So, to kick off Derby week at Crushed Ice Events and the Ice House, we had the amazing opportunity to host this year's Churchill Downs' media party!! We were all beside ourselves with excitement and wanted to make sure everything was ABSOLUTELY perfect, so Lindsay and I had an extremely long list of errands and ideas to make come alive... with about a day and a half to do it.
We found this photo and were dying to recreate it, but also add a little bit of our own personality to it:
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| Inspirational Photo |
Our first trips were Tuesday -- Old Time Pottery (I found these great rectangular bamboo trays), Doran Engal (for some awesome flowers), and a night trip to the wonderful Hobby Lobby to find, in particular, red vases and scrapbook paper. Unfortunately our trip to Hobby Lobby was unsuccessful in the red vase category... even though we found a ton of other items for the rest of the week.
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| Our Hobby Lobby loot |
So we decided to use the bottles that we inherited from our Apple Patch event (they painted them black... pretty neat!) instead of red vases... BUT... if you know where we can find those vases, PLEASE let me know. Please. We are dying to have these! We can use them for so much! Ok, petty plea over.
Wednesday was the event... but we began our designing early! At 10 am, in my paint clothes, I was trying to paint the bamboo trays, realizing quickly that 1. primer does not spread well and 2. it would literally take all day. Lindsay and I both looked at our list of things we still needed to do/purchase and headed out... adding spray paint on top of it all.
First, we stopped at The Rental Depot, and then went dumpster diving for granite. Think I'm lying? Check this out:
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| Lindsay finding the best pieces |
After we found enough pieces, we raced over to Target, where Lindsay and I completed our outfits for the evening as well as purchasing other items for the event (hey, a girl's gotta do...), then over to Walmart, then to pick up more black ties... and then hurried over to Sam's Club in Indiana. As soon as we pulled in, however, I remembered that Sam's Club doesn't take AMEX as payment. That's right, our frantic racing around and almost pulling our hair out was for nothing. Lindsay and I paused to throw a hissy fit for a second, and then moved on. Remembering that there was a Horner Novelty in Jeffersonville (right across the river), we hopped over there to buy plates for the evening. As soon as we got into the checkout, I realized that they didn't take AMEX or check...... I thought a mental breakdown was going to happen. I could see all of the plates being thrown to the ground and someone getting injured... but we kept our composure, laughed profusely, paid with Lindsay's card, and left. SO, moral of the story is to NOT take an AMEX to Sam's Club or Horner Novelty. Just don't do it.
But, once back at The Ice House, we began to put everything together -- I spray painted the trays (so much easier than painting.. Seriously.. and faster!), Lindsay decorated one of the stations in moss and flowers, got other stations ready, and then I finished the trays by putting the scrapbook paper inside. All of this running around and craziness was then capped by us realizing we had NOTHING to put into the bottom of the tall vases to stand the flowers up on. As I pass by the bar, it hits me. ORANGES AND LEMONS. So that is what we did. We improvised, and by George, it looked fantastic!
Chef put together an anti-pasta station, an incredible shrimp station (I might be a tad biased though -- I'm a total shrimp fan), a slider bar, and a dessert station (the white trays!):
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| Our interpretation of the picture! Maybe not the same, but that's why we're awesome :) |
The media party was seriously so much fun! Our staff had a great time, everyone loved the food, and watching the trophy presentation with the singing of "My Old Kentucky Home," Lindsay got all emotional (ok, not really, but it's possible!).
Stay tuned for the rest of our Derby week adventures!!!
"eat, drink, & be merry"
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