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July 2016

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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.

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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!