Beyond The Sea: A Vintage Inspired Debutante

Date: Friday, October 19, 2012
Location: Island Club, North Island Naval Base in Coronado, CA

[Debut Program designed & created by Charlene Siliezar]

Happy 18th birthday Renee!!! 

[The Venue]

Setting up the venue with all of the handmade decor! Thanks to everyone who helped me! It was definitely a team effort :)

[Top Picture: Centerpiece with wooden hand crafted airplanes//vintage globe//airmail guest book]

[Top Left: Guest party favors- genuine (new) USN safety kits filled with 1940's candy]

Amidst all the hurrying and scurrying to get everything set up, I was able to get in some photo ops before the party took off!

{Love} My little angel is SO GROWN UP. When did this happen??? ;)

Got in a shot with my partner in (procrastination) crime and Co-MC for the night, Regina! Of course, we especially need to acknowledge Renee's parents! A mighty fine lookin' couple indeed :)

{Love} Oozing some vintage vibe here :)

{Love} As my cousin Arnold calls it, the "Gangsta Table."

The court's grand entrance for the cotillion dance...

BEYOND THE SEA choreographed by me of course...

They killed it on the dance floor!!! Woohoo! I'm SO PROUD :) Hands down, the best I've ever seen it performed. Awesome job guys & gals!

[Father & Daughter Dance. Song: "There You'll Be" by Faith Hill]

[Fleet of 18 Roses]

[Beacon of Lights]

[Birthday cupcakes by Cupcakes Squared]

HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY RENEE!!! With Love...Gangsta Table! Hahaha ;)

[Money Box: an actual ammo box...yep]

But wait....there IS one more thing...

FLASH MOB!!! Hahahaha! Yes...we totally flash mobbed it Gangnam Style. The highlight? Uncle Rico starred in the surprise role :)

Debutante Notes: Red Lips & Khaki Pants

{Location: North Island Naval Base in Coronado, San Diego}

Today was the photo shoot for Renee's debutante. We were able to lock in a PERFECT location for it...in a hangar on the naval military base in Coronado. All thanks to a family friend in the navy who was nice enough to let us in and use the hangar he worked.

My sister Charlene and her fiance Enrique were the photographers of the shoot. The pictures I've posted up here are shots from my camera. I'll post again once some of the actual photos from Charlene's camera have been edited.  

I had all of the ladies and gentlemen in Renee's court dress according to the 1940's naval/Pearl Harbor inspired theme. All in all, I'd say it worked out wonderfully :)

I also had them to a mini run through of their cotillion dance routine...it SO looked like a music video :)

Afterwards, we headed outside to finish up the group shots and get in some video footage for Renee's montage.

{Side Note}

Okay okay...Reeka and I wanted in on the action too :)

...and that's a WRAP!!!

Debutante Notes: Sent From My Heart to Yours

The debutante invitations are finally done and have been sent out! We (my cousin Regina & I) finished designing Renee's invitations back in late August. We got everything printed out, DIY'd and assembled. I have to say...I am darn proud of what we accomplished.

[The Invite]
We decided to design and create the invitation as a telegram...reflecting the 1940's naval/pearl harbor theme of the debutante. I wanted it to look and feel like it was sent from the 40's era. I tried searching for paper that would give me such an authenticity, but couldn't really find one that satisfied me! So, my sister Charlene brilliantly suggested to soak regular cream colored card stock paper in coffee and let it hang dry- to give it a worn in, vintage look and feel (also it totally smelled like coffee so that was a plus!). The end product? Success!

[The Court of Honour & Postcard RSVP's]
We designed the following inserts with the help of Wil (Regina's boyfriend) and had these printed out on thicker card stock at a printing company. Again, the look and feel of these reflected the theme- vintage aircraft and naval emblems.

[The Final Touch]
On the back of the postcard, we decided to include a vintage photo of an airplane with the recurring phrase "From My Heart to Yours" to give it that polished final touch.

Also, we assembled the invitations inside vintage looking airmail envelopes to complete the look. Initally, I wanted to print out the envelopes with the chevron design on the edges- but that didn't quite work out to my liking. So, we found some ready made envelopes at Fry's Electronics (I know, right? Who would've thought?!?).

...and now, I can finally move on with the rest of the decor for the debutante! SO. EXCITED.

Debutante Notes: A Bit of DIY Flair

I've been slowly working on Renee's centerpieces for her debutante. I have all the materials I need to make the centerpiece- it's just such tedious work to finish one. I'm hand painting all the pillars dark brown, then coating it in crackle medium and then painting it over again with white paint. Afterwards, using old books, I cut out circles, sponge stamp the edges in red ink and then gather them into small florettes (one centerpiece requires 36 florettes to cover the styrofoam ball- with each florette containing 6 circles each). I found that doing this part of the process was TOO time consuming for just one person to do....so I needed to request some help from cousins (which they were happy to help with)!

As a final touch, I added in the Hawaiian flower. 

...8 more to go! Hahaha, it's okay....I got this ;)

Debutante Notes: Crackle Me Up

I started working on Renee's centerpieces today. I decided to paint the pillars first, since I was itching to use the crackle medium already. So I got my materials and set up in my backyard. It was such a nice day outside....got the pool waterfall trickling, the breeze blowing, music playing...ahhhh, perfect :)

[Materials]: paintbrushes of varied sizes: 1 pack for $4.99//acrylic paint in titanium white &

raw umber: 3 for $9//crackle medium: 1 bottle for $5.99//distressed ink in red brick: $3.99

[All materials purchased from Michael's Arts & Crafts Store]

I bought varied candle pillars from an antique market & a thrift store in Irvine (for more details on that please read Debutante Notes: The First Haul from an earlier May post). I applied a base coat of raw umber on the pillar (which was originally painted in gold) and then let it dry completely. I then applied the crackle medium and let that dry for about 10 minutes. For the top coat, I used titanium white. I needed to do this in contrasting colors so that the crackle effect would be clearly visible. 

{Side Note} Two finished pillars for today. I can only do so much with these two hands of mine.

Once I started to apply the titanium white paint, the "crackling" began within seconds! It was SO cool! Desired effect? YES! It was perfect. The pillar is exactly what I had envisioned :)

{Love} This will tie in perfectly with Renee's 1940's vintage theme.

Two pillars down...9 more to go. I will say this though, I tried a sample of the crackle effect on a metal pillar (we have 3 metal pillars so far) and I'm not sure if it'll turn out the same way as these wooden pillars. I'll have to play around with it some more and figure it out as I go :)

{Love} White roses in bloom!