Valentine's Dinner Party

Friday night, Valentine's Day, twelve close girl  friends came for dinner!  We are a mixed lot- some married, some wanting to be married, some unmarried and some never wanting to be married. But for those of us who are married, our husbands gracefully relinquished the romantic holiday to just the girls!  Yes, it was definitely a girly girl affair! 

I had lot's of surprises prepared for the evening. 

 

 

Large pink rose balls in tall urns flanked the front door.  Candles in vases filled with rose petals were lit on the wall.

 

 

 

A small batch craft vodka for Valentine's Day!

 

A charcuterie, cheese, onion confit, sweet cherries, cantaloupe and roasted grapes appetizer offering in the living room while having cocktails.

 

The Dinner table was in pinks and whites with lots of sparkle.

A rhinestone embellished Cinderella carriage was in the center of the table with pink roses inside.

Twigs, my favorite florist, made the beautiful pink rose arrangements.

 

Every place setting had a personalized tiara, a menu and place card.

The napkins were tied with stamped feathers and seam binding ribbon.

 

 

 

I used a vintage menu and photo shopped the menu into the center and printed it on vellum.

After adding glitter highlights and rhinestones, I layed it over parchment card stock and tied them together with a hand dyed ribbon. The corners were punched with a decorative corner detail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name cards were done using a carriage motif download that I found on Etsy.

Again, they were hand glittered and placed on a gold card stock for the backing.

 

Crowns were made for each girl and placed at their seat in a cellophane bag.

 



 

 

Gorgeous rose arrangement from Twigs, our local florist. 

Glittered hand cut butterflies were also added for sparkle!

 

 

 

 

Several white and lace cloths were layered together.

 

I found the carriage at Hobby Lobby in a hot pink color.  After spraying it gold, I embellished it with my rhinestone stash and placed a bouquet inside. 

 

 

Dinner was very simple.  The Barefoot Contessa's Slow Roasted Beef Tenderloin with Basil Parmesan Aioli, Twice Baked Potato Casserole and a large Salad served with a Basil Lime Dressing.

I highly recommend the tenderloin recipe- so so very easy and the beef was cooked perfectly with no smoke alarms going off!   We cooked it to 128 degrees internal temperature and it was a perfect medium rare after resting.

 

 

Flash cooked green beans and baby carrots, along with artichoke hearts, roasted beets, tomatoes and artisan lettuces were arranged on a large tray.  Edible flowers garnish the salad.

The Candle Lit Table

 

Details of the buffet

Dessert was a Cranberry and Fresh Berry Gelee with Vanilla Whipped Cream and a French Macaron on top, garnished with a pink rose petal.  A small slice of Chocolate Tart with a kettle chip crust was added to the plate.

 

Served in an antique glass with a Love Disarmed ice cream fork!

 

For entertainment, I  prepared a slide show  of all the girls in gorgeous dresses, swim suits,

and couture fashion and put it to fun music of our generation like "I'm so Sexy", Dancing Queen,

Groovin,  - you get the idea.  So on our huge  flat screen, we watched a  35 minute show of  292 great fantasy pictures of everyone put to fun music.  (Actually we watched it three times and were dancing by the 3rd!) With a little wine and good photo shop skills, anyone can look sexy, rich and famous- even if just for an evening!  

 

 As a gift when departing, each received a 20 by 30 inch poster of their best picture in a special canister for safe keeping.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The  Real Girls!

 

 

 

The Rich and Famous Girls for the evening!  A bit taller maybe?????

 

 

Hope everyone had as much fun as I did on Valentine's!