Read, Sip, Repeat.

The Idea

I’d been thinking about Paint & Sip events for a while. Not because of the wine, honestly but mostly because they always looked like the kind of thing I’d convince my friends to do for my birthday. A lot of my event ideas actually start that way—thinking about something I’d genuinely want to do and wondering if there’s a version of it that would work for Reese’s Book Club.

Reese also genuinely loves to paint—specifically paint-by-numbers—and I’ve always loved when our partnerships start from something that’s actually true instead of trying to force a connection that isn’t there. Then I started thinking about what we would paint, and honestly...obviously it had to be a book cover. You get the activity, you get to spend time with other readers, and you actually leave with something you made yourself.

Around the same time, we were developing a partnership with Decoy Wine. Books, painting, wine, conversation, it all made sense.

What We Built

The partnership unfolded in two parts.

First, Reese’s Book Club and Decoy created social content inspired by the rituals that already surround book clubs: setting the table, pouring a glass of wine, catching up with friends, and making reading feel like an occasion instead of another thing on your to-do list. We played with ideas like book club tablescapes, reading happy hours, and the very real experience of starting a monthly book club with your best friends. Decoy fit naturally because food, snacks, and drinks are already such a big part of how people gather around books.

Then we brought that idea into the real world with a community event. We invited readers, creators, authors, and industry friends to The Maybourne in Beverly Hills to paint the cover of Slow Dance, sip a curated selection of Decoy wines, hear Rainbow Rowell in conversation with Leigh Bardugo, and get their books signed.

And honestly, it was just fun. It felt like something you’d genuinely want to do with your friends, which was exactly what I’d hoped for.

From Feed to Real Life

Reese’s Book Club and Decoy partnered on a two-phase summer campaign: first, we created content encouraging readers to make Decoy part of their summer book club rituals; then we brought that idea to life with the Paint & Sip and created content from the event to keep the story going afterward.

I liked that the partnership didn’t live in just one place. You could see the idea on social, try it with your own book club, or experience the full thing with us in person.

What Stayed With Me

I had this idea sitting in the back of my mind for almost a year. I even remember posting that I’d had a vision of painting a Reese’s Book Club cover while sipping wine surrounded by my favorite authors and readers, and somehow we’d actually made it happen. There are some projects that feel really satisfying because they start as a tiny bubble of an idea, and then one day you’re standing there thinking, wait...we actually did this.

Also, it turns out painting a book cover is actually kind of hard. Nobody’s painting looked exactly the same, and honestly, that made it better. People started laughing at themselves, asking their neighbors what color they mixed to get the green just right, complimenting little details they noticed, and comparing finished paintings at the end. It gave everyone an easy reason to start talking without anyone having to be the person awkwardly making small talk.

As an extroverted introvert, I keep thinking about that whenever I’m dreaming up new experiences. Giving people something to make together changes the energy in a room. You stop worrying about saying the right thing because your hands are busy, and somewhere along the way you realize you’ve been chatting with the person next to you for the last hour. Now you’re friends.