A ROARING Good Time!

Last night I hosted book club at my new condo. Each month we rotate to a different member's home and September was my turn to invite everyone in. Our book for the month was The Great Gatsby.

My dress is Elizabeth McKay and the belt is Lilly.

I love when a good theme is carried out so I decided to play up on parts of the Roaring 20's...

When friends arrived they were told to "put on their pearls!" I stocked up on pearl, mardi gras beads (sadly the parentals are no longer in India so real pearls could not be found at a decent price) and made the following sign which I cut down and put out:

I also made various quote cards that I placed around for people to read and, you know, ponder. :)

I decided on a black and gold/yellow theme for the evening. Black is always a safe choice and paired with the gold it seemed perfect like an appropriate combination that Gatsby and Daisy would have approved of. Since I have no china and linens in these colors I opted to use all paper and plastic goods. It worked out perfectly and was less mess in the end which was an added benefit. I used a greek key and polka dot fabric on the table (which were not pinned up as I ran out of time, oops, good thing it was only good friends coming over) and used sunflowers in my centerpiece.

Originally, I had wanted to serve taco-in-a-bag since I do not have the space to seat ten at a table (my table seats eight max with two leaves and that is even a bit tight). However, when giving it a bit more thought I decided I should live it up in the style of Jay Gatsby and put a bit more effort into the meal.

I finally decided on chicken picatta, rosemary potatoes and asparagus and then added biscuits at the last minute:

I was a bit worried about the chicken picatta cooking all the way through (I always worry about chicken cooking through) so I babied it in the kitchen as all my friends arrived. Thankfully, no one ended up with a pink breast of "Prohibition Chicken" so the time spent by the stove was well worth it!

For dessert we enjoyed a DIVINE cake for Aston's Bakery and champagne as it was Cassie's birthday. The cake was massive (see here for photos!), but so tasty and delicious!

Each guest left with a pack of candy cigarettes as their favor of which I neglected to take a photo as I was busy running around. Thankfully, Melissa has photos of those too!

All in all it was a WONDERFUL evening and so much fun to put together! I am already looking forward to hosting my next event in 2012!!