Last weekend, we hosted a party to launch our new brand babes xo. We wanted to go all out to celebrate the announcement and most of all to thank all of our friends, family and supporters.
If you have a milestone or special occasion coming up or even just feel like throwing a party for no reason, make it the most extra party you’ve had yet because why not?!? We all deserve to get dressed up and go all out every once in a while!
Book a Venue
Our first step was the search for the perfect venue to host our launch party. We wanted something beautiful and with lots of open space that would fit everything and everyone we had in mind. The Gallery on Magazine is a hidden, elegant event space directly above Tracey’s Irish Channel Bar. With gorgeous chandeliers, high ceilings and a wraparound balcony overlooking Magazine Street, we knew we had to have this space the second we saw it. It’s perfect for anything from a birthday party to a fundraiser to a wedding reception.
Create Badass Invites
We love paperless post for creating eye catching invites that make it easy for people to RSVP straight from their email. The evites are also super fun and customizable with lots of cute images, gifs, colors and fonts available.
Get the Best Catering
We wanted a spread that would really impress our guests and offer something for everyone. We ordered an array of yummy bites from two New Orleans favorites: Pigéon Catering & Martin’s Wine Cellar. Pigéon even sent someone to make sure everything was beautifully displayed and to pick up at the end which made our jobs a lot easier. Everything was so delicious that our guests couldn’t stop raving about the food!
And a Custom Cake
Or two! It’s not a party without cake, right!?! We had to have a custom cake featuring our new logo for the party and Pure Cake came highly recommended. Not only was it such a cute cake, but also so yummy! They have lots of flavors to choose from, but we went with fluffy coconut cake filled with coconut cream cheese frosting.
We also wanted to pay homage to our beloved beignets as a nod to our original name Babes & Beignets that’s served us so well for the past five years. What would be more perfect than the beignet cake from Cafe Beignet?!? The sparkler on top made for the perfect photo opp moment!
Bougie Bar Menu
There’s nothing like bubbles for a celebratory event so we stocked our bar with the best, Chandon and Moet. We also couldn’t have a party without BABE wine! We got a selection of their rosé, white and red to have something for everyone’s taste. We served two varieties of beer from our favorite New Orleans brewery Port Orleans. If you haven’t tried their new Blackberry Currant Gose sour, it’s sooo good. The Bacchus Blonde is perfect for Mardi Gras!
Signature Cocktail
We love having a signature cocktail as an easier alternative or even an addition to a fully stocked bar. New Orleans distillery, Seven Three Distilling, pre-batched two delicious cocktails for the party: the Gentilly Punch, which featured their Gentilly Gin, pineapple, orange, and vanilla; and the Rum Cider with their Black Pearl Rum, apple, pear, lemon, and pecans. We wanted to have one with a clear liquor as well as a rum or bourbon drink to offer something a little more seasonal.
Find a Super Cool DJ
Once the booze starts flowing, the people will start dancing! DJ Reggie Black is one of our favorites in New Orleans for any type of event. He’s easy to work with, knows how to read the vibe of the crowd and is so much fun!
A Memorable Activity
We’ve been obsessed with Flowers with Friends since hosting a flower crown making party before French Quarter Fest with them a couple of years ago. We knew the babes behind this fun brand would create something awesome for our event and they did not let us down! The wearable flower bar was SO much fun! As guests entered, they could choose a necklace, bracelet, ring, headband, flower comb, crown or boutonnière made of real flowers to match their outfits. Talk about extra chic 😉
Photo Booth
There’s seriously nothing like a good photo booth! It creates something fun for everyone at the party to do, as well as a souvenir for your guests to remember your awesome event by. We loved having 24K photobooth at our event. The photobooth itself is not intrusive, but a glam addition to the party. It looks like a huge gold mirror and has a touch screen. They created the cutest background and customized prints for our party!
Get a Photographer, a Videographer & Plan Plenty of Photo Opps!
iUsually (hopefully) during your event, you are going to be having wayyy too much fun to be able to capture all of the moments you would like to remember. Hiring a photographer and providing them with a list of everything you want photographed before the event, takes away major stress. Katie Sikora is our favorite photographer based in New Orleans. She did an amazing job capturing every moment of the event with beautiful photos to help us remember the night forever! Additionally, we’ll have a video to remember all of the fun memories at our launch féte, Miles and Spencer at Milestone Pictures were great to work with and we’re anxiously waiting for the final video (coming soon to our social media channels)!
Don’t Forget the Swag and Decorations
We love having something at events like this that people can take home. Koozies are always a great option and something that people will definitely use in the future! We got ours made by the Inkwell Press, our go-to in New Orleans for koozies, T-shirts and other fun swag.
Find an Extra Outfit
Obvs we wanted to look our absolute best for the party! Who other to turn to than Hemline for an extra fun dress? With locations in New Orleans, Houston and beyond, getting our outfits was a cinch. We both went for floral 80 vibes and got so many compliments on these outfits! We got our hair and makeup done at Paris Parker before the event.
Thank you to everyone who came to our babes xo launch and for all of the support of our wonderful partners who helped make this happen. We hope you had as much fun as we did!
Xo 💋
Maggie & Alessandra
PS: We can’t thank our sponsors enough for making this event extra special. We love y’all!