This was a another formal banquet that I catered. The theme was "A Starry Winter's Night."
I like the formal look of the black table covering, so I used it again for this dinner. I picked up pkgs of fake snow at Party City USA, and sprinkled it down the center of the tablecovering, along with some silver star confetti.
The centerpieces were frosted vases that I picked up at our local dollar store. Each one had a votive nestled down in the center. The vase was surrounded by white batting, which was sprinkled with more fake snow and the silver star confetti. I also sprinkled some clear, shimmery confetti, to make it shine a bit more.
The centerpiece for the buffet table was 3 large pillar candles, nestled into a bunched up piece of silver, silk fabric. Then it too, was sprinkled with the fake snow, silver star confetti and the clear confetti.
I covered the top of the piano with a piece of navy blue silk fabric. Then just situated pillar candles and a vase with a silver spray of stars coming out of it. More batting, fake snow, and silver star confetti.
The menu for the evening was:
Southern Pot Roast
Marinated Italian chicken w/ rice pilaf
Baked potatoes
Vegetable medley
Tossed Salad
Hot rolls
Assorted cheesecakes - (made by a man in our church who loves to cook)
These were the salads. We did an assembly line as we walked by the tables to assemble them. 1 person had the lettuce, another the tomatoes, then onions, then croutons. We followed each other around the room and one by one, made these up.
The beloved chocolate fountain made it's reappearance. This time though, I served a couple of new items: pretzel rods and orange sections. Both of them were HUGE favorites with the crowd. The oranges were just to die for! I can't even describe how good they were w/ the chocolate. You simply MUST try it! I also served strawberries, apple wedges and banana chunks.
I strung white lights across the top of the room. This was a bit tricky to get accomplished. Lots of cord to deal with and then trying to line them all up so you could plug into the same outlet.... I'll have to come up with a better plan next time. I'll do it again, but will put more thought into it, before I dive in. For one thing, I'll string a wire between the 2 basketball hoops, so I can add some height to the lights down the middle of the room. I hung silver star spirals from the lights and because the strands hung a bit low, some of our taller men had to duck and dodge.
I wanted an area for couples to be able to have pictures taken. I found this backdrop at Party City USA. It's plastic and comes folded up in large sheets. I laid them out on the floor and taped them together, then hung them to create a room divider of sorts. Except it's in the corner. I wasn't thrilled with it. But for what I had to work with, I thought it turned out OK.
This is just a sample of how one of the pictures turned out for our couples. With the white lights on the tree beside them, the backdrop gives the appearance of stars.
