Independence Day is only 2 weeks away--why not host a fantastic bbq at your place, with some great food and fresh décor ideas for the 4th! I'm the guest entertaining expert on epicurious.com, so Check out the recipes here. I put together a menu of tasty, simple dishes like chicken and ribs on the grill accompanied by My Sweet & Tangy Barbecue Sauce.
Check out this great article from La Petite Blog which features four great books on entertaining, including Simple Stunning Parties at Home!
Here are just a few moments from the wedding of two of my close friends. The bride's mother brought us back traditional saris from Bangladesh to wear to the ceremony...there were three days of festivities, beginning with the Gai Holud, which is a light-hearted gathering for family and friends.
The groom rode in on a white horse...
The bride, accompanied by her own drumline...
Quite a bridal entrance, no? Nadia is dressed in the traditional Bengali colors, orange and green, and she wore flower garlands around her neck and on her hands, along with the mehndi or henna tattoos on her hands and feet.
More photos to come! 
I was in Dallas last week for the wedding of two of my very close friends, and while I was in town I stopped by Good Day Dallas to talk about budget-friendly entertaining ideas. In spite of having to get up at 5am after the wedding ended at 1:30am, it was a blast! 
These are photos of me with all the guys from the station. They get up at 3:00 in the morning every day to bring Dallas the latest news and they do it with a smile!!! Thanks guys!!!
For every party we create, our team produces a "design sample" to give clients the opportunity to approve and/or edit each element on the tabletop. For this wedding, the bride wanted a kind of easy elegance in the tablescape. We created three different versions of this type of arrangement, so that at the party, the room will have texture and light on many levels. This is a photo of the design sample meeting, which in our case, takes place about a month before the wedding. Isn't the color story beautiful?
To add more interest at eye-level, we nestled resin (ecofriendly) coral, vases filled with white blooms, and blown glass votives in varying patterns, as well as taller floating candles. There's no such thing as too many candles! The effect will be breezy and effortless, and the addition of just a few of these tall pieces within the room will work beautifully with the soaring ceilings in the club. The verdict: everyone loved it! Can't wait for the wedding!
Joan Hamburg is AMAZING. She's one of those rare people who knows so much about so many topics, and is passionate to discuss and share what she knows. I have been a huge fan for years, so when she invited me to join her on the air at a remote live broadcast of her show on WOR, I jumped!
I was asked to design a simple, at-home baby shower recently. Now as everyone knows, I love a theme, and I was inspired to think "in miniature" for all the party elements. We envisioned the mom-to-be and all her friends and family gathered in the living room around a big coffee table, so instead of a big centerpiece, I created "baby bottles in bloom"! This idea was not only fun and fresh--it was budget-friendly, too. I bought colorful baby bottles and sippy cups and filled them with flowers in bright yellow (baby's gender is still a surprise).
We had twenty guests at the party, so we made twenty unique arrangements of just a few flowers each, and ladies took them home at the end of the night. Aren't they festive? I gave the tops of the bottles to the chef to place on hors d'oeuvres trays as a fun accent.
In the entrance foyer, I arranged a display of simple flowers (just one type in each vase), and nestled gifts for baby here and there. Stuffed Pooh Bears, receiving blankets, and some wonderful books, like Shel Silverstein's "The Giving Tree" which always makes me cry.
Have you checked out Woman’s Day Radio yet? It's a really cool daily program that features a different topic each day. Money, food, fashion, you name it!
Wow! What a night. Bloomingdale’s threw me an amazing party to celebrate the launch of SIMPLE STUNNING PARTIES AT HOME, and fabulously stylish photographer Roey Yohai stopped by to document the festivities--Roey, thank you so much for these beautiful pictures! With me above is KB Events Director (and all around wizard) Nicole Fazzini. We are still reliving the drama, the fun, and the behind-the-scenes stories of making this book come to life. Can you imagine we got to go "shopping" in Bloomingdale's for Versace china and Faberge martini glasses to borrow for the parties we created? Dreamy!
At the party, celebrity chef Francois Payard's catering team, Tastings by Payard, prepared bite-sized versions of recipes from my book, like the shrimp ceviche you see here. Isn't the presentation lovely on the white spoons?
The Bloomingdale's visual team created tables inspired by the parties in the book, like my Global Potluck Supper
