Graduation Party

My sister's husband just got his masters degree in sports management, so my sister decided to throw him a little fiesta. She enlisted the help of me and my other sister Mikken, and together we threw a pretty festive party. Melissa wanted to do a vintage baseball theme to go along with Brian's favorite sport and his new found degree, so here's what we came up with...

We printed black and white vintage baseball pictures, posters, and memorabilia on cream paper, combined with other red and blue paper, and then used that for the pendant banners (which are apparently called "bunting" in the crafting world), pendant flags, and we also used scraps of the vintage prints to decoupage the centerpiece pots that we purchased at the thrift store. I arranged some gerbera daisies in the pots and added more pendant flags to add to the baseball theme. Then we added mason jars full of peanuts and licorice to complete the tables. My mom tied the pendant flags into the cupcakes by making miniature ones out of toothpicks (nicely done Mom!).

It was a whole week's worth of crafting, but it was so fun and so worth it! Congrats Brian!

The invitation. I photoshopped over an old baseball ticket...












My sister is quite the baker and she made these adorable baseball bat and ball cookies as a party favor...


www.BrittanyStiles.com

Succulent Wedding Bouquets

I love weddings! My good friend Bethany got married today and I was so happy to make her bridal bouquets for her. Bethany and her groom, Taylor, have a funky/vintage/hipster style so I wasn't too surprised when she requested succulent bouquets instead of traditional flowers. I wasn't super familiar with succulents or how exactly I was going to make them into bouquets, but I was up to the challenge. Here are my potted succulents, pre-bouquet construction...



It took me a minute to play around with the thick stems and see how the different types of succulents worked together, but my favorite part was that the succulents weren't perfect or symetrical, which created kind of wild-looking bouquets. Soon enough, I had the bride's bouquet finished along with 6 bridesmaids' bouquets. Here are some quick photos I took today, but I can't wait to see and share the professional photos from their big day.





I loved making these bouquets for darling Bethany. She's such an amazing girl and I am so happy for her and Taylor, not to mention they throw a killer wedding, I had so much fun! Thanks for letting me share this day with you two! xoxo

Wedding Flowers

This weekend my mom, sister, and I headed over to Arizona for my mom's best friend's wedding. We had a great time and it was a simple but very pretty ceremony in her friend's backyard. The bride had told me a few weeks ago that she was going to order some white roses but wanted me to arrange them in vases for the center pieces. Even though all we used was white roses, I loved the beautiful simplicity and sophistication of the arrangments. Sometimes less is more.

My Best Friend's Wedding

The highlight of my summer was my sister's wedding. As previously mentioned I dubbed myself wedding planner and I loved every minute of helping my sister plan. I tried to be there for every step of the planning process...cake design, table design, favor design, floral design, dress design, ottoman design, reception layout, and of course, food tasting and selection. It was a bit difficult participating in all of the wedding hoopla (greeting guests, rehearsal dinner, etc.) and also making sure everything was perfect for the big day, but I had the time of my life and wouldn't have changed a thing, and hopefully my sister feels the same way.

Knowing that doing all of the flowers the day before the wedding would be a big undertaking, Melissa (the bride) kept checking with me to make sure that I didn't want her to hire a florist to do the flowers. Biting off more than I can chew is my specialty, so hiring a different florist was out of the question. As always, I couldn't have done it without the help of my dad, and this time my brothers even stepped in (thanks boys!). 6 bouquets, 18 centerpieces, 6 ottomans, and 160 favors later...here are some photos of Mel and Brian's happy day. Congrats guys!

Most of the photos are by the super talented Mike Cunningham of the Digital Orange, see all of his photos here.

Mel and Brian at the head table.

I love my sisters.

Cake designed to match the wedding announcement.

Gift boxes. Cute paper for a reasonable price in the right color and style is hard to find. So we used wallpaper.

Table setting.

My growing family.

Happy marriage sister!

A Bridal Shower

Yesterday I threw a breakfast bridal shower for my sister Melissa. I've never done a bridal shower before, but I quite enjoyed myself. My mom is an awesome cook so she took care of the food, and I was in charge of decor (of course) and activities. It was so much fun planning and putting everything together. I even thought that perhaps I would trade in interior design for event planning, or at least add it to my list of services offered.

My dad, handyman extroidenaire, helped me hang the lanterns (purchased from Asian Ideas - best price on paper lanterns I found) and he also decorated the chocolate cookies on the tables. Each cookie is uniquely designed, I guess I know where my creative side comes from. My mom's food was amazing and even though she is always second guessing herself, everyone is always impressed with her cooking.

For the table decorations I purchased the paper and favor boxes from Paper Source and bought the flowers from Orange County Wholesale Flowers to create the arrangments. And for a special occassion such as this, I had to break out grandma's real silverware...perfect for my english garden theme.

Special thanks to Ali, Wendy, and Marci for letting me use their adorable backyard, my parents for all their hard work, and Paul for helping me with the favor boxes.

A Furbish Theory Wedding (of sorts)

I've tried, unsuccessfully, for many years to convince someone to let me plan their wedding. Finally my time has come. My sister Melissa is getting married at the end of June and as the maid of honor, I have taken it upon myself to be maid of honor/wedding planner. After all, designing a house is just like designing a wedding (at least that's what I'm telling myself and everyone else around me).

Melissa was trying to decide between green or yellow. I pushed her to yellow, without really realizing that the wedding is going to match the new look of The Furbish Theory. Subsequently, I decided that's a good enough reason to post wedding updates on The Furbish Theory blog.

Here are some things in the works so far. I'll be updating our progress as we go along.

Letterpressed invitations from Bella Figura

Bridesmaid dress from Anthropologie

L.A.M.B. bridesmaid heels. Amazing.