{Proof Bar} Monica’s 40th Birthday

September 1st, 2010

So Monica came to us back in May asking for our help in planning her 40th Birthday. Obviously Britt and I were ecstatic to help because we are absolutely obsessed with parties! Monica’s busy schedule meant that she couldn’t do it on her own and enlisted us to get the ball rolling. She had already identified her location: fav hang-out spot, Proof Bar, in the Artist District of Santa Ana. The up-and-coming locale has recently become the trendy spot in town with new restaurants, bars and music scenes. Since she is a huge music fan and frequents Proof often, she thought that this would be the perfect place to host her birthday bash.

And we agreed! We visited, we liked, we booked Proof Bar for Sunday, September 5th 2010. We had our venue and open bar! A great modern space that could comfortably house 100 guests while still maintaining an intimate club feel. Great lighting, funky bar, quaint outside back patio – we could do a lot with this place! Monica wanted their star DJ Michelle to play jams at her event, and Proof threw her in the mix.

Now originally, she wanted the party to begin after the dinner hour, offering guests a late-night snack around 10 pm in the form of a causal taco truck. Then that all changed when we introduced her to Piaggio. Piaggio Gourmet on Wheels is a highly-sought-after OC-based Argentinian Taco Truck that has OC foodies absolutely hooked. And according to Niyaz of the Orange Country Register, “is grilling some fine grub in the form of skirt steak tacos, sausage sandwiches, bacon-wrapped hot dogs and one of the best burritos [he’s] ever eaten.” We knew that Piaggio was a special step-up to say the least from your average taco truck, and once Monica got a taste of his empanadas she had to have him feed her guests!

Piaggio on Wheels serves lunch around Orange County at a different location everyday. They tweet at the last minute where they are going to be and eager food fans rush to their location to sample the deliciousness that is Piaggio. With Food Trucks in strong demand in LA and OC, all over the media (Food Networks’ Food Truck Wars!) and having used them for several previous events, we jumped back on the Food Truck wagon with Piaggio!

Next came invitations. We summoned our dear friend and owner of NLD Graphics, Eddie Tourgeman to design the “Music Flyer” inspired party invites. Monica wanted to give the indie-club-vibe by designing invitations that looked just like a flyer you’d get for a local band or nightclub. Here were some of the examples she sent over:

This was her favorite.

So Eddie took it and ran with it – and with some careful tweaking, Monica chose this one!

We loved it! Eddie printed them on high-gloss, thick card stock. Britt, being the invitation queen that she is, chose turquoise and silver envelopes and sent them out to over 100 of Monica’s guests! Music plays a huge part in Monica’s life, so this was such a natural and fun choice for her. Not flashy, just clean, modern and trendy. Like any event, invitations are the first glimpse that guests see of what is to come! It’s the first impression to say the least, and you always want your invitations to carry the theme.

Next we played with dessert. So many choices… dessert bar? Candy bar? Cupcake tower? Traditional cake? Nah. Croquembouche! Croquem-what? Unlike our newly trendy Food Trucks, Croquembouche’s are a long-standing European wedding tradition. This French cake that is made out of profiteroles and filled with cream, custards or pastry filings. The delicate profiteroles are filled with a flavored filling and stacked up in a cone shape and drizzled with caramel or chocolate.  It is usually decorated with flowers and/or spun sugar. They are absolutely stunning works of art and we found local Swiss Pastry Chef Susanne Michel from Sweet Art was up for the task! Susanne makes croquembouche like nobody’s business and Monica selected coffee and grand marnier flavors, drizzled with chocolate. We are mighty excited to try it!

 

Britt and I will be doing all of the flowers and throwing together some beautiful, modern, sleek arrangements to place around the bar. When guests arrive it will still be light out and portions of the bar will definitely need some ‘sprucing’ up, and flowers always make a dead space more alive! We will also be placing chartreuse cymbidium orchids on the croquembouche to decorate and petals around the high bistro table it will be presented on.

So our next vendor is the wonderful gals from Shutterbooth! Monica chose the Deluxe package photo booth for her guests to enjoy, complete with scrapbook, props, black/white, color and sepia photo strip options for fun memories of her party. The great thing about photo booths is that they kill so many birds with one stone: entertainment for guests during the event, favors for your guests to take home, and memories for you to keep always.

It’s going to be a FABULOUS party! We can’t wait!!