Martini Monday! (& other fabulous parties!)

Although Martini Monday (also referred to as Martini Partini), was a few weeks ago, I'm posting pictures now because I'm pretty proud of how successful it was. My definition of party success = people having a fun time. Though this was the first one, I see many more in the future!

The deets

I added beer and wine to the menu because, well, not everyone likes a martini. In fact, most people I know don't like dirty martinis at all. Must be the combination of vodka and olive juice! Though, the reason we DID feature the dirty 'tini during Martini Monday was because I found out two of our close friends ADORE dirty martinis in the same way I do, so I wanted to make an "event" out of it and invite others to taste. I think we recruited Stephanie, actually! Welcome to the club, Steph!
Other details, besides the martini glasses, were Rat Pack music in the background and "M" napkins which my friend Karishma bought me many years ago, and I was saving for a special occasion. Sure, the "M" stands for Marjorie, but in this case, it also stood for Martini and Monday, respectively. We also told our friends to wear cocktail attire, which helped set the mood. Because when I think of sipping martinis I think of cocktail dresses and heels. However, wine may be sipped whilst donning sweatpants, yes?

Ruffled babies

These little beauties made their debut during Martini Monday, and they got plenty of compliments. One of my favorite fashion trends, and something I've done for years, has been to pair black and white with red. As you can see in the pictures, I wore a black shirt with a black-and-white large-dotted skirt (which my dental hygienist once referred to as "throwback" which I thought was fabulous!), and red faux suede high heels. I love the ruffles because they're feminine, yet also bold and exciting, and a bit unexpected, like most shoe embellishments are! Ruffles, and other embellishments, like bows, take your typical high heel and dial it up a notch. That's why I'm really into shoe clips these days. (see http://www.shopbando.com). You can literally clip on flowers or sequined hearts on any pair of shoes, extending your shoe collection by many!

Are we making it right?

The first time I've actually used my bar book. Really, I just scanned the page to make sure I wasn't forgetting any ingredients. The Dirty Martini, luckily, doesn't involve too many ingredients, AND, it happens to be my favorite martini to both sip and hold. However, I owe ALL the martini-making credit to my friends Kayla and Duff who made the drinks all night. And they did a fantastic job with the dirties, or else I wouldn't have had three.

The station

Any time a party involves "making" something, there ought to be a station so people aren't falling all over each other. A station ensures that the development of the product be done in a certain place that accomodates it. In other words, it makes it more orderly and fun. Not that a party has to be "orderly" per se (right, Martha Stewart?); it's just that having a specific station for a certain thing eliminates confusion and attracts people to participate. Like a pizza-making station, or a sundae-making station. All the ingredients are right there for easy mixing and creating.

Girlfriends

What's better than sipping martinis on a Monday? Sipping them with your girlfriends! One reason I love my friends (and Sean) so much is that they willingly participate in my party shenanigans!

On a similar note, while talking with my therapist about my needing a new "hobby" to distract myself from my wedding, which I have become overly excited about (not that that's a bad thing; it's just exhausting for my physical and mental health to be in a constant state of excitement literally all.the.time), I said, referring to hobbies: some people knit. Others cook. Others take yoga, or join a book club, or coach soccer. Me, I plan parties. I think of party ideas. I like itinieraries. (Ok, this part I'm adding). But this is what I do. This is my "hobby." Make fun of it if you want, but I'll take a moment here to brag and say that I think I'm pretty good at my hobby. And one day, I hope this hobby turns into a career. I've already been planning (both in my head and on paper) Marjorie Events, which will hopefully one day be my event planning business. I've actually been thinking about it since 2005 when I was a special events assistant for Reston Association. Thinking about my future event planning business has been a continuous process for me. It's been something I've been dreaming about, fantasizing about, and imagining for many years. Some details I write down, others remain in my head. It's my "happy place" I go to. I know what my office will look like (there will be lots of plants, a Keurig and my own bathroom), what kind of staff I'll hire, what events I'll host, and all of the details that go with.
Other successful events I've hosted (back to real life now) or helped host, which I believe add to my bragging rights, include Champagne Thursdays, which I started in college with my roommate Jenny. We got the idea from the movie "Failure to Launch" in which Sarah Jessica Parker's housemate Zooey Deschannel handed her a glass of champagne after work and said "It's Champage Thursday!"
Champagne Thursday turned into an almost-monthly party, hosted at different friends' houses and apartments. We had various themes, including two Pretty in Pinks, a camo night, and blackout (in which we all wore all black and turned out the lights - my older, more mature me says that probably wasn't very safe), amongst other themes. The parties turned into something spectacular. There was even a Facebook group about it. It was fun and a very memorable part of college. Though it's been years since the last Champagne Thursday (and rightly so because they are now retired), the memories remain and all involved will agree it was a "thing" in college; something epic, that helped define our years at West Virginia University. (Too much?)
Also in college I threw a successful "Celebrity Luau" during the summer (while I was taking summer classes) in which all attendees were asked to dress like a celebrity, and I provided luau attire and decorations.
In my ninth grade year of high school, I threw a party at the end of the school year to celebrate the end of my Leukemia treatment and also my belated birthday (which is in December). We rented out a space at Lake Anne, and got a DJ and everything. About 100 of my classmates and friends attended. The night was amazing to me. I got my hair done in a curly updo (it was the first time I'd ever had my hair teased), and I wore a little yellow floral dress with beige platforms. (Oh, how platforms were fabulous in the early 2000s!) And I covered my body in roll-on glitter. (Teenage girls did that, ya know.) I remember that night we danced all night long and my friends were talking about it for a long time after. My dad even had to leave the party in the middle to buy more soda since we ran out. I think that party also kind of took the place of a Bat Mitzvah, which I never got to have since I got sick only three months before it was scheduled to take place. I remember hand-decorating the envelopes for the invitations with markers and stickers, and then handing them out in school. (Pre-Evite era, of course.) That party was a blow out!
I also remember a girls' night I hosted about two years ago in my apartment in Lewistown. I set up blankets and pillows in the middle of my living room, and put out magazines, and nail polish for us to paint each other's nails. I taped pink and white balloons to my stair railing, and put out all kinds of snacks, including M&Ms in martini glasses. (And I believe we had boxed apple-tinis!) I even filled baskets with lotions and soaps the girls could take with them when they left. We all talked, ate and drank, and actually painted each other's nails! (Yes, we were all in our 20s but it can still be fun!)
That same year I hosted a Halloween party, which was like your typical Halloween party, complete with candy and decorations. But it was so much fun that at the end of the night my once-white kitchen floor was black (we actually created a dance floor), and there was cupcake smeared on the wall. Ok, it actually took me a few days to clean up from that, which is why I vowed never to have another Halloween party again, but at the time it was a blast.
In my junior year of high school I hosted a Valentine's Day sit-down dinner party where I typed up a menu. I remember wearing a pink pencil skirt I got during a trip to New York City with my friend Rachel, whose aunt lives there. Everyone sat around the table elegantly and sipped orange soda.
Also in high school, that same friend Rachel and I hosted a surprise tea party at her house for my mom's birthday. We spent all day making little sandwiches, and invited all of her lady friends. We even dressed in white shirts and black skirts and served the food! I remember I had just gotten my self-proclaimed "Jennifer Aniston-like" haircut, complete with many layers, so my hair was extra bouncy that day. (Oh, the things I remember...)
One summer in college, I hosted a cocktail party at my mom's house. (she will NEVER, EVER let me live this one down.) The drink of the night was the Marj-tini, which was actually an apple martini (my favorite drink at the time). I decorated the deck with lights and small Japanese lanterns.
I think we went through two handles of vodka that night, and my mom's fridge was sticky for weeks from vodka spilling inside. And, everyone was drunk. Some guys even brought a case of beer later in the night. We actually had to move from the deck to the basement because we were so loud. My mom was furious. But, it still makes the "successful parties" list because I will never, ever forget it.
There have been many other parties over the years, but the ones I remember most are the ones I can take pride in. And I take pride in them because they were fun, memorable and unique.
Well, this blog post DID begin as me writing about Martini Monday, but turned into a post about my love for planning parties. It's funny how writing does that. You start with one idea and then explore another one. You, at the end, reveal what you really think, or how you really feel, about certain things. That's why writing is therapeutic for me. I've always known I loved planning parties, but I guess I never shared with anyone before, to what extent. And sometimes when I write, I'm not just sharing things, but I'm actually discovering things about myself. And sorting out ideas. And that's extremely cleansing.
Call me crazy about my party-planning madness or my dream of starting an event planning company. But, shouldn't we all have dreams? If we don't, where are we really going? And if we don't have things that we love, no matter what it is, what are we really doing?
So maybe it's OK if I love planning things a little too much. I'd rather have that than not love anything at all.