I am not a party planner. But I played one in real life .. for this amazing party. My Healthy Happy Vegan Kitchen book party. I found myself so proud of my new cookbook, and grateful for my community of friends here in Los Angeles that I knew I wanted to throw a book party to celebrate.
Now the big question was: how does one do that?? Throw a book party?
Luckily, I had some advice, help and inspiration along the way and everything came together even more beautifully than I had imagined. So I am more than happy to share my book party photos with you guys!..
This just might be the finest vegan cookbook of 2015—gorgeous food photos plus superior design & production quality. http://t.co/RM7y7zvMVO— Vegan (@vegan) September 14, 2015
T H A N K Y O U:
G2 Gallery
Heidi and The Blogger Babes
DOLE Get Up & Grow
Natural Delights Medjool Dates
Kayla Ramirez Photography (all photos below are by Kayla!)
SoCalShutterBooth
Bread and Water Catering (for preparing recipes from my book!)
Sprinkles Cupcakes (vegan cupcake donation!)
Clover Juice
Nespresso
Will Armstrong, threemorrow
Elise Roberts, G2 Gallery
Martin + Helpers
Liza Utter and Tess Masters (for inspiration and advice!)
Silent Auction Donors: VEGA, Jordan Winery, Cat Card (RFFMBT), Blender Babes, GUNAS, Real Food Daily, Moo Shoes, Cri de Coeur, ENCHA Matcha, G2 Gallery, My Matcha Life, Philosophie, YourJoyologist, Vaute, Zimt Chocolates, VITAMIX. ..(We raised over $600 for Alley Cat Allies!)
And of course, all the guests + everyone who has bought HHVK!
The Venue. The beautiful environment and wildlife photography gallery in Venice, the G2 Gallery, was the perfect home for my book party! The staff is ah-mazing and the space is gorgeous. If you are ever in the Abbott Kinney area of Venice, stop in and check out their space, cute gift shop downstairs and artists! They do a wide range of amazing events there too, like pet adoptions and more. LOVE them...
The star of the party, this veggie-burger clad book..
Lots of hugs... this one with PhilosophiaMama Sophie.
And me skipping around in my Cri de Couer heels, saying hello and making sure people love the food, my playlist (I promised Britney and delivered...) and everything!
A few photos with Heidi of The Blogger Babes - thank you for co-hosting with me Heidi! A million thank you's to you for being so awesome and such an inspirational "girl boss" talent to me. (Everyone needs to check out her two amazing sites! Blogger Babes + The Ambitionista)
THE PARTY FOOD rocked.
Thank you to Bread and Water Catering who allowed me serve my recipes at the party. I worked with them to create beautiful, elegant, mini-sized bites of recipes from my book. I supplied the recipes and they took it from there! So happy they were able to do that for me just as I envisioned. (At one point I was going to make the party food myself .. thank goodness that insanity did not happen and I was able to outsource the party food!)
My watermelon, tofu "feta" basil salad served on skewers - recipe page 167 in HHVK
My Sweet Potato Veggie Burgers with avocado, as sliders.. the cover photo recipe in HHVK! Recipe page 120.
Oven-Roasted Crispy Taters with dipping sauces, recipe pg138 in HHVK:
Vegan Peanut Butter Cups, recipe pg321 in HHVK
Mango-Avocado-Arugula Salad served in endive, page 168, in HHVK
As a side, I prepped these vegan cashew-cheese stuffed Medjool dates, they were gone in a flash! I should have made more!
Thank you Sprinkles for these mini vegan red velvet cupcakes - they were sooo yummy
Sophie brought some Philosophie truffles featuring her Cacao magic superfoods.. Thank you Sophie! xo
Fleurs I picked up at Whole Foods that morning!..
Some of the amazing guests! Thank you for coming!
Cat and I! Love this bunny. (Rabbit Food For My Bunny Teeth)
What food bloggers + brands do at parties...
And lovely Carolyn, aka The Healthy Voyager..
If you know what SNOW WHITE vs. ELSA Rap Battle is .. you will recognize the lovely Katja Glieson on the right .. ps EVERYONE needs to watch the rap battle. SO funny. (Sweetest, Talia in the background there!)
My girls! Love these talented amazing ladies.
More silliness at the photo booth with Sophie, Jordan, Amanda, Trisha .. (even MORE photo booth pics at the very end of this post)
SO happy to finally meet the super talented smoothie queen, Julie Morris...
My amazing friend Katie who I have known since junior high school. That is a good twenty years!!
Cuties and their photo booth treasures..
All ages came out for the HHVK fun!
Happiness is a packed room! Hiding in the back there: my faves Whitney (EcoVeganGal) and Jason Wrobel..
Katie again! Adorable couple..
On the far left is Will Armstrong, basically a superman in human clothes in terms of PR guys. LOVE him! Thank you for your help Will.
So happy to meet the super amazing VeganFatKid!..
More lovelies! Heather, Julie Morris and Tarashaun of Blender Babes!
More hugs... Tess Masters and Cat. Sorry we didn't get your lovely face Tess! xo
More cuties... Beth, Cat, Christia and Amanda (The body Book with Cameron Diaz - love that book!)
Sophie, Trisha, Julie
Tess and Jackie (Vegan Yack Attack)
There is Elsa again .. aka Katja. PS. Love her on Periscope!
Heidi and Tarashaun. Beauties.
Liza! Party goddess..
#Repost @lizautter 👈 this amazing lady is the reason why I challenged myself to actually go through with my cookbook party! Goal: reached! So happy she stopped by and celebrated with me so I could give her a big hug! 💞 Check out her awesome website #LizaAmericasHost.com 👯✨🎉📘 ・・・ "My favorite new cookbook written by sweet friend @KathyPatalsky at her book launch party, G2 Gallery Venice. '#HealthyHappyVeganKitchen is loaded with soooo many delicious and super healthy recipes - all created with love for the planet & our good health. Thank you Kathy! ...so proud of you 👏👏🎉 @G2gallery #healthyhappyvegan #superfood #shehasvegandonuts #greatparty #vegan"A photo posted by Kathy / HealthyHappyLife (@kathypatalsky) on May 16, 2015 at 6:08pm PDT
The lovely Megan..
Kelli R. and a guest. (An HHL fan!) So happy Kelli emailed me asking to come after I put a small note in a blogpost for fans to email me to be invited!
Jackie chatting about something amazing I am sure.
The lovely Caroline. Love this girl.
I think we were discussing the Backstreet Boys song that just came on my playlist... 😉
The lovely Emily of GlutenFreeEmily in the pretty yellow-y dress.
A little bit of a presentation with Heidi..
Love this group! Also not mentioned yet, The Sexy Vegan and Maura H - thank you!!
Vince and Carolyn!
Thank you Nespresso for serving our guests amazing full-size tastings:
Thank you ZICO for goody bag products!..
Thank you CLOVER juice for serving our guests!
Thank you to Natural Delights for the dates for our goody bags!
Thank you GUNAS, bags for the silent auction
Silent auction (calm before the storm)
We raised $600 for Alley Cat Allies! Hooray!
And YES there was a photo booth.. (let the silliness begin....)
Hooray!! We did it!! Thank you again Heidi... xoxoxoxo
And be sure to snag Healthy Happy Vegan Kitchen online or in bookstores!
My outfit Alice + Olivia top, Elie Tahari Pencil Skirt, Cri de Couer shoes, beaded turquoise necklace.
Last one of me and my prom date, I promise..
*All photos are by Kayla Ramirez (except photo booth shots)