mary ann turns 50 - lilly pulitzer themed party!

last friday night was my stepmom's 50th birthday bash! oh what a night! we have been talking about doing this party for years now, and in a funny turn of events, we ended up having the party at the venue where i work. so it was a little bit stressful planning a monumental party at my place of business for my stepmom, and inviting pretty much everyone i know. i couldn't have asked for a more perfect evening!

if you know my stepmom, you know she is a walking ad for lilly pulitzer. so when we were coming up with the theme of the party, it wasn't a hard decision. my stepmom is one of the kindest, most beautiful souls i know, and we had about 130 people show up to celebrate her birthday. you know you're doing something right when that many people want to celebrate with you. i hope it was a night she will cherish forever!

i will let the beautiful pictures & captions do the rest of the talking. all photographs taken by the amazing love shutter photography - i am still drooling over how beautiful these turned out!

{the invites}

 

 

 

 

 

happy birthday mary ann :)

 

a huge shout out to all the vendors that helped make this night possible. i'm so lucky to work in an industry with so many talented people who make my job easy. thank you for helping to create such a beautiful evening for my family & friends! also, to my staff, you're incredible. thank you for being so professional and fun-loving, i appreciate y'all on a daily basis but was so proud of y'all on friday. lastly, thank you to my daddy for giving me the reigns on this. it was an important evening - thank you for trusting me enough to be "the boss." thank you for loving your beautiful wife & our family so much everyday. i love you!

 

venue: the duke mansion

photographers: love shutter

linens: party reflections & classic party rentals

cupcake stand: party reflections

florals/table décor: lynette with the bloom room

band: hot sauce

cupcakes: tizzerts

white couches: AFR

 

la-tea-da's & sterling events spring collection: mint museum

last night our sales & events team headed over to the mint museum for la-tea-da's & sterling events spring collection showcase. we get invited to a lot of networking events because of the industry we work in, and they're always fabulous & over the top. this was no different!

 

i have lived in charlotte for almost all my life and somehow had never been to the mint museum, so that in itself was a treat. the mint was the original branch of the united states mint - pretty cool!

 

upon arrival, they had a clear top tent, awesome lounge furniture, and a silver bar set up outside. once we checked in, we each got an envelope with an invite to a tasting time. ours was at 7:15pm, so we grabbed a few delicious hors d'oeuvres before making our way to the tasting room. my favorite small bites were the mini pimento cheese cones & the teriyaki shrimp skewers wrapped in pina colada cotton candy!

 

once inside the tasting room, they offered us drinks and started our three-course tasting. first up at our table was the surf n' turf macaroni & cheese: pimento cheese macaroni cheese topped with pulled pork bbq & pickled okra // lobster macaroni cheese.

 

 

{LOVED the pimento & bbq. the okra was also delicious!}

 

next up was the sweet tea chicken: peach tea & ginger infused chicken with a gingersnap dust. served with couscous & a sweet potato biscuit with peach chutney.

 

 

{the chicken was AMAZING}

 

our last course was the southern duet: marinated kale & pickled vegetable salad with carolina shrimp & grits skillet.

 

 

{can't ever go wrong with s&g}

 

by the time we finished up our tasting, we found a few more stations we wanted to try & then hung around while they raffled off cakes from some of charlotte's finest cake makers. and of course we couldn't leave without hitting up shutterbooth...

 

i was super impressed with la-tea-da's & the taste, style & presentation of all their food. if you're looking for a caterer in charlotte, i definitely recommend la-tea-da's!