Two days after I signed up for my minimal participation, I received the 3 page hostess handbook via email. Turns out I was supposed to have china, silver, crystal, and a whole bunch of other nice things AND my table should have a decorative theme. STRESS! I was stressed, first, because I'm probably the least creative person in the universe. Seriously, it's true. Second, I don't have silver or crystal. Third, we don't exactly have alot of spare money sitting around for me to spend on decorating a table.
So I immediately did what any girl would do.... I made two S.O.S phone calls - one to my mom and one to my mother in law. They were both FANTASTIC! I'm not sure what I would have done without them. My mom sent me a box full of cute fall decorations for me to borrow, and my mother in law sent me ideas and pictures of cute things to do. In the end I didn't use any of either of their ideas.... (sorry guys!)... but they definitely helped set me on the right track.
My first important decision was deciding whether to use my own china or my great grandma Thelma's. Mine is nice, white with a platinum edge, and it has never been used. My great grandma's china is white with a gold rim and it has green and yellow flowers. It is used, but I love it for the sentimental value. So I had to decide which would be more meaningful to use at the tea. The theme of the tea was, "In the Garden: Spiritual Lessons from the Garden." In my mind, china with flowers on it sounded perfect. And thus, my spring garden themed table emerged.
Instead of having a beautiful serving bowl for my teas, I used a birds nest. Instead of serving platters, I used wicker baskets covered in napkins. Instead of buying a vase, I used my watering can and instead of a real bouquet, I used all of the fake flowers I had around the apartment (and added a few from the sale rack at Michaels).
I've also discovered lately that I have a true love for baking. I LOVE baking and Caleb jokes that I am the happiest when I'm in the kitchen. People at work (who blame me for gaining weight because of all the goodies I feed them) ask me whether I've chosen the write career path in international affairs instead of cooking. Ha! Anyways, I decided that instead of spending alot of money on stuff for my table that I will probably never use again, I decided to bake my decorations! I took small flowering pots and baked brownies in them to look like dirt, then I used pretzel rods and different colors of melting chocolate to mold into flowers to look like flowers in my brownie pots.
I also made apple cupcakes with a caramel filling decorated to actually look like apples in a basket for my ladies to take home as souvenirs.
I also made root beer cupcakes with toasted coconut on top then nested a marshmellow peep on top with a few speckled jelly beans to look like bird eggs and then set the cupcake on the top of a mason jar so it looked like a real birds nest up in my flower arrangement. It turned out awesome!
Okay, well I can't really take credit for everything. As I panicked about 11pm the night before the tea, the best husband in the entire world came to the rescue. Not only was he willing to taste all of my baked decorations, he also made every single one of my homemade napkin rings and all of my place setting cards AND he painted my awesome birdhouses.
The day of the tea was wonderful. I got to the church about 10 am and spent the next 3 hours frantically setting up. At first when people looked at my piece of fabric from walmart used as my table cloth and my watering can with fake flowers, they gave me that pity "oh how nice" and "the color blue is beautiful." But as I started pulling it all together, my table really looked awesome and people started to change their tune. I definitely had the best table and people were shocked that it was my first time ever decorating a table.
The ladies at my tea were so nice. The pastor's wife sat at my table (talk about pressure!), her son's girlfriend who is here temporarily from Colombia, the girl in charge of youth girls (a friend from Bible study), three sweet old ladies, and a Russian woman who didn't speak English. She introduced herself and said she was sorry she could not speak English. I introduced myself back in Russian and started a conversation to find out more about her. The lady who brought her got choked up and told me how happy she was. She told me that Svetlana was very nervous about coming because she would not be able to communicate. What were the chances that she would be at MY table? She really was the sweetest babooshka and when she left she gave me a big hug, two kisses on the cheeks and told me (in Russian) that she was SO glad to have met such a kind, creative, generous and intelligent young Christian woman who spoke Russian. What a blessing! There was clearly a reason that I got roped into hosting that table - and I honestly believe it was to spend those 2 hours with Svetlana.
The ladies were all nice, my table received rave reviews, the speaker was absolutely amazing, but I will always remember my first tea because of Svetlana. As a grandmother herself, she LOVED that I had used my own grandmother's china. It all came full circle!
Luckily cleanup was easy since I could pawn my baked decorations off on everyone else. I told Caleb that it was a great experience and I would probably do it again, but I was so glad it was over. Next year someone remind me to plan ahead and not sign up with only a week to pull it all together!
