In mid-May, Sparrow Soirées participated at the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber’s B2B Tradeshow and raffled two office break parties. Yesterday one of the winners, Meagan, redeemed her prize for a colleague’s farewell party.

One of the cool elements of event planning, along with the opportunity to meet great people, is seeing and working within various venues and office spaces. Yesterday’s party was held within a group’s office area at The Museum of Flight: a conference table surrounded by their desks. I loved their set-up since it seemed to allow for great collaboration within the team. However, this also meant I had to set-up while the group conducted their daily business around me. Standing in the middle of a busy office while briefly battling the cupcake stand was a little nerve-wracking (hopefully no one noticed). On the flip side, it allowed the group to watch everything come together and build some excitement for the party.

By request, my task was to set up for the party and then leave. I admittedly did a figurative double-take since I’m so use to cleaning up and collecting the serveware and decor after a party. This also meant no ladders to hang decor from the ceiling since I wanted to keep the set-up quick (after all I was in the middle of a 10-person office!). I wanted to create a simple, summer-like tablescape but ensure an easy clean up for the team. Everything I used could be tossed into recycling or the compost bin, or could be easily stored for a future party.

For decor, I used green butcher paper to cover a portion of the conference table, small paper lanterns, sunflowers in a large mason jar, and a majority of candies since they were wrapped individually or in clear mini bags. The candy sticks were the only items placed in a container, which was a mason jar (standard size). The cupcake stand created a colorful point of interest holding the individual crudités cups, fruits and desserts, while the cheeses and crackers were on bamboo platters. Wooden cutlery was pre-wrapped in green and white paper-napkins, tied with baker’s string. The soda bottles were kept in their cases for easy flavor identification – and added a little splash of color. (Event Tip: remember your food, beverages and serveware adds color and can act as a decor element to your tablescape.)

The menu included: individual crudités cups, red grapes and strawberries, blue cheese and gouda with crackers, salmon mozzarella pasta salad, assorted petite fours, cookies, Izze soda, and assorted chocolates and candies.

The food was supplied by our partner at Whole Foods Market on Westlake (a huge thank you!!). The assorted candies were from The Confectionery at University Village.

Many thanks to the Meagan and her colleagues for letting Sparrow Soirées be a part of the occasion. Hope everyone enjoyed themselves!

Until next time…

Cheers!

{Images: Sparrow Soirées}