A guide to party planning shows how to select invitations, themes, menus, table settings, music, lighting, flowers, and decor for weddings, holiday parties, formal dinners, and cocktail parties.

In A Passion for Parties, Carolyne Roehm presents her dazzlingly creative ideas for every kind of event, from a black-and-white dinner dance to a spring tulip celebration. Original themes, detailed decorating tips, gorgeous table settings and floral arrangements, as well as more than forty outstanding and surprisingly easy recipes–are all here to lend your next occasion the sumptuous touches that are the hallmarks of Carolyne Roehm’s style. The book offers practical advice and inspiration and even a way to partake in these breathtakingly exquisite events, both behind the scenes and as they take place. Whether it is an intimate Valentine’s Day in Paris or an Autumn Barn Dance for seventy, all of the events depicted here are equally splendid. Organized seasonally, the book features ideas for small gatherings (Christmas Dinner in Aspen) or big blowout events (a Fourth of July dinner with fireworks) and family festivities (a seventy-fifth birthday party, a Dickens-inspired Halloween; a children’s Christmas cookie-decorating party). Recipes include Mini Lemon Crepes Stuffed with Lobster, Chilled Zucchini Soup with Toasted Coconut, Baby Back Ribs with Rhubarb Barbecue Sauce, and Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce.

“Nature’s quintessential color combination of blue and white never ceases to amaze me. The look of pristine snow against deep blue Aspen skies; spires of blue and white delphinium in a garden; Connecticut’s spring mornings where the apple blossoms and nodding heads of white narcissus are in contrast to soft blue skies and vibrant green grass—these and many more images found in nature have informed my work for the last thirty-five years. From fashion to interiors, and tabletop to gardens, the presence of blue and white is a constant in my past collections as well as throughout my previous eight books. It seems natural that I would eventually do a book on living and designing with this seminal color combination.” —from the Introduction This private tour of the dazzling homes of legendary style-setter Carolyne Roehm showcases her favorite color combination in more than three hundred glorious photographs. From the time designer Carolyne Roehm rented her first small apartment in New York in her twenties, she has loved blue and white. In that one-bedroom flat, she draped the walls, chairs, sofa, and a canopy bed in an inexpensive blue and white sheeting fabric designed by her boss, Oscar de la Renta, and began collecting blue-and-white porcelain from around the world—initially bargain reproductions and eventually museum-quality pieces—from China, Japan, Portugal, the Netherlands, and elsewhere. Today, Carolyne Roehm presides over a magnificent duplex in Manhattan, an antique-filled stone house in Connecticut, and a chic yet rustic home in Aspen, all of which contain rooms decorated in blue and white, featuring accents from her collections of china, ceramics, glassware, linens, furniture, and decorative pieces. These rooms employ the whole spectrum of blues, from delicate sky to the deepest, boldest navy, evoking moods ranging from tranquil to vibrant. In A Passion for Blue and White, Carolyne Roehm takes us inside her homes (including her former pied-à-terre in Paris) in never-before-seen photographs of these stunning rooms. She also reveals how she has used blue and white to magnificent effect outdoors in Connecticut around her pool and in her gardens—and even how she used the combination in designing a wedding for a friend. She provides inspiration for tabletop design, flower arranging, and gift-wrapping, suitable for all budgets. Her ceramic, textile, and glass collections (endless sources of her creativity) can be emulated by anyone with trips to flea markets, thrift shops, and inexpensive import stores as well as antique stores and galleries. A swatch of French fabric began Carolyne Roehm’s lifetime love affair with blue and white. In this book, she demonstrates through her own decorating and designs, how this combination works its magic on everything from upholstery and drapes to napkins and tablecloths, wrapping paper and ribbons. For anyone with a passion for blue and white, here is the ultimate style guide and Carolyne Roehm’s most gorgeous book yet.

Presents a tour of the author's three homes--a pre-war Manhattan duplex, a Colonial-era Connecticut stone house, and an Aspen residence--in order to show how to make the most of architectural features and interior furnishings.

How do mass protests become an organized activist collective? Crowds and Party channels the energies of the riotous crowds who took to the streets in the past five years into an argument for the political party. Rejecting the emphasis on individuals and multitudes, Jodi Dean argues that we need to rethink the collective subject of politics. When crowds appear in spaces unauthorized by capital and the state—such as in the Occupy movement in New York, London and across the world—they create a gap of possibility. But too many on the Left remain stuck in this beautiful moment of promise—they argue for more of the same, further fragmenting issues and identities, rehearsing the last thirty years of left-wing defeat. In Crowds and Party, Dean argues that previous discussions of the party have missed its affective dimensions, the way it operates as a knot of unconscious processes and binds people together. Dean shows how we can see the party as an organization that can reinvigorate political practice.

When twelve-year-old Sadie is fired from her mother's wedding planning company, after a disastrous mishap, she starts her own party planning business and recruits her three best friends.

In 1966, everyone who was anyone wanted an invitation to Truman Capote's "Black and White Dance" in New York, and guests included Frank Sinatra, Norman Mailer, C. Z. Guest, Kennedys, Rockefellers, and more. Lavishly illustrated with photographs and drawings of the guests, this portrait of revelry at the height of the swirling, swinging sixties is a must for anyone interested in American popular culture and the lifestyles of the rich, famous, and talented.