Reception!

I know it's been a couple of weeks since I've chatted, well here anyway!  Lots of crazy things going on.  It was the end of the semester for me.  The end of my husband's first semester of teaching at the local college.  Of course, as with anyone with children there are spring sports, spring concerts, proms, etc.  Thank the Lord that the cold, snowiness of winter finally broke and Spring truly is here now.

For us, the big Spring event is usually the garden.  I've alluded to the fact that we're changing how the garden is being done to make it easier for me to handle it with my health.  We usually get it all in on Mother's day but that is on hold for a week or so.

This Mother's day my husband graduated from Purdue University.  I can't begin to tell you how proud I am of him.  In addition to the actual commencement ceremony that was held on Mother's Day itself, we put on a reception for him.  I say "we" because I had a lot of help.  Our Village really stepped up.  Yes I believe that our village includes more than just those helping with kids, our village may not be related to us by blood but they are, more often than not, more of a family to us than our blood family.  And we have an awesome village!

I rented the small water front pavilion at the White River State Park.  I highly suggest if you get the chance to go check out this park that you do so, it's free and gorgeous and right in the middle of downtown.  It is centered between the Eitlejorg Museum, the Indiana State Museum, NCAA Hall of Fame, Military Park, the Indianapolis Zoo, the White River Gardens, and Victory Field Ball Park.  The Convention center and Lucas Oil Stadium are within walking distance too!  It's really beautiful.

This is just a view of one side of the pavilion.

This is one of the lower conversational areas

I do have to say that these pictures were taken before the Spring clean up and flower planting was done.

A beautiful view of the city

This is a view from the old US 40 bridge that shows the greenhouse behind the pavilion and there were gardens there too.  Beautiful.

When you plan an event, don't be afraid to do the work yourself and include your village.  Just be sure that you are giving to your village as much as you lean on them, it is a two way street here.  As to the hardware, I had a couple of banquet tables for the food.  From friends, I borrowed a couple of steam tables, glass drink dispensers, and some serving trays.  On Pinterest, I found a cute way to make a tiered tray out of a couple of different sized plates and a candlestick.  They were very cute.

Two of these made with clearance plates from Walmart and candlesticks from Goodwill, total for two of them under $20

Another neat trick that a friend shared was that I bought cake pops from Spirited Sweets, wonderful woman who owns it.  With some Dollar Store buckets, a little paint and tissue paper, she helped me to make centerpieces that included a little something sweet for the kids to take home...ok some adults too.

They aren't just cute, they're yummy too!

I have a Sam's club membership and a friend has a Costco membership.  I went to both of those and to GFS as well to check for the best prices.  I kept everything clear (serving dishes, plates, plastic ware, etc.)  It made it easier to buy things where I found them cheapest.

The sandwiches I served were a huge hit.  I hate to even tell people that they are called "Funeral Sandwiches" but that is their name.  The recipe is here.  Instead of using deli ham which at the time was $5 something a pound here, I found whole ham on sale for $.99 per pound and cut it thin.  I found Jarlsberg cheese on sale at Costco...it didn't hurt that it was my favorite swiss!  LOL.  But instead of buying it in slices, I bought a hunk of it and ran it through the shredder on my Kitchenaid mixer and saved a ton of money.  It uses less this way too.

We had cupcakes and cheese cake bites so we threw in some fruit kabobs to counteract all that sugar.  It was fun a day or so before the event for friends to get together and we prepped all the fruit so that the morning of the event, we simply had to have them put on the wooden skewers.  

All in all, we had a wonderful reception.  Loads of food.  Lots of friends.  An absolutely beautiful day.  We couldn't have asked for anything better.  And it was all done on a very strict budget.  It can be done.