The company holiday party is by far my favorite event of the year! Like last year, I rented the Exchange Ballroom downtown but unlike last year I chose a warm, rustic lodge theme instead of a bright lights, swanky downtown theme. It was so fun to turn the same space into two completely different styles of event. Here is a recap video if you’re interested:
Prep
The Portland Wholesale Flower Market is one of my top 3 favorite stores. I may only need to shop there once a year but I look forward to it for 12 months every time! The warehouse is filled with beautifully inspiring things. It is my version of Disneyland. I just wish I had a reason to go there more often! When I went this year I had no idea I would walk out with birchwood, REAL dried cotton, ilex, ranunculus, and my weight in douglas fir but it was exactly what I needed.
Elevator selfie with the birchwood because it matches my hair.
One of my coworkers is engaged to a guy who works at a winery. I can’t remember how we made the connection but I mentioned I needed 170+ wine bottles and she (plus some other coworkers who love wine) brought me hundreds of bottles. I knew going into this project that removing labels from glass bottles was not fun so I planned to paint the bottles and not worry about the labels. It turns out that painting over labels looks awful and the clean, natural bottle look is well worth the effort it takes to scrap the labels off. Plus the variety of colors added to the decor theme. I’ve always been grateful for Lucas but he really outdid himself when he spent 5 hours on a weekend night with me in the basement of our office building locker room cleaning bottles and scraping off labels. It took over 9 hours total to finish the project. I wouldn’t jump at the chance to do it again… but when you’re literally elbow deep in the soapy bubbles and paper flakes you have to keep plugging along until you’re done.
Michelle, our amazing designer who created the invites and all event materials, came up with these cute treats to put with the invitations on each employee’s desk. It took far longer than I expected to make 170 of them but I think it was worth every minute!
The most incredible set up crew in the history of events! These are the people that brought this event to life! Without them we would have just had a massive pile of linens, wine bottles and Douglas Fir. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!
Show Time!
In addition to the regular digital photos we have taken every year, we had someone take polaroids of everyone so they could take them home as a keepsake. These paper frames were a last minute addition but one of my favorite elements of the night!
I may have stuck a few of these little cheesecake raspberry tartlets before I was supposed to… Oops!
I fell in love with this groups music online then loved it even more in person. If you’re in the mood for some folk music, listen to theirs here: Outbound Traveler
Photos by the fire : )
