decorations

I just returned from a hard day of Hawaiian party decoration shopping. I shy away from call this party a luau. In my opinion, luaus are not complete without a resplendent imu pig. My theme is Hawaiiana. Vintage Hawaii. The invitations were flanked by Frank McIntosh prints from the 1940's. I used the only coordinating art deco font microsoft offered,
Agency FB. Do I expect anyone to notice any of these details? Of course not, its just be being a control freak. Everything needs to lie within the theme.

So. Off I go today on a quest to find non-kitchy hawaiian party decorations...I'll finish later...

Alright, its later. I bought a dozen smallish paper lanterns (the round ones that pop-out and you put lights inside) I purchased muted shades of green and brown paint to hand paint palm trees swaying in the breeze. Inside I'll place semi-large christmas cool-lights and string them up inside the white seating tent. I'll tie raffia around the lights to keep them in place and give it a more natural look.

Secondary lights are created from strings of tiny white lights. I bought silk flowers with many petals, cut out the inside piece and dismantled the flower. I took 2 or 3 layers of flower petals and inserted the tiny light inside the middle, securing the back with white florist tape. Looks totally cool, orange and yellow blooms. These will illuminate the inside the beige food tent.

On the tables I'll place tall off white candleabrs with a light brown snail shell in the center of the stem. The shell is adorned with raffia and a few palm fronds. Inside the votive will go citronella tea lights to keep the bugs away. There will be palm fronds, raffia and mauve and white rose of sharon displys down the center of the tables.

I'm still looking for paper goods and table cloths for the outside tables. I'll probably use white for the tables and perhaps green or a pinky brown for the plates cups and napkins. Inside the food tent I'm using old school Hawaiian print material I found for the table tops...sort of a sky blue, green, yellow, orange and black scenes of surfing, huts, tikis, etc..

The menu is shaping up as follows:
Plantation Iced Tea
Pina Coladas
Banana, Strawberry, or Lime Daquiris
(little umbrella and fruit garnished, of course!)
Hawaiian punch (no, not from the CAN!)
Beer and wine
(no Mai-Ti..too difficult to make without a fully stocked bar)

Chicken Long Rice
Grilled Pork and Pineapple kabobs
Beef Satay
Teriyaki beef kabobs
Chicken Hawaiian (very cool recipe)
Hawaiian Macaroni Salad
Roasted sweet potatoes
Various fresh vegetable platters
Fruit kabobs
Mango bread
banana muffins

Hamburgers and hot dogs for the unadventurous palate and little kids.
Dessert will be birthday cake
Homemade fresh fruit ice creams
(probably pineapple, mango and strawberry)
and s'mores around the fire pit.

should be fun! I'll have updates as they occur.