Stumped by what to get the leading man in your life for Christmas this year?! Worry not! We’ve got you covered with our Gift Guide For Him.
We’ve rounded up some of our favorite picks for that special guy in your life! This guide is full of thoughtful yet practical and useful gifts that we think any guy would love! Shop away!
How is it already Thanksgiving?! This year is just flying by and the holidays are now in full swing! So you know what that means – holiday gift guides! With Black Friday and Cyber Monday coming up, there is no better time to start your Christmas shopping.
We are starting off with our gift guide for the hostess. These are the perfect gifts to give your loved ones who enjoy entertaining or for the host of an upcoming Christmas or NYE party! Be sure to check back over the next few days as we share our gift guides for her, him, the jetsetter, the fitness fiend, and the homeowner (or in our case – the future homeowner!).
Happy almost Thanksgiving! If you’re hosting this year, chances are that you already have your tablescape planned and designed (at least in your head!) and may be looking for that extra flair to give your table a truly festive feel!
I always love using our fine china we received at our wedding as the foundation of our holiday tablescapes and then adding holiday specific items to give it some extra pizzaz! For Thanksgiving, of course, that means lots of “Thankful,” “Grateful,” and “Gather” decor. So i’ve shopped around for us all and gathered my favorite last minute holiday items to add to your Thanksgiving table this week! Enjoy!
Who’s responsible for bringing pie to your Thanksgiving feast this year?! Two hands up from this gal right here!
No Thanksgiving is complete with an apple pie, am I right?! This holiday classic is always one of my favorite dishes and is what keeps me from that second serving of mashed potatoes. My aunt makes the most incredible apple pie, and this year, I’m giving it a swing. The stakes are high, so I’ve been experimenting with tons of different recipes, and have concluded that this Homemade Caramel Apple Pie is by far the gold medalist.
The cinnamon-spiced apples combined with the sweet caramel sauce…yuuu–ummmm! Bake up this holiday favorite, and your family and friends are sure to be talking about it for years to come!
Enjoy!
For every party, we all want those jaw-dropping uber creative menus that all our guests will be talking about long after the event, don’t we? I always envision my guests oohing and aahing over every dish they taste and just marveling in the originality of it. But let’s be honest. Not every dish we make can be that innovative and unique. Every party and event needs one of our favorite basic no-fail recipes, where we can just kick our feet up and know that it will be a success.
For me, Rice Krispie Treats can be just the ticket! I mean who doesn’t love a good Rice Krispie Treat? They instantly create a sense of nostalgia and remind us of a fun childhood memory. Plus they are an easy festive bite that you can customize to any party.
I recently incorporated them into our Ghoul’s Night Out Halloween Party, and they gave it the perfect spooktacular flare! I dressed them up by dipping them in white chocolate and then rolled them in some fun Halloween sprinkles! I grabbed some orange paper straws to use as sticks and voila! An adorable and festive Rice Krispie Pop perfect for your upcoming party! Change up the sprinkles and straw color, and you’ve got yourself a treat for any birthday party theme or holiday!
Check out our recipe below! Enjoy!
Looking to host a spooktacular party this Halloween?! With the help of our dear friends at Swoozies, we’ve got you covered! We hosted the most adorable “Ghoul’s Night Out” party filled with some of our favorite decor and now have all the inspiration you need to host your own ghoulishly good time!
With a black and white color palette and pops of orange, this festive set up was completely outfitted by Swoozies, which is the perfect one stop shop for all your holiday gatherings this year!
Enjoy!
Happy Wedding Wednesday! If y’all checked out our wedding registry etiquette post for the bride and groom last week, you know how exciting, yet overwhelming registering for your own wedding can be!
But what about for the guest?! Buying the perfect gift and navigating the registry can be just as tricky! There are so many unwritten rules, so we are here to help break down some of those concerns. We are answering some of your biggest questions to help with the gift giving process for all your upcoming weddings. Enjoy!
A link to the wedding registry should be included on the wedding website or their save-the-dates. Still can’t find it? Try Googling the full names of the couple and if they used a larger company for their site, it should pop up. Still can’t find it? Ask their parents or a close friend of theirs!
Send the gift in advance. At the end of the wedding, the couple is usually whisked off and vendors are moving a million miles a second. To save any confusion or hassle moving gifts, just send your gift in the mail either before or after the wedding.
The traditional rule is to spend as much as the per-plate cost is. Nowadays, with wedding costs rising, this could be up to $300 a person, which is not always reasonable for every guest. Think about how good of friends you are with the couple. If you’re a distant friend or colleague, consider starting at about $50-$75 a person. If you’re family or really close, usually about $150 a person is nice.
Yes, please do! The bride and groom put an unbelievable amount of time into crafting the perfect registry with what they would like included in their future home and life together. I know as a guest, it may not feel as personal buying off the registry, but I promise they will appreciate it.
If you’re really close to the bride and groom and know there is something they would absolutely love but didn’t include it in their registry, that’s fine. My best friend actually gave me the most incredible monogrammed napkins I have ever seen – not on our registry – but she knows me well and had them designed to match our china, so needless to say, I was obsessed. But don’t go off the registry simply for the sake of being more creative.
Yes. It is still appreciated when the guests bring a gift to the shower and also send a wedding gift. The shower gift is usually a bit smaller than the wedding gift though!
Are you screaming or ice cream?! We sure are! In our house, we find all the excuses we can to host an ice cream social. And this Labor Day weekend is no exception.
Whether you are celebrating the start of the school year, a birthday, a baby shower, or start of summer, an ice cream social is always the perfect party theme to incorporate into your soiree! It’s fun, festive, and oh so tasty!
To help with your next celebration, we’ve put together an inspiration board with everything you need (including our new favorite menu from our shop!) to throw your own ice cream social at home! Enjoy!
Check out how we brought this inspiration board together HERE!
Photography by Luisa’s Secret
Creating your wedding registry can be one of the highlights of the wedding planning process. Especially for the groom, who often times has a little more of an opinion on this process than the rest of the planning!
I mean, what’s more fun than picking out all of the beautiful new things with your fiancé that your loved ones will gift you to start your new home and life together as a married couple? So dreamy and exciting to think about! But, in this day and age, with all of the different products and types of registries, the process can be a little overwhelming. And if not done correctly, you might find yourself after your wedding wondering why you once wanted that salad spinner or why you didn’t register for the Vitamix. The last thing you want to deal with after the honeymoon is figuring out how to exchange gifts or return them for what you really want. So, do your homework with your fiancé on the front end and make sure you really think through all those fun items that for which you are registering.
So where do we begin?! There are so many different types of registries: the big box stores, the unique china store in your home town, the universal registry, the online-only registries…the options seem endless. There is no one-size-fits-all, but there are definitely better options than others, so for this Wedding Wednesday, we are answering all your wedding registry questions!
Enjoy and happy shopping (and scanning)!
Set up your registry as soon as you can after you get engaged. If you’re having an engagement party or showers, definitely make sure your registry is set up in advance of the parties so your guests know where to buy your gifts.
I would recommend having a maximum of three. Much more than three can start to look a little tacky (sorry, guys). If you use an online universal registry like Zola, you really only need one! However, if you want your guests to be able to have the option of picking your gift out in stores, consider adding just one traditional retail registry with your Zola registry like a Williams-Sonoma or a Pottery Barn.
Throughout the wedding planning adventure, we tried tons of different registries. We started with three basic ones (or so we thought): Amazon, Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn. We thought between those three we could register for pretty much anything that we wanted. False – after a lot of broken china and crystal from Amazon, we removed this registry and added Neimans. We found the online portal and buying system tricky, so we removed this one and tried Bed Bath and Beyond. Still not totally satisfied, we finally tried Zola which I had heard a ton about but was not sure how I felt about the universal registry concept. GAME CHANGER. This was by far my favorite registry we used! We ended up removing all of our registries except for Zola and Williams-Sonoma (just so our guests had a box store option in case they wanted to see the product and buy in person).
When it comes to an Old Fashioned, it’s always 5 o’clock somewhere in our household! These have been my husband’s cocktail of choice lately and even as a non-bourbon drinker, I have found my self enjoying more than a sip or two of his as well. Plus, I can never pass up a drink with a maraschino cherry in it!
Between all of our cocktail books and favorite food blogger’s recipes, we’ve tried our fair share of versions of this classic beverage and have found this recipe to be our favorite.
With just a few simple ingredients, this timeless and sophisticated cocktail is always at your finger tips and is the perfect drink to have on hand for your guests. Enjoy!
Pro tip: If you really want to treat your guests and give your cocktail that extra classy feel, use these Tovolo molds to create spherical ice cubes for your glasses. My husband likes to have a dozen or so on hand so he’s always prepared!