let them just eat/ the marie antoinette indulgence party

one hot and sunny saturday in October a bunch of ladies got together here in my backyard to indulge, marie antoinette style.  i started a pinterest board ages ago when i  was inspired by the pastries of bottega louie, a restaurant here in DTLA.  these pastries transport you directly to paris or italy, with magnificent artistic quality. they are almost too pretty to eat, but i pretty much just want to shove them in my face. my friend stacy was all about it too (it is our favorite restaurant to get together at) and we decided to co-host the party bringing together an eclectic mix of LA women!

stacy and i are doing a cross post about the party, giving two perspectives. mine somewhat of a tutorial filled with images, while stacy’s post is filled with beautiful poetic words that read like a song. she talks of her  personal and intimate experience of attempting to be a girly girl. i love this lady, i love her writing. check out her post for a deeper perspective of one girl’s marie antoinette experience.

also, inspired by the sophia coppola movie, marie antoinette, which i have been a fan of since before it hit theaters, not to mention the soundtrack. i know it was booed at cannes, but i loved it. the colors, the indulgence, the over-exaggeration, the excess, the history, the innocence. i guess there was something dreamy about indulging on sweets, and champagne, and clothes with little guilt or regret. something, i think as women, we over compensate for these days.  so, we made decadence a little bit of reality for the day.

stacy and i pulled the decorations together using tangibles/fabric we already had, only spending money on the treats and flowers!  we asked everybody to bring either a dessert or champagne, as well as dressing the part. the ladies got a peek at the pinterest board for inspiration…and man did these women pull through! the outfits were amazing, the desserts to die for, and the champagne was constantly flowing!

now, marie antoinette is a controversial woman. i became slightly obsessed with her after the movie, bought the book, and did a lot of wikipedia reading up on her. the movie portrayed this innocent young girl stripped of all that she knows, thrown into an already indulgent hierarchy and married at 14, to then be crowned queen at 19. she was blamed for not producing an heir, when in truth it was due to the king’s inability to perform in bed. she eventually beared children, she lost children, she then lost her head. sure, she lived extravagantly and the people not so much. they hated her for it. i wonder though, can we blame her? i don’t know. there are two sides to every story. i wonder if she knew any better. did she know what was going on outside those palace walls? did she care?  was she just naive? or selfish? regardless, i became curious about her life, her interests, her tragedies. no matter our lot in life, we all have them.

i will take credit for the cake at the top and the raspberry cream puffs (which i made a while back, you can read the post here). i think that cake might be my  favorite thing i have EVER made…and i also think i have started a new obsession/style! the girls brought blue velvet cupcakes, madelines, chambard, napoleons, eclairs, princess cake, more cupcakes, and more sugar, and then some more sugar! top it off with champagne and we all went home with belly aches!

besides stuffing desserts in our mouths, which i made everyone do for the camera, we played some games. specifically, the one they play in the movie, let’s just call it the “name game” because i have failed to ever find out the actual name. i love this game for some reason and it isn’t the first time i have made people play it at a party!stacy also brought over some paper to hang on the wall where the girls could blindly draw someone else! hilarious! we also set up stations for nail painting and craft making! most of us just ate and drank…we should have hired foot massagers!

stacy and i collaborated so smoothly together, taking on different tasks and getting excited to build off one another’s ideas, but my favorite was the WIG!  stacy’s originally idea was to paper mache a wig onto a balloon, but… we were fresh out of balloons. however, i did have a hat form. i handed it off to stacy and she created this masterpiece with bubble wrap and toilet paper rolls. she sat quietly in the corner and assembled this piece of art (her forte) and when it was finished, i thought it couldn’t have been more perfect. “I love the humor of it falling short of being anything beautiful at all,” stacy, describes in her post about the wig.  it was art on a whim with limited materials, evoking silliness.  creativity at its best: humble and true.  much like my friendship with stacy. to me there isn’t much, more beautiful than that! at the end of the day, we were proud of the food,wig, and event we had created together…imperfections and humor -resulting in beauty.

we made a little photo booth and here are some of the gems that came out of that! thanks to all the ladies for making this such a fun, indulgent, and decadent day! and to stacy for planning it all with me!