To celebrate her entrance into teenage years, our creative and organised girl wanted to do something special. Combining a love for socialising, shopping for a 'new' vintage outfit and enjoyment of recent history dramas, she decided to organise a special dinner party. The theme was the Titanic, focussing more on the glamour than the sinking! Having a history teacher dad is always a help in these events as he provided some necessary artefacts. The girls were not as enamoured by the original footage of the film as he hoped!
We spent the entire Saturday moving furniture around so we could have the table extended and had lots of fun decorating the room. The table looked lovely, really special and glamorous.
Bribing the other children with a dvd and treats upstairs, we got ready to welcome these beautiful ladies. They had all made an amazing effort to dress up and they looked gorgeous. The man of the house donned his dinner jacket and did his best impression of Mr Carson (the Downton Butler), "A drink My Lady?" was his phrase of the night.
Of course I had more of a Mrs Patmore (the Downton Cook) role and was busy in the kitchen trying to feed all eleven of them.
The food was a huge success; a bargain find of some reduced 'Taste the Difference' meals in the supermarket made everything so much easier and cheaper. A lovely friend gave me the idea of cutting out puff pastry and putting it on the top (my original idea was to cook a stew) to look like a pie, I did this anyway and the girls loved the little puff pastry star shapes on the plate.
They really enjoyed the "cocktails" we served when they arrived, the favourite was called sunset and consisted of ice, cranberry juice and orange juice poured into a glass. The juices separate to form a sunset effect. To make the drink even more special we dipped the rim of the glass in squeezed lemon juice and then sugar which then sticks to the rim of the glass and added fruit and a gold umbrella.
After a few hours giggling, chatting and eating the guests sat down to watch some of the film. Scary to think I went to see it whilst expecting my now teenager! Thankfully they only had time to watch the start of the film so we didn't have to send them all home sobbing.
Now we have moved the table meaning it can actually extend we are hoping to have some fun dinner parties of our own. Meaning I am now on the lookout for easy, cheap but very impressive menus,
has anyone got a favourite to share?
Hi Grace, what a lovely way to celebrate your daughter's birthday! The menu looks great. Will have a think for a favourite recipe. When I lived in London I cleaned for a woman who always made fish pie for her dinner parties, she was quite rich though and I think it was expensive fish! My daughter will be thirteen in July and we're thinking of booking a spa for her and a friend so they can have facials and manicures, etc. I love Carson, he's so cute xxx
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely idea! A brilliant theme. The table looks gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteFab idea,so unique.I am fascinated by the Titanic story.We went to Las Vegas for a holiday in 2010 and in one of the hotels there was a titanic exhibition.There was an enormous part of the hull which had been brought up and was amazing to see.There were also lots of original artifacts which were very moving, even clothes which you would have thought would have perished.At the centre of the exhibition was a mock up Iceberg and as you can imagine the room was freezing!
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely dinner party - the table looked beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThat is so original and wow, amazing photos. Suzy x
ReplyDeleteHi Grace. Looks fab. I think Eleanor might turn out to be as original and fun as Maisy sounds - she decided on a Victorian tea party for her 8th birthday! Our favourite easy and cheap menus are pork with Boston beans and Moroccan lamb..... Interested in the recipes?!
ReplyDeletePippa