Event Decorating....Who ME?

We were all sitting around at my parents house, having a little meeting about Greer 2012, when talk turned to my nephews upcoming wedding.   Dana started discussing "assignments" for the grooms dinner and the reception.  When there it was...."Allyson, would you decorate for the dinner?" 

I won't lie, I may have peed a little in my pants.  I mean, I get it....I have people fooled into believing I have some modicum of home decorating ability.  I may have done a few modest thrifty makeovers or whatever.  Let these people believe I know what I'm doing.  But EVENT DECORATING?  Holy crap, that is a completely different ballgame people.

Anywho, I was rather nervous, not gonna lie. What the hoody hoo was I gonna do? (besides totally be a poet there, did you see what I did? HA)  So, I have a fabulous friend, who I will speak of in a moment, that has an insanely fabulous wall of clocks.  I lurve it sooooo much.  I was dropping Maggie off for a play date and I saw the wall o' clocks again and I thought....."clocks, I wanna do something with clocks."  Then I decided, I really wanna make the centerpieces clocks inside apothecary jars.

Then Dana said, what should I do for table covering, my friend has such and such.  I went with black table cloths and green center cloths, so the dishes could be green.  And I told Dana what my idea was....would you believe.....as it turns out, she was planning on singing a song from the musical "Big" called "Stop Time."  AND that Tierra was currently in a show that used the theme of clocks and time and was amazing.  AND......to top it off, Bryson has a total obsession with clocks.  HELLO.  Can we say inspired?  I felt like perhaps it was.  And then, because Dana is Dana....she decided to name the entire evening "Moments in Time" and had a program with time themes.  It was awesome.

Ok, so pictures, that's all you care about right?  My apologies for NOT the best quality of pics.  Trust me when I say it was a lot better in person.  But first I have to say, I could NEVER have done this without my friend Stacie Brinkerhoff.  She is RIDICULOUSLY gifted with decorating.  She packed up pieces of her house, her entire wall of clocks and her genius mind and helped me decorate the place.  Also, must say thanks to Brysons StepMom Alison for raiding her studio and Domestic Bliss for pillows on the bench, chalk boards, easles and a few other random pieces that tied it all together.  Also, thanks to my friend Kalli for her vintage clock collection that made it into the jars and on the shelves.  Well, thanks to everyone that loaned me clocks, jars, dishes, etc.  This would NOT have happened without amazing and giving friends.

Just a couple of shots of BEFORE.  Except really these were taken AFTER we cleaned up.  But, you see the "lovely" I had to cover up to make it pretty in there.

Don't worry, I totally nailed those bad boys into the wall.  What?  I had a vignette to create.  Those are Stacies clocks, my sisters chair, Alisons lamp.  See, total group effort.

 That bench....Stacie found it on the side of the road, SIDE OF THE ROAD for FREE!  Old doors, courtesy of Stacie, pictures of Bryson and T printed out by me.  Pillows from Alisons raiding of the basement.

Drink table.

Crepe table.  It wasn't set up, so I just focused on, well, the focal point.  That GIANT frame, Stacie found on the side of the road, FOR FREE!  I went and bought the letters, wrapped the J in ribbon and added the ribbon to the other two.

Close up of one of the centerpieces.

For whatever reason, the dumb computer wont let me upload the one picture I want to of the food table.  So, this will have to do.  It was a delicious dinner of Cafe Rio Salad, which is sweet pork, cilantro lime rice, black beans, cheese, lettuce, cilantro ranch dressing in a taco shell.  All the food was made by Dana and her neighbors and friends and it was fab. 

This is an advice board.  People would fill out a little card and stick it in an envelope.  Then, my brother and bro. in law were the "MC's" of the evening and they were reading the advice.  Some of it was quite hilarious.

Me and the cute newlyweds.  Don't worry, I did totally match the decore.  Whatever, it's cool.

All in all everything turned out absolutely perfectly.  The "theme" was perfect and everyone had a good time.  In the end, I'm glad Dana asked, it was a fun experience and I was just happy I could help and contribute in some way.

Good times,

Allyson