Bollywood Bling Party

Well, well, well...what can I say?! What a fantastic extended weekend, huh?!! :)

In America you've had Memorial weekend, In France  there was Mother's Day, and here at my house we celebrate my 6th wedding anniversary!! :)

Actions speak louder than words, but I just have to say this: Thank you my darling husband for putting up with me in good and bad times, for being my rock, my best friend, my soul-mate. For being a wonderful husband, father and a great human being. For being who you are and for your generous, kind, funny, intelligent, handsome and strong presence in my life - You truly complete me and I admire and fancy you a lot!!! - Oh, and have I told you  he even does the laundry, the cooking and the washing up too?! :)

Now the ramblings are over, remember my sneaky peek at the invites I was designing? Well, let me tells you how our day went...

We had it all planned, an outdoors set-up, with outdoors dancing etc, but it was not to be! Mother Nature decided she had enough of sunshine and gave us a windy and grey day instead - Talk about a gift!! :)

So we set up indoors instead...I must say the dance floor was a little "cozy", but we had a good laugh and that's the main thing!

Anywho, just thought I'd share with you today the pictures of our kitsch sweets (desserts) table from our Bollywood Bling Party!

The hubs is not big on desserts and with the Indian theme, we didn't want any cakes. Instead, we filled the table with Indian-style sweets - Fit for a Maharajah!! :)

Some of the sweets I made myself,  like the blue Indian "truffles" (I made them up..) and the gulab jamun, and shall share the recipes with you in due course. Others more elaborate sweets such as the oriental petit fours below, I bought from our local oriental shop.

I also made mango Laassi, which is kinda of an Indian take on a milk-shake - I was very refreshing and quite thick, with real chunks of mangoes. I served them in little coloured cups I bought at a French version of the pound or dollar shop.

This orange "alien-looking" thing is called Jalebi and it's an Indian sweet made by dropping swirls of batter into hot oil. It's coloured with safforn but waaaay tooo complicated to make, so I bought ready-made.  It's very sugary, but stays crispy on the outside and very traditional in Indian dessert tables.

And because this was a family affair, we had conventional sweets (although the colours were quite Bollywood!) for the children. We also provided scoops so they could take some home in the little party boxes and favor bags I designed for the occasion.

In addition to the party favor sweets, I also made some Spicy Mango chutney (recipe coming soon) for the adults - We also had some on the day, so I liked the idea of the guest taking some home to enjoy the party a little longer!

Because we were indoors, I had to display the party food and some of the party décor on small tables which I placed all around the room. By the entrance which leads to our courtyard, I placed a well wishes tree -  I say tree...It was a couple of branches I sprayed silver. I then decorated the branches with some small paper flower (tutorial coming soon..) similar to the coloured paper pom-poms above the desserts table.

The "wishes" were small round cards in the same design of the party theme with a picture of myself and the hubs. Our guests were then encouraged to leave well wishes or "word of wisdom" hehe and hang them on the tree. This makes for nice memento of the day for us...

And more party favors (bangles, papier maché elephant and watercolours for the children, Indian tea personalised with the celebration date, scented candles and soap for the adults) were displayed in clear bags and small kitsch boxes I found at the oriental store for just €1 each! The boxes looked as though they were made for this occasion, in the party colours and even had a blue elephant on them!

These party favors were displayed also by the entrance inside a small wheel-barrow decorated in the colours of the party. A small plaque read "Oriental Delights" to which I attached a silk blue ribbon.

By the wishes tree, I place a "wishing well" with floating candles and rose petals - It looked like an offering to the "gods"....Very Indian! :)

I also used some inexpensive metal photo holders to clip the food plaques. They tied in really well with the "bling" party décor! :)

Oh, one thing I used that made all the difference, were pieces of mirrors  (I had those at home, but you can get them cut to your specifications at a DIY shop) as trays and plates to hold the food on the table. This allowed more light to be reflected and looked really stunning with candles on them too - And off course I had to have birds everywhere!! hehe

More candles completed the scene. In fact there were candles everywhere and they really helped to set the party mood and looked fab in the evening!

For the candles holders I used empty glass yoghurt pots, and glued a strip of coloured ribbon around with a big, fat rhinestone in the middle for extra Indian bling. :)

The flowers of choice were bright, pink gerberas in glass carafes filled with coloured sweets. But you could also use coloured sand, pebbles...

Oh, and to complete the party scene I also designed a blue elephant cut-out that I displayed  around the tables - It looked so cool and was a talking point with children and adults alike!

That's all for today folks, hope you've enjoyed the tour hehehe. 

The complete Bollywood Bling Party Collection is now available at my Etsy shop!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Coming soon: Indian recipes and fab tutorials...

Tomorrow: Fantastic GIVEAWAY worth $80 - Don't miss it!!

Much Love,

Linking to these  awesome Blog Parties!