Get Ready for Oscar

The writer’s strike is over, and the show must go on! The red carpet is being rolled out, and designers are busy putting the finishing touches on their designs hoping to be on that best dressed list. This is the Super Bowl of the entertainment world. Instead of being an armchair quarterback roll out our own red carpet and throw a pre-Oscar bash. Gather your best girlfriends, and ask them to bring their best dress and get ready to glam it up!

Bring Your Bling

Do you ever look in your closet or sort through your accessories and find that you have worn it all before so many times you can’t imagine wearing it again? This soiree is for you. Every guest brings the accessories in their closet that they are ready to pass on and places them on a community table as they arrive to the party. At some point in the evening gather the girls around the table. Draw numbers, allow your guests to select from the table in order of their number drawn.

Get Decked Out

This is a night full of glamour, so get dressed up. Hire a makeup artist to do hair and makeup, or set up stations to do your girlfriends hair and makeup. Preview the InStyle book “Getting Gorgeous” and pick out a celebrity that most resembles each guest. Photo copy the page and post the picture of that celebrity, instructing your friend how to do their makeup like Jennifer or Katherine.

Perfect Your Pose

Create a true red carpet entrance by setting up folding screens and covering them in white butcher paper with logos from your favorite magazine, as you see on the red carpet. Remember to set the red carpet, rent it or purchase one from a costume shop.

Best Dressed

Skim through your favorite fashion magazines and search for pictures of the best dressed celebrities. Tear out pages of the beautiful people and frame them in a simple black frame. Place them throughout the room as décor.

Perfume Bottles

Use a collection of empty, vintage or contemporary, perfume bottles as flower vases. The perfume bottles tie in the theme of beauty and glamour.

Dress It Up

Create a centerpiece using a dress form. Scour through that box of broaches that your grandmother gave you, or rummage through thrift stores for fabulous costume jewelry. Use the broaches and jewels to create a bustier. Select a graphic handmade paper and use layers of the paper to create a skirt, and a wrap.

Reserved Seating

Prime seating is the most important element of the night. Purchase a few directors chairs and personalize them for guests. Print each guests name on colored card stock, trim the paper to create a banner to secure on the front of each seat.

Signature Cocktail

If you don’t have time to “stop and smell the roses,” you can drink them! Add rose essence to glasses of bubbly and the aroma will be sure to entice your girlfriends to hang out for awhile.

Goody Bag

The swag (a.k.a. the goody bag) may be as good as carrying a gold statue home. To make sure your guests go home with something special send them home with InStyle’s book “Getting Gorgeous” so they can continue to create that glamorous look that they created at your soiree. Wrap the book in a luxurious piece of gold fabric and tie it with a print out of Oscar himself cut out and glued to a piece of black card stock.

If you want to give away more swag then give them one of the most used tools by celebrity makeup artist, the Shu Uemura Eyelash Curler. Your friends will be able to bat their eyelashes with the best of them!

If you want to include something that the actual nominees are going to receive this year, well that information is usually confidential but I got the inside scoop. With the celebrity baby boom upon us, this year the swag bags will be full of Obli Organics baby gear. It’s not only stylish but sustainable.

Don’t forget the Red Carpet starts at 3 p.m. PT on E! Networks.

Leave a Reply