The Secret Garden

Besides raising four great kids and being a high school teacher, I am the junior class sponsor.  As such, I am in charge of the prom.  This is my fifth year as sponsor.  I am currently creating the invitations for this year's event.  My school is small with less that 500 students, and our budget is small.  So, we make many of our decorations, including the invitations to save money.  I love cheap!  So, while I am working on the current items, I wanted to share some of our previous items starting with Prom 2007: The Secret Garden.

This is the back of the invitation.  It is made from a 12x12 piece of cardstock. With a few cuts, it folds up.  To open, just untie the ribbon and fold it out.  For the flowers,  I bought some leis from a party store and took the apart.  I put a brad through the middle and attached them with a glue dot.

This is the entrance to the prom.  My dear hubby designed and put together this great awning.  He made it with pvc pipes and connectors.  We put the pipes down into buckets of sand so it would stand freely.  I covered it with lights and sheer fabric.  Add a couple of decorated topiaries from the Dollar General Store and presto!

This is at the entrance table where the students sign in and out.  We bought some natural colored fans, made little tags and attached them.  I really wanted to show you the sign that we made.  I used my Cricut to make the small letters and traced and cut the large letters.  The flowers are a variety of die cuts mixed with some of the flowers from the leis that I dismantled.

In the background here, you can see the dance floor.  We used pvc pipe, sand, buckets, etc for it also.  I wanted to set it apart from the rest of the room.

These are the tables.  We traced and cut the cute little favor boxes in the middle of each plate.  We filled them with candy.  The place card holders are tiny flower pots that I bought on sale.  We twisted wire and put it into styrofoam in the pots to hold the paper flowers.  The flowers were made with the Cricut, and we printed each person's name on clear labels to stick on each flower.  The table numbers were made with the school's Ellison die cut machine.

This is the cupcake stand that the students built with the help of a colleague.  I drew what I wanted and voila!  I had seen some cute cupcake tree stands, but they were cardboard.  I wanted something sturdier that could be reused.  Each level stacks.  So, I can use the top 2-3 tiers for a smaller event, such as shower or birthday party.  With all the tiers, it holds 350-400 cupcakes.

Last, but not least, I would like to show the beverage and food tables.  Doesn't it look yummy?
As I continue to blog, I will share more of my proms and wedding receptions here and there.  Be sure to check back.  Thanks for looking!