Nancy's Graduation Party - Private Residence
Nancy contacted me (Maggie) that she wanted help planning her graduation party. She had a great vision already and needed help organizing and making her ideas come to life. Champagne and cupcakes is what she was calling it!
Vendor Team:
Event Planner - 618 EVENTS, Maggie
Cupcakes- Cake Artist Studio
Flowers- CU Flower House
China rental- Herriotts
Plant rental- Plantify
Venue- Nancy’s home
One thing she mentioned was that she loves plants, however since they’ve been out of town all winter she no longer had any live plants in the house. She also didn’t want to buy any plants since they were leaving to go out of town again immediately after the party. I knew instantly I wanted to contact Long at Plantify to see if he’d rent his plants for the party. Plantify is a local plant shop in Champaign and they have the coolest plants and planters- very simple and modern.
Since Nancy was out of town she was unable to let me inside to see her home so she sent photos off her phone of her home and where she was thinking we could place plants and tables. I emailed those pictures to Long to get his insight and he had great ideas for where to put plants, what sizes, and how many. He’s the best!
Who knew you could rent plants for a party? I sure didn’t but I learned you could! I love this job- always always always learning something new. And it never hurts to ask.
Nancy took care of getting the champagne. She did want help sourcing the cupcakes. Ashlee with Cake Artist Studio has the best in town so I of course called her up right away and she was available. Yay!
Most of the time, for social gatherings such as this, the first several weeks of planning is a lot of me getting the ideas/vision from my client, sending them ideas from vendors that I know and trust, contacting said vendors for availability and quotes, sharing that with my client for approval or adjustment, then booking. It’s a lot of emails and potentially site visits and phone calls, however I prefer to email so there’s a paper trail. I look back at communication SO often it’s nice to reference what I said or what I was told.
Nancy is from Canada and something she loves about where she grew up is what’s called a “Cake of Cheese.” She wanted to incorporate this into her party! It is just what it sounds like- a two tiered cake made of cheese wheels. It’s actually really cool. We ordered extra flowers for this and rented china plates and silverware from Herriott’s for this and cupcakes so guests could enjoy. What a sweet personal touch!
Along with the live plants Nancy also wanted florals around the house. She had a dining table that was going to be used for food and/or seating if the weather was bad so we had a large arrangement placed there. Then she had little seating areas outside and around the house so we ordered bud vase arrangements for those side tables. Lastly, she wanted a large centerpiece for the table the cake of cheese and cupcakes would be on.
She lives near the Atkin’s golf course in Urbana and her backyard is beautiful. Very private as it backs up to the course with lots of space and seating options. Since the weather was nice she was able to host the party out back just like she wanted.
I was going to be out of town on the graduation party date so my teammate, Kylie, took over execution of the party. Kylie did an amazing job with the day of coordination. It was a perfect spring day and the guests seemed to have such a lovely time.
I never had the pleasure of meeting Nancy in person, however Kylie says she is truly the sweetest lady with such a kind heart. Nancy and her husband spend the majority of the year at their second home. They love to travel and be adventurous together. Speaking of adventurous. Nancy and her husband met in Europe on a biking trip and instantly fell in love. He was from the midwest and she was still living in Canada at the time. What an amazing love story!!
They were so hospitable to Kylie and the guests that attended their party. Kylie enjoyed just getting to know them while she set up and chatted with the two of them. Such down to earth people! We don’t always get to interact with our clients so much (especially if they are getting ready off site) so it was very special that Kylie could chat with them while working.
The Friday before the graduation party, Kylie went to Herriotts and picked up some tables, plates, and silverware that Nancy had rented. She brought these to Nancy’s home and set them up in order to relieve the tasks for Saturday. When we can get things done ahead of time we love to do that!
Saturday morning Kylie went around town picking up the cupcakes from the Cake Artist Studio, beautiful florals from CU Flower House, and other miscellaneous items from my house that I had ordered such as napkins and cupcake stands.
When Kylie arrived at Nancy’s house, Plantify was there to set up the plants she had rented. The plants definitely made the house a home and feel more “lived in” especially since Nancy and her husband were away for so long.
After the plants were taken care of, Kylie began to set all the other decor and items in place. They used her back patio and covered deck as the main space for the party. She had lots of great furniture out there that worked perfectly. Kylie placed bud vases on all the outdoor furniture side tables, and larger arrangements on the large outdoor table. These arrangements were truly stunning. They set up a champagne station with flutes and champagne on ice. In addition they had a cooler filled with La Croix, one of Nancy’s favorite drinks.
Inside her main living space they set out the cupcakes that were so beautiful. They were placed on cake stands surrounding the star of the show- the cake of cheese!! They ordered this from a special place in Wisconsin that they love. It was surprisingly very aesthetic and delicious.
Kylie was hired to only set up and tear down, so she left after setting up and they enjoyed their time with all of the guests who arrived. When Kylie returned they still had friends gathered around the table, enjoying great conversation. Kylie loved seeing that they wanted to stick around. Everyone had smiles on their faces and looked like they truly enjoyed their time. Kylie began to clean up everything and gathered all of the rentals from Herriotts.
We absolutely loved working with Nancy and we are so glad she enjoyed her party. She worked very hard to achieve this amount of schooling, and I am happy we got to make her day special.