Fab Fete : Haute Halloween Decor and F&B

Designing and creating food stations, beverage bars, and dessert bars has always been a fun, creative outlet for me.  Professionally, I planned and executed them for various luxury brands at Saks as well as for Moroccanoil at NY Fashion Week as part of a larger event marketing effort.  Personally, I’ve planned them for friend’s baby showers and my daughter’s birthday.  Staking out a location is always step #1.  When I saw this bright orange wall at Gymboree, I knew it would be the perfect Haute Halloween backdrop.  food station

I opted for the wall along the hallway without the hooks so that I could have a blank slate from which to work upon.  And I pressed 2 smaller, 4’x5′ tables together to provide ample room for pizza, beverages, snacks and dessert.  I was working off a tight budget so nothing here was custom made like I’d usually do for other parties.  All the paper products were surprisingly found at the local Party City.  Pretty impressive for Party City, huh?  IMG_3646

I just had to create the banner, tape it up, rest my black velvet fabric and tape up the edges with black electrical tape and throw a striped fabric down the middle making sure everything touched the floor.  You never want to see the legs on a table unless they are very decorative and match your design theme.  A benefit for having your linens touch the floor is creating needed storage space.  Tuck all your replenishable foods /snacks and take-home boxes underneath for easy access.   I loved the banner because you could still give it a customized look with the stickered letters that came along with it.  I wrote Haute Halloween for this food staion, and used another one saying @fab_kids in the photo room.  IMG_3654The white pillared cake stands were topped with orange paper to add some additional contrast to the table and make the mini cupcakes pop.  All the mini cupcakes were sponsored by Baked by Melissa and were soooo scrumptious!  And I had already bought the cake stands for another event.  These can be found at Bed Bath and Beyond.

IMG_3649

It’s nice to be able to have some detail both behind the food station wall as well as in front of it.  So I brought the black/white/orange decor theme in with the handmade chain banner below which helped to tie the whole look in.  The sodas were canistered in these simple containers, also purchased at Party City and were labeled “venom” and “poison” to go with the Halloween theme.IMG_3650

The napkins and leftover goody bag spiders continued the black / white / orange theme down to the very last detail.IMG_3651 IMG_3652 GoGo SqeeZ sponsored our applesauce snacks and were a popular hit amongst our costumed crowd.

IMG_3648

We also had pumpkin – shaped pretzels, cookies and fruity chews.  Guests dined in a separate room, formerly the art room.

kids snacks GoGo3 SAMSUNG CSC  SAMSUNG CSC

Goody bags and sponsored beverages, Trimino and Green Mustache were also stationed here.

SAMSUNG CSC

kids beverages SAMSUNG CSC SAMSUNG CSC SAMSUNG CSC

The photo area had a simple backdrop using the same banner found at the food station.  It read @fab_kids so that the brand would show up in everyone’s photos.

The chalk hashtag unfortunately did not stay on long but guests were asked to hashtag #fabkidsandtheirstylishmoms (our FB page name) on any of their Instagram uploads.

Once they tagged that and the venue @gymboreenewyork, they’d immediately be entered to win VIP tickets to Gymboree’s upcoming Thanksgrooving disco party.  Congrats to Kye who dressed up as Robin Thicke and won these tickets!!

anna wintour costume To see all the photos from the event see the FB album.  Or to read more about the party click here.  And to find out how to replicate our Anna Wintour, Andre Leon and Karl Lagerfeld Vogue trio, click here!

 

Thanks to my 7 sponsors for helping make this Haute Halloween party a huge success!

 

 

 

Fab Kids: NY Kids Fashion Week Petite Parade

I love fashion week in NY and I love fab kids and kids fashion so when Petite Parade decided to combine it all, I just had to be there!  Unlike the NY fashion weeks that hit Lincoln Center, this was refreshingly more carefree, less snobby and filled with innocent kid-filled-fun.  I was so glad to have brought my baby Juliet there.  She was very excited to experience this fashion rite of passage with me with her first runway show.

kids fashion week

Here she is wearing my fur shawl over her own black and white dress with her Mickey Mouse tights and wiglet.  Yes that’s a baby wig she’s got on there.  They’re all the rage in Asia but I have yet to see a baby wear one in NYC.  Perhaps she’ll start a trend with her fake pigtails.

NY kids fashion weekGotta love those chubby cheeks.  And yes, that’s a mini Chanel purse she’s got there.  She takes after me after all.  When we sat down, we saw so many like-minded crazed fashionistas and their matchy matchy moms that we sort of felt a comforting sense of belonging like we had just entered a fashion club to which we didn’t even know we were members.

mini fashionistas

This pretty little lady pictured above was also wearing her mom’s fur stole. Check out the front row scene across from me (below).  Pretty mommas and their mini-mes.  This was not your normal crowd.  Even in NYC where fashionistas abound, it is a rare sighting to find moms and their babies dressed to the nines as they all were.  The mommy and me crowd was so stunningly on trend and high fashion that it made even me risk getting whiplash with the constant head-spinning I had to do.  To be surrounded with other so-obviously-fashion-obsessed pairs normalized my penchant for all things beautiful.  And suddenly I didn’t want to ever leave.

fashion babies

My eyes were peeled for cutie sightings and I couldn’t help but admire these professional posers who took to the catwalk post-fashion show like it was their own stage.  Are they adorable or what?

kids fashion week

And perhaps the highlight of Petite Parade’s people watching was the group of celebrity imposters sitting front row.  They looked like they came straight from the Oscars red carpet!  Can you identify the dopplegangers?

Oscar red carpet

That’s Jessica Chastain, Kelly Osbourne, Lupita, Pharrell, and Taylor Swift!  What a great celebrity sighting!  For more on Petite Parade click here  which reveals how much my favorite kid’s runway dress costed.

NY fashion week kids

petite parade

For those of you wondering what was in the goody bag this year, here it is!  It’s missing a couple nail polishes thanks to my baby playing with it during the photo but the rest is all there.

goody bag

Kids Fashion Week, what do you think?

 

 

© 2024 Stylishly Stella