I was working. 

We found the recipe for the Bird seed hearts on the below link.  http://www.polkadotbride.com/2010/02/diy-project-birdseed-favors/   I tied twine through the hearts and printed off an image of Mum & Dad from their special day. 

The florentines were wrapped in clear cellophane and tied with twine to link to the bird seed hearts. You can create your own buy using the below recipe, however there are many varied florentine recipes so you can pick one to suit your pallet. 

http://www.mylittleitaliankitchen.com/love-at-first-sight-chocolate-florentines-for-your-lover/

I presented the two hearts on everyones place settings like the below. I felt these looked fantastic and they added an extra special feeling to the event, everyone loved both ideas. 

This concludes everything which I made before the event so I will conclude this as part 1 of my parents 'Ruby Wedding Anniversary'. Part 2 will follow in the next week; this will show how I set up the room, how the moustaches and hat were received by the guests and concluding with how the event went overall. 

I hope you are inspired by the ideas I have shown you already and will visit my blog to find out how the event went on the day. Maybe you have already thought of events which you can use them for. I would love to hear your thoughts. 

The famous 'Rainbow Cake Recipe' 

For those of you who would like to take up the challenge of creating your own 'Rainbow Cake' please find the recipe below. If my blog has inspired you to bake this amazing cake then I would love to see your pictures so please tweet them to me or email me your pictures. I have just googled rainbow cakes and there are some amazing pictures of different shaped rainbow cakes, so you could go for something different to the one I created. 

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3028705/

I am now on the hunt for my next baking challenge, let the search begin. 

Style Your Birthday

I was recently asked by a very good friend of mine to arrange her husbands Surprise 30th Birthday Party and I jumped at the chance. The venue and disco were booked by Heidi (the wife) and I was given the challenge of coming up with a theme for the evening. As a keen football it was obvious that the theme should revolve around football and his favourite team Tottenham Hotspurs. Kev the birthday boy has a guilty pleasure of loving the song 'Call Me Maybe' by Carly Rae Jepsen so I suggested we also include this within the Birthday theme for a comedy feel. 

So I could present my ideas to Heidi I created the below two theme boards. The first board shows various football themed party ideas including cakes, banners & table ideas. 

Pictures from 'Time To Party' & Hostess with the Mostess'

As I mentioned Kev loves 'Call Me Maybe' so I also wanted to incorporate this into the evening. I did suggest a corner dedicated to this theme where Kev had to dance when the song came on but I decided against this idea. Instead we decided to add the theme into the decoration in a more subtle way, so we used pink balloons through-out the decoration with 'Call me Maybe' written on them. We also played this song as Kev walked in the door. 

Photos from Gigglesgalore.net

We certainly used the excuse of meeting to discuss Kev's birthday party as a reason for a girly catch up. It gave us a reason to meet up and ponder ideas over a glass of wine and nibbles. So the ideas continued to develop through these meet ups and I am proud to present the final look of Kev's Surprise 30th Birthday Party. 

A friend and I spent a good hour decorating the venue and I have to say I was extremely happy with the end look. As a lover of crisps and sweets we decided on three tables a cake table, a crisp table and a sweetie table. All of these ideas went down well and everyone enjoyed being able to help themselves throughout the night.

I have some very creative friends so Marie made the selection of amazing cupcakes and Vicky made the football pitch cake. Everyone loved the cakes and were sent home with a cupcake each. 

Luckily enough a few friends have had sweetie tables at their weddings so we had a great collection of vases to pick from to showcase the sweets in. We presented the crisps in some easy plastic bowls and presented them both together on this goody table below. I am sure you can all guess that there was not much left at the end of the night. 

Along with the food I created a personalised football shirt birthday banner, this was a great way to include his love of football into the banners as they were shirt shaped and were coloured as the Tottenham Hotspurs kit which is Kev's favourite team. I loved producing this banner and will definitely be using this idea for future parties which I organise. If you are interested in me creating a banner for your event please email me the details. 

After attending Kev's wedding last year we were introduced to the fact that his friends call him Gareth Bale so we created masks of his face for the front row of people to wear when Kev walked through the door. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of this as I was getting ready for Kev's entrance. I can tell you though it worked and Kev found it hilarious. 

I am pleased to say Kev the birthday boy had an amazing night and loved the decorations. He had no idea that his wife for arranging the surprise party, so it was a huge success. 

I would like to thank Heidi for giving me the opportunity to arrange Kev's 30th I loved every minute of it. 

Style Your Birthday 

Last year I had the pleasure of arranging my Mums 60th Birthday Party. She wanted a party in the garden where we drank champagne and ate strawberries on the lawn; what a fantastic idea. So the theme materialised from this idea and so 'The Afternoon Tea Garden Party' was born. 

As a fab organiser herself my Mum looked into options for food and decided upon the Tea Room at Burwash Manor, Barton for the catering. She had the pleasure of tasting the food and choosing the menu for her special party. Along with the food we had the most amazing staff who made sure the Afternoon Tea was served in the perfect arrangement.  

If you have never visited the lovely Burwash Manor and are local to Cambridge I suggest you put a day by to experience their array of shops and treat yourself to a piece of cake in the tea rooms.   www.burwashmanor.com

To fit with the Afternoon Tea idea we looked into hiring vintage china for the day. We came across this lovely family run company in Haslingfield who hire out a large selection of beautiful crookery which is in perfect condition. Below is just a small selection of the china which we hired for the day but their sets included the most amazing teapots, milk jugs, sugar bowls & cake stands. For more details visit their website below. 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Doras-Vintage-China-Hire/240934279261740?fref=ts

Along with the amazing china & food we collected together some gorgeous vintage looking table cloths, some of these were supplied and others were my Nan's. To finish of the tables I used a variety of photo frames which I already had, displaying a different image of Mum in each one on every table. We also bought a selection of small vases and filled them with some fresh Spring flowers. I also collected some fantastic old photos of Mum and placed them around the house for everyone to see, these including the obvious pictures from her as a Baby to becoming 60! 

The final touches to the garden included various decorations such as bunting, fairy lights, balloons and even a Piñata! Mum loved this game and the kids loved the sweets which it was filled with. 
We also hired a juke box for the day where people could select the songs which they would like to be played, this was a great idea for the day and kept my nephew entertained for hours. 

To make the day even more special we bought Mum the most amazing Birthday Cake from Incredible Cakes of Cambridge. It was a two layer pink beauty with a lemon layer and a raspberry layer, both flavours were exquisite. If your looking for a cake in the Cambridge area for that special event I suggest you give them a call. http://www.incrediblecakesofcambridge.co.uk

There are so many ideas and ways to make a 'Garden Tea Party' perfect for that special someone and I hope that you are inspired to use some of my ideas for your event. 

Inclusion on Downton Abbey Cooks Tea Tuesday 

It is with great excitement & honour for me to post that The Downton Abbey Cook has included me in her Tea Tuesday post. She has commented about my Downton Abbey Tea party being inspiring. I am so excited about this as I planned for the Downton Tea Party to be inspiration to my readers but I now hope it will also be of inspiration to The Downton Abbey Cooks readers. 

Please check out her blog on the link below it is full of inspirational posts and has some amazing recipes for all those cooks out there. Enjoy. 

http://downtonabbeycooks.com/2013/04/09/tea-tuesday-at-downton-there-was-always-room-for-jiggly-jelly/#more-6316

Style Your Home Event

'Downton Abbey Tea Party'

If you have been keeping up with my blog and following me on twitter you will know that this weekend was my 'Girly Downton Abbey Weekend' and what a weekend it has been. 

We kicked the weekend off with some well needed retail therapy yesterday afternoon in the wonderful City of Cambridge. Love the quirky shops which are popping up around town including my two new favourite shops for gifts http://www.oliverbonas.com and the lovely Lilac Rose on Bridge Street. You must check this shop out if your local to Cambridge. 

After a few too many hours shopping we were so behind on time that instead of going out for dinner we bought our Thai Green Curry essentials and had a homemade Thai instead of eating out. The next few hours were a mix of getting ready, drinking Procecco and deciding on which outfit to pick from our new goodies.

So we finally made it out into town at 10 which is a late start for me so we went directly to La Raza, a great spot in town for dancing. So we spent the next four hours dancing, laughing and chatting. The tune of the night has to be 'Rudimental' Feel the LOVE, absolutely love this tune, a great one to dance to with your girls or your man.

So onto the main event of the weekend and the 'Downton Abbey Tea Party'. We have spent the past 6 hours eating a luscious Afternoon Tea, drinking pomegranate and elderflower fizz and playing Downton Abbey games whilst watching various episodes from the whole series of Downton. 

As you are aware I just love making each event special so I researched how to make this a memorable day for my friends; so I began my search for how to make this a day never to be forgotten. As you can see from my pictures below I found some fabulous decorations on line, including some amazing games which we have thoroughly enjoyed this afternoon.

I found the bunting on a beautiful blog called Little Vintage Trailer.

http://littlevintagetrailer.com/2011/09/free-cheery-pennant-banner-flag/

I used our pictures in the room to put up sayings from the show, I found these on the below link, they made us chuckle all day.  http://www.ishouldbemoppingthefloor.com/2013/01/fridays-freebie-downton-abbey.html  

To make this the perfect tea party I raided my Mum's house and borrowed some amazing goodies; this included the glass jug, cake forks and lace trimmed napkins which I used as a tablecloth. I was lucky enough to be given a china tea set years ago from a Great Aunt which turned out to be perfect for afternoon tea. I made a selection of sandwiches including cheese, traditional cucumber and egg mayo. Along with these we had cheese scones which @mclaurs made which tasted amazing. The savoury course also included hula hoops, cherry toms and picked onions. Obviously you can pick your favourite food for this course, maybe you would prefer ham sandwiches & a salad. 

Next was the most important course CAKES! I had a baking marathon on Friday and made us flapjacks, chocolate & coffee cup cakes &

the most important cake the impressive Rainbow Cake. 

I bought a recent issue of BBC Good Food & challenged myself to create this cake. Although I wouldn't say it has turned out perfect I feel it was a great first attempt and it certainly tasted amazing. I will post the recipe soon so you too can set yourself this challenge. 

Last of all we come to the games which I found on the web. These included cut out paper dolls of Lady Mary & Matthew, O'brein & Thomas & Dowager Countess. Check out the printouts on the link below. 

http://www.vulture.com/2012/02/print-out-vultures-downton-abbey-paper-dolls.html

I first found this idea on the 'Sisters Suitcase' blog, 

http://www.sisterssuitcaseblog.com/2013/01/downton-abbey-party-invitation-printable.html

It is a fantastic blog full of great ideas for every event. 

The best game was Downton Bingo which was fantastic, we ended our day watching a few episodes of Series 2 whilst playing this game. It was great fun and one we all recommend to do if you are a Downton fan. 

You can find the print outs on the link below. 

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2013/01/downton-abbey-bingo.html

This weekend has been the perfect time, shared with two close friends & full of laughter and fun. 

I hope that you are inspired to arrange your own Downton Abbey Tea party & I hope that you enjoy it as much as we have done. 

It would be great to hear your thoughts on my ideas and would love to hear if you do arrange your own event.