Nostalgic Summer Soiree

This past weekend we had a little gathering to celebrate the blessing of our baby girl. I wanted to do a few fun accents and decided I should try to use some of the leftover party supplies I'd acquired over the years. I had these darling pastel pinwheels to use for cupcake toppers and thought that would be a great place to start. Since it was the first week of June, I started thinking of Summer ideas too. I thought of all the things we love about summer-- country fairs, fresh fruit, hot air balloon festivals, parades, etc. I decided a nostalgic look of pinwheels, hot air balloons, pennant flags and such in a pretty, soft pastel palette would be perfect. I incorporated some soft blue & aqua tones to keep there from being too much pink. I also used some soft butter yellow & cream tones too.Since we did a morning gathering at the park, I decided to do a brunch menu. We served cinnamon rolls, orange rolls, blueberry rolls, raspberry rolls, breakfast casseroles and fruit. Oh and of course I couldn't resist a plethora of fruit-infused cupcakes! These little gems by Sugar High Bakery were simply delightful. Jen was so fabulous to work with and she's awesome at taking any ideas you put out there and making them even better. Can you believe the darling little hot air balloons she made? And edible glitter? Yes, please! Plus, the flavors of these little beauties will make your mouth water... peaches and cream (with real peaches inside), strawberry, and banana. So yummy. And the mini cupcakes were perfect for the little ones.For drinks we did orange juice, lemonade & blue coconut soda (mostly because I was in love with the color of it!). I used some basic round scrapbooking tags and stamped them with a heart stamp I created with my sweet baby girls name. I used a few different shades of ink to give a soft, watercolor look and to add some dimension to the color scheme. Then the tags were tied with cream ribbon around square plastic bottles (extras that I had left over from my son's 1st birthday party). And I also had some extra stripey straws from various other parties that worked great to stick in the drink bottles-- always a fun way to add some color!It turned out to be a sweet little brunch that captured a bit of the simple little things we love about summer-- like an afternoon at the fair, pinwheels spinning in the breeze and sipping lemonade through striped straws! Summer is officially here and we sure hope you're enjoying it.