Garden Club Party

Welcome to the Iris Garden Party!  This is what my guests saw when they came to our driveway.  It was a beautiful, beautiful day and I was thrilled to have them join me for lunch.

The forsythia wreaths are gone and spring baskets with flowy ribbons replaced them.

Here's the front door welcome. I just did a post on our front door decor to join The Polohouse's Favorites On The First.  You can see it here.

I was really happy the way the centerpiece in the watering can on the buffet table turned out.

I rarely use a mixture of this many colors in my florals, but these delphiniums and David Austin roses lent a pastel theme and I added a few other soft colors.  I'll do another post on this centerpiece in the near future.

You can see the burlap runner here that I placed over a cream tablecloth and I used this little silver salt and pepper set.

Each guest got a garden glove fulled with a napkin and flatware, and tied with a bit of garden twine.

Here's a wooden crate filled with the gloves.

I used these gardening themed napkins......

and these, along with some plain pink linen ones. 

These garden themed plates by Essex were just waiting for this event!

Here are the dessert plates that match.  I especially love the Lyutens bench plate.  And I love the bee skeep one with the picket fence border.  I bought these in Chataqua, N. Y. on vacation with a close friend.  I agonized and agonized over buying them.  I don't know why.  They are a perfect reminder of a wonderful time with friends who could never be replaced.

I filled in with these botanical plates by Mikasa with daffodils.......

 

and the dessert plates all had irises on them.  Perfect for the Iris Garden Club!

The girls brought salads and desserts, and I provided these rolls and butter.

I baked frozen bread dough  in a well buttered terra cotta pot.  The bread comes frozen in roll size lumps that just get plopped into the pot and let raise.  You can also make your own dough.

And I put softened butter in a tiny, tiny terra cotta pot, and garnished it with a bit of thyme.  I like to garnish these with a tiny Johnny Jump-Up, but mine are long done.

I have several types of gardening themed servers and put them out for salads.

These twig servers fit right in, too.

And this beautiful cake server with acorns on it came to me as a gift from a dear friend from Texas after a wonderful time together.  Thank you, Susan.  I love this so much!

Here's the way the table appeared as I was almost ready for my guests.

And here's the way it looked with the salads and desserts displayed.  Isn't it terrible that we had more desserts than salads?????????

Also in the dining room, I made this natural looking arrangement under the glass cloche.

Can you see the Jack-In-The-Pulpits?  There's a lot of glare.

After lunch, we all went to visit the iris gardens at MP Flower Gardens.  I did a post on it last year that you can see here.  It was as beautiful this year as last and we all enjoyed it so much.  Patty was so sweet and welcoming and everyone wanted every specie.  After that our nursery crawl continued to several other nurseries in this area.  What a fabulous day!

I'll do another post with the beverage area and more garden decor.