Party Time! : Champs Bar

Happy first day of May!  Last post I mentioned sharing a party idea for wedding season so here goes!

A couple weekends ago some girlfriends and I celebrated one of my college friends, Elena's, bridal shower and bachelorette party.  Elena is one of my sweetest, kindest friends and her soon to be husband is no exception!  We cannot wait to celebrate their love at their wedding this month!

For Elena's bachelorette her sister/MOH organized quite an evening of fun that was very fitting to Elena's personality.  We got a hotel suite where we had a little pizza party and got ready to go out to a line dancing bar.  I've never been to a bar known for line dancing and as you can imagine they are a little harder to come by in Northeast Ohio but it was SO FUN!  As a country music fan I loved the tunes and we found our share of characters throughout the night.

To start off the festivities in the hotel we decided to do a champagne bar.  Yes, another bar idea, I kinda love them!  (See previous Hot Drinks Bar idea here)  We wanted something to start the evening off but didn't want it to be too potent since bachelorette parties are a marathon!

We actually did this last summer for another friend's bachelorette and it was pretty well received so we thought lets do it again and kick it up a notch by adding liqueur options!  The first champs bar we did had juices and fruit to make your own concoction.

This is the champs bar we did last year with fruits and juices!

Since it was colder there wasn't a whole lot of fruit that was in season so we decided to forgo the fruit and bring in the liqueurs.  Over time I've bought scads of liqueurs for this martini or that cocktail so I had some already in my bar.  The others I bought the smaller sized bottles of them since they are really just for a splash of flavor and kick.

All you have to do is grab some champs (or prosecco), glassware (or plastic glasses) and set it up!

We set it up around the sink in the hotel suite in case of spills!

I like to have some instructions so people can feel like they can help themselves.  So I just printed off some steps and put it in a fun frame.  For Elena's I tried to stick with the line dancing theme so I said:

1. Pour yourself a glass of bubbly.
2. Put a little kick in your step with a liqueur or juice.
3. Raise your glass, toast to the bride to be! 
4. Get ready to boot, scoot and boogie on the dance floor!

The juices we had were:

• grapefruit juice
• orange juice
• and cranberry juice

The liqueurs were:

• Pama (pomegranate)
• Hypnotiq (tropical fruits)
• Peach schnapps 
• Chambord (raspberry)
• St. Germain (elderflower)

Use some carafes or pitchers for the juices, add some themed cocktail napkins and wah-la!  This was a fun way to start the night, creating fun girly concoctions, getting ready and telling stories of memories with the Bride to Be!  This would also work for a bridal shower or even a nice brunch party.

Next I've got a recipe for Bacon Onion Marmalade to share, sounds totally weird but is incredibly yummy!

Cheers!
Steph

Ladies Tea Party!

Well another start to the week is upon us!  Originally we had plans to travel to Pittsburgh this weekend for the Frozen Four, when Miami didn't make it we opted out.  We thought "Oh nice, a free weekend!", Chris knows better than to think a free weekend means I won't book it right up with plans.  So the "free weekend" tends to be a fleeting concept.  

Since we were in town I was able to go to a ladies tea party hosted by my friend Flori.  What a cute idea!  It was at the Cambridge Tea House on Saturday morning.  She had about eight or nine other ladies that she invited as well, everyone was dressed in their spring dresses (even though the weather was less than cooperative).  There was scones, quiche and fruit that were all delicious and of course there was tea for the table!  Flori always plans a great party, with favors and a game and such.  This time she had little scratch off tickets so whoever had a matching teacup won the prize!  It was so nice spending the morning with ladies just chatting and being girly!

Tea, very pretty teacups!

Party favors, little teacup soaps!

The hostess and I, matching in our pink dresses!

So that was a fun way to start off what ended up being a cold and dreary Saturday.  Maybe I'll have to take time and go to tea more often!  That night we had a homemade sushi night with friends where there was a battle of the sushi makers!  More on that in my next post!

Cheers!

Steph