The Craft Begins

Here is a sneak peak from the first official party Peak Events put on!  The theme was “Brazilian Carnivale”.

Wow, just found this post languishing in my drafts section.  Might as well update in case anyone is looking to throw a Luau soon!

Now it’s time to get into the nitty gritty of our military style Luau party.

First was the food.  Since I was doing all of the cooking myself (for 80+ people) in my tiny kitchen, I wanted things that were easy to prepare but still had a tropical feel to them.  Here’s the menu:

The meatballs you can get in bulk at Costco or any other big store.  I went for the beef (as the pork wasn’t very good) and it complimented the curried ketchup well.  You can find the recipe for that here.  The Polynesian pulled pork sliders were a big hit, and they were easy for everyone to eat.  The recipe for those are here.  Peanut chicken satay was an easy choice for picky eaters, and vegetable wraps are easy to throw together ahead of time and chill.  I added a little spice by adding curry powder to the mayonnaise.  Fruit salad is always a big hit, and we had a variety of salsas to go with the chips, some homemade, some store-bought.  And of course, deserts!  Cupcakes are easy to transport and easy to eat.  Key Lime and Pina Colada fit the theme nicely.

The food is important, but so is the presentation!  It’s so easy to make the party themed and interesting with little touches here and there.

1.  I love a decorated cupcake.  They’re like little presents for your mouth.  Since it was an army party, I thought that a bright pink army man would add the perfect touch.  Allegedly, some super high-ranking officer was eating one of these and everyone gasped in horror as he actually licked the frosting from the army man.

2.  All food looks great served on colorful plates, and it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg to add a little flair.  I bought these Hawaiian plates from the dollar store, at 2 for $1!

3.  One really easy and inexpensive way to make everything better is curried ketchup.  Just take ketchup, add curry powder and a dollop of molasses, and you’re done!

4.  I got a bunch of these leaves to use as display underneath plates on the buffet.  They were really inexpensive and the addition of live plants adds an element of luxury.

5.  Big parties for lots of people are easiest when everything to eat is finger food.  These great hibiscus toothpicks really set the scene.

There’s lots of things that you can do to make a Luau fun and memorable.  Colorful lanterns, party lights, plastic pink flamingos and a great soundtrack go a long way.  Have a great party!

Originally I had planned my wedding for the summer, so I had a really nice color palette going.  I had planned for a chartreusey-olivey green, with a pink coral color and lots of off-white.  Had we had a wedding party, the groomsmen were going to wear tan seersucker suits with the green ties and the bridesmaids a lovely coral color.  I had wanted to do it sort of 20′s/Great Gatsby style, as much as I could.  However, the dates kept changing, and before you know it, the date was set for late September.  Since the wedding was going to be in a family friend’s back yard, I thought that it would be nice to incorporate fall-ish colors while still being bright and cheery.  My family liked to call it derisively brown, orange and green, but I think that the colors ended up being a bit more subtle.  I was using paint chips, but here’s a nicer version of the colors I ended up with:

I hope this helps set the stage for the next few days!  Tomorrow I’ll be blogging about flowers and what you can do to minimize the cost and maximize the impact.