February 24, 2016

Valentines Banquet

Hello friends!
Just wanted to quickly share a few photos of our Valentine's Banquet a couple of weeks ago.
I know many of you have moved on to Easter already but like always I'm a little behind.

Hubby and I were in charge of putting this banquet together for our church.  It was a big undertaking.  A lot more goes into planning one of these events than most people would think.  Many many details but it all went smoothly.  We had a good turnout and it was a fun time.
 Here are some of the little hearts I was sewing.
I used them as bowl fillers.

 I bought a few of these scarves from the Dollar Tree.  
They looked great on the tables.
They added some much needed softness.
 Another scarf and beads from Dollar Tree.
 I made that heart doily.  I'll show it in a later post.


 As you can see each table was decorated differently.  We didn't have enough of the same things to make all the tables the same.  We just used what we already had at home or could borrow from other people in the church.

 I picked up these little buckets from Hobby Lobby and added the vinyl letters with my Silhouette machine.  Maybe I'll make a post about that later too.
 This heart was an idea I saw on Pinterest.  We already had the frame with the chicken wire upstairs in our flower room.  All I did was buy three packages of red napkins at dollar Tree to create it.  




While I enjoyed planning this event, I really learned a few things.  I learned what to do and what not to do.  I came home that night and jotted down a few notes about what to do differently next year.

I think maybe next year I'll simplify more.  I spent a lot of time and money trying to make everything pretty but I soon found out people don't really care.  They don't care if the tablecloths are real or not.  They don't care how many decorations I hung up.  They don't care if there are chocolate kisses on the tables or not.  Or at least they didn't comment whether they did or didn't.  Last week we attended another Valentines Banquet at another church close by and their decorations were minimal.  It looked like they just showed up an hour before the event and taped some paper hearts to the walls and called it done.  But no one seemed to mind with the exception of me.  I think I care more about those little details than other people do.  I prefer a setting to be pretty rather than plain and dull but I guess that's just me.  So maybe next year I'll spend less time on those things.  

I think also we'll cook the brisket ourselves rather than have it catered.  I think some families chose not to attend because of the costs.  So while catered is better (less work for me), next year we'll probably do a pot luck so everyone can come.

til next time friends,
xx, Beca

7 comments:

  1. You did a beautiful job Beca! I'm like you... all the pretty decorations matter to me and I've found out in past years of being a youth director and later leading women's ministries that these things don't always matter to everyone else, {sadly}.
    You get MY vote though!

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  2. You did a beautiful job Beca! I'm like you... all the pretty decorations matter to me and I've found out in past years of being a youth director and later leading women's ministries that these things don't always matter to everyone else, {sadly}.
    You get MY vote though!

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  3. I think you did a beautiful job with the table decorations. The large decorations on the walls really pull it all together and the streamers above do the same. I'll bet a lot of people DID appreciate the effort that you put into this, but maybe couldn't be bothered to mention it. I think everyone would have enjoyed sitting down at one of these tables and be glad for the little pretties. Well done!
    Wendy

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  4. You did a great job with the decorations and I bet everyone appreciated your hard work. I know no matter what you choose to do for next year it will be awesome!
    Enjoy the rest of the week.
    Julie

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  5. I think you did an amazing job x

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  6. I think that you made everything really beautiful!!! I think sometimes people get so swept up in an event they forget to mention things like decorations, so although they didn't comment, that doesn't mean they didn't appreciate them I am sure. I expect that many of the things you now have can be used again next year - the scarves and beautiful heart and so on - so it will be easier and less work next year in any case. Lovely to see all that you did, I enjoyed it!!! xx

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  7. The décor was stunning and I am sure was greatly appreciated although not commented on it is always the small things that people remember.

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