Homecoming Laura: My housewarming party
Our housewarming party. On Saturday, May 11th, I hosted my housewarming party… Read on to find out all the details on the organization and the realization of it, with lots of tips on how to prepare a party of this kind, where to start and what should not be forgotten!
Planning a housewarming party
Last November I was sipping a hot chocolate at Marchesi in Milan with Stefania, a very talented event planner and a dear friend, telling her that soon I’ll move out of home. So, having a natural inclination to organize events, she proposed me to organize a housewarming party to celebrate this beautiful and important passage of my life. What a wonderful opportunity to present my home to the closest friends and spend time with them! So here we are after months and months of correspondence via email, further meetings at Marchesi, home visits and, again, many, many phone calls to define every little detail. Stefania from Guastini Style is an angel: organized, precise, punctual, she has lots of ideas and was really precious. None of this would have been possible without her help. Here are the key points from which we started organizing the housewarming party!
THE DATE AND TIME
Saturday, May 11th from 5:30 pm to 9:30 pm. Why this choice? As you know, I travel a lot for work: the first months of 2019 were completely full and it was impossible to find a free Saturday. I wanted it to be on Saturday to give the opportunity to those who came from out of town to be able to stay the weekend in Turin or possibly have time to go back to sleep in his city, in case they couldn’t stay; moreover I wanted to wait for spring so that we could take advantage of the outer areas of the house and wanted it to be at happy hour because the view from my house at sunset is even more beautiful!
THE LIST OF THE INVITED
Second step was to draw up the guest list … My initial idea was to invite many more people, but then Stefania made me come back down to earth explaining that we need to take into account the size of the house, the spaces set up and service staff (which would have included 12 people besides her). In a house like ours of 120 square meters, she advised me not to exceed 50 guests.
THE THEME
Traveling, of course, but the particular moment of returning home, the one in which I finally see my family and friends… Hence the name Homecoming!
THE SETTING
I opted for a travel and tropical mood, with plants and flowers designed not just for every room in the house, but also for the two flights of stairs that lead to the house. Everything was done by the wonderful flower designer team by Sara Cattaneo Lab (they were 4 people!). To perfume the rooms even more I chose some candles by Jo Malone in different sizes and my favorite fragrances.
FOOD AND DRINKS
Again on Stefania’s advice, I relied on Lanzarotti, historic catering company since 1967, which offered me a menù dedicated to the event taking into account two factors: the happy hour time and the theme of the party. I must say that the choice was awesome as it was particularly appreciated by all our guests for the quality of the dishes and the care for the service!
ENTERTAINMENT
In any party that respects itself, there must be no downtime and efforts must be made to amaze and keep the guests’ attention alive. I relied on Nuart for this, but now I don’t want to tell you more … Keep reading to find out what we have organized!
MESSAGES FOR HOSTS
It is nice to give guests the opportunity to write a message of good wishes for the hosts, but above all it is even nicer to be the host who read them again and again in the years to come! We asked Sara Cattaneo to realize vintage postcards from 50 cities around the world that are representative for me: guests could write their message on the back and then post it in the dedicated mailbox!
GIFTS FOR GUESTS
I wanted to thank our guests for their presence with some presents, to make them remember the day we spent together. For women: make-up bag by Dior Beauty, Jo Malone candle with invitation to the store to discover the art of fragrance combining and a straw bag made by Micaela Spadoni. For men: espadrillas by Manebì e Jo Malone candle.
INVITATION
Last but not least, the invitations. We sent them about a month before the party, with a reminder the week before and one the day of the event.
I leave you below one of the very first moodboard created by Stefania to make you understand the inspirations from which we started to organize the Homecoming!
Planning a housewarming party
We come now to the day of Homecoming. Stefania e Sara Cattaneo‘s team arrived early in the morning, around 7.30 am, to set up and adorn the entire house and the external staircase… And they only finished at 4 pm! Lanzarotti Catering arrived at 1 pm to organize food & beverage workstations. Under the supervision of Stefy, we finished setting up the walk-in closet with guest gifts and we prepared two videos that would then be screened during the party by the artists of Nuart (did you see them on Instagram Stories?), who arrived at 2 pm!
Homecoming Laura: Welcome to my housewarming party!
At the entrance door of the building each one was greeted by a Nuart bell boy who, in a perfect vintage bottle green look, showed them the way to the elevator.
As soon as they left the elevator, our guests found themselves in front of a staircase of lanterns and Jo Malone candles that, with their lights and their perfumes, directly catapulted them into the atmosphere of the party. In addition, a lady in green indicated the right direction towards the entrance of the house.
DRESS: For Restless Sleepers via Tessabit. SANDALS: Le Silla.
Before entering, a floral backdrop dedicated to photos with a wonderful chair from the Forties welcomed our guests!
The front door was decorated with an incredible arch of fresh plants and flowers, handmade by Sara Cattaneo’s team.
Upon arrival, a flower corner allowed everyone to personalize their look with a crown, a brooch or a bracelet full of flowers.
In my study/walk-in closet there was also a corner for messages with about fifty vintage postcards, always hand painted by Sara Cattaneo, each with the stamp of a different city in the world and dated on the day of the event (11.5. 2019), where guests could write a message for us to post in a dedicated mailbox.
The studio balcony, the kitchen balcony and the outdoor balcony have also been set up with floral hints.
In the living area, even the bookcase with all the memories of our travels has been adorned and it was placed the dessert buffet by Lanzarotti.
The drink corner was positioned in the kitchen, offering sparkling wine, alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktails.
What made the event even more unique: the Nuart artists who animated the party through a series of artistic representations designed to welcome, entertain and amaze our guests. At first they disguised themselves with a horse’s head to serve food (which was all served in the tray).
Then two Nuart artists came out with two black and white vintage TVs in their heads that projected the two funny videos I was talking about earlier in the post!
Before leaving, everyone received her/his personalized gift: for girls a straw bag by Micaela Spadoni handmade in Sicily and a small bag full of Dior Makeup products and a Jo Malone bag with a travel size candle, while for boys a also Jo Malone travel size candle and a pair of Manebì espadrillas.
This is the end of our Homecoming party planning! If you want to see all the live videos, you can find them all in the Instagram highlights (@lauracomolli)!
I hope you liked the party: it was like living a daydream and everything went exactly the way it should have gone, maybe even better. It was really perfect! Thanks to those who have worked hard in organizing and realizing it to make it so special, thanks to our friends and thanks to you for all your beautiful messages!
See you soon here on the blog with new posts!
