This past Saturday at the end of May, I gifted my services to decorate for our friends Paul and Peggy’s Great Gatsby Garden Party. I luckily was also an attendee so I enjoyed spending most of my day in their lovely garden.
As I take my party decorations very seriously, in planning my decorations I went right to Pinterest and trolled around for ideas for this theme. The black and white and sparkle was definitely a nod to the Deco era and black tie fanciness but I also knew that this was a garden party and we needed some soft and elegant to balance the glitz.
A side table croquet court side was peopled with a flask, a fan, and flowers. And we chose to lay blankets and pillows on the ground for a lay-about feeling. The host organized a horse race game from 1930 which was equally entertaining with our friends as horses.
I used a dress dummy and full length mirror as a vignette in the corner of the garden.
The rose arbor was the food area and I felt it necessary to visually soften the supports by draping them and then I added a sisal rug to the patio for the indoors outside feeling.
I ordered a lot of flowers, “Ascot” roses, calla lilies, green button mums, and snapdragons to make arrangements for the food and bar tables. The florals turned out way better than I had hoped.
When we arrived, the host and hostess had us all open envelopes with secret identities of famous people of the 20’s in them. I was Georgia O’Keefe. Why not Dorothy Parker I wondered. Thanks be I wasn’t Zelda.
Blush champagne and sparkling pink lemonade, mini quiches, smoked salmon deviled eggs, and lemon bunt cake were all served with flair and care. The day was a little hot but we all chatted in the shady spots and the whole occasion was jolly and lovely. Cheers to a garden party effort well done by the host and hostess Paul and Peggy, and the supporting cast.
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6 Comments
The book pile with the candelabra, birdcage and pearls is awesome! Bravo, Shalagh!
Thank you Kathy for your lovely supportive words! My decorations did the trick. More time would have beget grander things but Miss Peggy and I were all good with that.
Love,
Shalagh
Oh my heavenly goodness, Shalagh. Exquisite and perfect for the theme. And your secret identity? Spot on. O’Keefe was such an artist who viewed her surroundings and subject with such an eye! Plus…you looked gorgeous. What more could one ask for!
Oh thank you so much for reading and knowing me Shannon. I sooooo appreciate you.
Love,
Shalagh
What a gorgeous setting, Shalagh. You should be over the moon with how it all turned out and how uber creative you are. I am way impressed.
Oh Miss Mala, Thank you so much for saying this!!! Miss Peggy was very happy with all of it and she said, I wished you could go into business doing this and I said money would just ruin the fun of it. So if you ever need a party helper, apparently I’m free!
Love,
Shalagh