I’m not sure there’s anything more fun than a large group of women getting together. There’s just something about a sisterhood making connections. Making it more fun is having a great speaker address those women and then conclude with a light luncheon together. Good times! Great Gatherings!
Last week I had the opportunity to serve on a committee involved in putting such an event together. I was asked to serve on the decorating committee. When you hold such an event in a large hall, you want to come up with something big! So large bright tissue flowers became our theme to work around and bring on a bright Spring theme. After all….. I’m ready! Are you?
There were four of us working on flowers. (Five if you count Ruth’s husband…..) Lots of hours were put into creating 60+ large flowers and another 60+ small flowers for the table tops! They do take a little time since you have to be very gentle with the tissue paper. Even with that, there’s always a few tears…. but we managed to hide them ok. I did notice that the stronger, heavier tissue paper had less of a chance to tear. I would suggest choosing something like that if you have the choice. There are dozens of tutorials for making tissue flowers on Pinterest.
Ruth’s vision of bringing in Spring on the stage front included, making a cute little ‘cloud guy’ figure to add to our vignette. She got her inspiration from the cute Trolls movie.
Other items were pink rubber boots filled with real tulips, a small rocking chair with a rain coat draped on it,
an open yellow umbrella and lots of paper flowers to dawn the tiny picket fence along with a couple of geese and a rustic looking watering can. Oh….. and don’t forget the bright glittery letters pinned to the curtain saying “WECOME SPRING!” It was quite adorable and cheery to look at.
Our table center pieces consisted of two of the smaller tissue flowers put inside a mason jar filled with bright colored Easter grass and wrapped in glittery tulle.
Under the mason jar was a 12×12 square piece of bright (and glittery) scrap book paper.
Next to the jars, we used Owl clips to prop up a picture of a saying from the same prominent woman that was also pictured there. The center of the owl clips are bent forward and the ends crossed a tiny bit to use as a space to put in the picture or saying.
The quotes were taken from Kathryn’s great artwork over at Mybestlds.com.
The photos of the women were from a large poster of all of the past and present General Relief Society Presidents available through store.lds.org. Since they each had a quote under their picture, we included the quote when we cut up the poster. They turned out about the size of a large bookmark. This gave us lots of words of wisdom all over the hall…both on the tables and the walls.
We loved how the tables turned out! The only thing we wish we’d have thought of for the tables was to add bright solid colored napkins. It would have been fun to use several different colors of napkins, with every table being a different shade of napkin.
We felt the walls needed a little cheering up as well. We made up 6 large posters (16×20) of some great quotes that Chrissy over at TeepeeGirl.com brilliantly created. We mounted them on bright colored poster board and stapled them to the walls surrounded by 5 of the large tissue flowers.
We had plenty of flowers left over and added them in clusters to other areas of the hall. I’m not sure my pictures convey how large this hall really is!
Since the decorating was done the night before, the decorating committee was asked to help serve the food. The food committee came the night before to help us get everything up, so it’s only fair we help them!
And what was on the menu you say? Well…… let me tell you!!! We started off by offering a delicious Chicken Salad Sandwich served on a croissant. We also had a gluten free option available by serving the chicken salad on a piece of Butter lettuce. Since the Chicken Salad recipe didn’t contain any gluten, it only made sense to make it available. Those gluten sensitive people appreciated that option!
Next was another gluten free item…. the Sweet Kale Salad from Costco. I freaking LOVE this stuff! While it is gluten free, you don’t have to be concerned about gluten to fall in love with this one! If you’ve never had it… you should try it!! It comes in a package with all the items needed to quickly toss the salad together and serve. There’s a little package with pumpkin seeds and Craisins to add some crunch, and then two packs of a yummy Poppy Seed dressing. Having two packs of dressing makes it easy to only toss together half of the salad at a time if thats all you need. You’ll find that even kids like it! It’s a great way to get some really healthy vegetables in them!
The next item on the menu was a yummy little pasta salad made with none other than the famous packaged, Suddenly Salad. I know, I know….. really? Why not make a fresh pasta salad? That’s truly an option for sure, but when you are serving over 200 people with several menu items, this was an easy option to put together. Add a few chopped tomatoes and cucumbers and voila! You have a wonderful tasting, attractive looking salad!
And to end the main course, nothing better than some bowls of fresh fruit! Strawberries, pineapple and grapes.
Then…. there was dessert!! We purchased plain cheesecakes from Costco, which by the way, are delicious all on their own!!
But, oh….. let me tell you about the toppings we used! Mmmm…. mmmm. We offered several choices. The favorite, by far, was the fresh raspberries with a little drizzle of raspberry sauce.
Next we had chopped up Snickers bars with a drizzle of chocolate sauce.
Then chopped up Butterfinger bars with a drizzle of chocolate or caramel sauce.
And lastly, yummy chopped Praline Pecans with a drizzle of caramel sauce. Delish!
Oh, of course we left a few plain pieces for those who didn’t want toppings.
All, in all…. it was a Great Gathering!! Lots of compliments and plenty of people ready to Bring On Spring!! Luckily the weather cooperated. It was a lovely day!
Great gatherings are the best! I hope this post has given you some inspirations for your next great gathering, whether it be a Women’s conference, a wedding or reunion….. whatever the occasion! Hopefully you now have A Pattern To Follow!
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