You know that feeling when you have worked for months on a project and finally you get to post the final pictures?

Yea, I am feeling like that right now!

Buddy is in the Academy for the Performing Arts and I agreed to Co-Chair the Theatre Guild End of Year Awards Banquet.  I guess my co-chair (Eileen!!!) and I shocked people because FRESHMAN parents never Chaired the banquet.  We were told by last years chair that basically, we just couldn’t handle it, that is was a SENIOR parent job.

So what did these two freshman moms do?  We put on the BEST awards banquet the Academy had ever seen (Administrator’s words, not mine!).  See here is the thing, by being a new parent and never having attended an awards before, we had no pre-conceived notions of what had to be done.

The first things we felt we needed to do was to take the banquet out of the “rubber chicken/ hotel banquet room” rut it had been in, stay within a very limited budget,  and get 150 teenagers to be excited and want to attend.

First, we found The Red Horse Barn` and  the rest of the planning just fell into place….

{Save the Date!}

The picture looks a bit “peachy”, but the paper is actually kraft colored paper.

{The Invite}

{The Entrance}

Love at First Bite, our Caterer served delicious food that was all “kid” friendly.

{The Red Horse Barn is such a beautiful venue!!!}

{Photo Booth}
The teens had a blast taking pictures with their iPhones.
Since these kids are in the performing arts, they were not shy!

{Our Award “stage”}

{Senior gift bags}

{Drink Station}

{Utensils wrapped with bandanas, pie tins from Marie Callender’s, mason jars with red stripped paper straws}

{Some of our APA Stars!}

{Dolly’s Sweet Dreams Cotton Candy was a HUGE hit!!!}

{APA Seniors enjoying their last banquet}

{Freshman Stars}

{APA Stars! These smiles made ALL of our hard work well worth it}

{Buddy, standing up, and friends}

{For the tables}

We purchased white linens ($12 each- a one time expense and less expensive than renting), kraft paper runners with buckets ($1 each) filled with crayons (.80 cents per box) for practicing stars to practice the art of autographs.

{Center pieces}

Tins (free since I always save my tomatoes, bean…cans), I glued burlap ribbon to can, then tied gingham ribbon over burlap, giant yellow dahlias with excelsior, sitting in a nest of more excelsior (we really wanted mini bales of hay, but our budget did not allow for them.  Total cost $8 each

{Place Settings}

Pie tins rented from Marie Callender’s (we returned the pie tins and received out deposit back, so our tins were free!), utensils wrapped with bandanas (.80 cents each) & tied with twine, mason jars with a kraft tag with a star punch tied to the jar with twine, red and white stripped paper straws.

I can not say “THANK YOU” enough to my FABULOUS Co-Chair and Friend!!!!

{Butterscotch Lady and my FABULOUS Co-Chair Eileen}

THANK YOU to our AMAZING vendors!

The Red Horse Barn

Love at First Bite catering

Dolly’s Sweet Dreams Cotton Candy

Baker Party Rental

Copies4Less

Kelly Paper

Orange County Fast Print

{The Banquet took place on Mr. Cabana and my 18th wedding anniversary. So romantic, right?}

Until next time,

Butterscotch Lady