A new, but delightful idea captured my attention during an afternoon of pinning on Pinterest! "A Cookie Exchange Party"! After looking at tons of pins and images on google, I quickly realized that most Cookie Exchange Parties, were held during or right after the Holidays and most of them were more cozy, casual gatherings. So I decided it would be only fair to put a new spin on this party! Complete with glam, glitz and all! I took the traditional "Cookie Swap" idea and upgraded it to a "Cookie & Cocktail Soiree!"
I sent my invites about 3-4 weeks in advance. I used a company called Celebrations. You can always use Evite, which is a free service, but I really prefer Celebrations due to the selection, efficiency, ability to schedule updates and reminders for your event, and it also include a personalized thank you email to all your guests who attend, the day following your event. Here was my finalized emailed invite:
Next, I choose my colors for my event. I decided on gold, black & white with small touches of hot pink and tiffany blue for variety. Since both men and woman were on the guest lists, I wanted the colors to be celebratory and festive, yet not too overwhelming.
I designed the flower display on my own, flowers all from Michael's Arts & Crafts. ($50) I went with a solid black table cloth (Amazon for $20), and topped it with a black and white striped runner, that I bought from Etsy ($17). Most of the chargers and plates, ranged from solid gold to white porcelain. Gold napkins and plates we purchased from Michael's as well. ($4) We used gold star shaped confetti (Party City for $.69), which gave the table it's needed "Shimmer & Sparkle"!
We had each guest upon arrival, take a label and write the name of the cookie they brought. The labels were placed right in front of each cookie platter.
We served an array of appetizers, which I thought was a good idea, with all the sugar we were going to be indulging in! We had everything from goat cheese stuffed peppers, Caprese Salad bites, and Boursin cheese stuffed mushrooms!
I hung 2 white chinese lanterns (Z Gallerie $10 each) from our overhead lighting over our Island, which turned the whole atmosphere very chic and romantic.
Another main focus of our Soiree, was our cocktail bar! We served Freixenet Sparkling wine (bottles and labels are black and gold, perfect with our theme!), along with St.Germain's Liquor (GORGEOUS BOTTLE), and Chambord. The gold and white striped straws (brought from Amazon $6 for pack of 25) in the champagne flutes (Crate and Barrel, $12 ea.) were super fun and flirty! The Blackberries were a great garnish for the sparkling wine! I had an old mirror, which wasn't being used, and spray painted the frame metallic gold and used it as a tray for our cocktails and sparking wine. Looked like a million bucks, and didn't cost me anything but $6.00 for the spray paint.
We also served Oatmeal Cookie shots!
These went over extremely well with our guests!!
For the left over cookies, we had gold Chinese to go boxes for our guests,
so they could take their favorites home. They also made adorable favors!
(Papermart.com set of 24, $17 shipping included).
Every single person's cookies were incredible! Cookies ranged from
delightful Ricotta Orange Zest Cookies, to sweet Mexican Wedding Cookies,
and fresh Toffee-Chocolate dipped Kahlua Biscotti!
Almost everyone's most favorite touch of the party?.....
These adorable small milk bottles with black and white striped straws!
I bought them on Amazon from Dress my Cupcake Company.
($25.00 for 25 bottles and lids, straws, and free shipping).
After the event, I have to say, I not only enjoyed every moment of the actual Soiree itself, but I also enjoyed every moment of planning it! Everyone raved about it being very fun and unique. I have to say even though this was my very first Cookie Soiree, it definitely won't be my last!
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