Capital One Bank - Shrimp Boil

Capital One Bank hosted a shrimp boil for local clients on July 15, 2011, at Prien Lake Park; fortunately for all, they opted to use the indoor space! JT's Seafood brought in a huge quantity of perfectly boiled shrimp, corn & potatoes, and Brick House Catering & Events (brickhousecateringandevents.com) made jambalaya & boudin balls. Delicious! As far as decor went, we used simple navy blue linens on the tables to sync with the bank's logo colors, but the rest was a bayou/swampy theme. Sunflowers & grasses were used to make centerpieces for the tables, and all were arranged in mason jars to add a little extra flair. Big galvanized buckets were used to hold the beverages. Burlap cloth, netting and a Cypress knee were used to decorate what I consider to be the best part of the event: dessert! A graduate of the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts Patisserie & Baking Program (Austin TX) was enlisted to make 12 dozen swamp-themed cupcakes and 13 dozen brownie bites. What does a swamp-themed cupcake look like? I'm so glad you asked! Check out these photos of hand-crafted shrimp swimming in blue buttercream icing, cattails peeking out of marsh grass and lilies floating on lily pads. The shrimp, cattails & lily pads were individually created from homemade fondant. That's right, homemade fondant...you won't see that on TV! Our pastry chef is a genius. All in all, it was a great event!

Brooke & Lex

I did the "day-of" coordinating for a beautiful southern wedding a few weeks back - congratulations to Brooke & Lex Arceneaux! It was held outdoors at Rip Van Winkle Gardens (http://www.ripvanwinklegardens.com/) in New Iberia, which is absolutely gorgeous. The sunset view through the Cypress trees at Lake Peigneur is breathtaking - the perfect spot for precious Cajun Barbie & Ken to start their life together!

The party moved inside for the reception, which featured a variety of tasty foods, like meatpies (homemade in Kaplan, I believe), brisket sandwiches, etouffee pasta, and, of course, cupcakes! Here are a few pictures of the most important aspects of the event: the cake, the cupcakes & the couple (hijacked from Brooke's Aunt Deb Wilfer's Facebook album) -

ps: Rip Van Winkle Gardens has a Bed & Breakfast...I think I'll go back there for a little visit one of these days, and I think you should check it out, too.

Cupcakes

Have I told you yet how much I adore cupcakes? Always have, always will. The hypothetical wedding I am planning for myself will have cupcakes galore! Fortunately for all of us, cupcakes have become quite trendy lately - which means they are available everywhere. Everywhere!

Cupcakes are perfect for a variety of reasons, including the icing-to-cake ratio. However, what makes cupcakes so special lately is the creative decorating. No longer is cupcake decor limited to an icing swirl; fondant flowers and accents, sprinkles, candy, specialty wrappers & a zillion other fun things. These do not do justice to the wide world of cupcakes, but here are some great images I pulled off the internet & keep in my *idea book* for future use...
(ps: these images are Martha Stewart's, unless otherwise noted...)

Cupcake Tree! Genius, and can be created for any occasion.

Golf anyone?

Magnolia Bakery - New York, NY

definitely not Martha Stewart's design...

not very pretty, but a great idea!

You get the idea...

Whenever I travel, I ask the locals where the best cupcakes in town are. (FYI: apparently nobody in Denver eats cupcakes, which makes me very sad for them.) Below are links to a few of my favourite cupcake locations. I hope when you travel you will check them out!

- Austin, TX - www.heycupcake.com
- New York, NY - www.magnoliabakery.com
- Columbia, SC - www.freshcupcakes.com
- McKinney, TX - www.thecakestand.com

Happy Cupcaking!

Open House at Sasol

My first official *Events by Chelsi* event was an open house at Sasol North America in Westlake. I was fortunate enough to intern with Nancy Tower at Sasol while I was in college, and she called me about doing this event a few years later. Sasol produces chemicals that we use everyday in items like shampoo and PVC (if I remember correctly!), and this Open House was a way to educate the public in a fun & family-friendly way. We set up lots of fun stuff in one of Sasol's parking lots: pony rides, face painting, caricatures, fun jumps, music, a dunking booth, balloon animals, and, of course, lots of hands-on learning. And food! We had so much good junk food - hamburgers, hotdogs, cotton candy, snow cones, popcorn...my idea of heaven, really. I had great help from McNeese's Alpha Delta Pi sorority and a special family member that would kill me if I mentioned her name here. We had a great turnout and the Open House was a huge success!

Welcome!

Hey Y'all!

Welcome to my *Events by Chelsi LLC* blog! Here I'll post pictures and a little info about the special events I'm working on, plus some tips & ideas to help you with your own events...but, really, you should just hire me to do your special event! :)

I think I've been an event planner my entire life; I started getting paid to do it back in 2004 when I started working at L'Auberge du Lac Hotel & Casino. I moved to Manhattan in 2006 to plan events & promotions at Empire City at Yonkers Raceway. When I moved home from there, I started Events by Chelsi LLC. I plan all sorts of special events - everything from weddings to birthday parties to corporate events.

I'd love to help you plan your big event, so give me a call!

Chelsi Nabours
337.802.3734
eventsbychelsi@gmail.com
facebook.com/eventsbychelsi