Just A Bite Desserts

Yesterday, I told you a bit about the invitations, inspiration board, dreamy cabana and pretty tissue poms I did for my daughter’s middle school graduation party. In case you missed it, follow this link. In addition to the billowy curtains and colorful pillows strewn about, I used a pretty painting, paper lanterns, turquoise tables and fans in bright colors to accessorize the cabana. As a final touch, I had my daughter and some friends scatter pink rose petals on the rug and around the other party furniture.

Much to my delight, the kids used the cabana as a backdrop for their own photo shoots. Photos of adorable teens in summer wedge sandals are all over Facebook!

For food I served mini chicken tacos, party pizza squares, tater tots and popcorn chicken in paper cones and mini burger sliders. The growing teens ate so fast we didn’t have time to shoot it! However, my photog hubby did manage to get a nice shot of the color coordinated cans of soda and bottles of Gatorade.

For musical entertainment, we hired a dj and there were many kids dancing and singing. Our yard is dark so I got creative and rented white highboy tables with funky hydraulic stools. The tables had intelligent lighting underneath which changed colors throughout the night. I also used these fabulous LED orbs to light pathways and decorate tables:

To keep the party hopping, two Twister boards and several light up hula hoops were available. The kids loved them but the true excitement came when we passed out the neon colored tattoo markers! Within moments kids had signed every available area of skin on my daughter and then they turned to one another and had a blast. This inexpensive activity kept them so busy that I never had time to bring out the cans of Silly String!

During the last hour of the party, I brought out a few desserts:

{Table cards by Carolyn of Cards with Care}

As the kids exited the party,  a candy buffet greeted them on the driveway. Each child was given a bag and they happily carried away Skittles, Gumballs, Chocolate M & M Pretzels (a big hit!), M & Ms, adorable Hershey Kisses, Mega Candy Dots and Giant Pixy Stix.

{Hershey Kisses Stickers by Posh Pixels Design Studio on Etsy}

{Candy Buffet by Paula of Just a Bite Desserts }

* Some party photography done by Howard of Howard Rosenthal Photography

A few weeks ago I began to plan a middle school graduation party for my teenage daughter and 45 of her closest friends. Feeling a bit overwhelmed, I decided to seek the assistance of some very creative women I had found online.

First, I contacted one of my favorite designers, Carolyn, from Cards with Care and asked her to make a custom invitation. We wanted a chic and sophisticated card with bright, neon colors. This was printed on glossy photo paper and it came out really sharp! Here’s a mock-up of the final design:

Then, I decided to try out the inspiration board services of Chris at Celebrations at Home. Chris is a party planner and has an incredible blog filled with fabulous parties to spark your creative juices. I sent Chris a copy of the invitation Carolyn had designed and she sent me back two inspiration boards. Here’s one:

You can see the other one on her blog here. Little did Chris know, I had already planned to use tissue poms in the decor scheme. I had also been considering ordering the very same paper luminary lanterns she selected. I was thrilled to see these on her board! But what set me on fire was the dreamy tent she included on the board. The party space was a tennis court with an adjacent cabana structure. Since the framework was already there I knew I would be able to design a snazzy tent of my own. Living in suburbia has its advantages as I spent the next two days scouring Ikea for curtains, Marshall’s, Target and Century 21 for pillows and Lowe’s for a rug. Here is the end result. What do you think?

The custom color tissue poms were created by the talented ladies at Fiesta Pom Pom. I love how they were varied in size and design. They had so many colors to choose from it was hard to decide so I chose five! Here’s a close-up of the beautiful poms:

Stayed tuned for part two when I’ll share photos and sources for the party desserts and sweets as well as how I kept the active teens entertained. Would love to hear your comments!

Hey there! While I’ve been blog absent for a while, I’ve been super busy again behind the scenes. Since the departure of my business partner, I’ve been excitedly restructuring Just a Bite Desserts from a dessert baking business to a dessert and candy buffet design business for parties and special events! I’m super excited and can’t wait to share my work with you soon!

In the meantime, check out the feature from Celebrations at Home, where the design inspiration board for my daughter’s middle school graduation party is currently featured! I’m hard at work making this vision come to life in my backyard for next weekend! You can bet my hubby photographer, Howard, from Howard Rosenthal Photography will take gorgeous pictures for you all to see. So stay tuned!

~ Paula

While things may have been quiet on the Just a Bite Desserts blog lately, life’s been anything but quiet behind the scenes! Janis and I have been baking up a storm, testing many recipes as well as Passover desserts, scouting kitchen locations and making calls and filling out paperwork to obtain legal status. We are now officially the Just a Bite Desserts, Inc. company and we are registered in New York State. We still have a few more details to work out before we can say we’re open for business, but rest assured, delicious, homemade desserts will be available for your pleasure very soon!

Don’t forget to subscribe to our blog so you will receive an email each time we post something new here. We are also on Facebook, please join our fan page here and follow us on Twitter here!

Thank you so much for your patience, we know the wait will be worth it! Here are a few recent concotions to whet your appetites.

~ Paula

Passover Chocolate Almond Macaroon - Gluten Free

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Passover Almond Macaroons - Gluten Free