Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I’m a San Francisco native but I spent much of the last seven years living in Manhattan.  Before moving to New York, I graduated from Cal and then went on to FIDM. I have a background in fashion merchandising, having worked for Ralph Lauren. Most recently, I was planning corporate events for HSBC before deciding to start Coquette Events.

I’ve been married to my amazing husband for the past two and a half years and we recently welcomed daughter Kayla who is seven months old.  Some lesser known facts about me are that I love the color red, I love to eat spicy food and I am an expert at tying pretty bows!

How did you get into the wedding industry?

At the time, my full time job had a lot of event management and organizing functions which gave me a lot of insight and experience planning large scale functions.  In 2009 I took on the HUGE task of planning my own wedding and it was at that point that I realized my passion for the wedding industry and wanted nothing more than to continue working with couples on one of the most special days of their life!

Coquette Events recently joined Blu Bungalow as one of their event planners, how has your experience been so far?

Blu Bungalow provides Coquette Events with a great sense of community and has allowed me to work with many talented vendors that I hadn’t worked with in the past.  The Blu Bungalow space is beautiful and provides for the perfect atmosphere for meeting with my clients (of course they enjoy the freely flowing bubbly!).

As a member of Blu Bungalow, I’ve also had many opportunities to attend industry events and network with others.  Hazel, the owner of Blu Bungalow is also a great resource!

How can Coquette Event brides utilize Blu Bungalow?

The Blu Bungalow space itself is a great resource for brides.  There they can meet with their vendors, review portfolios, have their hair and makeup trial or even host their own bridal shower!

The Blu Bungalow space hosts workshops.  What types of workshops are you planning to offer down the line?

People love to drink at weddings and I’ll be helping couples to create the perfect signature drink at my Signature Cocktails Workshop.  There will be lots of fun details and information on how to dress up your drink and of course sampling drinks in the class is a must!

What is Blu Bungalow?
Blu Bungalow is an event planning studio that offers party and event planners a place to work together with brides to put together the event of their dreams.  Blu Bungalow works with a select group of vendors including event planners, photographers, caterers, florists, DJs, rentals, beauty, videography and bakers and provides a one stop shop experience for both brides and vendors to utilize in putting together the perfect event.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.
While working a full time job I started planning events for my friends on the side.  I knew that I really enjoyed event planning but at the time, I wasn’t ready to give up my full time job.  Planning events on the side put me in contact with some amazing wedding vendors.  I knew that there had to be something else – a niche to fill in the wedding industry where I could continue to work with brides and my favorite wedding vendors at the same time.  I heard about the concept of a wedding co-op studio about three years ago and found that there was nothing comparable in the Bay Area.  After much research, I decided that was what I would pursue and soon after, I opened the doors to Blu Bungalow in our Union Street, Cow Hollow location.

Tell us about your in store events:
We have workshops that help with the event planning process including useful how to’s like: how to create your own floral bouquets, how to emboss invitations or how to suit up your groom.  We even offer bridal boot camps!  Brides can use the space for engagement parties and bridal showers at a reasonable rental fee.  It’s intimate, private and of course, they can use our vendors to create the perfect event!  Brides are also able to rent the space and work on wedding crafting projects in our Crafts Corner.

Learn more about Blu Bungalow events HERE

How can brides utilize Blu Bungalow?
Oftentimes, brides will come in to the space and we will guide them through their planning timeline – from securing a venue to selecting a photographer, we can walk them through the entire process.  I try to help brides understand the planning timeline and how to navigate their wedding budget and the Blu Bungalow space provides for a great location for brides to meet with their vendors in one location.

How can vendors utilize Blu Bungalow?
There are three main reasons to become a member of Blu Bungalow as a vendor:

1. Blu Bungalow provides exposure to the traffic that comes in through the space.  We get a lot of walk in brides and this gives the vendors exposure and oftentimes our vendors work together on weddings.
2. Blu Bungalow provides for an ideal meeting space that is convenient and the management of the space is done for them
3. Blu Bungalow provides a sense of community.  Many of our members will come to the space and hang out, talk about current projects and collaborate with one another.

You recently hit your first anniversary, what has changed since the opening?
I’ve realized that you’ve got to stay true to your original business plan and what the intent was.  There are a lot of opportunities that can derail you from focusing on your craft.  You learn how to say no in order to provide great service to both brides and vendors.

To learn more about Blu Bungalow please visit: www.blubungalow.com

Now that you’ve got the flowers for Mom, wake her up on Mother’s Day to the sweet smell of homemade pancakes.

All Moms want some time to sleep in, relax and enjoy time with their family so why not let her snooze a bit and make her breakfast?  With a few simple ingredients that you likely already have in the home you can whip up THESE homemade pancakes!  Make the morning special by serving her breakfast in bed!

Fun Tip: You can easily turn a cookie sheet into a serving tray by covering it with a clean dishtowel!

Material Needed:
Pancakes: Flour, Baking Powder, Salt, Sugar, Milk, Butter, Syrup
Breakfast in Bed: Baking Sheet, Dish Towel

Don’t forget to clean up after yourself!   Happy Mother’s Day to you and yours!

So this week on the blog, we are focusing on you: Dad’s, brothers, husbands….MEN (ladies please feel free to send this post to the men in your lives to help clue them in)!

We’ve put together a very simple DIY to take a single bouquet of store bought flowers and turn them into multiple beautiful bouquets of flowers for the mothers in your life.

How To:

Purchase an assorted bouquet of flowers from the grocery store.  Discard all plastic wrapping.Pull off the loose leaves below the bud of the flower.Group your flowers together assorting to color.Look around the house for vases; it’s likely that they’ll be quite an assortment laying around.  If you can’t find anything, feel free to use drinking glasses, empty beer or wine bottles!

Start assorting the flowers in the vases.  Trim down the stems if they are too long and arrange the flowers loosely.

We are pretty certain that mom will approve!

Easy and comfy maxi dress and a graphic bubble dress, both by Ella Moss

Delightful dishes from Etsy

A preppy graphic cake paired with a sweet, frilly one

Sweet, yet bold invites for a baby shower or wedding

Very fun wallpaper for a nursery

Gorgeous tablescapes that mix soft prettiness with the bold print

DIY chevron art that I can’t wait to try!

After going through a few different shower themes, I decided on “Made In NY” as a way to celebrate our life in the Big Apple.

We worked with Silly Me Design to incorporate fun language into the invites and encouraged guests to dress New York city style. Tables were dressed with fresh pink dahlias – my favorite!

Let’s skip to dessert, since that’s my favorite part. We had our pink and white rendition of the classic black and white cookie. Perfectly decorated sugar cookies from Dream Cakes by Maggie. She was even able to copy the apple logo from the invite! Apple shaped cakepops from Lollicakes and the best strawberry filled cupcakes from Kara’s Cupcakes. YUM!

The New York inspired lunch menu included pastrami sandwiches, mini sliders, pulled pork, mini bagels and apple shaped pizza bites! Guests were offered their choice of spiked or unspiked raspberry lemonade and fun printed straws.

Inspired by NYC street vendors, we set up an activity station that allowed guests to decorate onesies for Baby and to make their own charm necklaces to take home. Corinne and I had our own DIY project and covered mini apples with lots of pink glitter. The apple tree and New York prints by Tomoko Maruyama are now in Baby’s nursery.

I loved my shower and hope you enjoyed the details as well. Big thanks to Vero Suh Photography for capturing the special day.

Coquettishly yours,

Andrea

Mommy J told us that her husband and his family LOVE basketball but anytime she has tried to pull together a basketball themed event it would inevitably lead her to a mix of orange cups and outdated printed paper plates, not really her style. We pitched a concept to integrate basketballs into a more crisp and youthful look, she believed in us, and we couldn’t be more pleased with the results!

Starting with the invites, we wanted something that read baby but clearly defined the theme of the party. We mixed baby blue argyle, polka dots, and basketballs into a cohesive look. Casual, modern, and sporty.

We loved the look of the invite and carried it through to the party. The colors kept everything baby friendly. To expand on the basketball theme, the food station was set up to evoke the feeling of a concession stand. We served macaroni salad, fried chicken, noodles, and chili in takeout containers, each with stickers to identify the item. We set up a hotdog station with all the works, with the help of Lucky Dogs SF.

What birthday party is complete without dessert?  We did a fun dessert display with delicious cupcakes and cookie sandwiches from Love Bites Bakeshop and cupcake toppers and cake pops from Dream Cakes by Maggie. Maggie also provided custom sugar cookies, including Nike Air Jordans inspired by Daddy’s favorite shoe. The smash cake featured a fondant topper that matched Todd’s birthday invites. A basketball textured background grounded the adorable birthday banner and we decorated a high chair just for birthday cupcake smashing.

We showcased photos of Baby Todd’s first year milestones, appropriately called “Todd’s First Year Highlights.” Here is the little man showing off his basketball skills.

Guests had their choice of two party favors: basketball stress balls or caramel corn.

Happy Birthday to a very special little boy and thank you for letting us be part of the celebration. We can’t wait to see his first jump shot!

{All photos taken by Greg Ma}

Sneak peek at the custom banner from our wildly successful 1st birthday party on Saturday. Can you guess the theme based on the decor?

Source

What a fabulously Coquettish year it’s been for us here at Coquette Events. We’ve been fortunate enough to work with some of the most amazing clients — from happily in love brides and grooms, to Hello Kitty crazed toddlers, to adults celebrating some important milestones. We’ve also learned a thing or two from some extremely talented vendors and also began building what we hope to be long lasting relationships. We were so thrilled when we received the Bride’s Choice Award for 2011 from Wedding Wire. We love what we do and we’re glad that our clients recognize it!

So cheers to a wildly successful first year and to many many more!!