A professional party planner shares his menu and design ideas for all types of entertaining occasions, from formal meals and large buffets to elegant dinners for two

Effortless Elegance With Colin Cowie: Menus, Tips, Strategies, and More Than 200 Recipes

Cowie, Colin

Clancy, Maureen

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Harpercollins

A handbook for living well in the twenty-first century From legendary lifestyle expert Colin Cowie comes the last word in living a gracious, sensuous life on any budget. Colin draws back the curtain on his own chic, passionate, 120-miles-per-hour life, revealing how to create and entertain in an inviting home, garner respect in the workplace, and travel with ease and comfort. No matter how or where you live, or whatever your personal style may be, Colin Cowie Chic will place you on the fast track to experiencing life to the fullest. This immensely practical handbook offers step-by-step instructions on everything from workplace etiquette to the art of no-sweat, fuss-free travel. Colin also takes the guesswork out of navigating today’s social situations with the kind of charm and confidence that will get you invited back anywhere you want! The invaluable details he shares include: Home: Essential comforts for every room Kitchen decorating ideas Storage and organization shortcuts Know-how for being or hosting a guest Entertaining: A wine-and-cheese primer Options for stunning table settings A no-fail hangover cure Travel: Unbeatable jet-lag remedies Road-trip guidelines A must-have packing list Work: Tips for motivating employees and coworkers Desk etiquette for the office And much more! Packed with detailed lists, gorgeous photographs, and helpful illustrations, this is the only guidebook you’ll ever need to live a beautiful, elegant life (as you should!).

Colin Cowie Chic: The Guide to Life As It Should Be

Entertaining & Holidays

Potter Style

When you imagine your wedding, what do you see? Maybe you dream of exchanging vows before an intimate gathering of family and friends at sunset, followed by a chic and elegant dinner under the stars in balmy weather. You can practically see yourself at the altar, taste the cuisine, smell the gardenias, and feel the music playing when you join your guests to party at the reception. But before your wedding comes together with all the romance and glamour you’ve imagined, you’ll need to make decisions about the details. Is your color scheme bold and rich or soft and ethereal? Will you be married in your mother’s garden at the end of a serpentine path or on an exotic beach with the ocean crashing in the background? Do you desire an elegant sit-down dinner or a fabulous cocktail party with a great DJ who keeps the party going late into the night? With so many choices, it can be hard to decide where to begin. Now there’s no reason to get overwhelmed, because wedding designer extraordinaire Colin Cowie is by your side every step of the way. In Colin Cowie Wedding Chic, he shows how to weave a thread of style throughout your celebration, from determining the overall feeling and mood to the smallest and most personal details of the event. Following inspirational introductions from Colin about every part of your celebration, each detail is captured with magnificent photographs: bouquets; ceremony décor; centerpieces; reception décor; food and drink; cakes; invitations, favors, and gifts; appearance for the bride, groom, and attendants; ritual and ceremony; and music and after-party. Brimming with the kind of style that has made Colin the number one wedding planner in the world for celebrities, heads of state, and even royals, Wedding Chic finally gathers all of the options in one dazzling, easy-to-reference place. With photographs of more than 1,001 gorgeous details, it is simply the most comprehensive, varied, and beautiful resource a bride-to-be could ever wish for—one that is certain to make the wedding a celebration to remember forever.

Colin Cowie Wedding Chic: 1,001 Ideas for Every Moment of Your Celebration

Reference

This style book provides ideas and inspiration for every aspect of the reader's wedding, from initial concerns to attire, decor, flowers, table design, invitations, ceremony, music, menus and gifts.

Weddings

Parenting & Relationships

Little. Brown and Company

From celebrity stylemaker and wedding guru Colin Cowie comes the ultimate style guide for the modern bride. Like its companion volume, For the Groom, For the Bride offers expert guidance on everything from creating an unforgettable wedding to making a graceful transition to life as a newlywed. Colin begins by walking you through the planning, ordering, and arranging necessary for a memorable wedding that everyone will enjoy. He covers all the details from flowers to dresses, registry to reception, with tips on how to tactfully negotiate the guest list and how to make your wedding a personal expression of your identity as a couple. Colin goes on to demonstrate how to let the momentum of your wonderful wedding celebration set the tone for your upcoming life together. Your wedding can and should be a springboard for a lifetime of welcoming family into your home and entertaining friends with charm and verve. Of course, marriage is more than just a succession of parties. Which is why Colin has also devoted attention to the practical marital arts: how to communicate, merge your finances, settle disagreements, and keep the romantic spark alive. With its gorgeous black and white photos, timeless advice, and elegance of tone, Colin Cowie's For the Bride is as indispensable as it is beautiful, and a natural engagement gift for any woman. In FOR THE BRIDE, Colin walks future brides through the planning, ordering, and arranging necessary for a memorable wedding that everyone will enjoy, covering all the details from engagement to reception. From flowers to dresses, from selecting items for the bridal registry to negotiating the guest list and seating chart, Colin's got it covered. FOR THE GROOM, written with Colin's trademark charm and practicality, guides husbands-to-be through it all, from how to propose to what to buy for the first anniversary gift. With all the answers the bride wishes the groom already knew: how to assess the quality of a diamond, how to host a rehearsal dinner, how to win over her parents, and much more, FOR THE GROOM is a natural engagement gift for any and every guy soon to be married. Illustrated with photographs from weddings Colin has planned and written with a warm, engaging tone, FOR THE BRIDE and FOR THE GROOM offer practical advice and romantic, inspired suggestions to create both a memorable wedding day and a graceful, stylish start to married life. --&gt;

For the Bride

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

DELACORTE PRESS

From Colin Cowie, celebrity stylemaker and wedding guru, comes the ultimate style guide for the modern groom. Like its companion volume, For the Bride, For the Groom offers expert guidance for husbands-to-be on how to participate in creating an unforgettable wedding and making a graceful transition to life as a newlywed. Here is everything the bride wishes her groom-to-be already knew, from how to propose to how to win over her parents to what to buy for her first anniversary. Colin goes on to demonstrate how to let the momentum of your wonderful wedding celebration set the tone for your upcoming life together. Your wedding can and should be a springboard for a lifetime of welcoming family into your home and entertaining friends with charm and verve. Of course, marriage is more than just a succession of parties, and For the Groom is more than just a book of wedding etiquette. It is a blueprint for being a gentleman in the truest sense of the word, from the art of being a host to the myriad ways you can keep romance and passion alive in your married life. With its gorgeous black and white photos, timeless advice, and elegance of tone, Colin Cowie's For the Groom is as indispensable as it is beautiful, and a natural engagement gift for any man. In FOR THE BRIDE, Colin walks future brides through the planning, ordering, and arranging necessary for a memorable wedding that everyone will enjoy, covering all the details from engagement to reception. From flowers to dresses, from selecting items for the bridal registry to negotiating the guest list and seating chart, Colin's got it covered. FOR THE GROOM, written with Colin's trademark charm and practicality, guides husbands-to-be through it all, from how to propose to what to buy for the first anniversary gift. With all the answers the bride wishes the groom already knew: how to assess the quality of a diamond, how to host a rehearsal dinner, how to win over her parents, and much more, FOR THE GROOM is a natural engagement gift for any and every guy soon to be married. Illustrated with photographs from weddings Colin has planned and written with a warm, engaging tone, FOR THE BRIDE and FOR THE GROOM offer practical advice and romantic, inspired suggestions to create both a memorable wedding day and a graceful, stylish start to married life. --&gt;

For the Groom

Dinner After Dark is much more than a collection of great recipes: It’s a recipe for a great party, featuring stylish cocktails, stunning interiors, creative tabletops (hint: almost no cut flowers), and even advice on music, place cards, and the art of being a gracious host and guest. This is mostly cookbook, but also part decorating, part bartending, part etiquette, and part plain old bon-vivant-ism. The recipes are drawn from Colin Cowie’s sophisticated international palate, focusing on the exotic. The Peri-Peri dinner offers Saketinis to start, then moves on to Curried Mussels in Coconut-Milk Broth, red-hot Peri-Peri Chicken with green olives and preserved lemons, and a luscious Orange Custard Tart. The Cuba Libre cocktail party features Escabeche of Swordfish, Picadillo in a Lettuce Cup with Fresh Tomato Salsa, Plantain Chips, and Arroz con Camarones, all washed down with Mojitos and Cuba Libres. And the intriguing Bombay Soirée includes an appetizer of Stir-Fried Shrimp with Lemon and Scallions and an entrée of Chicken Curry and Peas, served with three different cooling raitas, Mango Chutney, Pappadams, and Aromatic Basmati Rice. What’s remarkable about the hundred recipes is that the dishes rely on spices rather than fats, on delicious pairings instead of interminable ingredient lists. Even more remarkable is that nearly every recipe can be prepared in less than an hour, and almost none requires last-minute cooking, allowing you to be a guest at your own party. Each party will be a fabulous one, with fun, helpful features such as: 911, entertaining emergencies and how to solve them; 411, information calls, like what a tagine is or how to trim an artichoke; OTT (Over the Top), on how to make the evening truly spectacular; and A Lighter Touch, on adapting recipes for less fat, or simply to be less heavy. All of this is presented in Colin’s inimitably stylish, irrepressibly fun voice that’s both entertaining and informed. Each party takes place in a uniquely beautiful location, from spectacular New York City apartments to an oh-so-very L.A. Modernist house to the beach in East Hampton. The guests are smiling and glamorous and having a good time, the decors and tabletops and food are extraordinarily appealing—you want to be there. Not only will Dinner After Dark transport you, it’ll allow you to bring the party to your own home.

Dinner After Dark: Sexy, Sumptuous Supper Soirees

Clarkson/Potter

Capture your thoughts in this beautifully designed lined journal.160 pages, 6 x 8 inches, with concealed wire-O binding, 2 inside pockets, and elastic band closure

Dinner After Dark Deluxe Journal (Potter Style)

What would you like your wedding day to look like? Maybe you dream of a winter wedding, set against snowcapped mountains. Perhaps you would prefer a barefoot wedding on the beach at sunset, with your friends and family dancing until dawn in an ethereal red tent. Or would your ideal wedding be an exotic, wine-tinged Moroccan celebration capped by a family-style Middle Eastern feast? Lifestyle guru, TV host, and wedding-planner extraordinaire Colin Cowie has created these amazing weddings, and many more. In Colin Cowie’s Extraordinary Weddings, he finally shares his secrets for creating weddings that are unparalleled, memorable, and–above all–personal. Both wish book and inspirational guide, this gorgeous retrospective reveals every detail of fourteen glittering, romantic, and meticulously thought-out weddings. Full of the sophisticated details and elegant flourishes that only Colin Cowie could have envisioned, these real events are sure to fuel your imagination. First, Colin takes you step by step through all of the sumptuous details, describing how he worked with each couple to weave their interests, heritage, and unique elements of their love story into their celebrations. Colin also provides ideas and tips that you can apply in your own wedding, including: • Choosing a meaningful theme and carrying it through every detail • Creating truly personal vows • Making guests feel at home at your destination wedding • Deciding on fabulous looks for flowers, fabrics, place settings, and more Whether you’re hunting for ideas for your event, searching for solutions to your planning challenges, or just dazzled by the romance of weddings, you will treasure this one-of-a-kind book. Enjoy poring over these wonderful weddings and learn how to make the day you say “I do” absolutely special–and absolutely extraordinary.

Colin Cowie's Extraordinary Weddings: From a Glimmer of an Idea to a Legendary Event

The Gold Standard: Giving Your Customers What They Didn't Know They Wanted

Learn how to cultivate the most incredible customer experiences on earth through this essential guide by Colin Cowie, distinguished purveyor of unforgettable "wow" events for the world's most demanding clients. If you're searching for ways to ensure your customers walk away from your company with a smile on their face and a plan to return, you found it. And any business organization can adapt the tools and techniques in this book. Colin Cowie, one of the world's most sought-after event planners, shares the hard-won and hard-nosed advice he has learned through entertaining and engaging stories and examples. He gives readers the indisputable blueprint for creating a customer-service culture that anyone can tailor to their own needs, whether you're a shopkeeper, corporate marketing director, or budding event planner. Upon coming to the United States from South Africa with $400 in his pocket, Colin built his highly successful catering and event-planning business from the ground up to become event planner to the most respected tastemakers and personalities in the world--including Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Lopez, Ryan Seacrest, and Kim Kardashian, to name a few. In this book, you will: <ul> <li>Learn how to formulate your own vision, mission statements, and guiding principles, and effectively communicate them to your team.</li> <li>Learn how you can align your vision with your essential mission statement.</li> <li>Discover the core values, including service and accountability, that fuel Colin's customer-care ethos, and how you can apply those values to your own business.</li> <li>Have a renewed understanding of how vitally important it is that you take good care of the people who work for you so they, in turn, can care for your customers.</li> <li>Become armed to inspire and empower your team.</li> <li>Be guided to create your own "bible" of scripts, protocols, and procedures that will streamline customer-care situations while making every customer feel like their individual desires are being taken care of.</li> <li>Learn how to use every complaint as an opportunity, as well as why you should be more afraid of a client who doesn't complain when something goes wrong versus one who does.</li> </ul> &nbsp;

Business & Money

Industries

HarperCollins Leadership

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Books by Cowie, Colin