I am not Emily Post.

As the final exam for my Family/Consumer Sciences class I was required to plan and host a dinner party.
I know. Best. Exam. Ever.
I had to pick a theme and create a menu, centerpiece, invitations and decorations to go with the theme.
I searched the internet for different ideas and finally decided on a fairytale theme because  I thought it would be the easiest theme to do everyone likes fairytales.
The idea was that the different items on the menu would have something to do with different fairytales.

The menu was:
first course: salad
second course: cheese soup in a bread bowl
entree: pecan-crusted pork with pumpkin butter, green beans and cresents (Three Little Pigs, Cinderella, Jack and the Bean Stalk, Hansel and Gretel)
dessert: apple crisp with ice cream (Snow White)
drinks: water, sparkling apple cider and coffee

I also made rose shaped butter pats to throw some Beauty and the Beast into the mix. The soup was originally supposed to be served in bowls made from little pumpkins (which would have tied in with Cinderella), but pumpkins are remarkably hard to come by in February so I had to use bread bowls instead. The salad doesn't tie in with any fairytale. I just like salad.

The invitations for the party were typed on the computer, printed on cream cardstock and decorated with quilling. I also made place cards to match the invitations but all of the pictures of them are annoyingly bright or blurry so the glimpses of them in the backround of different pictures and my word for it will have to be enough proof that they existed and were pretty.
I probably spent about an hour on each invitation. The nine place cards took me a few hours but that might be because I was watching Christy while making them. "Oh, please. Anyone can tell that she is going to end up marrying Neil. Give it up, David."

For a centerpiece I made my own rendition of Cinderella's carriage. I was originally going to buy a pumpkin and just make some wheels for it but as I said before there were no pumpkins to be found. I ended up making mine out of some fabric we had in the house.

The salads were pretty simple. Just some mixed greens, cucumber slices, grape tomatoes, and shredded white cheddar as a garnish. Ranch and Italian dressing were served in my mom's gravy boats.

 

The salads sat pretty in the fridge, waiting for the guests to arrive.

The bread bowls were quite an adventure to make. I was originally going to buy some round bread and carve it out, but all the round bowl-sized bread must have run away with the pumpkins because my mother searched several different stores and couldn't find any. We ended up buying frozen french loaf dough from Phillsbury and I shaped my own bread bowls from the dough. I promise that they were round when I put them in the oven. They just got a little misshapen.
You are probably wondering why I didn't just use actual bowls like a normal person. The answer is simple. We have no bowls. Well, no bowls matching our china anyway. Besides, bread bowls are yummy.

Cheese soup in a bread bowl.

Pecan-crusted pork with pumpkin butter may sound a little strange, but it is very yummy. It is a new favorite at our house. It is also really fun to say.

Pecan-crusted pork with pumpkin butter, green beans, a cresent and rose shaped butter.

No pictures were taken of the apple crisp. I guess the photographers were too busy trying to eat it before the ice cream melted. It was very tasty.

Daniel and Priscila went through training to be waiters for the meal. They helped a lot with getting ready for the party and they did a pretty good job serving too.

I bought the lights in the backround at Goodwill for $2 a strand and I got the idea from this tutorial to make the egg carton flowers for the them. The flower lights gave a really nice fairy tale glow to the room.

After dinner we took pictures and played Spoons, Bananagrams and Catchphrase.

The table, before we all sat down.



Somehow it all came together and it turned out to be a very pleasant evening despite the fact that I was running around like a crazy woman all day trying to get everything ready. A graceful hostess I am not, but I hope that with some more practice I will get better at it.