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Party Trends

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Bottle and Bottega invited myself and another local blogger out to try a complimentary painting and wine experience to see how it would fit for our readership. As always, all opinions are my own. To see my review posting policies please visit my policies page

Over the course of my pregnancy and the past few months I really haven’t had the energy or availability to explore the Portland area as much as I typically enjoy. I am thrilled to start writing about the local area again! I can’t be more excited to share about this Mom’s Night Out experience I had with my friend, Lindsey of Running with Tongs.

 

The Bottle and Bottega Space in NW Portland

Walking into the Bottle and Bottega space I knew that I was in for a fun evening. I loved the bright colors in the workspace and instantly imagined throwing about 10 different parties in that space. My friend Lindsey and I both thought about possibly bringing our kids out for the Bottle and Bottega All Ages events, but in the end decided we both needed a mom’s night out pretty badly. When the sparkling wine hit my hand my decision felt better than ever.

Bottle and Bottega is an art class and night out at the bar rolled into one - review featured on A Well Crafted Party

 

The night that we visited was the mixed media evening where we got to select a couple of different images to work off of or create our own mixed media painting. We still had an artist walking us through the steps, but many of us created different paintings. This is something I LOVE. While I always have fun at paint and sip events, sometimes, I just really don’t care for the image we are painting or want an image like everyone else in my home. This let me truly personalize an image.

Bottle and Bottega is an art class and night out at the wine  bar rolled into one - review featured on A Well Crafted Party

 

I chose to do the “love” image and use a color scheme that coordinated with my upcoming anniversary party. The painting basically started out as a series of strips and scraps of paper. Lindsey chose to do the same painting and picked just a slightly different color scheme. When it was all said in done we were supposed to write the word “love” across the painting. Instead I chose to do the word “cheers” so that I can hang it up over my bar area in the future.

 

Bottle and Bottega made for a fun Momma's Night Out - review featured on A Well Crafted Party

 

What to plan for when going to Bottle & Bottega:

Parking: Bottle and Bottega is located in NW Portland. There is both street parking and a convenient little paid parking lot near the workshop. It is also quite accessible to the MAX as it isn’t a far walk to the nearest stop. I chose to pay the $5 for parking so that my car was nearby because I knew it was going to be a semi-late night for this momma.

Timing: The event started around 6 PM and lasted until 9 PM. Due to the painting and drying time it is a longer event… which only means more WINE!

Beverages: The shop had a pretty good selection of red, white, and sparkling wine as well as some beer options. Beverage costs were above the $40 painting fee, but the prices were reasonable. The $40 painting fee gets you all the painting supplies, instruction, and your canvas to take home. I opted to purchase a frame for my canvas for just $20 more. Now my painting looks really finished.

What to Wear: Anything! No, but seriously, there were aprons to help protect clothing and the paint is water soluble. If you are really worried about something then probably opt to not wear it, but I wore my work clothes and came through unscathed!

Bottle and Bottega proved to be a fun Portland experience - review by A Well Crafted Party

 

Besides a Mom’s Night Out… what type of events work at Bottle and Bottega?

The cool thing—to me, a bonafide party junkie—about Bottle and Bottega’s business is that there are a variety of ways to make the sip and paint event work for parties or outings.

Check out the paintings from the evening I attended on the Bottle and Bottega Facebook page.

Public Events: Bottle and Bottega has public events that you (by yourself) or with a couple of friends can sign up for and attend. The public events are all listed on a calendar with a picture of the painting that they are going to be doing during the event.

Bottle and Bottega have a variety of event options from public events  and private parties to public events - review on A Well Crafted Party

Private Events: As for private events there are so many cool options! This would make for a fun bridal shower, bachelorette party, graduation party, baby shower… list goes on and on. The private parties have an option to create paintings (as seen above) or do collages of paintings that might don the house of a newly-wed or the nursery of a newborn.

Corporate Parties & FundraisingWouldn’t a paint and sip event be a great team builder? One of the HUGE art pieces in the workshop was a collage piece as an example of what a corporate party could create. I would love to do something like this with coworkers and then go to work to see the painting we created together each day. The team at Bottle and Bottega can travel to a site for an event as an option too.

Have you ever been to a paint and sip event? If so, what did you like about it?

Thank you to Bottle and Bottega for the fun Mom’s Night Out and painting experience! 

The Portland Bloggers, a local bloggers meet-up group and resource, hosted a Valentine’s Day brunch potluck this past month. We were happy to have decoration supplied by Minted.Com and tasty mimosas with Santa Margherita Wines. All thoughts and opinions are my own. To see my sponsored posting guidelines please visit my policies page. Thank you to Jennifer Landers for helping us find a swanky venue and Suzannah Stanley for these fab photos! 

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

 

What kind of potluck should I host? …. BRUNCH!

 

When you live in Portland you tend to come around to the amazing-ness that is B-R-U-N-C-H. You see, it may have to do something with the rain and the grey skies or perhaps it is the laid back nature of this town… but, getting up early in the morning and heading out to breakfast really is just not our thing. Yes, it happens. Yes, there are people that seem to make it out of the house before 10 AM. Those are the people who get to walk right in and sit down for a tasty meal with no wait.

The rest of us, well, we do brunch and we do it hard. We have some of the most amazing restaurants out there creating brunch menus just for us. Heck, even the amazing Gregory Gourdet of  Departure (you may know him from Top Chef) is getting into some brunch mischief with a pop-up brunch feature this Easter. Personally, I love brunch. There is something about the perfect mix of sweet and savory breakfast food paried with a breakfast cocktail all while fully rested. My love of brunch is one of the many reasons why we decided our recent Portland Bloggers meet-up was going to be a brunch potluck. One of the other reasons is that brunch is perfect for a potluck.

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

 

Brunch Potluck Food

 

There was such a great variety of foods and treats. I love brunch foods for potlucks because they can be savory or sweet. Great brunch potluck foods include mini bagels with cream cheese, quiches, muffins, waffle bites, deviled eggs… the list goes on and on! And for this particular brunch, because we hosted the party near Valentine’s Day, there were a lot of sweet treats on top of the great brunch foods.

 

Brunch Potluck Beverages

 

One of my favorite parts of any party is the beverage choices. Because we were having a brunch, we felt mimosas were a must! Santa Margherita wines sent us some of their Prosecco to try out. The crisp Santa Margherita Prosecco was stationed in a ice bucket ready to pair with either orange juice, peach puree, or strawberry puree. My favorite pairing was with the peach puree because the lightly tart taste of the Prosecco brought out the bright and juicy flavors of the peach. We also had plenty of sparkling water to pair with the juices to round out our beverage selection.

 

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

 

Beautiful and EASY Party Decor

 

We decorated the meeting space using Minted’s Party Suites. Seriously, such an easy and beautiful solution to party decor. You simply pick your suite, customize and purchase and then a neat little party package comes to your door complete with custom items, paper straws, plates, and napkins! We chose the Valentine’s Ombre Love Party Decor in the Perfect Party package. The mini note cards made for perfect labels for the food for the potluck. The banner is such great quality of paper that I’ll be keeping it to use over and over again at upcoming Portland Blogger meet-ups.

 

Simple and beautiful party decor compliments of Minted

Simple and beautiful party decor compliments of Minted

Simple and beautiful party decor compliments of Minted

 

What makes potlucks so great?

 

I go on and on about potlucks like they are the butter to my bread… but, heres the thing, hosting parties can be quite expensive. Going out to eat and be expensive. Heck, even a drink or two at a bar can break the bank at times. Hosting events potluck style gives everyone the opportunity to gather together to enjoy a meal while not sticking one person with the check. I love the laid back feel of potlucks. I enjoy getting to try the items that other people bring. To be perfectly honest, in the end, I love not paying for everything. Cheers to whoever invented the very first potluck—those cavemen and women who all came to the table with something to share. Cheers also to the awesome guests that came to this potluck. They brought their A-game in the food and networking departments!

 

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

Party trends come and they go— some are classic, and others are fads. Thinking through the many trends that I play around with or decide to leave out of my events, I came up with the following series, which I will post on as I see trends come and go!

Love It or Leave It Party Trends


Love it or Leave it Party Trend - Lined Envelopes // A Well Crafted Party Discussion

Love it or Leave it Party Trend - Lined Envelopes // A Well Crafted Party Discussion

Okay, well… this is one of those party trends that I don’t think I’ll ever hate. The lined envelope got “big” a few years ago and suddenly there were hundreds of posts of people doing lined envelopes for weddings, parties, thank you cards and more. Heck, even I joined the crowd of people giving lined envelope tutorials!

I like the way that they make envelopes feel heftier and more important. I love the way that they can add a pop of color or texture to the invitation. I love the way that they can further touch on a party’s theme. So, basically I’m in the LOVE IT camp on this trend.

On the negative side of this trend is that it is a little wasteful– more paper, more costs, more time involved, and (sometimes) higher postage.

How about you? Do you LOVE lined envelopes or would you rather leave them behind?

(PS. The photo above with the lined envelop and part of an invitation suite is a fun little invite I did for an upcoming party. I can’t wait to share the details!)