I always planned to have a big Pink House Party in Edinburgh, but I hadn't realised quite HOW big it was going to be...
The idea behind the Pink House Party, which took place at my house on Friday 18th November, came from a chat with a lovely lady called Kylie Reid, who runs a very special (closed) Facebook group called Edinburgh Gossip Girls (EGG). Kylie and the other 6,000 wonderful women in this group have been incredibly supportive of The Pink House since we launched at the end of February. They've laughed at my shit jokes, they've asked questions about my curtains, and they've been wowed by Susie's fabulous photos. They also turned out in force to vote for The Pink House in this year's Amara Interior Blog Awards (you may have heard by now that we won Best Newcomer; I won't go on about it any more). Proper #girlgang stuff.
Me (in a pink sweary t-shirt), and Kylie (looking glam) at the party/Photo: Susie Lowe
This is just a picture - I'm not talking about it/Photo: Susie Lowe
And so it felt like the time had come to:
- celebrate winning the Amara award
- have a proper launch party for The Pink House
- thank the delightful EGG ladies for all their support
Which is how the idea for the EGG X The Pink House Party was born. Here's our invitation:
I made this myself. Can you tell?!
As you can see, we were lucky enough to bag a couple of amazing sponsors to help make the party extra special (well; more than a couple - we just didn't have time to add them all to the invitation).
First up is Pumpkin Brown, a new raw food cafe in Edinburgh's Grassmarket, run by the force of nature that is Amanda Brown (you will hear LOTS more about Amanda and Pumpkin Brown very soon - they are destined for greatness). Pumpkin Brown supplied all the party food for the night - it was all super healthy and all super delicious - and that's coming from me, a Mars Bar-loving carnivore. And everything looked amazing too. Here are some photos from the night, as taken by Susie Lowe (as is the first pic, above):
Watermelon and cucumber jenga/Photo: Susie Lowe
Delicious datey desserts/Photo: Susie Lowe
Fresh veggie spring rolls/Photo: Susie Lowe
Cherry and coconut cream pud/Photo: Susie Lowe
Our next sponsor was Belvedere vodka. As well as supplying us with many beautiful bottles of their Pink Grapefruit, Lemon and standard vodka, they also delivered 60 stunning tree-patterned cocktail glasses, and a gorgeous man named Matteo. As it turned out, Matteo was the only man in a party with more than 65 women, which was at turns stressful, shrill, and rather exciting for him. Matteo made hundreds of incredible vodka cocktails and, when he left around 10, managed to kiss every single lady in the house goodbye (no-one paid any notice to the 10 o clock curfew so there were still 50-odd females for him to snog). Which only served to make everyone's smiles even wider.
A forest of vodka/Photo: Susie Lowe
For those who wanted something softer, or simply wished to mix their own drinks (we set up another bar in The Den), there were delicious soft drinks from Edinburgh's own Bon Accord, including their tonic water, cloudy lemonade and sparkling rhubarb. Each bottle was drained to the last drop.
But our tastebuds weren't the only ones to get spoiled by our sponsors. Florist Snapdragon Edinburgh saw to our eyes in style, with their rambling arrangements of pink flowers, including ranunculus, orchids, roses...and some other flowers I don't know the names of which were also extremely pretty. Props also for their use of glamorous glassware; the vases took the displays next level.
Ranunculus on the mantlepiece/Photo: Susie Lowe
An arrangement in The Pink House den/Photo: Susie Lowe
Pink roses in the Pink House dining room/Photo: Susie Lowe
Our sense of smell wasn't left out either - Arran Sense of Scotland generously gave us a load of beautifully scented candles - Ultimate Fig and After The Rain - which got guests constantly asking, 'what's that amazing smell?' They also supplied the gorgeous Glen Rosa hand wash and moisturiser for the bathrooms.
Arran candle in The Pink House/Photo: Susie Lowe
And so our 65+ guests ate, drank, sniffed, listened and looked (?) the night away in The Pink House. Everyone seemed to have a brilliant time, judging by the happy faces, the noise levels (deafening, accompanied by choons from DJ Susie's Pink House Party Playlist), the fact that we drank our house dry (apart from Pink House Husband's posh wine which I just managed to save - sweating-yet-smiling emoji), and the lovely messages I received the next day. Here are some pics taken by photographer and guest Anna Moffat in the thick of the party action...
Mateo gets jiggy with it/Photo: Anna Moffat
Beautiful Belvedere glasses/Photo: Anna Moffat
Kristina Currie from Bon Tot/Photo: Anna Moffat
Fiona Douglas from Bluebellgray/Photo: Anna Moffat
Laura Hudson from Leopold+Frida/Photo: Anna Moffat
Dixie Mirowski from Catalog, and Susie Lowe closing her eyes.../Photo: Anna Moffat
Same time next year? As long as I've finished the washing up by then...
