Some of you know that I have a tendency to find myself "in charge of" coordinating some or all of the "decorating" aspects of a social event. I think it all started many years ago when I was making wedding cakes, and that eventually led into a fun adventure collaborating with a friend to design, coordinate, and create all the decorative elements of my daughter's wedding…… and since then there's been another wedding, the beginnings of a nursery design, and right now we're in the thick of planning a big family birthday dinner this weekend.
And one of the ways I keep it all together is to plan in Stampin' Up! colors.
Now I can't really take credit for the idea entirely; way back a couple decades ago during one of those wedding-cake weddings, the bride lived all the way over on the East Coast, but was getting married in Southern California, which is where I was at the time. So her challenge was to plan and coordinate an entire wedding – as an absentee bride. When she commissioned me to do her cake I was initially really concerned about how I was going to get the flowers the specific colors she was trying to describe over the phone. Afterall, everyone's got their own idea of what is "peach" or "lavendar", and I could just envision everything being left to personal interpretation. But the bride had a brilliant idea! She sent each of us – florist, bridesmaids, and myself, the cake preparer, matching paint chips from the hardware store – showing us EXACTLY what colors she had in mind. Wow! How clever was THAT! And it worked like a charm. Her wedding was exquisite, and PERFECTLY color-coordinated from beginning to end!
In the years since, I have developed my own technique for coordinating similar social events that call for color themes; I only use Stampin' Up! colors! That way I can carry around samples of the colors I have in mind, and don't have to try to remember what they look like when shopping or designing. And it's easy to communicate to someone else the color I've got in mind; I just give 'em a piece of cardstock. My son & daughter-in-law's wedding was all done in Stampin' Up! colors, and that was also planned largely long-distance.
And right now, I'm in charge of the table-setting for this big family dinner this weekend.
Now, without going into too much back-story, I have decided to use a palette of 9 Stampin' Up! colors! Yes, NINE! I realize that's a pretty daring thing to do, and I doubt I would ever attempt that on a card, but I've got a specific look and feeling I'm going for with this dinner theme. So I've been borrowing and collecting dishes and linens – and today went to purchase a few more plates to fill in the gaps. We'll be doing a ton of mix-and-match, and each of the 4 courses will have different (mismatched, er…. "mix-and-matched") dishes. (The main course alone will be served on 5 different colors and patterns of plates – two of each design, since we'll have 10 people.) Anyway, even with all my borrowing and mixing, I still needed a couple more dinner plates and a couple more dessert plates. So off I went today in search of more deliberate mis-match. And luckily, I was helped by a clerk who was all OVER my idea and totally tickled with my fun cardstock swatches! So we picked out another couple of plates of each size – but square, not round like all the others - just to keep the mis-match thing going, lol! It was really fun describing this whole thing to her, and I think she was having as much fun as I was.
Now I'm not altogether sure the birthday girl (my mom) is all that confident this will turn out looking ok; afterall, she has spent a lifetime collecting things that match, and she had graciously offered up her china set for 12. But I was going for "out of the box" this time, and I'm going on faith that it will all work out. I figure if the cardstock swatches look good together (and they *do*), then the table will, as well. (But for Mom's sake, please keep your fingers crossed, lol!)
Are you curious about what colors I'm using? How do these sound?
- So Saffron
- Bravo Burgundy
- Elegant Eggplant
- Rose Red
- Regal Rose
- Handsome Hunter
- Certainly Celery
- Taken with Teal
- Tempting Turquoise
Does it kind of make you think of a circus? If so, mission accomplished! (wink!)
