The architectural and interior design style of Hollywood Regency is making a comeback, and who can blame it. The title itself is so inviting. Drawing from it’s glamorous roots of the golden age of cinema in the 1930′s, this over-the-top style hits all the right opulent notes without resorting to rhinestones or glitter. That’s what piqued our interest, and we were dying to incorporate this style into an upcoming event. Along comes Christmas. The challenge becomes merging the colorful and warm holiday with the stark black and white contrast of Hollywood Regency.

The style is all about glamour, but more importantly it’s about the details. Since we used so few colors, each individual piece of furniture, drink, or dessert is itself a work of art. The dessert table draws you in with an exaggerated tufted backdrop and lacquer frame resting on a modern geometric print. The octagonal pattern is a recurring theme throughout the party and will pop-up in different incarnations. The snowflake topped white chocolate cupcakes are perched high on their pedestal, wrapped in a golden framed box. The rich and decadent cheesecakes, layered with a lemon reduction, are the perfect size to share. Our French-style lemon macarons and lemon curd parfaits with a sprig of mint are an elegant alternative to Christmas cookies and gingerbread houses.

The dining table is bright and welcoming with the display of fresh flowers and ornaments running the length of the ikat inspired runner. We used that same fabric for our napkins and placed them on golden chargers and gold-dipped flatware.

The bar is the shining star of our Christmas party. Incorporating the geometric print on the backdrop, the bar is enchanted by the longing gaze of a rising starlet. Our signature cocktails reflect the only three colors we used. White for our champagne topped with lemon sorbet, blackberries nestled on top of our black vodka martini, and yellow for our Metropolitan which we infused with pear juice and served with a slice of lemon peel. This was also an ideal place to hang our custom made stockings, each one adorned with a personalized ornament.

Step 1: Cut out two rectangle shaped pieces of burlap. How big they are depends on how big you want your topper to be. These pieces are about 2 x 3 inches.

Step 2: Accordian style fold one of the rectangles. Accordian folding is how you pleated paper to make a fan when you were a kid.

Step 3: Once you have the burplap piece folded, you’ll need to secure all the fabric together so it doesn’t unfold on you. I did this with a needle and thread. Knot your thread on one end and run it throught the middle of the folded burlap a few times until it feels secure. Cut the thread and tie a knot on the loose end.

Step 4: Do the same thing (Steps 1-3) to the other piece of burlap.

Step 5: Now you need to get each burlap folded bundle to look like a semi circle. I pulled up the burlap on one end and used a hot glue gun to do this.

Step 6: Press the two sides together so the hot glue seals them together. Do the same thing to the other one.

Step 7: Now glue the flat sides of each burlap half circle together and glue a toothpick or lollipop stick to the back to support the whole thing. You may have to attach the toothpick or lollipop stick behind the entire length of the topper to keep it stable.

We adorned our burlap topper with a ribbon and a small paper that had the guest of honors initials. We’d love to see how your decorate your burlap cupcake toppers!

Our next client saw that and requested it for her beach party. We’ve made some misteps along the way so we will show you how to make this aqua lemonade and avoid the pitfalls!

Perhaps the most important thing is getting a light yellow lemonde. Any time you mix yellow and blue you’ll end up with a little green but getting a light yellow will minimize the green look.

For lemonade #1 we used Simply Lemonade, which works great. We used powdered Country Time Lemonade for #2.

The blue in our Aqua Lemonade is Blue Curaco syrup. This non-alcoholic syrup is actually citrus flavored and available at BevMo. We recommend that you add the blue syrup to a large portion of lemonade and then pour them into glasses so the blue color is uniform. But, you can add it to each individual glass, just use a measuring spoon like I did in these pictures.

You can see that our lighter lemonade produced a nice aqua color!

Hope you enjoy this aqua lemonade and have fun using it at your parties!

Our client rented a beautiful beach house on the cliffs overlooking Bodega Bay in northern California to celebrate her 40th birthday. We came up with this dessert table to reflect the natural and breathtaking charm of the beach.

With the aid of a custom made stencil, we created this little moment on burlap.

We love the idea of having the entire table look worn and white-washed by the salty sea air, with all the color drained out, leaving only a tone on tone look with subtle hints of aqua.

We diluted a glossy white paint with water, to give everything a white-washed, layered look. Then we sanded, and then used weathered/crackled paint to finish the look.

The backdrop was crafted from three different lengths of wood shims arranged to look pieced together over time. We added in a distressed shelf with antique lantern and mini naval pennant flags to add in subtle charm.

Complete with starfish, twine, shells, and chalkboards!

Each of the desserts reflected a different piece of the beach experience. Our cake pops featured fondant starfish on top of a crushed graham cracker shell to mimic the sandy shoreline. The pops are placed in a menagerie of twine laced mason jars with chalkboard signage. The homemade marshmallows also had a graham cracker base and featured a sailor’s knot topper in twine. When we think of the beach, we want to curl up under a blanket with a good book. These scrumptious lemon cupcakes with cream cheese frosting are wrapped in naval flags with candy shells and sea horse toppers and sit on top of book lined crates. We finish up our treats with caramel and shortbread bites sprinkled with sea salt.

Cupcakes sitting atop a library of books.

Lemon cupcake with homemade cream cheese frosting, seahorse topper, and pennant flag wrapper. All on top of a mini aqua book. Could it get any better?

Homemade marshmallows with graham cracker crust and sailor knots made from twine.

Taking long walks on the beach is not only romantic, but works up quite a thirst. Why not get refreshed with our tart and sweet aqua lemonade.

All the little details like the crackled paint and sea shells come together and make our client wish she could live at the beach all year long.

We’ve been talking a lot lately about kids birthday parties so I thought it might be fun to share our thoughts and show some examples of great kid’s birthday parties. In the “Party Biz” there is lots of talk about character parties and “character parties done right”. I know as a mom that kids want parties based on their favorite Disney or other cartoon or TV character. It seems wrong to say no and it’s easy to put these parties together since you can find just about everything you need at Party City. Generally we at Honeycomb won’t do character birthday parties for this very reason, you don’t need to hire us to throw that party and of course we would prefer to create something totally original.

Now every once and a while I run across a character party that is done so well that it makes me almost… almost change my mind. Like this Wall-E party.

We did a Green Lantern party where the client let us focus on the comic book version rather than the big screen version which made for a much more stylish and original affair.

When a potential client calls us to ask about a kids birthday party I like to ask about what their child enjoys. What’s they’re favorite activity, toy, food, etc? I think you can get a much more original and fun party that represents the spirit of your child if you choose the theme this way. These are examples of where moms took cues from their child’s “favorites” to create unique and original party themes.

The party we did for Jennifer's daughter Arden. She loves clothes, so we had to do chic Fashion Party.

Very popular choices are the classics like Princess and Pirates parties. If you have a little girl you’ll certainly get a request for a princess party sooner rather than later. These are great examples of princess parties that are fairytale or Disney based but still have a focus on quality and creative out-of-the-box design.

Now onto the classic boy parties. I’ve talked to a few mom’s of boys who tell me they want a pirate party but not “pirates of the Carribean” or they want a construction party but not a “Bob the Builder” party but it’s hard to find decorations for non-commercialized themes. Here are some examples of boys birthday parties with classic themes that are non-character based.

Now, the ever important 1st birthday party. Our stance on the first birthday is usually, do whatever you want now because you’ll have to relinquish control over themes soon enough! My personal favorites are parties that are based on the family’s favorite things like this rugby themed party for a boy whose dad is a rugby player.

Or this Hip Hop party for a boy who’s dad is a big old school hip hop fan.

I also love parties based on classic children’s books. It’s fun to reminisce and share these books and stories that meant so much to you with your child.

Don’t be afraid to do something new and different that you can’t find in a store. Check out etsy for party printable decorations for your unique theme ideas.

Remember to think about your child and your guests when planning a party. While it may be the first time you threw a Batman party, it’s probably not the first time they’ve attended a Batman party. And you don’t want to know where they’re ranking you among all the Batman parties they’ve been to. Create a one-of-a-kind event for everyone involved.

What does every chic 5-year-old girl want? A fashion party! We couldn’t wait to infuse fashion and design into one of our parties. Arden’s birthday bash. We created an inspiration board of all of the top trends and colors in fashion that we wanted to incorporate into the party. Tangerine and aqua are so hot right now. Add in some girly details like big bows and polka dots, and we’ve got a party.

Inspiration Board

Cake pops with fondant bows placed on sugar cookies

For the dessert table backdrop, we painted paper strips aqua, layered them for a ruffled look, and wrapped it all up in an enormous bow. We also crafted a ruffled catwalk for the dessert table with our own designer sketches to highlight our two-tiered cake. This beautiful cake brought all the design elements together, but we just can’t get over that great polka-dot bow.

Ruffled cake with gigantic polka dot bow

Cake stand

Bright and playful cake pops dotted the table with a few layered on top of frosted sugar cookies. Scrumptious mint mousse in molded chocolate cups were smooth and creamy treats and everyone loved the mango flavored cotton candy.

The beverage bar showcased all of our designer inspiration boards. Guests were treated to fizzy sodas, cookies and milktinis, and aqua lemonade. How stylish and yet so simple are milktinis!

Beverage bar with inspiration board back drop

Milktinis

Aqua lemonade

After desserts and beverages, guests made their own on-trend fascinators. Arden’s friends had a lot of fun making these, because they knew they were going to wear their stylish creations during the fashion show and they were going to be the super models.

Arden and her friends making fascinators

After all the fun, guests took home their own party dress cookies on our Pret a Porter favor table. These upscale and meticulously decorated cookies were too pretty to eat.

Favor table with Pret a Porter cookies

Arden loves her 5th birthday party

Our client was throwing a baby shower for her daughter and since the new baby’s a girl, she wanted lots of ultra feminine details. It’s easy to go overboard, but we restrained, focusing on pearls, floral accents, and Parisian stripes.

 

Specialty cake pops are, well, our specialty. These red velvet pops are soft pink with a pearl sheen and mini pearl accents. We placed several of the pearlescent cake pops into a floral bouquet. This made such a great impact!

Great level of detail

 

The frosted sugar cookies were crafted with a brush to paint in the soft petal details. Strawberry mousse cups were striped with vanilla custard and topped of with adorable decorated spoons. Cheesecake bites are donned with flowers or safety pinned flags. We placed our desserts on stacks of books, wrapped in twine, and adorned with antique brooches.

Adorable floral details

Pink safety pins!

Decorated spoons with stripes and pearls

Hand painted backdrop

The cake and all of the desserts were going to be on a single table, so the back drop had to be simple enough not to pull attention away, but extravagant to match the grand scale of the event. We decided to keep the fabric a solid gray, but wanted to push the boundaries a bit with the construction. We were inspired by an antique headboard that came out from the wall and draped the fabric down from a hoop. We constructed the hoop from a basketball rim, then layered yards of fabric flowing down and away from the table. The effect was dramatic and enchanting.

Books of sheet music, tied up with string and adorned with floral, antique brooches, were the base for all our desserts. The cream and gray patterned runner with hints of mustard was just the right accent to highlight our glamourous table. The bride loves our specialty cake pops, so we provided several different varieties embellished with strings of edible pearls or the couple’s initials. The cupcakes featured candy brooches and our own custom made wrappers. We completed the table with an assortment of different yellow and gray treats.

Fashion Party in Aqua, Tangerine, and Polka Dot

We all know that a backdrop is essential to any dessert table. It needs to be simple enough not to distract from the desserts, but still a stand alone artistic piece that makes sense with the overall theme. Here’s another how-to backdrop made up entirely of paper. It’s time consuming, so give yourself an entire afternoon, but most importantly, it’s cheap. It only costs $25 in materials.

Materials you'll need: Paint, paintbrush, plywood backdrop, several sheets of card stock, scissors, plastic tarp, and Zots.

It’s a fashion girl party in tangerine and aqua. We needed lots of paper in the right shade of aqua, and since it’s easier (and cheaper) to find the right shade of paint instead of paper, we painted 9 large pieces of white construction paper. It’s important to paint the paper before you cut it, to avoid rippling.

Then, cut the paper into three inch strips of varying lengths. It’s easiest to fold the paper first, so you’ll cut in straight lines.

We’re reusing an old backdrop, and as luck would have it, already has diagonal grid lines. We definitely hit the jackpot on this one. You would have to mark these out ahead of time on a piece of plywood.

Have some Zots or double sided tape handy and start laying down your strips of paper, overlapping as you go. I created a design that featured right angle triangles. It seemed the most logical, and easiest to work with.

Once you finish a triangle, start a new one, being careful to tuck the ends underneath the strips of a previous triangle. Repeat until plywood is covered.

Go around with a pair of scissors and snip off all the edges that protrude past the border.

An geometric backdrop with lots of texture. Who doesn’t love that?