Margaritaville Luau Style

For those of you who have been following me for the last five years or so, you know that
I have been trying out new palm tree props.  I have progressed from the cardboard tube ones to silk palms.  I wanted the office garden to look PLUSH.  The party goers told me
I had achieved that goal.  I purchased many silk palms on sale and put two or three in big pots that stay in the garden year round.  I added silk tropical flowers and palm leaf to the bottoms.  When we were setting up, it was windy, so we went and bought BRICKS to weigh them down.  This worked like a charm.

The garden itself is pretty green.  I bought the water fountain years ago for the office.  I brought over my red patio 9' umbrellas to give two extra pops of color to the event.

Normally I have the tables up on bed risers to make them into bars.  Unfortunately the rental company stopped providing us with bar stools that raised and lowered.  I will have to find a new company, as the only stools they did provide were too tall to even sit on.

I debated with myself about making this seal pool, but one of the clients brought her daughter and grandson, who LOVED the pool and played in the balls.  It was worth it.

I reworked the coral reefs from last years' Australian party.  I needed the chicken feeders for my tropical floral arrangements this year.  I found these two metal tubs at Hobby Lobby and spray painted them. The diver was Velcro strapped to the tree.  If this is your first visit, those are rubber fish I purchased online.

The high tops were covered in green tablecloths to show off the fish bowls.  I have reused these bowls for so many events.  They were so worth the purchase.  I put them on the
candle stands I made, added blue rocks to the bottom, and  I added tropical garland strands I'd made.  The best touch was the hollow ceramic koi fish I found in a California gift store.  The fish floated around in the water.  The staff and clients really took note of this.

The office is growing rapidly.  They put up TWO monitors in this kitchen area to have
extra conference space.  I now design computer posters for both of these to match my dessert bars.

Every single log/wooden serving piece I've bought or made fits into my themes.  I actually created the pattern on the hula dancers and made these Polynesian people bit by bit in Photoshop.  If you enlarge this, you will see that the girls are triplets.  Ha ha.  The hotel in the background actually took me hours and hours to design.  I wondered if anyone would even notice.  They DID.   What was really a difficult job was making ocean waves.  

 Above is the Tiki Bar I designed for this scene.  I originally wanted people sitting on the sand at a luau.  I couldn't do it, so I put them sitting at a bar. This was weeks and weeks of work, but worth it.  In the photo you can see my little chairs again.  They also get used a LOT.  They are in the tray filled with crushed cookie sand and sugar cookie flip flops.  I made the straps with fondant.  The flamingos are sitting on lemon pound cakes.  The glaze looks a little sloppy, but no one cares, because the cakes are delicious.  I have found that guests don't like to be the first one to slice a cake, so I always start that first slice right away.

In the front of this photo take note to the palm leaves I cut out for doilies.  The tiny pies are key lime cheesecake filled.  I REALLY wanted to make tiki god cake pops, but I'm not that talented.  So I used big candy eyes, m&m noses, white cane sprinkes for mouths.  I finished them off with paper umbrellas. The guests found them hilarious.  The pineapple cake pops are actually made with pineapple cake.  I dipped them in yellow chocolate and added yellow jimmies.  I struggled for two weeks as to how to make the leaves.  I ended up cutting rectangles of green fondant, rolling it into tubes, snipping one end and bending back the leaves.  They dried overnight.  I poked holes in them and slid them onto the sticks. 

 The other pies were just okay.  I ended up going to a funeral the afternoon of the party.  I learned a VALUABLE LESSON.  When you make a cheese cake filling and have chocolate in it, and you put it in the refrigerator overnight, everything stiffens up.  It takes HOURS to defrost.  I spent those hours honoring someone.  NO REGRETS.

What about the beach rug you always put out?  You were thinking that, weren't you?
Well, the big turtle made it back.  We moved the band farther into the garden, so there was more room for it. This photo shows my parrot arrangement and one of the chicken feeder floral arrangements.

 Yes, the tiki hut I made from bookshelves was back.  See all the barbecue sauces the caterer brought on the shelf.  The stuffed parrots are a BIG HIT every year.

Here's a closer shot of the chicken feeder arrangement with orchids (silk).

Here is my sister-in-law who comes to both client parties every year and works and works and works, so that I can talk to clients and keep things moving.  She is standing in front of one of the Waikiki Beach check-in posters and my captain made from wall insulation.
We really liked this area for check-in since it was close to the party, but I made four posters (since I thought we might be inside with the hurricane coming).  I learned that I can only use two in this area.  This is hubby's office with sliding doors, so posters don't really work here.

Lois made Charleston's Ultimate Coconut Cake because we couldn't have it shipped up due to the ----Hurricane.  It was fabulous.  They actually post the recipe online.  

I wanted guests and clients to check-in at Waikiki Beach.  I have four posters representing that.   You can also see Hawaii's famous pink hotel and people on the beach behind the check-in table.  There's the yacht on which the Captain and his first mate arrived.

We moved the band farther into the garden under their own tent this year.  

I wanted to cover one of the partner's messy computer chords, so I put up these two posters.

This worked great, but when we found out my animated pig centerpiece danced to the band, that was PERFECT.

I am going to end with this beautiful LIVE arrangement one of hubby's partner's wives made.  Isn't it gorgeous.  I am now beginning to plan for next party.