Part 3 - Playbills and Other Souvenirs!

So in my last post I talked about all the surprises we had for the Birthday Girl, for todays post I am going to talk about where we stayed and the "Loot" that Guests were sent home with! It was a weekend packed full of things that I knew Heather would enjoy and that all the guests would have fun doing as well. This might be a long post so I'll wait a minute while you get a cuppa.....
Already? Here we go!
Friday started off by picking up a few of the Guests so we could car pool to Stratford. Starting with the Birthday Girl, after having to arrange last minute daycare we were set to go, a little later than planned, but off we were!

Our destination was  The Swan Motel,

Check out this and other photos in their photo gallery

Our Hosts, Peter and Colleen Pola had been a delight to arrange the weekend with.  Absolutely LOVED this place and look forward to going back again! If you have a chance you should definetly check out their website, although they are now closed for the season, they will open again in May 2012. Colleen keeps a "Diary" of the performances at the Festival, and I think she manages to see just about every one that is on the schedule; it is a fun read and a great source for reviews if you're wondering if a production is suitable. Colleen was able to make wonderful suggestions about where to eat, what to visit, etc.

 I was able to arrange to have some "Welcome Boxes" in the rooms for when all the Guests arrived.

This box contained everything the Guest might need for our weekend of fun from chocolate and candy, to Sunglasses (hey we were hopeful!) and a Martini Glass complete with invite for everyone to join the Hosts for the weekend (that would be my sister Paula and I) , in their room for a toast to get the weekend started!

 

Teresa enjoying a Heather-Tini!

There was even a set of gloves for our High Tea! I also included a Camera for all the guest to use, that we were going to collect at the end of the weekend to use to create a special photo CD for everyone.
And since we were at Stratford, I thought it fitting to create our own "Play Bill" for Heather's HoopLa! I had filled it with all the wonderful things about Heather, I introduced the "Cast" including not only the "Star" (aka Birthday Girl), but also Mom, Dad, Husband, In-Laws the "Swing Cast" of wonderful friends and of course the "Director" my Neice. I also introduce her siblings including In-Laws, and special mention of Nephews +1 (My brother and his wife were expecting) as the "Crew". I set the rest up in "Acts", Act I-the "Early Years" covers her birth to Highschool. Act II is of her Teenage years, and Act III-V is all about the adult years; Being Independent, meeting and Marrying her Hubby, and starting a family. I was able to get the people that know her best to each write some wonderful memories and things that they have learned from Heather to add to this that really made it special, and I still like to read it every now and then! Of course I added as many photo's as I could cram in! One of my Favorites is of Heather, and was taken on her first day of school that I not only used for the cover of the book, but I also blew up and framed to go in the room where she stayed for the weekend!

As I am "quoted" in the reviews; "Good Times!" I'll end this post with a few more photo's that are in our "Playbill" that I just love!

My favorite of the "Four"

I've always been lucky to have my Sister beside me!

Fun on the swings!

Lucky to have these Sisters!

The Happy Couple on their Happy Day!

Bride, Groom and Great Friends!

Next up I will feature some great finds in Stratford!

Hoop-La Part 2

This is part 2 of a series of posts that I'm sharing details of a Girls Get Away weekend that was planned for my Sister's Birthday. In Part 1 I shared details of the invitation,in case you missed it;

Today it's all about the Surprise! We wanted the weekend to be full of surprises for the Birthday Girl, so it was decided that leading up to her very special weekend we would give clues. We arranged to have her receive something each week leading up to our departure, 4 in total; I wish that I had been able to get a picture of all the items she opened.
Her first was her "Invitation" that told her the dates, that she would be going away, and a list of items she would want to pack! She received her invite and list all wrapped up in a shoe box, with a pretty bow! I mentioned before about her love of SHOES, and so presenting it this way seemed perfect for her!

I love how excited she would get as she opened each clue!

Another Clue was a Martini Glass, we planned to have Martini's for everyone on the Friday night that we checked into the hotel, that way people could come and go as they wanted and have a chance to kick things off with the Birthday Girl! This of course required some R&D! Prior to the Get Away a panel of judges tasted  a Watermelon Martini, an Apple Martini, and a Lychee Martini. All were delish, but the Lychee won out with great Colour and Taste, to become our official "Heather-Tini"!

Her Clue to our fancy High Tea included a beautiful Chapeau, made by Meaghan at Le Petit Chapeau she makes works of art and if you have a chance you should go and check out her blog and web site! I Love how the Hat box was all dressed up with ribbon!

 Here is a picture of my sister in her beautiful Chapeau!

My photo's do not do justice to the beauty!

The hat was a clue to the High Tea that we had planned at the Fabulous "Langdon Hall", a gorgeous Inn, while it is a little pricey, it is definitely worth the splurge! There will be more on Langdon Hall in a later post, but if you have the time check out their website for sure!

She was so excited each and every time we announced that it was time for another clue. It was such fun keeping all the details a "secret" from her and letting her enjoy the surprises as they unfolded!

Stay tuned for more details of this wonderful Girls Get Away!

Shoes, Birthday Hoop-La and My "AHa" Shin-Dig!

Along with my parents I have always had the love and support of my Siblings, something that I truly cherish and LOVE to CELEBRATE! For those who know me, know I am the youngest of four. With two older sister's and an older brother. I am very fortunate that we are still so close as adults, and while we may not always be able to share as much time together as we would all like, with our own families and work schedules to deal with, we all still love a good SHIN-DIG! My sisters both share November as their Birthday Month, and last year my sister, Heather, celebrated an important Birthday! And so I planned a spectacular Hoop-La to celebrate her as Our Queen Bee! I was very honoured to be able to plan all the details for her and with this celebration still very much in mind I decided to share it with you. There is so much of this Event I want to share I'm going to split it up into a series of posts. Today it's all about the INVITE!

It was done as a surprise of sorts, the Birthday Girl was aware of the time and dates, but had no idea what we were up to. It took a while to sort out all the details (Which I will share in coming posts) of a Girls Get Away Weekend to Stratford, Ontario, but after many phone calls and emails each one was planned, from brunches and tours, to dinner and spectacular theatre show, topped off with a Fancy High Tea! It struck me that this needed to be a very girlie inspired Soiree and with that in mind I went with as Girlie colour scheme as I could, with pink's and purple's, accented with a punch of bright green! I created a simple invitation; one side had a wonderful photo of Heather at her first Birthday, the other side held the details of dates and times. We wrapped it in a delightful ribbon that was held together with a themed button (some invites had a shoe detail, others a martini glass).

 I also included a "Save the Date" magnet, that had a sparkly shoe detail, and a quote Our Mother always shared. As well as an itinery card that detailed all the plans for those invited. I realised that not everyone would be able to join us for the entire weekend, but would still want to celebrate Heather, so they were encouraged to find a spot that they could find the party!

After much consderation, it was decided to wrap the whole "Kit and Caboodle" up in a shoe box, as a nod to my sisters LOVE (which she is famous for!) of Footwear, and hand deliver as many as could be. These were then wrapped in colourful paper and tied with ribbon and bow.

It was so much fun to plan this celebration and it was after this that I seriously considered turning my passion for throwing Shin-Digs into a career, and I began to look at how it would fit in with my family. This journey could not be possible without my family and I'm truly grateful to be a Leaf on such a Great Tree!  With that HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEATHER!

I look forward to sharing more details of our Girls Get Away tomorrow!