I'm a MoH orgainizing a bridal shower in April. The bride is in love with anything Italian, so we decided to theme the party Italy. So, I'm thinking wine, cheeses, antipasto, and some pasta dishes and tiramisu. Anyone have other ideas? What about decorating ideas?
Basically, what makes you think of Italy (other than Gucci and Prada)?
oh oh how about checing out everyday italian on the food network? The girl is from italy and cooks a lot of simple yet very good food. I think this weekend is a wedding theme on all food network shows if you can watch it it might give you ideas (I know you are out of the country)
The food you've chosen sounds perfect. I lived in Italy for 3 years, so let me think about some of the parties I went to, and I'll get back to you later. The things that I'm thinking of right now, you probably couldn't do. Like crazy drivers on small windy roads, people who don't know how to wait in line (it's an epidemic over there), and other little stuff like that!
One thing that just popped into my head was a party I threw. I asked my very creative friend to do the invitations. She printed out a cute invite on a sheet of paper and glued it to a dry lasagna noodle. It was the cutest thing.
Anyway, I've got to run, but I'll think about it while I'm out.
Hi. Couldn't avoid replying, since I am from Rome!
I think your ideas for the food are perfect! I'd say, use lots of flowers, as many colors as possible, and if you can do it, take small glass vases/bottles and put some aromatic herbs on them: for example, you can put rosemary in one, basil on anotehr, sage, or mix 2 of them in the same glass. Try to use lots of yellow and orange for decoration, and turquoise (sp?) in little quantity for contrast. It swould be better if you could do the party outside, but that depends on where you are...
Home made Tiramisu is wayyyy better than the store one , if you want I can e-mail you the recipe, it takes nothing to make and you just put it in the fridge until you need to serve it.
Oh, a big tray with fresh fruit would be awesome. Think oranges and lemons in huge quantities!
such a cool idea! when i think of an italian theme, i think of that fantastic/glam world of federico fellini movies. maybe you could rent "8 1/2" for inspiration and then have everyone dress up in sunglasses and italian movie-star outfits.
there's also the masquerade ball (forget the name) in venice--that could maybe be a good theme (i don't know how dramatic you want to get with costumes and themes and all, i'm just brainstorming here). there's some good scenery of a party like that in "an american in paris" and also in "wings of the dove" (i think that was the one) to give you ideas of decorations and costumes.
for your flower arrangements, to bring in ico's idea of using yellows and oranges, how about filling up some large glass containers with lemons and/or oranges, then arranging the flowers above that (i'll try to find you a pic of this type of arrangement--they are fairly common).
you could also have an italian ice station, obviously better if the party is outside, but either way. you could hire one or two high schoolers to scoop and flavor the italian ices and hand them out to the guests.
what about panini????????????????????? you could have a make your own panini area. one of my favorite places to go is called ino. here is the link. maybe it could give you an idea on what varieties of sandwiches to make!