Dinner Party for 20: Countdown

In one week, my husband and I are hosting a dinner party for one of his colleagues that is moving away, and yes, there will be 20 people. I've had parties for 20 and more, but never a seated dinner party. Oh, and with 3 weeks to plan.

So, we're down to the last week, and here's what I've done. Planned the menu, check. Ordered the cake, check. Ordered the rental tables, glassware, linens, etc, check. Planned the decorations, check. Now I'm down to the actual work.

Since it's Christmas, and that's what we celebrate, the decoration theme is ready made. I want to try to use items I already have, but I did head to Michaels yesterday to stock up on gold, glittery things to decorate the table with. The tree was purchased today, and it's a great looking one if I do say so myself. Pictures will be coming soon.

Many of the table decorations (the table will be 3 5' x 5' square tables put together for a giant 5 x 15 table) will be from nature. Armed with a can of gold spray paint, spray adhesive and gold glitter, I glued glitter on pine cones, and spray painted long sticks and more pine cones.

I have 8 vintage parfait glasses that I plan to use with 12" tapers. My initial plan was to use cranberries, but they are just too fat. Plan B was to buy some colored sand at Michaels, but I just didn't find what I wanted. Plan C: small beans spray painted gold. Split peas looked the smallest, and were the cheapest, so here is what they look like painted:

The green shows through the gold, and looks great! More pictures to come as the week progresses. Stay tuned!