I started with the stationary. I printed them at home from Design-her-gals [I had signed up for their at-home service about a month before for my Christmas cards]. I went through several revisions of the invitation but finally settled on the wording with help from my dear friend Google, who introduced me to Aloha Friends. They had quite the handy cheat sheet of Hawaiian phrases.
I also included a business card with the registry information along with a few 3x5 index cards for the recipe box we were going to present her with at the luau.
Jacki’s sister and MOH, Becky, found all of the decorations at a trip to the Wishing Well in Sacramento. She found all of the serving platters and other fun decorations to put around the house as well as the leis, which she and the other bridesmaid Nicole made cute nametags so everyone would know who everyone else was.
For decoration, I made several tissue paper pomanders in two sizes to hang around the house and deck. I was quite pleased with myself because I felt like I had thwarted Martha Stewart who was selling her pomander kit for $20 to make 7 pomanders when I made 16 [one large and one small in each color] for only $7! There’s no reason to buy the kit; especially not when the tutorial is already posted online!
I made them a week in advance and fluffed them out once I got to the house. I do like the smaller ones a lot more than the larger ones. Oh, and a tip for anyone else attempting these, it’s easier to cut the ends if you do them in sections. It’s quite the obvious thing but it took me till about my fourth one to figure that out. And another tip, tissue paper is delicate.
The traditional Hawaiian lunch plate inspired our menu. Becky brought fruit and vegetables for the snacking and her dad made the macaroni salad to pair with my mom’s steamed vegetables [a delicious mix of sweet peas, broccoli, cauliflower, and bell peppers], rice, Korean-style BBQ chicken and, of course, Spam musubi. My friends made fun of me for lugging over a rice cooker but hey; it’s the best way to keep the rice warm!
But the star of the food table was the cake. It was made and decorated by Jacki’s mom, and quite possibly was one of my favorite things about the luau. It looked awesome and was insanely huge. So much so that it actually fell over after half the cake was gone! She used gummi sharks, those gummi peach rings for lifesavers, a huge jawbreaker for a beach ball, and the sand is a mixture of raw and brown sugars. Did I mention she decorates cakes for a living?
Next post: games, prizes and favors.
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