What can you say.....it's F-A-M-I-L-Y........

~FRIDAY NITE WELCOMING DINNER~

Phhhhheeeeewwwww.....The family reunion is complete!  It was a lot of work, but it turned out great!  Let's start out with Welcoming Night.....this reunion was the Glencamp-Croker Family Reunion, and the theme was "Steppin In The Name Of Love".  The welcoming dinner was Friday evening, after everyone was settled into their hotel rooms and had a rest from travelling. Since the t-shirt colors for the reunion were going to be blue and khaki, I was inspired to do something with peacock feathers as the centerpiece.  If you look closely at a Peacock feather, they not only have blue and khaki mixed in, but you'll also notice green, purple, and brown as well.  I decided to use Caribbean blue and khaki colored sand to fill tall vases that the feathers are in. I also alternated blue, chocolate, and green table runners on each table. Each vase was placed on a large mirrored plate, with candle votives on each side.

Once the room and tables were set, it looked really nice and elegant. The colors worked great together!  When the family started piling in, they were pleasantly surprised.

Each family member was given a "welcoming" box, which consisted of the reunion t-shirts, a CD, and a family connector( a spreadsheet with family contact info). Since the reunion was held here in Chicago, I thought that creating a CD, made up of steppin music, would be a nice keepsake.  I added a personal touch by creating a CD cover that showed the family name "in lights" above the Chicago Theater...you know, just keeping with the theme!

T-Shirts for the women were Caribbean blue, and khaki for the men. They were nice shirts, and fit right in with the theme.

The CD covers came out pretty nice too. You can click on the photo to see a close of up of the awning.  A lot of the family members loved it because it looked as of they were staring in a play on Broadway!  The CD was just as much a pleasant surprise as the cover....of course I had to represent Chicago by adding some R.Kelly to start the steppin off right....then they slid into K'Jon's "On The Ocean, Maze's "Before I Let Go", Heatwaves "Love's Gonna Last", and Aretha Franklin's "Wonderful", just to name a few!

The evening was full of love, great food, some family members meeting for the first time, and some catching up on the latest with one another.  It was a nice to see family coming together....just lots of love, like a reunion should be!

~SATURDAY PICNIC~

 OK, what's a reunion without the picnic???  For the family's picnic, I decided to do a Carnival theme simply because it's summer time and who doesn't love the carnival! I also mapped out family games such as tug of war and potato sack racing, just to name a few!  A carnival pretty much gives you cart blanche on decor, so there were lots of bright colors for me to work with.  The first thing that came to mind was POPCORN!!!  Don't know why I couldn't think of a more simple project for centerpieces, but that's me...  Needless to say, I enlisted help after I realized I had rolled two bags of "popcorn" out of tissue paper, and it still wasn't enough!  I also created centerpieces with bags full of "popcorn", attached to carnival goodie boxes, and they were all alternated on each table.  I ordered coordinating table covers, and plenty of colorful bunting and carnival signs for the tent that was being set up. Even though it was in the high 80's that day, the wind was something fierce. I velcroed down all the centerpieces, and had the signs and bunting secured tightly, but mother nature is not to be messed with!  It still turned out nice though. Sorry for the wind, but some of the table stuff just wouldn't stay, but you can get the gist of the theme for the day. 

You can click on each photo to see the "popcorn" up close.. Phheeeewwww.. that was alot of rolling of tissue paper and glue gunning....piece by piece!!!  Event detailing is gorgeous when it's all put together, but it's also alot of work--don't let anybody tell you its easy! And yes, for all my hard work in creating the "popcorn", I did in fact take a centerpiece for keepsake before ducking out early.

 

~SATURDAY NITE DANCE~ 

STEPPIN IN THE NAME OF LOVE

After setting up the picnic, and of course grabbing some of that delicious smelling BBQ- I ducked out so that I could make my final stop to pick up 30 plus balloons, and head back to the hotel to set up for the party.  Once again, my mind went to a far off place for centerpieces.  Of course, I'm always thinking about the theme and the purpose of the event. I decided to take some of the best Chicago Landmarks and put them on display.  Since everyone was from out of town, I thought it would be only befitting to educate them on some of Chicago's greatest spots. 

I had to combine the theme of the evening as well.....Soooooo, I decided to make each table a "landmark" by creating "building" as the centerpieces.  Some were sitting at Navy Pier, The United Center, Sears Tower, etc...  On two sides of each building, I placed a brief history of each landmark.  Coming out of the buildings, there were pictures of each landmark, and heart-shaped balloons-which of course tied it all in with the theme of the reunion.  You can click on and magnify to see close ups of each of the  photos. 

The evening was a success.  I wasn't sure I'd be able to get all of the centerpieces put together in time, but one of the family members offered to help me with the set up since she was going back to the hotel at the same time.  All the centerpieces were put together and the tables were set, with a little time to spare.  The only thing that I didn't get to do, was place the awesome "building" shaped confetti around the table(hotel rules) :( ... but that's ok- it still turned out great! ...and yes, I took one of those centerpieces for keepsake as well!

FINAL WORDS........
They say that you're always your own worst critic, so I wasn't sure if everyone truly loved the work that I did. I think you can always see where you could have done better, or done something differently, but forget that you're the only one that can see it:) However, my concerns were at ease when many of the family members commented on how much they loved the creativity and decor.  This was the first Family Reunion that I've done.  It was a lot of work, and I was exhausted by the end of the reunion weekend, but it was rewarding to see an event that I'd done for the first time, turn out pretty nice:)  Until my next post.......