When my friend, Teri, told me her daughter was getting married, I told her I'd be happy to decorate for the open house she was having in Stafford. It was a time-consuming job, but it was fun for me to have free rein with the decorating and to use my creativity to come up with what I wanted to do! And fortunately the open house was at the end of April when I wasn't going out of town and didn't have any other events to spend my time on.
I kept $$ spending to a minimum by using mostly what I already had on hand, and borrowing from someone whose daughter was married last year and used similar colors.
The wooden frame below is from Michael's and at 50% off cost just a couple of dollars. This was the sign hanging on the front door of the community center where the open house was held. the font I used was Janda Stylish Script.
The cute couple. I didn't ever see a color sample of what Claire wanted but was just told the color palette, and it turned out to be just right. Whew! She was out of town until just before the open house so I didn't get any input from her.
Here's the overview of the mantle, where the engaged couple stood to meet guests.
I found the "You and Me Forever" signs on clearance after Valentine's day for about 80 cents each. I had three of them that I put around the room.
I had peach organza and a pip berry garland to put on the mantle, and borrowed the mercury glass candle holders. The small glass vases with azaleas in them were ones I used last year for a tea party. I have a dozen of them, so I scattered them throughout the room.
These tall vases for either side of the mirror on the mantle was one of the things I borrowed. I filled them with white lights and organza.
The chair ties and rose petals were borrowed, but the tablecloths and flower pots were mine.
The azaleas blooming in my yard were the perfect color of coral to add a bright pop of color to the blush, pink and peach colors. Hooray for events in April when our azaleas are in bloom!
On the flower arrangements on the coffee tables I mixed the real azaleas with some silk hydrangeas.
The bride-to-be had spent last summer working as a nanny in France, so naturally she wanted to have a crepes bar at her open house.
I'm glad I have this screen, because it fit into the window perfectly and provided a nice backdrop for the paper lanterns and tissue paper pom poms.
I already had the scrapbook paper with the Eiffel Tower on it and used my silhouette to cut out letters to make the banner. You can bet I'm keeping the banner and plan to host another event with a crepes bar some day soon!
Several sisters from the ward made small, dessert sized crepes. Mostly traditional ones, but I made three batches of chocolate crepes, too. (They're on the left in the picture below.)
I made labels for the foods I thought might not be obvious and put a tulip candle ring around the holders. Again I used the Janda Stylish script font. I provided most of the glass and crystal bowls and plates the food was served in because I wanted everything to look elegant and classy.
There were tons of yummy filling options, like strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, nutella, chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, whipped cream, chocolate chips, pecans and pistachios.
There was warm orange filling for crepes Suzette and warm apple compote, peanut butter and chocolate mousse, as well as light and fluffy lemon and Bavarian cream fillings. Everything was DELICIOUS!!
One of the water dispensers was mine and the other was borrowed. They're exactly the same, which was nice. The water dispensers had lemon and orange slices in them.
Here's guest sign-in and gift table. Since the couple was flying out after the open house most people gave them gift cards. I used table runners I had from Germany since the colors were just right.
The hat box was for putting cards in, and I used another cute wooden frame from Michael's for the "Gifts" sign.
We weren't allowed to put any tape or pins into the wall, so I had to be creative to hang the over twenty paper lanterns and tissue paper flowers I'd brought.
We were able to run a string along the back wall and hung the decorations from it. Of course there aren't any pictures of me because I was taking the photos, but Kent is making an appearance in the picture below!
I'd brought globe lights that were hung in the trees outside, but unfortunately didn't get a picture of them. Below is the trellis, wreath and welcome sign I put just outside the community center door.
I'll have to admit I was very pleased with how well everything turned out, especially since we only had about two hours to do all the decorating! Fortunately there was a fairly large crew there to help. I think the evening was a success all around.
It took me about three days to put everything away that I'd used and borrowed, which is how it usually goes for me after I put on a big event, but I was glad to have the chance to use some of my pretty decorations I've got stored away.
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