Bandana Theme Reception

A couple weeks ago, my church honored a very sweet couple,

Charles & Patsy Escue. They have served at our church for

over 30 years, and we wanted to recognize them. I was asked to do the

decorations for it and was happy to help in any way possible =)
And of course, I enlisted the help of my mom and sister!!!

Since we had quite a few events at church recently with a "fall theme,"

I decided I wanted to do something different. Charlie is a good ol' country

boy, so I decided to use bandana's as the main decor with a red/white/black
color scheme. Here's a few pictures of the overall view of the room:

We had some scrap fabric and construction paper that we used for the

pennant. We threaded a needle with fishing line and wove it in and out at the top

of each fabric square, and attached the fishing line to the top of the black scrims with

thumb tacks. Straw wreaths were wrapped with bandana fabric donated by a

friend from church (thanks, Debi!) and the large, single felt flower was the

perfect touch (here's a tutorial on how to make the felt flower).

The white fabric that we used as curtains was already at the church, and 

we cinched them by using leftover fabric from the wreaths. Such simple and

easy ideas that all came together beautifully and cost next to nothing!  



The food was potluck (finger foods and desserts), brought by those

who attended the reception.  I had my mom wrap forks inside the napkins

and tie with a variety of ribbons, and we displayed them in a black basket

lined with a bandana.  The drink dispensers were decorated with a

bandana ribbon and a couple bandanas in the bottom of each dispenser.

The red runner on the food table was also fabric that the church already had =)



The lattice was decorated using bandanas that we borrowed

from many different church members. *As people dropped off bandanas

for us to borrow, we put their name on a small piece of masking tape

and immediately put it on the bandana. That way, we knew everyone would

get back exactly what they brought.* We tied the bandanas together

and attached them to the lattice using fishing line and little bit of white

duct tape.  The black fabric was draped to hide where the lattice

was hinged together. Since the church already had the lattice and black

fabric, this decoration did not cost a SINGLE penny!!!



The tables were decorated using a mixture of black and white tablecloths

(that the church already owns), mason jars, tissue paper flowers,

and a personalized frame. Thanks for letting us borrow the jars,

Mom and Debi! My sister made the tissue paper flowers (tutorial).

We attached them to a pipe cleaner (instead of floral wire), and weighted

them down by hot gluing two glass rocks to the end of the pipe cleaner.

Each mason jar was also tied with a cute, coordinating ribbon. The frames

were originally silver and used at my sisters' wedding for table numbers,

then we spray painted some of them black and used them to display prices at

a craft fair. So, for this reception, we just changed out the ribbon, and had my

mom type up 5 different things about Charlie and Patsy (information was

provided by the wife of the Escue's oldest grandson - thanks Jaime!) It was so

sweet and the perfect touch for the centerpieces! Too bad my iPhone pictures

weren't good enough to distinguish the words on the frames. A red bandana on

each table gave a pop of color, and black chair covers (from my wedding)

always dress up a room and instantly make it look so much nicer!

 



The dessert table also had centerpiece decor on it (minus the frame),

and we included another basket of forks. For the coffee cart, we used

leftover fabric from the wreath as a runner.

One of the family members (Jaime, who came up with the sayings for

the frames) also made a board of pictures of Charlie and Patsy

over the years. It was so sweet! It was even decorated with the

bandana theme =)  The personalized candle was from my sister and me.

And of course, we had to decorate the trashcans...

we couldn't have blue plastic trashcans out - that would

NOT have gone well with the theme!!!

So that's it for the reception decoration, BUT... I have to show you pictures of 

Charlie and Patsy because they are just adorable... here they are being

recognized during the Sunday morning service.  Aren't they so precious?!?

Charlie loves Southern Gospel music, so he, one of his

daughters, and his two granddaughters sang on Sunday morning.

In honor of Charlie, I decided to wear my cowboy boots (you can sort of

see them in this picture-teal dress in the choir loft), and Charlie loved them!! 

On Sunday evening prior to the reception, we had a Southern Gospel

music night. Charlie got up and sang a couple songs with some of the

band members from church. It was so much fun, and something different!



I was so glad to be able to help decorate for this reception... and

I was pretty plumb proud of myself for borrowing, repurposing,

and reusing things instead of buying new stuff =) 

Thanks Charlie and Patsy for your dedicated service to our church,

and to Christ.  Our appreciation is nothing compared to your riches

in Heaven! Have a wonderful day... and God bless!