Oooo-La-La. A Tea Table in Paris.

I'm sorry I didn't post pictures sooner, but I am STILL in full swing with entertaining and crafting.  I have the last of my busy weekends in a row this upcoming weekend.  I am hosting a baby shower at my house and also throwing an appreciation dinner for our Thrive ministry leaders at church.  The baby shower is an owl theme, and the ministry dinner is a red carpet/Hollywood theme.  They both should be a ton of fun, but this should be a busy week!

I chose to do a very non-traditional tea table this last weekend.  It all started with my sister in law's Eiffel Tower decor she has at home.  I didn't want to create or buy a centerpiece, so I thought about what was accessible and worked from there.  We placed the tower on a platform in the middle of the table and added some tulle and battery operated white lights under the base of the Eiffel Tower.

I saw some gorgeous ostrich feather arrangements when I googled Paris themed parties, so, because I could not afford ostrich feathers, I took red boas and hot glued them to round styrofoam to make feather topiaries.  I spray painted the wood stick and the glass vase black so the topiary had our table colors.  They were fun and whimsical, though they still make me think of Animal from the Muppet Show.
I apologize for the pictures.  Not only is the lighting not perfect in the church auditorium (no windows for natural light), but we also had tables extremely close together, so everyone's decorations are melting into my tablescape.

We used my mom's beautiful cream china and red napkins, so our color palate was red, black, cream and white.  I wanted to do black and white stripes as the pattern for the accents, but it was almost impossible to find the striped materials we needed.  Instead, we went with a black background and white polka dots on ribbons and the crafting paper placemats.

For favors, I melted chocolate into a fleur de lis mold.  I gave each person three of these chocolates in a clear bag, with a red, fabric flower pin attached to the outside of the bag.  Finally, I tied them shut with a black and white polka dotted ribbon and a matching piece of paper with scripture.  Because of space issues, we stuffed the cute favors into the water glasses.

I made nametags out of red stock paper and the same polka dotted ribbon. 

Finally, I made chair back decor.  I had visions of tissue pom poms hanging from the back of each chair, but my poms were too big and round.  I played around with them and realized I loved them as really full HALF poms.  With the black and white scalloped tissue paper, they looked just like a can-can dancer's dress.  It was just an "accidental" craft that worked. 

The tea was fabulous.  I am going to share some of the other tables.  Some were traditional, some creative and fun (I love Lucy theme and a classic Hollywood theme), and some whimsical and magical (Tinkerbell).  All of them were wonderful. 

There were 70-something tables in all!  The event had over 500 women in attendance.  The lesson was on the biography of Fanny Crosby, who wrote a zillion hymns, including Blessed Assurance.  Her life was a convicting lesson to both non-believers and Christians alike. 

Have fun looking at all the tea tables.  If your church doesn't do something like this, you have to mention it to the staff.  It is such a FUN and successful event! 

"Ethel" and "Lucy" from the I Love Lucy table.

My mom and I ready to start the tea.

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