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The Everyday Hostess Interior Design 40

If you all read our recent post on how to decorate small spaces, you know that floor to ceiling drapes are the number one way to make a room appear larger and more spacious for your guests. Longer window treatments not only bring a sense of elegance and a finished look to a space, but they also draw your eye upward, which elongates the entire room. To me, these are crucial, especially if you like to entertain and want to add both functional and decorative elements to your home.

The Everyday Hostess Interior Design 37

Finding window panels at the store that fit your space and just graze the floor ever so perfectly can be incredibly tricky! When Landon and I were designing our home, we searched high and low for drapes that matched our style and were the exact length we needed. With little luck we decided to pursue custom made drapes, which are actually much more cost efficient and higher quality than store bought panels.

The Everyday Hostess Interior Design 39

We worked with Amanda at Avec Dieu Couture Home, who was an absolute delight and so incredibly helpful! She worked with us personally to find the exact pattern, size, and type of drapes that we needed. I sat down with her for a little Q&A to get a little bit better understanding of the importance of drapes as well as about her background and company. 

One of the first things future brides and grooms love to do after getting engaged is is officially asking their friends and family to be their bridesmaids and groomsmen!

Getting the bridal party set early makes it officially feel like it’s your wedding season! You can talk about the bridesmaid dresses and bachelor party, and for the future bride, you have your team ready to help make those tricky decorating decisions!

After you’ve decided who you want standing next to you as you marry the person of your dreams, I think it’s always fun to find a creative way to ask them. Being in your bridal party is a big honor, so let’s make it more special with a fun invitation!

I have compiled a few of my favorite ways to ask groomsmen (don’t worry ladies – bridesmaid gift ideas are coming soon!) to be in your wedding party, including how we asked ours!

Cheers and happy planning!

“Will you be my Groomsmen” cards from PurpleandPlatinum:

The Everyday Hostess - Wedding Wednesday Groomsmen Gifts 54

Brooke, the owner of this shop, is an absolute delight to work with! She will customize these cards to match your wedding colors and the style of your wedding.

Custom pint glasses from Frederick Engraving:

The Everyday Hostess - Wedding Wednesday Groomsmen Gifts 3

These custom beer pint glasses are the perfect groomsmen gift for your guys! Arika can customize them to include each groomsmen’s name, your monogram, the wedding date, or even the location! These pair perfectly with the beer labels below.

Custom beer labels from StudioBLabels:

The Everyday Hostess - Wedding Wednesday Groomsmen Gifts 10

What is more manly than these custom beer labels with your favorite local beer?! I am absolutely obsessed with these labels and think they are perfect for any groomsmen! Rachel also makes wine labels for your bridesmaids, so it’s the perfect one stop shop!

Wedding weekend sneak peek: 

For many of us in our mid 20’s, small space living is a fact of life. Apartments never seem to have enough storage or maybe certain rooms in your house are just a bit smaller than you prefer.

Learning how to decorate these small spaces and still keep them entertaining ready can be a challenge – one that I face regularly! My fiancé and I recently moved into the most beautiful little apartment in Dallas with gorgeous floor to ceiling views of downtown. Although we absolutely love it, I must stress the LITTLE part of it. Condensing two people’s furniture and lives into one 700 SF apartment has proven to be tricky, so we have been extremely focused on how to maximize every inch.

I know we are not alone in this, so I have compiled our 12 key tricks to decorating and maximizing your space while keeping it entertaining ready.

12 Tips and Tricks:

  1. Increase Kitchen Storage – It’s not uncommon, for apartments or older homes to have minimal pantry space or none at all. Get creative, and turn your hall closet into a pantry. Add some simple storage racks from Home Depot or the Container Store to serve as additional shelves for your pantry items.

The Everyday Hostess design and home decor - kitchen pantry

2. Lighting – Keep it light! To make your space appear larger, use pale colors such as whites, beige, blues and greys. Neutral colors help create a nice flow to the house that isn’t overwhelming to the eye. You can then add a few pops of color here or there to add some personality. We went for a beige and white color palette and added hints of aqua in the living room to give it a serene and calming environment. We also added little pops of color in our decor, specifically in our design books. We used the same white and beige palette in the master bedroom, but instead of aqua we used navy and gold as our accent colors to give the room a little extra pop!

Hey Dallas Friends! Come join us at Swoozies for an Olympic themed party! We will be sharing fun party styling ideas and recipes (yes, you get to drink some cocktails too!) to help you get in the Olympic spirit before the Opening Ceremony!

Plus! You get 15% off anything you buy in store with you tell them you are here for the event with The Everyday Hostess! I look forward to seeing you all on Saturday!

The Everyday Hostess at Swoozies Dallas

 

 

Happy Wedding Wednesday! It’s officially my new favorite day of the week! We are moving full speed ahead with the wedding planning and are just a little under a year away from the big day!

Even though I have been dreaming about this day for what feels like forever, I have found myself a bit overwhelmed with the entire process. So many exciting things to do and, of course, I want them done yesterday! 🙂  If you’re like me and are planning your own wedding, your daughter’s, or a friend’s, I am sure there seems to be an unending list of things on our wedding to-do list and the order and priority of everything is a little bit hazy. 

So! To help you out, I’ve put together this wedding planning timeline printable to serve as your guide as you enjoy this exciting time. Feel free to click on the link below to download your PDF and check off all the big ticket items as you go! And most importantly, enjoy every minute of this wonderful time in your life! 

The Everyday Hostess Wedding Planning Timeline

Download your free wedding timeline printable here!

If you read our post on The Etiquette of Thank You Notes, you know I am a huge advocate of handwritten thank you notes! If not, head over and check out some of our tips on when to write a thank you note (hint – pretty much always)!

So now that we are all writing thank you notes ;), what kind should you send?

I always like to have two sets of stationery on hand – One that is more traditional and classy for professional use (sending a thank you note to a potential employer for an interview or to my boss for tickets to a football game) and one that shows my personality for casual use (sending a thank you note to a friend for gift or to my  fiancé’s parents for having me over for dinner).

I’ve compiled a few of my favorite stationery sets in case you are in the market!

 The Everyday Hostess - Informal Stationery

  1. Boatmen and Geller | 2. Palm Beach Papery  | 3. Palm Beach Papery | 4. Boatman and Geller

The Everyday Hostess Formal StationeryCrane & Co. | 2. Crane & Co. | 3. Neiman Marcus

However, if this is your first set of stationery and you are looking for a one-card-fits all approach, pick a set that is classy but still shows your individual taste, such as the following:

The Everyday Hostess Stationery

  1. Palm Beach Papery | 2. Minted | 3. Crane & Co. |

PS – Don’t forget to keep a set of “Forever” stamps in your wallet so you are always ready to send a note in a pinch!

 

 

It’s all in the details. This is probably the most widely used phrase that comes out of my mouth when planning a party. No matter the size or formality of the event, it’s always the custom little touches that your guests leave talking about.

You can throw the simplest party that requires very little planning, but by including just a few personalized details, it looks like you have put way more effort and time into your event.

Two Funny girls and everyday hostess personalized stir sticks

Napkins and cups are always the two most popular items to customize, but my absolute new favorite item to include in events is personalized drink stir sticks! These adorable stirrers from Two Funny Girls add an extra sophisticated and stylish flare and can be customized for any type of event! I love monogramming them, but you can also add a single initial or even a design of your choosing! I recently had a Bachelorette watching party and Two Funny Girls was able to design an adorable red rose on them for me! You could even have your team’s mascot or logo added to them for your tailgating parties this fall!

Strawberry Mojito Summer Cocktail

No matter the formality of your next party, these stir sticks are perfect! They always make a big statement and your guests will be incredibly impressed! Definitely check them out, as well as Two Funny Girl’s wide inventory of adorable party supplies!

The Everyday Hostess Cocktail Recipe, Strawberry Mojito, Memorial Day Recipe
This post has been sponsored by Two Funny Girls. All opinions and comments are my own.

Today is the very start of a new fabulous series that I am SO excited about! WEDDING WEDNESDAY!!!

Yes, it certainly is wedding season, so it’s fitting, but the real reason I am starting it this year is because…

Landon and I just got engaged!!!!

The Everyday Hostess Engagement - Kate Jolliffe and Landon Haaf Proposal

We are over the moon happy and so excited to be starting this next chapter of our lives. Thank you to all of you who have sent us such sweet words with your love and support. We are so grateful.

To start off Wedding Wednesday, I thought it would be most fun to start with our proposal story! So here goes!

Landon surprised me with a birthday trip to Nashville (my favorite city ever!) and while I, of course, wondered if this could be THE weekend, I naturally talked myself out of it. So I went thinking this would be an incredible weekend filled with fun tourist activities, hiking, and naturally lots of country bars with good cocktails and dancing. Little did I know it would be the most amazing and incredible weekend of my life.

We spent the first day walking around and exploring the city and all the hot tourist spots. Landon had never been to Nashville before, so it was fun showing him around this lively city.

The second day, we decided to take the scenic route down to Franklin (if you haven’t been, go! It’s just the cutest little town with a picturesque Main Street and some incredible art festivals!) via the Natchez Trace Parkway. Of course we stopped at Loveless Cafe, because how do you go all the way down there and not stop for their world famous biscuits?! We continued down the parkway checking out the beautiful views and stopping at all the overlooks.

We finally came upon a map, which led us to Jackson Falls. We planned on making a sort of “nature walk” part of our outdoorsy day, so this was the perfect spot! We strolled down the paved walkway to an absolutely gorgeous waterfall where kids were playing, sliding down the natural rocks, and enjoying their picnic lunch with their parents. Landon was looking for a quieter and more remote location (little did I know it was so he could propose!) so we walked back out and hiked to the other overlook at the top of the trailhead. We arrived at Duck Creek overlook and realized we had already stopped there during our drive so we headed back to the waterfall in hopes of a more solitary environment!

The Everyday Hostess Engagement - Kate Jolliffe and Landon Haaf Proposal

As luck would have it, literally all the families were gone! There were just a few scattered couples but they were all off on their own having their own romantic moments so we felt like we had the serene setting all to ourselves. We sat on a bench overlooking the waterfall and just talked about our relationship and life and how much we loved each other. It was just perfect.

I must have been in my own little world because as we were talking he was setting up a GoPro on the other side of him to capture the next few life changing moments, and I did not even realize it! He then started playing one of our favorite romantic country songs and asked me to dance. Well duhhh! I love to two step, especially with my favorite dance partner. We sang and danced and the moment was just beautiful. The song started to fade and Landon started telling me how much he loved me and got down on one knee and proposed.

The Everyday Hostess Engagement - Kate Jolliffe and Landon Haaf ProposalThe Everyday Hostess Engagement - Kate Jolliffe and Landon Haaf Proposal

It was absolutely perfect and so is he. This was the best moment of my life and of course I cried, said yes profusely, and jumped into his arms. We called our family and friends to share the news from Franklin and spent the rest of the evening celebrating!

The Everyday Hostess Engagement - Kate Jolliffe and Landon Haaf ProposalThe Everyday Hostess Engagement - Kate Jolliffe and Landon Haaf Proposal

To cap off the most incredible weekend EVER, Landon threw a surprise engagement party at our new apartment when we got home the next day. Even my family flew in from Colorado and California to surprise me! It was the absolute best way to top off an amazing weekend and celebrate with our loved ones.The Everyday Hostess Engagement - Kate Jolliffe and Landon Haaf Proposal

Y’all, I am one heck of a lucky girl. We are so excited to be starting this chapter of our lives together and planning our wedding.

Over the next year, I will be sharing our favorite wedding tips and tricks as well as featuring my favorite vendors and companies that we are using for our Colorado destination wedding! I hope you enjoy following us on this adventure and get some good advice and tips for the next big wedding in your life whether it’s your own, your daughter’s, or your friend’s!

Xoxoxo

Kate
PS. Did I mention how lucky I am?! Landon made this amazing video to capture the whole weekend! 😍

The Everyday Hostess and IBB at Home Summer Soiree

This Strawberry Moscato Lemonade is one of my all time favorite cocktails to serve at summer bashes of all types! It’s refreshing, it’s bright, and oh so tasty! What more could you want in a summery sip?!

The Everyday Hostess and Lindsay Davenport Photography Summer Soiree

This festive beverage is simple to make and only requires mixing 3 ingredients, which means it’s super easy to make in bulk! For larger parties, I always love having at least one pitcher cocktail like this one, so I can spend more time enjoying my guests rather than spending time at the bar crafting custom cocktails….don’t get me wrong, I do LOVE a good craft cocktail, but they are definitely easier for smaller and more intimate events!

The Everyday Hostess and IBB at Home Summer SoireeView More: http://lindsaydavenportphotography.pass.us/kate-styled-picnic-4-17-2016-print

Whip up a batch of this little delight, and your guests will be in heaven! It’s always a crowd pleaser and an absolute summer favorite!

Note – For the kiddos, just leave out the moscato and vodka. Garnish the lemonade with the same frozen strawberries and lemon slices, and they will still feel like part of the party!

The Everyday Hostess and Lindsay Davenport Photography Summer Soiree

Strawberry Moscato Lemonade
Serves 10
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Print
Prep Time
5 min
Prep Time
5 min
Ingredients
  1. 1 Bottle Pink Moscato
  2. ¼ Cup Strawberry Vodka
  3. 6 Cups Lemonade
  4. Frozen Strawberry Slices
  5. Fresh Lemon Slices
Instructions
  1. In a large pitcher, mix all the ingredients. Allow to chill in the refrigerator and serve over ice! Enjoy!
Katherine Elizabeth Design House https://katherineelizabethdesignhouse.com/
 Check out more cute pictures from this photo here

Styled by: The Everyday Hostess

Photography: Lindsay Davenport Photography |

Florals: The T Shop|

The Everyday Hostess and IBB at Home Summer Soiree

As originally seen in IBB at Home.

Summer is officially here, so it’s time to dust off the patio furniture, bring out the lawn games, and prepare for your summer soirée! Whether you’re looking to host a formal seasonal dinner or casual pool party, these tips and tricks will help to ensure your summer gathering goes off without a hitch!

Choose a Theme – The theme will dictate every step of the party prep process, so it’s important to determine it early on. Do you want a laid back family pool party, formal summer dinner party, or even a backyard luau? The possibilities are endless! For my summer bash, I opted for a more casual picnic gathering with some close family and friends!

The Everyday Hostess and IBB at Home Summer SoireeThe Everyday Hostess and IBB at Home Summer SoireeThe Everyday Hostess and IBB at Home Summer Soiree

Guest List and InvitationsA well-done invitation gives your guests a glimpse of just how classy your summer soirée will be. It’s the first chance to sweep them off their feet, so make sure your invitations help portray the theme and experience you want to create. If your event is more casual and you want to send electronic invitations, I always love Paperless Post or Evite. To create a more formal atmosphere, send some good ol’ fashioned snail mail! Swoozies is one of my favorite custom invitation shops. I also love Etsy for predesigned printable invitations! Check out my friend Tara with PrintSmitten who designed this beautiful and festive invite for our summer soirée

The Everyday Hostess and IBB at Home Summer Soiree

Decor – Decorations turn a simple gathering into its own little world for your guests and set the ambiance and formality for the entire evening. Select a simple and bright color palette and incorporate it into all aspects of the decor. I am a firm believer that it’s all in the details, so be sure to add a few extra special touches to completely transform the party. For my backyard summer picnic, I went with a yellow, coral and aqua color palette, which helped create a light and airy atmosphere. The yellow picnic blanket with the decorative pillows, paper straws, gorgeous floral arrangements, and table settings all helped create a casual yet sophisticated summer soirée.

The Everyday Hostess and IBB at Home Summer SoireeView More: http://lindsaydavenportphotography.pass.us/kate-styled-picnic-4-17-2016-printThe Everyday Hostess and IBB at Home Summer SoireeThe Everyday Hostess and IBB at Home Summer SoireeThe Everyday Hostess and IBB at Home Summer SoireeThe Everyday Hostess and IBB at Home Summer Soiree

Menu – No gathering is complete without the perfect menu! Summer is all about highlighting fresh foods, so try and incorporate some seasonal ingredients. I always like to provide easy, servable and bite-sized dishes such as watermelon, my favorite Bacon Cheeseburger with Onion Ring Sliders, and chips and guacamole.

The Everyday Hostess and IBB at Home Summer SoireeView More: http://lindsaydavenportphotography.pass.us/kate-styled-picnic-4-17-2016-printThe Everyday Hostess and IBB at Home Summer SoireeServe up some ice cold refreshing beverages. In addition to beer and wine, it’s nice to serve a signature cocktail such as a fruit sangria or margarita. Also be sure to provide a non-alcoholic drink such as a fresh lemonade. This Strawberry Moscato Lemonade is the perfect addition to your next gathering and the alcohol can easily be removed for all the kiddos!

The Everyday Hostess and IBB at Home Summer SoireeThe Everyday Hostess and IBB at Home Summer SoireeThe Everyday Hostess and IBB at Home Summer SoireeThe Everyday Hostess and IBB at Home Summer Soiree

Entertainment – It’s always fun to have an interactive element to a party to encourage mingling, especially if your guests don’t know each other that well. For a casual backyard party, I love the idea of lawn games like croquet or bocce ball. For those inspired by graphic design, cute scorecards could be added here! You could also set up a fire pit so people can make s’mores! Make sure to have a fun playlist going in the background to help set the mood for your party as well!

The Everyday Hostess and IBB at Home Summer SoireeThe Everyday Hostess and IBB at Home Summer Soiree

Finally, relax and enjoy your party! Don’t worry about cleaning while your guests are still there. That can wait until they leave! Have a cocktail or two and enjoy! You’ve worked hard!

Share your summer party ideas by tagging @the_everyday_hostess on Instagram.

 Styled by: The Everyday Hostess | Invitations: PrintSmitten |

Florals: The T Shop | Photography: Lindsay Davenport Photography