Something Special for Christmas

Yep!  We are crazy.  My pal Jessica and I pulled off a crazy, insane ward Christmas party this last weekend.  We couldn't have done it without Molly, Christian, Randy, and Colby... that's for dang sure.  And there were a lot of others that made Saturday go off without a hitch and I'm so grateful for their help.

Jess had been working on some grand ideas and apparently I was her "Yes Man."  I'd always end up smiling and say OK!  She'd call me or text me and ask what I thought of this or that and it was fun, fun, fun.  We had almost given up on doing a lighted ceiling, but then our dear friend Jen came to the rescue. Jessica and Jen were talking at the gym and we learned that Jen was going to do something similar for their ward party and told us we could borrow anything we wanted from them.  Their party was gorgeous... all white, cream, brown... so elegant.  I loved it.  We got all of the their stuff and then added some color (and even more tulle and lights).  I wish we had brought in even more color, but it wasn't necessary.  It all ended up fantastic. 

-Here are a few photos from the night-

The center is a giant hoop Colby constructed for me that we wrapped with a straight strand of lights and some icicle lights.  This photo from Pinterest was our inpiration.

It sat right over our dessert table.  Then we had tulle and lights and garlands coming off of that creating that tented effect.  It took a while to figure out our system, but once we had it figured out we just got it up.  I couldn't stop giggling the whole night.  It was making me so happy to see it coming together.

 A couple more views before anyone got there.  

I wish I had taken a picture directly below that center ring so you could see how pretty it was from below.  

I'm still kicking myself for not remembering to do that Saturday night.

The dessert table was my next favorite.  We made a bunch of random treats and then people brought cakes that we added to the mix.  There was a ton of sweet stuff to eat and it was a big hit.  

We got treat bags too so everyone could take some home with them.

A few members of the YW presidency made all the random treats.

The little snow backdrop was behind the musicians.  We had a little trio come... piano, violin, and voice.

It was beautiful.

I loved all the banners and garlands we had around...

These tomato cage trees were inspired by Pinterest. 

(I still need to get my cages out of my garden and clean them up so I can have some at home.)

The rest of these are various table decorations we made/borrowed.

It was a grand party.  We all ate like kings, enjoyed a little nativity by the primary children, some other great musical entertainment, and a special night to celebrate the season.  Something else that made it fun was we had the young women serve everyone their dinner, which ended up pretty great too.  We weren't trying to out-do anyone or win any competitions.  We just wanted to make it feel special.  We decided since the YW of our ward were only in charge of one party and it was the Christmas one, we would make it fantastic and festive.