While my friends jump for joy at the sight of a photo booth, I secretly yawn. As an event planner who regularly attends industry tradeshows, and keeps up with the latest and greatest through BizBash and event planning blogs, I usually feel I’ve seen it all.
One of my favorites is shown above from Smilebooth where you can click and record your own photo all with a remote control and a custom backdrop. Then there are those that you can record videos in, there are those that you can print from and share through social networks, and there are photo booths that allow you to choose from a computerized selection of various backdrops like the ones popular in Japan.
The Japanese ones are so high-tech that you can digitally add accessories, words, frames and other endless graphics to your previewed photo.
In Japan, these booths were so popular, you’d often find an entire room filled with them.
Besides seeing these photo booths at weddings, industry tradeshows and on exotic Asian trips, I run into them through my online readings of event blogs. One kind of photo opp that stands out to me as something I’d want to incorporate in the future are these interactive photo boards made up of a collection of frames (which you know I love).
Pick your favorite wallpaper, match it to your color scheme or party theme, add a collection of frames with cutouts for people to poke their heads through and voila you have an interactive photo wall!
Add your own framed photos to make it seem like a more genuine wall of frames and you have a creative way to display those parent’s wedding photos and your engagement shots.
One of these days, I vow to have one of these fun photo opps at my event!
Has anyone attended a party with one of these unique takes on the photo booth?
With October being breast cancer awareness month, pink party planning is in full force! Here are the pink themed events that I’ve been working on:
- Anzie jewelry trunk show with personal appearance featuring pink jewels, pink champagne and bracelets that donate sales proceeds to cancer research
- a pink-themed brunch for American Cancer Society volunteers
- an evening cancer charity event with a personal appearance and trunk show with jewelry master, Tito Pedrini
- 4days of Key to the Cure events
Here were some of my dessert table inspiration pictures to get me geared up for the month.
And I’m loving these pink ribbon dessert finds. Lollipops. Cupcakes. pink ribbon sprinkles and Oreo covered cookies. You’ve gotta love the pink fashionable goodies – they’re perfect for retail events!
For more on pink dessert tables see my previous post.
I just bought myself my very first pre-loved bag through Avelle, otherwise known as Bag Borrow or Steal. It’s a bold, black and white striped Chanel bag with the iconic chain strap. And I absolutely adore it!
Here, I’m wearing a Forever 21 blouse, puff-sleeve black cardigan from H&M, Aldo shoes and a skirt from a Korean boutique. I love the black and white top. It’s very Chanel-inspired.
Trench coat shown below is by Sinclaire, an exclusive designer to Saks.
I love pairing black and white. Here’s another recent outfit.
dress and blazer – H&M, shoes - Vivayou ,purse – Chanel
Can you believe I bought this dress for only $15?
Pictured above is an outfit I wore this past spring (weekend brunch):
- striped blazer – H&M
- lace tank – Forever 21
- ruffled skirt – SP (bought at Daffy’s)
- patent leather purse – Express
- wedges – Temptation
When you’re lucky enough to have your interests and work collide you become obsessed like me. I voluntarily work 10hour days, sometimes up to 12 if there’s a special event, then I come home to read my fashion news all the while highlighting pertinent news to share with my team, catch up on my favorite event planning and fashion blogs, dream up new event title ideas as I flip through fashion mags and catalogs, and find future event promotional ideas through my spam mail. And much to the dismay of everyone around me, my work’s to do list is constantly running through my head. “Revise local business development plan. Contact country club to confirm the height of the ceiling. Setup operations meeting for shopping gala. Find sponsors. Write up press release announcing all exclusives.” It’s endless and so are the sticky notes around me. By the time I do get to bed, I find myself dreaming about something work-related. I’m serious. And I’m seriously obsessed.
Besides getting to be passionate about what I do, I have a lot of perks as well. Firstly, there’s the shopping discount (which I’ve totally abused thus far). Secondly, there are the fashion previews. I love being one of the first to see and hear all the latest and greatest coming down the pipeline. I love visiting designer showrooms and partnering with each brand in their marketing efforts. Thirdly, I get to try out beauty products as they come in! At my last meeting, I was told I needed to try out the highly acclaimed, Cle De Peau Synactif facial. “Ok if you insist…” (as I try to hide my cheshire smile) And when I get told by higher-ups that I need to do my competitive research i.e. check out the mall and the competitive retailers, I can hardly hold in my delight as I oblige.
To top it off, finally, my fashion fixation makes me look smart, not airheaded lol. “See mom, all that fashion knowledge was NOT useless!” Those frivolous topics that you hated my brain being filled with are the exact topics that make me seem genius at work!
Sometimes it’s the accessories that make the outfit. And for those of us who want to update our look without breaking the bank, accessories are the way to go. I recently bought a statement necklace at Forever 21 that I last wrote about and here I’ll share my other new necklace purchases.
I found this great fringe necklace at Bloomingdales during the friends and family sale. I fell in love with it because it was the perfect mixture of classic (the pearls) and cool (the edgy chains). It retailed for $86 but somehow I nearly stole it for $16 after finding it in the clearance bin. Here, I’m pairing the necklace with fall’s trends. I’ve got a faux LEATHER jacket (Forever 21), LACE vintage sheath dress, and MILITARY inspired tote bag (Aldo). The boots are suede with a knit trim detail from Aquatalia ( I think I purchased it at off 5th?) The bracelet is from Express.
My 2nd Forever 21 jewelry pickup was this pretty piece also worn in this work wear post.
In the above pic, I’m wearing a Forever 21 jacket (which often gets mistaken for Chanel, hilarious I know), a striped tank tee from Target and navy skinny jeans from Forever 21. The outfit costed a mere $45. The Celine boots were free from my stylist friend at Bloomies and the Fendi tote, well, that wasn’t $45. The ring was from off 5th, the headband -can’t remember and the necklace was Forever 21. See, you don’t have to be 21 to wear Forever 21.
I wore this outfit to work and got so many compliments on my necklace. People kept asking me if I had just bought it at our last jewelry trunk show.
That’s when I sort of had to giggle to myself as I meekly responded with a mysterious “no…” I didn’t want to disappoint and seem like a traitor by having shopped elsewhere so I kept my un-lipstick-ed mouth shut. But by the third time that I was asked, I couldn’t keep the cheap secret to myself and found myself whispering “Forever 21″ to a shocked colleague. I loved the expression on her face so much that I felt compelled to continue whispering, “It was only around 20 dollars” (while covering my hand over my mouth as if I were releasing top secret information).
I love mixing high and low brands! I think it’s all about how you mix it up and style it up. The rest of the outfit includes:
- Zara blazer (around $49)
- ruffle tee shirt from TJ Maxx (around $20)
- jean skirt by Brooklyn Industries (bought on sale for only $15)
- leather and fur boots by In & Out (yea like the burger)
- designer purse that I brought to work not pictured here
David Tutera, a celebrity event planner who I’ve had the pleasure of working with, announced Oheka Castle as America’s best wedding venue. Given he has seen the best from around the world, I’d trust his word on it. Recently I had the chance to visit the venue again and re-live why I (and I bet David too), can’t stop the princess wedding fantasy from overtaking me as I gaze upon the grandeur that is Oheka Castle . It’s America’s 2nd largest mansion and sits between Manhattan and the Hamptons and in one word it is simply glamorous.
Check out these venue shots also featuring my fashionista friend, Sarah. Isn’t she a doll?
Some of you may remember that Oheka Castle is where one of the Jonas brothers got married.
Perhaps the most stunning part of the venue is the perfectly manicured garden shown above. So French. So chic!
I was just there for an event planner and bridal event where I got to ooh and aah at all the vendor creations. Here are some of my favorites from the day!
If you loved the mansion, you will love the replica in cake form! Isn’t this amazing?
Below are my favorite floral centerpieces from the day. I love floral balls and chandelier elements.
The Chef was quite talented as you can see from the above cakes. The cakes were so pretty I forgot to even care whether they tasted any good. My favorite is pictured below -the metallic bow cake takes the cake!
If you look closely, the cake above actually has encrusted jewels which are appliques. Talk about glam!
If you haven’t already, don’t forget to enter my blog’s 2 giveaways right now! Enter to win a goody bag and enter to win a vintage dress!
I bought this crazy Miu Miu purse ages ago during a Barney’s Christmas clearance sale and ever since have affectionately called it my “puppy purse.” With the Mongolian hair sticking out from the sides, people always wonder whether I’ve got a poodle in there.
Usually, I refrain from using it unless I’m heading to a fashion-oriented event like fashion week or a NY art party where my puppy purse works as a conversational piece and where people don’t think I’m entirely insane for carrying such a freak show of a purse. Now that I work in fashion, I don’t need any outlandish events to rationalize my purse choice. I can actually carry it to work!
Here I am in a couple outfits both utilizing the cardigan, sheath dress, necklace and belt combo while carrying the infamous puppy purse.
- purse – miu miu
- sleeveless brown dress – Ann Taylor
- cardigan – Express
- shoes – lovely people
- gold chain necklace
- ring – bought at off 5th
dress – Escada (sample sale)- cardigan shoes – Fergie
- tote – Miu MIu (Barney’s sale)
This is today’s outfit. I tempered down a semi-formal dress with a more casual cardigan.
- dress – Bebe $50 (bought on sale)
- cardigan – Target around $20
- suede and alligator boots – Franco Sarto (got them for free on a modeling gig a long long time ago)
- necklace – Forever 21 $around 20
- ring – Off 5th $30
Do any of you have any fashion items that are too wild to wear on a normal day or even night out? If so, I wanna hear about it!
One of my favorite perks of having this blog is being sent products to review -especially when the products are fashion!
Crazyhotclothes.com recently sent me this vintage, caramel colored dress which they named “Dynasty.” I loved the sparkly shoulder accents (very Dynasty indeed!) and thought the color would look nice with my hair highlights. Anyone who reads my blog knows I’m a fan of vintage fashions so I was psyched about the Crazy Hot Clothes giveaway. The length however needed some adjustment. The bulky shoulder, long sleeve and long length combo just looked a little too dowdy and made me feel like I walked straight out of the pages of the old testament. Don’t I look like a glammed up Jesus groupie?
No worries though ‘cuz with a little styling magic, I can transform anything! The trick to wearing vintage is to avoid wearing vintage head to toe. Mix up vintage with trendier, current pieces to create a uniquely stylish look. I searched my wardrobe and found leather cutout ankle booties, hiked up the skirt which I temporarily held up in place with a vintage belt and carried a fun chain feather purse.
Jesus groupie to rock groupie! What do you think?
Fun party outfit, right? And now one of you lucky readers will receive this dress for free! Consider it the dress that keeps giving! Just leave a comment here about why you think you should win it!
Entrants must:
- be a current FabGabBlog.com subscriber and live in the U.S.
- be able to link a picture of them wearing the dress styled their own way back to my blog somehow (through their own blog, Facebook, twitter, chictopia, Lookbook, and/or any other online site!
- leave a comment about how they would promote the receipt of FabGab’s giveaway vintage dress (see above criteria).
- leave a comment about why they think they should win
Now go check out Crazy Hot Clothes for a fantastic collection of designer vintage fashions and accessories!
So is anyone else fascinated by the older girls’ version of “America’s Next Top Model,” otherwise known as “She’s Got the Look?” It’s the perfect eye candy to have on while I blog. So currently, it’s my DVR go – to while I write this entry.
Being that I’m another year older, I so appreciate this show’s focus on beauty through the years. Like Robert Verdi says, it “dispels the myth that beauty ends in the 20s.”
I love Robert Verdi! He’s such a fab fashionista. I’ve met him at Fashion Week as well as at a ABC Carpet event and he’s always a riot.
In Japan, these booths were so popular, you’d often find an entire room filled with them.
Besides seeing these photo booths at weddings, industry tradeshows and on exotic Asian trips, I run into them through my online readings of event blogs. One kind of photo opp that stands out to me as something I’d want to incorporate in the future are these interactive photo boards made up of a collection of frames (which you know I love).
Pick your favorite wallpaper, match it to your color scheme or party theme, add a collection of frames with cutouts for people to poke their heads through and voila you have an interactive photo wall!
Add your own framed photos to make it seem like a more genuine wall of frames and you have a creative way to display those parent’s wedding photos and your engagement shots.
One of these days, I vow to have one of these fun photo opps at my event!
