Dark Romance Valentine’s Day

“This review is based strictly on my opinion. Others may have a different opinion or experience with the product listed above. I was provided the sample free of charge by the company or PR agency and I provided my honest opinion. No other type of compensation was received for this review.”  

Are you ready for a little dark romance or what? You see, I wanted to create something romantic for Michael and, yanno, Valentine’s Day-ish, so I went with purple and black. Purple happens to be the coolest color in the world. Not to mention, purple is the rebel of Valentine’s Day. And black… black sort of implies sexy time is scheduled later that evening. Purple and black. Satin and pleather. Mallery and Oriental Trading. All of those combinations go together like peanut butter and jelly.

I might be slightly addicted to scouring Oriental Trading’s sale section whenever they have a free shipping offer. (Read: I shop just about every week.) It’s just what I do. It’s how I get out of paying full price for anything. It’s how I ended up with a party store in my basement…

But seriously. My secret to party planning is catching a deal when there is a deal in need of catching. Like the votive candle holders pictured above.

But votives are not my message for today. Nope. The golden nugget of party planning wisdom is…

Create visual appeal with different textures, colors, and layers.

Take this place setting, I paired lavender feathers with white beady looking things (I’m so technical.) because it created a playful somethin’, somethin’ that might or might not have alluded to the sexy time I previously mentioned.

Mind games for the win!

Oh, and we can’t forget about the paper lantern chandelier from the first picture. That chandelier happens to be the easiest flippin’ craft outside of finger painting. You should give it a whirl!

Seriously. Do it.

And hello, glitter candles! I feel a little like a dufus for not owning mercury glass anything before this party, but I do admit to living under a rock. A really big rock.

Mercury glass is pretty in the not TOO fancy, but totally classy kind of way. Think of it like this… you should put your napkin on your lap but refrain from farting at the table. Makes sense, right?

Phew! I have one more money saving party tip before we get our grub on.

I mixed purple water beads with my purple and black gems to stretch them out because gems are flippin’ expensive and water beads are hella cheap. Talk about genius!

And food! Glorious food! I got all boutique-ish for my main man before I realized dipping strawberries and drizzling them isn’t fun. Like no fun at all. My only tip here is to spend the cash on berries or invest in some piping bags. It’s sooo tedious and squiggly.

Do a girl a favor and pin this dark romance Valentine’s Day party!