{Event Showcase} Mother's Day Lemonade Stand

Last Sunday afternoon, I hosted a Mother's Day Lemonade Stand for invited family and friends.  It was my gift to my little girls, especially my 7 year old who has always dreamed of a lemonade stand but doesn't understand that we live on a low-traffic cul de sac, which is bad for sales.  The party was fun and since I incorporated a lot of 'posh in a pinch' design elements, I thought I'd show you and perhaps inspire you.

As I blogged earlier, the invitation is a letterpress flat notecard from Paper Source.  I enhanced it with printed copy from the computer and added a 2.5" circle label for the mailing address. Voila!

My original idea was to create the citrus-theme party using thrift store items.  I've seen many other event professionals create outstanding parties with recycled items and felt confident that I could pull it off too.  Unfortunately, my visit to our local thrift stores was disappointing; no cute old fashioned beverage glasses or pitchers (though I did spot some unique shot glasses that would make excellent hors d'oeuvres dishes).  Ultimately, I found a gently-used bright yellow tablecloth and a relatively new (and cheerful) Crate and Barrel tablecloth with napkins.  So I splurged and felt better about my attempt.

Mother's Day in the suburbs of the Nation's Capital was sunny but breezy so we had our lemonade "stand" inside.  I used the bright yellow tablecloth and created a table runner with old fabric remnants!  To decorate, I filled a large margarita glass (who knew that I'd use that again?) with oranges, lemons and limes; incorporated new girl metal sculptures, one with a Mother's Day potted plant and the other straws; and used my fun orange stemless martini glasses to serve lemonade.  For the finishing touches, I made a playful 'lemonade stand' banner and tags for the pitchers using scrapbook paper, orange ribbon and yellow chipboard letters.

For fun, we served two pitchers of lemonade: freshly-squeezed and store-bought.  We asked guests to sample both and guess which ones my girls made.  [Hint:  Pitcher B, which was a little tart!]

After lemonade and snacks, we had dinner.  I'll save my menu for another time but above are photos of how I incorporated the look and feel of the lemonade stand into the dinner table.  A few 'posh' highlights of my colorful tablescape:

The table was covered in wrapping paper

Each place setting had a 12x12 scrapbook paper placemat; the plate was wrapped with ribbon; placecards made of scrapbook paper were attached to the ribbon; and a napkin was placed on the plate

[Deflated] DIY Balls of string in yellow, orange, lime green and white rounded out the citrus-inspired look

Summer is around the corner.  I hope that you can use some of my lemonade stand ideas to create your own citrus-inspired party!