a valentine’s party

Last week my special events team and I put on a Valentine’s Party. It was meant to be simple, but I’ve realized that I have a hard time doing simple. I get ideas, and ideas, and more ideas, and of course, once I see something I like, I just can’t not do it. Anyone else like that?

The tables really were simple but quite beautiful, I do believe. White tablecloths, white taper candles, and bougainvillea adorned each table. The place settings were my favorite. What do you think of when you think of Valentine’s Day? Love? Flowers? Chocolate? All of the above, right? Each plate was adorned with a box of homemade chocolates for everyone to take home! I used the Mixed Nut Dark Chocolate Truffle recipe from Sweet Confections. Ah-mazing. These are gluten free and sugar free, so they fit my diet! It’s hot here in SA right now, so it was quite the challenge to keep these babies from melting. In this case, it was totally appropriate to consume dessert before dinner!

We also topped each box of chocolate with a paper love fortune cookie. I love giving away things at these parties, and these were going to serve as tickets to a very special drawing! I love having surprises up my sleeve.

We used this paper folding tutorial to make the fortunes. I typed out 50 love quotes to insert inside. Throughout the night, we drew fortunes and whoever had that one in their cookie won an original piece of art {thanks to the talented Phoebe} that was centered around the theme of love!

I didn’t get photos of the food, but the menu consisted of a garden salad, French bread, grilled chicken, and rosemary oven roasted potatoes which we served family style. We skewered strawberries, brownies, and marshmallows for dessert and served it with a side of ice cream.

I do believe our 48 guests had a good time which is always the goal. In our line of work, you have to have moments like these that are light where you can kick back, relax your shoulders a bit, and just laugh. There was even some impromptu lip singing that broke out and of course, a dance party, because every party needs to end with dancing, right?