Tips for hosting a socially distanced party

Tis the season for celebration…and social distancing (ugh). Let’s just call a spade a spade: 2020 has made it increasingly challenging to get together and celebrate those people we love. But there are still ways you can mark those milestone occasions in your life and keep your friends and family as safe as possible!

My baby sister is getting ready to welcome another little girl to our family, so we had to get creative in figuring out a safe way to celebrate! Check out the pics below from our “Baby It’s Cold Outside” themed sprinkle, and then at the bottom we’ll share our best tips for hosting your own socially distanced celebration!

We had the perfect weather for our celebration - it was in the upper 50s so just warm enough to not freeze, but also just cool enough to enjoy the warm and toasty hot chocolate! As you’re planning your own celebrations, here’s my top six tips for keeping them Covid-safe:

1. Keep it outside.

   I know as it gets colder, this gets increasingly tougher for parties…especially if you don’t live in the south or warmer climates, but the fresh air and room to space out is key for keeping everyone safe!

2. Provide masks.

   Even if it’s outdoors, provide everyone a mask for safety - it’s a cheap and easy way to let everyone know your safety standards if you’re handing out masks when they arrive. Bonus points if they match your party’s theme! Check out the links below for some adorable pastel masks I found for our party! It’s super easy to set up a mask and hand sanitizer station conveniently where your guests arrive.

3. Don’t serve a meal.

   It’s definitely risky in groups when everyone is removing their masks to eat a full meal, and it’s even more risky when they are all scooping food from a buffet - so try to eliminate both of those options. Choose a time of day to host your party where the food you would need to provide is minimal. We hosted this shower from 2-4pm because it was between meal times, so we only served dessert and small bites (individually packaged, of course) and it was also the warmest part of the day.

4. Individually package the food you do serve.

   This is much easier to do when you’re serving small bites! We boxed up our cupcakes, served individually wrapped custom sugar cookies and I created customized individual mini-charcuterie boxes that were a hit! That way, if people want to eat the food at the party, they can safely space out and do so…but they can also take it with them if they feel safer eating afterwards. I provided some to-go bags for people to put treats in so they knew they didn’t have to eat it there! For our hot chocolate, we did not allow our guests to self-serve (to keep all the hands off of the dispenser), instead we had a host who was masked and gloved serve drinks in cute customized to-go cups.

5. Space out your seating and keep the groupings small.

   I’ll tell you a little secret, those “bistro” tables you see in my front yard are actually tv trays. I just covered them with a linen and pulled chairs from my back deck and boom…instant bistro seating for intimate tables of 2 that were more than 6 feet apart so everyone felt safe! I kept them significantly spaced away from the food as well, just to be extra safe!

6. Keep your guest count low.

   It probably goes without saying, but you likely shouldn’t invite hundreds of people to your celebration. Keep the numbers smaller, or you can even space them out over several hours as a drop-by party and assign smaller groups certain time windows they can arrive. We also intentionally hosted the party in the front yard as opposed to the back yard and let our guests know in advance they had the option to just drive by if they didn’t feel comfortable getting out and visiting. That way those who are older or high risk feel like they have options as well!

That’s it! We hope this is helpful for you in this season of “unprecedented times” (I swear if I hear that again it will be too soon, ha!). And we hope you keep finding creative ways to safely celebrate those you love because even when the world is turned upside down, our people are still worth celebrating!

Check out the links below for some of the products we used to make this party happen!

Event Design: Sweetwood Creative Co.
Custom Cookies: Bakeologist

Cheers!

Pastry Boxes

Cupcake liners

Pastel Face Masks

Wooden Cutlery

White Coffee Cups

Cupcake boxes

Portion Cups

(DISCLAIMER: This post contains some affiliate links. This does not affect the price of the products you're purchasing, but I do receive a small kickback for any purchase made. I only link to products that I personally use and highly recommend!)

DIY Christmas Tutorial: Wrapped Picture Frames

Today I’m going to show you how to do add one of the easiest and most affordable decor elements to your Christmas home collection - wrapped photo frames! This is an inexpensive and easy way to get more coverage around the house without having to buy extra decor - and you can reuse the ribbon every year!

Supplies you need:

• Wrapping paper or kraft paper (you can get these in large rolls for bigger picture frames at places like Office Max or Staples. You can get the white kraft paper I used HERE.

• Scotch tape

• Scissors

• 2-4” wide ribbon of your choice. The ribbon I used can be found HERE.

• Glue dots (find some HERE)

To start, my photo frames in this gallery are attached to the wall using Command Velcro (if you don’t know about this stuff, it’s AMAZING. Keeps me from having 500 holes in my wall! I use it everywhere!) So I knew I had to work around that on the back side. It had to remain clear so that I could put it back on the wall.

I also didn’t want to waste paper on the back side of the frame, so I laid out the paper on the floor and only left about a 2inch margin all the way around - just enough to fold the sides like a regular gift and scotch tape on the back. Once I did that, I razor bladed the area around the Command Velcro on the back so that it was free to attach to the wall.

For the ribbon, I did the same thing as the paper - only using enough to just come around the back of the frame. On the sides where the Command Velcro was, I cut it just at the edge and used the glue dots to hold on each side.

Next, I made my no-glue bow by folding two loops with the ribbon, then I cut a three inch strip of ribbon, folded in the edges on both sides and wrapped it around the back and secured with another glue dot. Piece of cake! One that was done I used one more glue dot to attach it to the front of the gift and done!

Click those bad boys back into the velcro and you are done. When the holidays are over, be sure and keep the ribbon - it’s already pre-cut and will be even easier to recreate next year! You can do this on any gallery wall in your house…I think it would look even more fun if the frames are all different sizes! I love that you can also change out the wrapping paper and the ribbon every year if you wanted to match whatever theme you choose with your Christmas decor.

(DISCLAIMER: This post contains some affiliate links. This does not affect the price of the products you're purchasing, but I do receive a small kickback for any purchase made. I only link to products that I personally use and highly recommend!)

DIY Diaper Cake Tutorial

This cake looks almost good enough to eat!

(but I wouldn't recommend it)

Earlier this week I showed you our fabulous "Ready to Pop" themed baby shower (click HERE to download our FREE Ready to Pop party printables!), now I'll show you a simple tutorial on how to make the beautiful diaper cake we used as the centerpiece for our food display. Diaper cakes are a great way to dress up a practical gift, and if you decorate in the colors of the party, they can also become a beautiful focal point of the shower decor. 

Some might say they pull double doody....er, I mean duty. Ahem.

Let's start out with the supplies you'll need:I made this whole diaper cake for less than $30, simply by shopping smart and utilizing some supplies that I had around the house. When you know you're going to be making one of these in the near future, start collecting empty toilet paper rolls (these can be used for other fun crafts as well) and an empty wrapping paper roll. I use the empty wrapping paper roll as the "base" of the cake, to help hold everything securely in place. It helps the cake transport easily without falling apart and keeps everything centered.

With the exception of the diapers, I found all of my supplies (cake plate, ribbons, flower, crinkle paper) all at Michael's...so it really was a one-stop-shop kind of project. PLUS I used my Michael's iPhone app for a coupon and saved some money! 

STEP 1: Cut down your wrapping paper roll and glue it to the center of the 12" cake plate.To cut down the wrapping paper roll to the right size I took the three toilet paper rolls and laid them on the floor one on top of the other (to form a tower), then laid the wrapping paper roll beside it and marked it about 1/2 inch shorter than the length of the three rolls (so that it wouldn't stick out the top). 

NOTE: You might ask why I didn't just use a paper tower roll since they're similar in height - the problem with paper towel rolls is that they are generally the same diameter as toilet paper rolls, making it hard to slide one onto the other. I have found that wrapping paper rolls are generally smaller in diameter and work perfectly. And bonus...they're long enough that you can cut it and get TWO cakes out of one roll!Jackpot! While the glue on the base is drying, you're ready to start assembling your layers. This is where you bust out the diapers and take a good whiff because they smell incredibly of fresh clean baby. (ahhh). I used Pampers Size 2 Swaddlers that I got from Buy Buy Baby at 2 packs (72 diapers) for around $22...not bad! I've found that this size diaper is the perfect size for the cake, and it allows the mommy to enjoy the cake on display in the nursery for a little bit after the little one arrives (if she chooses) without having to take it apart in the first week for the newborn size diapers she'll need.

STEP 2: Attach diapers to the toilet paper roll with rubber bands.Make sure you turn all of the diapers with the patterned side facing inwards (so they all look solid like a vanilla frosted cake), and begin to wrap and rubber band them in stacks of five. As you add more and more diapers, you can begin to fan them out (instead of one thick stack) so that the outer rim looks smooth and symmetrical.

You might need an extra set of hands to do this for the base if you haven't done it before...but if you don't have help, just be patient, it may take you a couple of tries to get the diapers in the right place and rubber banded before they fall over! I promise you can do it - I did this one solo! 

Repeat this step for the middle and top layers.

Here's the breakdown of the number of diapers I used for each layer:

BASE: 30-35 Diapers

MIDDLE: 20-25 Diapers

TOP: 10-15 Diapers

The best way to do this is just eyeball it. Start with your base, and as you make the next layer measure it on top of the layer below it to make sure it is slightly smaller in size. Once you get your three layers rubber banded, you're ready to assemble.

STEP 3: Slide layers onto base, placing crinkle paper in between each layer.Adding the crinkle paper isn't absolutely necessary, but I think it gives it a fun pop of color and distinguishes between the layers. (and it looks like frosting to me...we all know I LOVE frosting...just saying.) Note: I originally didn't put crinkle paper on the very bottom (between the base and the cake plate) but I went back later and added it in to give it a consistent look across the layers - you'll see it in the finished product at the bottom of this post)

STEP 4: Attach your ribbon with paper clips and glue.You don't want to glue your ribbon directly to the diaper because it will ruin it for actual use, so what I did was use a paper clip to attach one side of the ribbon at the back. I then wrapped the ribbon all the way around, cut it just slightly longer (so it overlaps) and then used a little bit of hot glue to attach the ribbon to itself.

NOTE: Be sure to put something in between the diaper and the ribbon as you glue the ribbon together so that the glue doesn't seep through to the diaper.

Repeat this for all three layers, making sure your seams are all in the same place at the back of the cake. Next, take your 1/2 inch ribbon and wrap it around to the front of the cake, tying a bow in the center of each layer.

STEP 5: Trim your decorative flower and place on top.The great thing about this is that I literally just had to cut the stem down to the height of the cake, and then it slid right down into the wrapping paper tube...no glue, no muss, no fuss. Easiest cake topper ever. (I used a silk gerber daisy from Michael's)

And voila...you have a beautiful gift and a beautiful centerpiece for your baby shower!

DIY Mason Jar Wedding Favor Treats

I have an entire drawer full of all the cutest wedding favors I've ever received...

...said no one ever.

Let's be honest - most wedding favors don't even make it out of the car on the way home. They either get left at the reception, or they're in the next round of things you toss in the garbage can when you're bored at the gas pump and decide to start cleaning out the trash in your car. I am well aware of this rule.

Even so, at our wedding I wanted to do a simple an inexpensive favor that made each place setting feel a little more personalized (and tied to our theme). A sweet treat they could actually enjoy at the reception (if they wanted to) and not feel like I wasted a ton of time when they were tossed later. And bonus: lots of people use mason jars at home, so these bad boys are reusable...they make a great traveling jewelry jar for the nightstand! 

Here's how I made them:

Step 1: Do a little research. 

You can find Mason Jars everywhere...and I mean everywhere. They even have them by the case at Publix! We did tons of online research and found them really cheap on several websites...however the shipping wound up being almost three times the cost of the actual jars! Crazy. 

We landed on wanting the 4oz Ball Mason Jars, and we found a great deal through Ace Hardware, of all places. They were $9.99 for a case of 12 online, and even better...they ship them FREE to a local Ace near you, all we had to do was swing by and pick them up!

ball-mason-jars-4oz

Step 2: Printable Labels.

We found the perfect printable labels online as well, from a company called lablesbythesheet.com. They were super cheap (less than .75 per page) and they have a ton of online templates you can dowload directly into Microsoft Word to design and print...it was super easy!

For a 4oz jar, we needed the 2 inch diameter round labels. We chose ivory, but there are other colors available. You can find those labels here: 2in Round Labels.

See how nicely they fit?

Since the free template downloaded into Word, I just created the text from there. You don't have to be a super-pro designer to do this, either! There are all kinds of free pretty script fonts that you can download...two of my favorite font websites are dafont and Scrap Village.

Our name logo at the bottom I did design in Photoshop using some of the free fonts, however if you don't have Photoshop or don't know how to use it, you can still create something similar! Back in the day when I was just experimenting with designing things, I would actually create them in Power Point. You laugh, but it totally works.

Because the paper margins are square and the labels are round, I did have to print a few test sheets onto plain paper to make sure the text I inserted didn't get cut off of the label. Be sure to do this before you send all of your labels through the printer!

Step 4: Fill them with yummy goodness!

My two accent colors for the wedding were dark purple and green, so I knew I wanted to use those for a pop of color on the gray linens. I ordered Jelly Bellies in bulk...in just those two colors so that I didn't have to spend days upon days eating, I mean sorting candy. I ordered those here: Bulk eCandy

Step 5: The finishing Touch.

To finish them off, I took two pieces of the Dollar Store raffia and wrapped them around the lid, tied them in a double knot and cut off the excess. Volia! Finished product:

That's it! What's the best favor you've ever received? Or maybe that actually made it home...

DIY Wedding Bouquets for under $350

When it comes to weddings one of the most beautiful, yet most expensive budget line items always winds up being flowers. You wouldn't believe some of the quotes I got from florists, just for the bouquets alone, mind you (we're not even talking centerpieces, decor, etc). I literally could have funded our entire honeymoon with what some were asking. (hmm...sit on the beach and sip fruity drinks with my love, or have pretty flowers that will last about 3.2 days. Yep, that was a no brainer)

Photographer: Sugar Snap Photography

But the good news is, with a little elbow grease and some creativity, I made my own bouquets for about a third of the price, AND I got to sit on the beach without feeling guilt for the money I was throwing down the drain for flowers! Winning!

Here's what I made:

1 Bridal bouquet

9 (yes, NINE) Bridesmaids bouquets

2 Mothers mini-bouquets

4 Grandmothers mini-bouquets

2 Ceremony floral arrangements

Rose Petals for the flower girls

And do you know how much that all cost me (including supplies and ribbon)? A whopping $345.64! And guess what, they were just as beautiful as the bouquets I had picked out in the magazine...I couldn't have been happier!

Photo: Sugar Snap Photography

Here's how I did it:

I first spent days looking online to get an idea of what type of flowers I wanted. I knew I wanted to include hydrangeas in my bouquet because not only are they beautiful, but they are very full...so a little goes a long way in making a bouquet look bigger with less flowers to purchase. I love roses, so I knew I wanted to include a few of those as well. And I knew I wanted my bouquets to be round and a pop of green (to match my shoes and my color scheme of gray with dark purple & green accents).

I went to the Sam's Club website and here is what I ordered:

Lime Green Hydrangeas (30 Stems)

Green Baby Hydrangeas (40 Stems)

Green & White Roses (125 Stems)

Green Hypericum Berries (100 Stems) Note: I loved the added depth these surprisingly gave the bouquets!

The total for all of the flowers came to about $326 (and BONUS: Sam's Club had FREE shipping!). Then I spent about $20 on green floral tape, burlap and ribbons. I would recommend ordering the flowers so that they arrive by Thursday for a Saturday wedding. That gives you a day to receive them, clip and put them in fresh water (as soon as they arrive...this is important) and still be able to make them Friday morning while having the rest of your day to enjoy the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner & wedding without having to feel rushed! This also gave us a buffer for shipping error...which happened to be a great thing, because my roses were delayed a day due to a hurricane! Yikes!

Once you receive your flowers, clip them, and let them drink some water over night (they travel a long way, those puppies are thirsty when they arrive!), here are the other supplies you'll need:

Green Floral Tape (I used about 2-3 rolls for 10 bouquets)

Burlap

Ribbon of your choice

Glue gun

Floral clippers

Clear plastic rubber bands (they help hold the bottom of the bouquet together where you want it while you wrap with floral tape)

An extra pair of hands to help hold the bouquets while you wrap is super helpful.

I started with the bridesmaids bouquets...I had 9 to make, so I knew they'd take the longest! Here are the flowers I used for each of these bouquets:

3 large hydrangea stems

2-3 mini-hydrangea stems

4 green roses

3-4 hypericum berries

I stripped the leaves off of all the flowers except the large hydrangeas...I used those as the "base" greenery around the bottom of the bouquet. Once you arrange the bouquet in your hand how you like it, place a clear plastic rubberband at the top of the stems (about where you want to start your tape...leave a small space at the top to see a little bit of the stem) and one at the bottom, where you will end your tape. Have someone else hold the bouquet while you wrap the stems tightly with floral tape and secure. (this tape is sticky, so it will stick to itself...no need to glue it down)

Once your'e done with that, place the bouquet in water and set aside. Note: It was easier to do this process for all the bouquets first, then add the burlap and ribbon together as the last step, because the floral tape will leave your hands sticky!

Next I made the bridal bouquet:

5-6 large hydrangea stems

3-4 mini-hydrangea stems

8-9 white roses

5-6 hypericum berrie stems

I basically did the same procedure as the bridesmaids bouquets, I just made mine slightly larger, and used only the white roses (instead of green ones) to make it look a little different. I used green ribbon with my bouquet to match my green shoes, and on the bridesmaids bouquet I used dark purple ribbon to match their shoes.

Photo: Sugar Snap Photography

The mother's & grandmother's mini-bouquets were basically smaller versions of the bridesmaids bouquets with 3 roses, 2-3 mini-hydrangea stems and 2-3 hypericum berries...sadly I couldn't find a picture of those - sorry!

Once you've got all of your bouquets assembled, it's time for the burlap and ribbon. We cut a piece of burlap just slightly larger than the width of the floral tape around the stems, and left room to fold down the top and bottom sides (so that the edges were smooth and not jagged).  Fold down the top and bottom edges of the burlap, wrap around the base of the bouquet and secure with one line of hot glue (be careful not to burn yourself!) you'll need an extra pair of hands for this process as well to get it tight and secure.

After the glue dries, tie the ribbon of your choice around the center, where the tie will face outward. I chose to tie mine in a knot, you can do a bow as well...it's totally whatever look you prefer!

For an extra touch of glam, as well as my something old and borrowed, I added a beautiful brooch from one of my grandmothers, and underneath it, I tied my other grandmother's original wedding band. They looked beautiful and made my bouquet extra special...I felt like I was carrying them down the aisle with me!

Photo: Sugar Snap Photography

Once you're done with your bouquets, be sure to store them in a vase with water and also in a cool place - hydrangeas are absolutely beautiful, but they do wilt easy...keep them cool!!

And that's it, beautiful bouquets for about a third of the price... I couldn't have been happier with the way they turned out and the money we saved!

Photogapher: Sugar Snap Photography

Photographer: Sugar Snap Photography

Photo: Sugar Snap Photography

Hope this helps for any brides who are toying with the idea of doing  your own bouquets...please feel free to comment below with any questions! Happy arranging!

Photos Courtesy of : Sugar Snap Photography

Disclaimer: Post contains some affiliate links.