Jim's birthday falls on May 7, close enough to Cinco de Mayo for me to seize the opportunity to throw another Fiesta-themed party. Since we hosted another fiesta in recent memory, I wanted to change up the decorations a bit.
I went to Michael's and picked up some cheap silk flower bouquets ($3.50/bundle) and colorful flowerpots ($3.99). Using wire clippers, I clipped off the stems to separate the bundles and then mixed up the flowers to make the arrangements more festive. I cut some floral foam to size (leftover from another project), and inserted the flowers into the foam. Voila - four floral arrangements in about 20 minutes. I prefer to use fresh flowers or plants, but I liked the idea of doing something a bit kitschy for the fiesta theme.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Fiesta Part II: Siete de Mayo
For added decoration, I used more Mexican prayer candles ($1.59/each), Mexican sodas (2/$1) and streamers. Added note: the sodas are actually pretty tasty!
I used clear removable clip to hang up balloon lanterns from Oriental Trading. I had to enlist Jim's help since I could barely reach the ceiling on our ladder, but otherwise they went up easily. I used the removable clips with the idea that I'd actually remove them, but I think I'm going to leave them up in case I need them for future parties (I'm dying for a reason to hang up paper flower pom-poms!) They're virtually invisible unless you're looking for them, so it'll save me some work next time.
I changed up the bar setup so it was right above the ice maker (talk about duh! moment.) We had margaritas and sangria served out of the glass jar with a ladle on the far right; I also filled the metal bucket with ice, beer, sodas, and water bottles before the party.
I made the sangria the night before - I wish I had remembered to take a picture because it was really pretty with the floating slices of fruit. Not only did this save time on the day of, but the sangria tastes better after sitting overnight as well. One of my concerns was being shackled to the margarita machine all night. While it mixes up perfect margaritas very quickly, it only does three drinks at a time. In a stroke of genius (if I do say so myself), I remembered I still had sterilized, disposable 10 oz. bottle liners leftover from Sprinkle's bottle days. 10 oz. is coincidentally the perfect size to hold the right amount of tequila, lime juice, triple sec, etc. for 3 margaritas. Who knew?! It didn't take me long at all to whip up 15 bottles the night before. During the party, whenever it was time to refresh drinks, you'd just dump a bottle into the pitcher and go. I really like the margarita machine as opposed to a regular blender because it shaves the perfect amount of ice into the mix and then blends the two together. It's great for smoothies and other slushy drinks as well.
Unfortunately I was busy mingling (drinking!) that I totally forgot to take pictures during the party, but we had a great time hosting our friends and are looking forward to the next!
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