Week 12: PopUp Masquerade

When I’m monitoring retail and licensing trends for the office, I love reading about pop-up restaurants and pop-up stores - Target, Marc Jacobs, Barbershop Ristorante. So when I first heard about pop-up parties in San Diego, I knew I had to go. I was supposed to attend one last year, but scheduling prevented me from attending. Finally, this past Saturday night, a few friends and I went to our first PopUp Masquerade Party in San Diego.

And what a blast! I’m telling you now, we had so much fun, we’re already making plans to attend the next pop-up party in September.

What exactly is a pop-up party you ask? Well, basically the planning company provides the venue, tables, chairs, and entertainment. You bring the food, drink, table settings and decor. Oh, and you don’t find out the location until two hours before start time. That’s right, you have no idea where it is until that night. That’s why it pops up. It was hard explaining that concept to my family, as they kept asking where it was, and I continued to reply that I didn’t know. You eventually find out via email, Facebook and Instagram.

The fun part is in the planning -- although amongst us busy women (me, Marie and Lynn; Lacy was still sick), we put it all together the night before. Now, many of you know I love to plan parties, or any event really. And quite frankly I wish we had more time to think this out, but we were pop-up virgins and we weren’t sure how far to go. Luckily, I love to collect china, and I had enough table decor to get us by. Oh, and we needed masks.

Picking out a mask is not that easy, how mysterious do you want to look? This was a black and white themed masquerade, but your mask can be colorful. As usual, I go with the color black for a mask, with a few feathers and a silver decorative border. Since my wardrobe consists mostly of black colored clothing, I have every type of black dress imaginable in my closet - long or short, casual or formal, conservative or sexy. I have one white dress. I wore the white dress.

Our menu would be simple and Italian inspired: penne alla vodka, cheese ravioli (gluten-free for Marie), meatballs in a tomato sauce, caprese salad, bruschetta, cheeses, salami, crackers, fruit, and assorted dessert bars from Sorella’s in La Jolla.

By Saturday afternoon, we’re anxiously awaiting the location. I find out while watching my son get knocked over for the umpteenth time at his basketball game (they’re very aggressive): Gaslamp Quarter right behind Horton Plaza. Perfect! A fun location, and Lynn has a parking pass right next to the venue - how lucky can we be. (Remember, I’m still suffering from my stupid sprained ankle.)