I’m so excited to finally share the details {& free party printables!} with you from the editor’s brunch that I styled & co-hosted earlier this month with Arbor Mist in NYC! Between the lush “Rooftop Garden” location at the Gramercy Park Hotel and the vibrant colors in the party decor, it really felt like a warm spring day during the party, despite the fact that it was actually February 4th in a very wintry New York City!

The theme of the event was inspired by 2 of the fruit enhanced wines from Arbor Mist that guests would be tasting at brunch – White Pear Pinot Grigio and Blackberry Merlot – and also by their fun “Up for Anything” tag line. I focused on a blackberry & green color palette with accents of fruit, and designed a suite of paper party elements to match that includes everything from invitations and drink tags to napkin rings, menus, favor tags, and more. Here’s a peek at how it all turned out…

While the there’s a lot going on with the decor overall, it was important to me to keep the ideas very approachable – just like Arbor Mist is approachable when it comes to entertaining. You just open, serve & enjoy… no fancy ingredients to worry about or mixing/shaking/muddling required!

If you look at the decor elements individually, you’ll probably notice that they’re relatively simple: pocket-fold napkins embellished with paper wraps, clusters of bud vases surrounding grapewood for the table centerpieces, pears adorned with glitter, paper lanterns embellished with ribbon, flowers in suspended test tube vases, etc…

There are 4 different napkin ring and place card designs so you can essentially create 4 complete place setting looks, as well as 16 different “Stem Tag” designs. (Find links to download everything at the bottom of this post.)

Here’s what was ON THE MENU for brunch:
Starter: Family Style Sliced Fruit paired with White Pear Pinot; First Course:Mixed Green Salad with Sliced Pear paired with White Pear Pinot; Second Course: Artichoke, Spinach, and Potato Frittata with Pecorino Cheese OR Brioche French Toast with Mixed Berries both paired with Sangria Zinfandel; Third Course: Chocolate Blackberry Torte with Blackberry Sorbet paired with Blackberry Merlot. YUM!

The florals were designed by Alana of Mixed Greens Event Design, and I honestly can’t say enough great things about her! Not only was she super sweet & easy to work with, she even took me around the NYC floral mart the day before so that I could see what she’d flagged for the party and also pick out any additional flowers that looked especially exciting.

We even found bunches of blackberries (so perfect for the theme!) to sprinkle throughout the space. Here they are displayed in an oversize wine glass “vase” and surrounded by some seriously gorgeous cymbidiums:

This giant manzanita tree was adorned with beautiful purple & green flowers and surrounded by grapewood and moss pebbles at the base. It served as a lovely “divider” between the brunch tables and DIY party decor area…

Pictured above are a few of the DIY demo ideas, including: wine glasses decorated with Round Party Tags, Felt Flowers, & Rhinestones; monochromatic bunches of flowers displayed in inexpensive wood boxes (the rectangular wood box is also embellished with a rhinestone word sticker that reads “fabulous”), a bottle of White Pear Pinot Grigio embellished with a printable Bottle Label, and more…

Two tables were lined up with wine glasses and crafting supplies so that guests could “garnish” a couple wine glasses to their liking to take home! Click here to download a PDF of the different wine glass decorating ideas.

Here’s a shot of me, Leslie, Bridget, and Alicia in crafting mode ourselves after the party was over and we could relax for a while…. I think Alicia is pretty happy with how her felt flower “garnish” turned out! =)

A few more fun DIY decor ideas: monochromatic bunches of tulips displayed in oversize wine glasses…

…paper lanterns embellished with satin ribbon…

…and giant cardboard letters from Kate’s Paperie covered in glitter! (same method used for the pears: spray adhesive + craft glitter.)

Last but not least, we wanted to send guests home with a little thank you for coming. The gift bag included more wine glasses, a bottle of Arbor Mist, and a mason jar filled with blackberry & pear candy and decorated with a printable Favor Tag & paper circle (on the lid). The reusable silver tote bags were embellished with satin ribbon and little “designer pear” cutouts, which are also part of the free printables!

THANKS AGAIN to Arbor Mist for generously hosting this fun event… and also for being pretty much “Up for Anything” with the creative details! Check out more info on Arbor Mist’s portfolio of 12 wine with fruit flavors at arbormist.com or over at their facebook community.

*****

A preview of just a few of the printables: