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Princess for a Day - Tiaras for All

July 2004

martha in brooklyn, NY

Special Mention

In the words of a certain woman who I have great admiration for The love is in the details.  These words are from none other than Oprah Winfrey.  I love to entertain.  I have found that my best parties are the ones that I have taken a couple months to plan. Tweaking ideas and finding treasures to be shared.  Every year me and my best friend host a women’s luncheon.  We each invite six close family or friend to this luncheon.  Because of our busy lives sometimes we never have time to spend with these people.  So we decided at least one day of the year we would treat them and make them feel special.  . 

This year theme was Princess for a Day.  The actual idea came from one of my girlfriends.  My idea for a women luncheon has inspired some of my girlfriends to host their own luncheon.  Once we had the theme we started brain storming everything that is associated with being a princess.  We decided that we would ask our guest to wear all white clothing and a tiara of their choosing.  I have found that people get more excited for parties when they participate in getting ready for a party. 

The Invitations I found a birthday card in a stationery store with pictures of women with tiara on their head.  I had the front of the birthday card scan to use as the front of our invitation.  On the inside left side I put a poem I found on being a black princess in today’s world.  On the right side I put the luncheon information.  I printed both the poem and information on pink paper and cut the edges with a scallop edge scissor.  Victoria Secret have these great shimmer body powders in stores now. I puff each invitation with the powder to complete the overall look and give a nice scent.  I lined the inside of the white envelope with pink paper to give it a more formal look.  Pink and white is the colors that come to mind when you think about princess.  Fortunately for us pink is the in color this season. Pink is not one of my favorite colors so I have no pink anywhere in my entertaining supplies.  

Since we were on a budget, we had to come up with creative ways to use what we had in stock.  One thing I had plenty of is white. I had white napkins so instead of buying pink napkins; I bought a tube of pink beads.  I sewed the beads around the complete edge of the white napkins.  My girlfriend worked for a textile company.  We were able to order fabric at cost to make it into a tablecloth.  It was white with pink and hot pink flowers all over it.  For chair covers I found a discount store going out of business in Manhattan.  I was able to purchase sheer white curtains for $1.99 each.  I covered my chairs with the curtains and gathered tie them with a pink ribbon. 

The secret to discount shopping is to shop in Manhattan.  I have found really great buys in 99 cent stores and discount stores in Manhattan than in any other borough.  Early on we had decided that we would give one really nice favor to our guest.  After Christmas when most stores were having their clear their inventory sale in February. We found these beautiful sterling silver bracelets on Banana  Republic online.  These bracelets were wrapped in pink wrapping paper with an artificial pink flower on top.  This was place on each white plate with a name tag telling each guest where to sit.  In April while on a window shopping expedition I found fabulous pink handbags from Spegiel in the 99 cent store.  I couldn’t pass them up. 

We decided that if we were going to ask the girls to dress up we should record the day with pictures.  We found a picture frame that look like a tent card, with two sides.  One side for an individual guest picture and the other side for a group picture. These pictures would be sent later with the Thank You cards.  The picture frame would go in the pink bag with a small tube of peony hand lotion from Bath & Body Shop.  We also found pink princess pens for the ladies to use during the two games we played.  We created questions for the ladies to answer to stimulate conversation. 

Every aspect of the luncheon had to be clean, pretty, pink and white.  We only use white or glass serving dishes. Flatware was gold and  Serving utensil silver.  Flowers were two shades of pink roses.  First when the guests arrive I had a large flute with cherries on ice that the ladies could snack on while waiting for everyone to arrive.  The wine that was served is called Fantasy from a winery in Pennsylvania called Nissley Wine.  Pink Lemonade also served. 

The menu consists of Fried Chicken, Garlic Shrimp in a Tomato Sauce, Lasagna, Yellow rice, Roasted Red Potato, Beef Stir Fry, and a Garden Salad.  For dessert we had vanilla cupcake decorated with pink flowers from Cupcake Café in Manhattan.  This was accompanied with strawberry sherbet cut out in the shape of a butterfly.  I use my son’s cookie cutter.  My husband, the good sport that he is help with the serving of my guest.  He was a great waiter all dress in white.   All the ladies had a fabulous time.  They can't wait till next year.

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