valentine ideas

I love love love love love Valentine's Day.
Not because I'm ever in a relationship on Valentine's Day (I was MAYBE once, but it was never legitimate...), or because I'm ridiculously romantic, or any sort of thing like that.
But because I love love, and I love red and pink and white and every shade in between, and I love hearts, and I love the idea of romance, and I love flowers (fresh bouquets, dried bouquets, picked-from-the-yard, florist picks, whatever), and my favorite flower sometimes starts peeking out around Valentine's (the daffodil!), and just because it's fun, easy to celebrate, and a really nice idea.
I love the connection between Valentine's Day and sweet things... heart-shaped cookies, brownies, cheesecakes, strawberries, raspberries, dark chocolate, truffles, all of that... I love baking and I love eating, and it's a nice time to partake in it festively.

This year, I will be celebrating Valentine's officially on Tuesday, February 11th, via my sorority's mixer with an on-campus fraternity... it's called "Tie the Knot" and it's a My-Tie kind of event (in which the frat boys bring a tie, girls pick a tie, and whomever it belongs to is their impromptu date for the evening) with a Valentine's kick and twist (it IS the week of V-Day!).

Now, I'm in the process of collecting inspiration and ideas for decorating and hosting the event, and it's super-exciting. Here's a compilation of things I've discovered thus far:

- Red, purple, pink, and silver/white color scheme
- Serving little pizzas cut into heart shapes
- Serving chocolate paninis
- Floating small orchids and tea lights in a large glass bowl
- Host a baking party beforehand to cater event (we'll probably just do desserts)
- Make ready-made grocery-store bouquets into beautiful floral arrangements

• Don't mix more than two contrasting colors in a single vase
• Go monochromatic
• When pairing two dissimilar flowers, choose varieties with distinctly different textures and shapes
• Get rid of extra baby's breath and "filler" flowers
• Stick common flowers together in mass

- Cookies on a stick?

Kentucky Derby Birthday Party

For my nineteenth birthday, I decided to host a Kentucky Derby themed party in my basement. I had gotten the inspiration after seeing pictures from a similar party my ex-roommate attended held by her sorority at another university. Originally, I planned to use the idea for our annual summer themed pool party, but it was harder to decorate at that venue and I had less freedom to make it as elaborate as I wanted.

Host: Kelly
Date: Friday, August 15th, 2008
Lasted from: 7:04p to 9a

Concept: After seeing pictures of my ex-roommate and her sorority sisters in big-brimmed, floppy hats and sundresses on facebook, I decided that "Kentucky Derby" would be an excellent theme to base a party. Her facebook pictures only provided me with the initial concept, since no decorations or food were shown, but that concept was broad enough to build upon easily. I knew I wanted horse-y decorations (things like flower garlands, horseshoes, ribbons, etc); I envisioned the party as being very classy but still fun and a little country. I brainstormed with my best friend (and often coplanner) Laken, and she came up with the idea of having the primary colored hanging flags that most car dealerships use, and that ended up being a vital part of the decoration scheme. My mother provided me with tiny glass vases (which were actually medical tubes) to use for flowers and gave me ideas for making it a little less prissy (with blue-and-white checkered material, possibly serving barbecue and more classic Southern food). {My best works are collaborations, so I'm always open to working with others and bouncing ideas back and forth.} Also, I wanted the party to be a traditional Kelly birthday party, in that it would require themed attire and would serve as a sleepover for my girlfriends.

Food:

• Grilled chicken on herb rolls
• Oatmeal chocolate-chip cookies (we used oats as a throwback for horse food)
• Cream cheese tortilla rollups
• Carrot sticks and dip
• Sausage balls (special requested by my friends!)
• Cucumber pasta salad
• Cream cheese grape salad
• Mocha chocolate cheesecake

Drinks:

• Frozen strawberry punch

Invited: 15
Attended: 12
Held in: My parents' basement
Attire: Dressy preppy; sundresses and polos and pearls

Decorations:

• Swags of Christmas lights
• Swags of primary-colored racing flags
• Blue-and-white checkered plastic tablecloth material used as wall covering
• Old horse-riding competition prize ribbons sporadically hung up
• Dried rose arrangements in vases
• Living hydrangea in medical vases
• Floral material as tablecloths
• Horse magazine pictures cut out and hung along walls, with nametags of fake racing horse names attached
• Extra hats hung around

Sorority Christmas Social

The first of my planned events officially as Social Chair was the December Christmas Social/Alumnae Induction Ceremony. While I was not really responsible for coming up with the concept or details of the event, I did implement our darling previous SC's plans and they turned out rather well.

Host: Kelly
Date: Sunday, December 7th, 2008
Lasted from: 2p to 3:30p (Planned to last from 2p-4p)
Setup at: 1p

Concept: In the past, our Christmas Socials have been typically held at an older sister's house at nighttime, where we gather together, induct our new alumnae members, eat little snacks made at the house, swap presents in a Dirty Santa-type manner, and watch a nice little Christmas movie. This year, the previous SC wanted to do something a little more formal (by hosting it in a boardroom on campus) and charitable (in lieu of swapping presents together, we hosted a family from a local charity and provided their Christmas presents with half the Social's allotted budget and donations from sisters).

Food: Supplied and prepared by Kaley, a sorority senior

• {Reindeer/Santa sugar cookies, snowflake cupcakes, wheat thins, Rotel dip, tortilla chips and salsa, little weinies, cheese ball}

Drinks: Supplied and prepared by Kaley

• {Hot chocolate in a crockpot (with candy canes and marshmallows), lemonade}

Invited: 95
RSVP'd: 52
Attended: 35
Held at: M. Boardroom on campus
Room Booked By: FJ
Attire: Christmas festive, casual

Activities: Alumnae Induction Ceremony, presentation of Senior Wills, eating and talking with "Elf" playing in background

Room for Improvement:

• Originally scheduled for 7-10p, but conflicted with a mandatory business meeting
• Tablecloths were not ordered and had been removed from Friday night's event in the room
• Room was slightly dirty because of event on Friday night
• Major discrepancy on attendance
• Schedule conflict with Christmas at Belmont
• Only two people came to help with setup

What to do next time:

• Find out schedule ahead of time; if it may interfere with a sorority-planned event, ask IN ADVANCE to get approved
• Order tablecloths on a weekday IN ADVANCE
• Try to have events on weekdays/weeknights
• Communicate needs of committee more efficiently
• Have enough ice

Socialist Party

Okay, so I know... this party was rather politically incorrect, but it was an idealistic party, and one done simply for wit rather than to make any kind of real point. Forgive me.

Host: Kelly
Date: Friday, December 26th, 2008
Lasted from: 6:15p (when we met up to carpool) to 10:00p

Concept: Our Socialist Party was really just an excuse to wear all red attire and spend time together as an extended group of friends, going out to eat good food and then marvelling at the beautiful, extravagant Christmas decorations at a gorgeous hotel in town.

Invited: Fifteen; 8 girls, 7 guys
Attended: Nine; 4 girls, 5 guys
Held at: Romano's Macaroni Grille, followed by a self-guided tour of Opryland Hotel
Attire: Cocktail, all red

The Beginnings

Hi! I'm Kelly and I am a social butterfly. This is my attempt at organization of the social events I've planned, coordinated, and implemented (or in some cases, just thought up). I figured it might become an invaluable resource for me and other social planners.

Love!