{Photography} Photographing a Sweet 16 Party

My niece asked my to be the photographer at her sweet 16 party, how could I say no? 

She and her mom did a fantastic job with decor.

I got to use my big girl camera and had some fun with bokeh.

She was a vision in pink and her guests all wore black.  

A sweet ending to a special night!

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{Entertaining} Sweet 16 Family Bagel Brunch

The morning after Miss High School's Vintage Glam Halloween Hollywood Tower Hotel Sweet 16 (say that 10 times fast!) we hosted a bagel brunch for family and friends.

The morning glories were in full bloom finally (the rest of the garden was pretty much done with).

We were packing a lot into that weekend because College Girl was home and we were also celebrating my birthday.

**edit** I totally forgot to showcase these fun plaid napkins from Tar-jay!  I used them with gold paper plates and napkins for a fall glam look. **

 We kept the menu simple: bagels and spreads, home made granola, yogurt and fruit.

 Oh and of course potato chips?!  I made vegan chickpea tuna and chips go really well with that.  Recipe coming soon!

 I had already planned on making these No-Bake Reese's Bars and Miss High School was happy to use them as her cake so that made my life a lot easier.  They have become a family favorite.

 I didn't take many photos but I'm happy I got one of the birthday girl with her grandma, sister and cousin (also home from college for the weekend).  There's more to come of this weekend. Stay tuned!

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{Recipe} White Chocolate Oreo Truffles

I hope you've been able to catch up on Miss High School's Vintage Glam Halloween Sweet 16 party. The favors had to go with the color scheme so after tossing a few ideas around, we settled on these black and white truffles. 

We became Oreo truffle experts. We made a lot of them..a lot a lot.  I think we made 5 or 6 batches of them. 

 But that was ok, because they are pretty easy to put together (did I say no-bake?).  To make the truffles, pour one bag of Oreos into a food processor and process until you have fine crumbs.

 Like this.

Add 1/2 cup of sweetened condensed milk and pulse a few time to mix it in to the Oreo crumbs.

Roll into 1 inch truffles. I had to enlist some help with this since we were in a serious time crunch. He's an A+ truffle roller! Freeze the truffles until firm.

 Melt 1 bag of white chocolate chips in the microwave and dip the truffles in the white chocolate. Return to tray and freeze for a few minutes.

 Melt semi-sweet or dark chocolate and drizzle on the white chocolate truffles.  Freeze to set up.

We bagged ours and added some vintage stickers and red ribbon.  

They can be kept in the fridge but take out to soften them up when serving.  Decadent and delicious!

Looking back: (College Girl's Sweet 16} and {Sweet 16 Family Brunch}

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{Entertaining} Vintage Glam Halloween at The Hollywood Tower Hotel Sweet 16

Miss High School turned 16 a few weeks ago (got her permit too!). We had fun putting together the decorations for her party that we held at a local restaurant with 30 or so of her closest friends.

 Her theme was Vintage Glam Halloween-Hollywood Tower Hotel and her colors were black, white and red.  I picked up a bunch of flowers the day before the party. We knew we wanted red roses and lucked out with these gorgeous white lilies to go with them.  I thought the spiky Eryngium Thistle was so cool and reminded me of spiders so I got those too. I also got some white filler that looked like little white pom poms.

 

We collected old looking bottles and she printed out labels for them, then used Mod Podge to adhere them to the bottles.  I ordered black and white swirled lollipops from Oriental Trading Company. They looked great and the kids enjoyed them.  Black and white paper straws and menus printed on red card stock were set at each place setting. The spider web doilies were from Michael's.

 

We used all different vases for the flowers and candle holders with different sized white candles.  I had a few mirrors for the tables that reflected the tea lights and decorations.

 We spray painted a few of my thrifted bird cages black as well as this bird cage that we used for a card holder.

She's collected quite a few composer busts from piano recitals and I've used them in my Halloween decor over the years. They were perfect on the tables with the spider web doilies.

To go with the hotel theme, she made these place cards out of vintage looking keys and tags.

 We asked the restaurant to use white table cloths and black napkins.  They said they'd never used black and white in that room before (only burgundy and gold) and they really liked how it looked (so did we!).  You can see the shoes came off early.

 The decor of the room definitely had an old Hollywood vibe with those valances and the chandeliers.  Very bling-y!  We asked everyone to dress up in "cocktail chic" attire on the invitations so they knew it was going to be a fancy event.
The night started off kind of stormy and we even lost power right before we left for the party (luckily it wasn't out at the venue!).  It all went with the theme.

There was a dance floor in the center of the room and they used it after dinner.  Her older sister arrived in time to dj some of the tunes and get them up and dancing.
The regal chair in the back of the room was great for photo ops.

Of course I didn't get any enough photos of the food except this one of the mashed potato bar toppings and dipping sauces for the chicken nuggets. The menu featured two kinds of salad, rolls and butter, penne with blush sauce, macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets, mashed potato bar and grilled vegetables.  There was also a dessert table full of Italian pastries and of course we had a fabulous birthday cake for the birthday girl.

The cake was red velvet with cream cheese filling and buttercream icing. 

 It was wrapped in black lace and had red icing roses on top.  Simple and elegant!

I ordered the sparkler candles from Amazon.   They were so dramatic and fun!

We made Oreo white chocolate truffles for the favors and bagged them up with stickers from Ikea and red ribbons. I made a little framed sign to remind them to take one as they left. I'll share the recipe in an upcoming post.  This turned out to be a great party and I was happy to have it out of the house because we were hosting her family party the next morning!  What a special, memorable night!

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{Entertaining} Vintage Key Place Cards

Miss High School's Sweet 16 party was Vintage Glam Halloween-Hollywood Tower Hotel themed and perfect for her October birthday. {See her Repurposed Bird Cage turned card holder here.}  She liked the idea of keys as place cards for her guests.

We ordered the keys on ebay in bulk because of her large guest list. They arrived quite rusty, as in get all of over your nice outfit,rusty.  We wanted to keep the vintage look but not ruin everyone's clothing.

 I sprayed them with a matte acrylic sealer. I gave them a couple of coats and turned them over to coat each side.  That did the trick!

She attached the keys to the gift tags we found at Ikea and added her guests' names in gold Sharpie. As the guests arrived, they found their "room key" and picked where they wanted to sit at the tables. They also got to take them home as a sweet memento from her party.

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