black and white striped party inspiration …

September 15, 2014

As you may have seen on my Alt Summer re-cap post in June, I had a really fun opportunity to pitch an outdoor party idea to Wayfair, and Bing!

My new home was suppose to be finished much sooner than it was, so it has been kind of crazy getting ready for this housewarming party when we just moved in about a month ago.  There’s nothing like inviting 60 bloggers to your home to give you the motivation to get things unpacked and settled.  So many projects, but it all doesn’t come together that fast.  Things are still a work in progress with the house, but I am excited to throw a party!

When I throw parties I like to have some kind of a theme.  For my housewarming party, I thought about my home which is white with a yellow door and black accents.  I immediately thought it would be amazing to incorporate black and white stripes.

I originally was going to go with black and white stripes with yellow accents, but then I thought that jewel tones would make it pop even more!

I like to make up a little color inspiration one stop spot in photoshop like the one above.

Once I decided on my colors and theme, I searched images using Bing of black and white striped parties and weddings for some inspiration.
I collected the images from Bing, and piled a ton of them into this Pinterest board.  The cool thing about using Bing as your search engine that I recently discovered while browsing around, it that with the Bing Rewards program, you can search Bing and earn rewards to redeem for gift cards, merchandise, or discounts to some really cool sites!  All you have to do is sign-in and search and it racks up your points in the top right corner that you can redeem.  Pretty cool to get free stuff for just searching the web!

I also have this fun party planning notebooks I like to use while planning my parties.  This one is from knock knock books.  It helps me organize the menu, grocery list, and even check off some of my party prep items I need to get done.

Next, I like to send out an invitation that reflects the theme of the party.  I really enjoy mailing out physical invitations, but with the amount of people I invited to this party, I decided to keep the budget for the good stuff like party supplies and food.  So, I sent out this digital invitation with details and an opportunity for my guests to RSVP on a site called whoozin.  I found this site while researching RSVP sites, and I really liked it!  I think it’s important for your guests, and especially bloggers to know who else is invited to the party, and who has already RSVP’d.   It’s always nice to see who is invited and coming especially for bloggers so you don’t accidentally ask if they are going to a party they may not be invited to… awkward.

I have been able to pick out a few fun new things that Wayfair sent for my party.  I have been using some of the items to decorate my front porch with some seating areas for my guests, and to help make the front porch cozy.

We were lucky to inherit some of my husband’s grandmothers white patio furniture that we dressed up with some of the black and white striped pillows from Wayfair.  The black and white striped pouf and yellow garden stool really helped make it have a sit down and relax feel.

These striped pillows were a fun addition to the bistro set that we spruced up with a little spray paint.

I’m excited for my guests to make a grand entrance with new and improved front porch!  I have big plans to decorate the porch with some fun tissue balls and things during the party, wish me luck!

One of my absolutely favorite things about the front porch is my hanging lantern.  When we made plans for the house, I fell in love with the idea of having a hanging lantern over the front door, so we made sure to have it wired for one.  I found the perfect one on Wayfair that went with my other existing lights.

It will be pretty exciting to see the Waffle Love truck parked down my driveway, as well as a cart serving up some FIIZ drinks.  It should be a fun party!  Can’t wait to show you more, and of course, the pictures of the actual party soon, so be sure to check back!  Cross your fingers for no rain this week!  

To see more pictures of the housewarming party, click here.


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