Cocktail + Party

Hello! C’est Moi. Did you think I was stuck under something heavy? After a long summer of travel and fun I’m back to the bad ass world of blogging. I might be a little rusty, but but here we go…

My favorite parties are intimate, but loaded with thoughtful details, good food, drink and flowers that all come together to make for a special celebrations that feel anything but small.

What’s even more fun? To work together to create a special event. I helped one of my best friends, Tracy, host a party for her birthday this summer, celebrating an undisclosed age. On the Val list of duties for the night – coconut cake, invites, table and flowers.

We didn’t want to deal with multiple tables and deciding who would sit at each one. Instead, we sandwiched three tables together, placing a narrow runner down the whole shebang to create a tidy landing place for the flowers and candles. This way we didn’t have overlap with runner and plates, a pet peeve of mine – why are runners normally so wide anyway?

The color inspiration for the  flowers came from the invitation. This is a no-fail way to create an easy color palette, it makes decisions for you and allows for a color story from beginning to end. Below is an up close shot of the floral mix; peonies, dahlias, chocolate scented geraniums and passion fruit vine for a little whimsy.

For dinner, Tracy’s Peruvian friend Erika, a personal chef in Santa Barbara, served up such amazing food. One of her biggest hits of the evening was the most lip-smacking, delicious Pisco Sour Cocktail. A Peruvian classic, Pisco is made by distilling fermented grape juice. It’s similar to a brandy. I’ve been begging Erika for the recipe for years and today she was nice enough to share the recipe with us.

At the party, our talented bartender Amy made a stencil in the shape of a T for Tracy. With a retrofitted spray nozzle on the bottle of bitters, she sprayed a T to finish the drinks and it was fabulous!

SB note: Erika Petote /personal chef/ 805-636-0185

Cheers to great cocktails and friends! Or should that be friends and cocktails? Your choice, but Tracy if you’re reading this you definitely come first.